Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Age Of Ultron #5 of 10
Marvel Comics
Bendis, Hitch, Neary & Mounts
Age of Ultron finally reverses the trend of dreadfully slow comics with an issue that actually inches the plot forward. It's by no means a good comic book as it still contains many, many flaws. However, at least the comic is of an acceptable, albeit average quality. With that, there is some hope that the event can end on an upswing.
The surviving heroes are in the Savage Land trying to track down Nick Fury's secret liar. He's left behind some clues and the group manages to find the hideout with Nick Fury there waiting for them.
Once together, the group shares information and determines two potential courses of action, both involving time travel. One, is to find Ultron at some point in time and stop him and the other is to travel back in time and kill off Hank Pym before he creates Ultron.
The book has a couple of nice moments hidden in here. First of all, Fury's stash of weapons provided a few good panels. Secondly, the idea that Vision has been a mole for Ultron all of these years is a pretty good idea that probably needs more room to expand. Thirdly, the book has a fantastic cliffhanger.
The problems are numerous. The characters spend a lot of page time asking what the plan is. This seems ridiculous when you consider many of them clearly have opinions and they are all too ready to refute any potential plan another one of them spits out there. Additionally, the character's voices are simply not unique. They all drip with sarcasm and they all blend in as part-time leader, part-time follower. Finally, even with the plot moving forward it still doesn't make any sense. Fury dug himself in and waited for people to find him. What kind of strategy is that? How did Luke Cage escape before he died? There are so many holes in this thing.
Hitch performs adequately on art duties. The book ranges from detailed, tension-filled, drama to panels where characters all have the same expression, facial features and haircuts. The book appears to be thrown together in many aspects of the art and it's really disappointing but not completely hopeless. This issue doesn't appear to include any characters in the background that we were told had died already.
Age of Ultron is a very tough sell. I'm not sure whom this is geared towards. I can't see a casual reading getting jazzed up for this kind of a book and the seasoned reader is going to poke a lot of holes in it. I suppose this book is for the die-hard Bendis fan. We'll see how this all shapes up but this is a completely average comic book.
2.5 out of 5 Geek Goggles
