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Age of Ultron (Collected Editions)
Age of Ultron
Humanity's time is over. Submit or perish, because the Age of Ultron has arrived! The artificial intelligence known as Ultron has fought for years to eradicate mankind -- and now, it has all but succeeded. The few remaining heroes are battered, broken, almost beaten and left considering desperate measures -- some more desperate than others. But when Wolverine breaks ranks and pursues his own plan to defeat Ultron, will his drastic action cause more problems than it solves? Brian Michael Bendis presents the ultimate triumph of the Avengers' greatest villain in an epic that will shake worlds!
Collects Avengers (2010) #12.1 and Age of Ultron #1-10.
Collects Avengers (2010) #12.1 and Age of Ultron #1-10.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
122 people are currently reading
326 people want to read
About the author
Brian Michael Bendis
4,417 books2,571 followersA comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.
Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.
Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.
Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.
Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.
Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.
He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.
Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.
Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.
Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.
Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.
Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.
He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 137 reviews
October 28, 2013
Like a lot of people, I picked up this graphic novel after hearing that the next Avengers movie was to have Ultron as it's antagonist, and this was a character I knew nothing about. And, like a lot of people, I am sincerely hoping that someone sent a copy to Joss Whedon saying "Whatever you do, do not make a movie based on this pile of crap."
Ultron, for those not in the know, is a sentient robot created by Doctor Hank Pym, who unwisely forgets to programme the Three Laws of Robotics into his creation. Needless to say, Ultron then goes all Skynet on our asses and has been a major pain in the Marvel universe for decades. Pym, also for those not in the know, is one of a long line of brilliant arrogant scientists who collectively have less common sense than my cat (who is already the stupidest cat on the planet). He also happens to be a superhero who has done a lot of good, but is also a wife-beating jerk and creator of aforementioned homicidal robot.
The series starts off well, with Ultron basically taking over the planet and starting to destroy all inferior lifeforms (i.e. us). It quickly goes downhill though as our heroes make more and more stupid decisions (usually involving time travel, which always works so well in these stories), which results in them breaking the multiverse (or something like that). This introduces a being called Angela into our universe, which turns out to have been created by Neil Gaiman in a single issue of Spawn he wrote about 30 million years ago. Sigh - seriously Marvel, you already have a red haired female all powerful being - remember her? She's called Phoenix (currently dead or alive, I've lost track) - why would you want to introduce another one? Especially one from another universe altogether?
There's quite a lot else that happens on the way, but I can't be bothered to talk about them because they are just not that interesting. At the end, the heroes appear to have successfully persuaded Henry Pym not to create Ultron, but with him being a jerkwad, he decides to create something else that is probably going to be even worse. He has therefore learned nothing from these experiences, and yet again Marvel comics gives real scientists a bad name.
Oh, and for a book called Age of Ultron, the character itself barely appears. Really, how can Marvel Comics continue to gets thing so wrong when Marvel Films are doing everything so well? I would like to think that one can learn from the other, but knowing my luck it will be the Film Division learning from the Comics. And judging by this effort, that would be a disastrous mistake.
Ultron, for those not in the know, is a sentient robot created by Doctor Hank Pym, who unwisely forgets to programme the Three Laws of Robotics into his creation. Needless to say, Ultron then goes all Skynet on our asses and has been a major pain in the Marvel universe for decades. Pym, also for those not in the know, is one of a long line of brilliant arrogant scientists who collectively have less common sense than my cat (who is already the stupidest cat on the planet). He also happens to be a superhero who has done a lot of good, but is also a wife-beating jerk and creator of aforementioned homicidal robot.
The series starts off well, with Ultron basically taking over the planet and starting to destroy all inferior lifeforms (i.e. us). It quickly goes downhill though as our heroes make more and more stupid decisions (usually involving time travel, which always works so well in these stories), which results in them breaking the multiverse (or something like that). This introduces a being called Angela into our universe, which turns out to have been created by Neil Gaiman in a single issue of Spawn he wrote about 30 million years ago. Sigh - seriously Marvel, you already have a red haired female all powerful being - remember her? She's called Phoenix (currently dead or alive, I've lost track) - why would you want to introduce another one? Especially one from another universe altogether?
There's quite a lot else that happens on the way, but I can't be bothered to talk about them because they are just not that interesting. At the end, the heroes appear to have successfully persuaded Henry Pym not to create Ultron, but with him being a jerkwad, he decides to create something else that is probably going to be even worse. He has therefore learned nothing from these experiences, and yet again Marvel comics gives real scientists a bad name.
Oh, and for a book called Age of Ultron, the character itself barely appears. Really, how can Marvel Comics continue to gets thing so wrong when Marvel Films are doing everything so well? I would like to think that one can learn from the other, but knowing my luck it will be the Film Division learning from the Comics. And judging by this effort, that would be a disastrous mistake.
August 31, 2014
Well... It isn't horrible. But it certainly could have been better. There are two things that dragged this book down for me, and they could have both been fixed easily enough. For one, it feels overly long because there are great stretches of time where nothing is happening, not really. A lot of standing around talking. That could have been fixed with doing a shorter miniseries, six issues instead of ten. Or Bendis could have given his characters more to do. Like actually showing the downfall, instead of suddenly jumping in after it's over. For me at least, there's a lot more emotional investment when you can see things fall apart. Maybe a few issues should have been devoted to that, if Bendis/editorial was so determined to make this a ten issue thing.
For what it's worth, I read the paperback, that doesn't have the tie in issues from various ongoing series. I'm not sure that I missed anything, though.
For what it's worth, I read the paperback, that doesn't have the tie in issues from various ongoing series. I'm not sure that I missed anything, though.
August 18, 2015
Filmle alakası yoktu ama filmden çok daha iyiydi. Film böyle olsaydı... Düşünemedim.
September 24, 2021
This was quite fun!
It starts with a dystopian future where Ultron has taken over the world, Hawkeye goes to rescue Spider-man and the resistance forms and they talk about the state f the world and sort of meet Fury and make a plan regarding time travel and while one team goes in the future to stop Ultron there, Wolverine goes in the past to kill Pym and to prevent the birth of Ultron but that makes an even worse reality and thus begins his quest to again make it right but this time with better plan, and it will decide whether the world as we know it will be restored from the monstrosity known as Ultron or not?
Its a good storyline and yeah its confusing and time travel but its an okay one time read and yeah again confusing as hell but if you read it all in one go it will read better and also I like how Bendis writes Wolverine and its something he had been teasing for a long time and yeah you can say he used deus ex machine but tbh thats what happens in story like this and its kinda like Days of future past but its pretty cool the way its done. Though I wish we had more of actual Ultron vs Avengers fight happen.
Its a good one time read with solid art by Hitch and hints as to what will happen next and great portrayal of Wolverine!
It starts with a dystopian future where Ultron has taken over the world, Hawkeye goes to rescue Spider-man and the resistance forms and they talk about the state f the world and sort of meet Fury and make a plan regarding time travel and while one team goes in the future to stop Ultron there, Wolverine goes in the past to kill Pym and to prevent the birth of Ultron but that makes an even worse reality and thus begins his quest to again make it right but this time with better plan, and it will decide whether the world as we know it will be restored from the monstrosity known as Ultron or not?
Its a good storyline and yeah its confusing and time travel but its an okay one time read and yeah again confusing as hell but if you read it all in one go it will read better and also I like how Bendis writes Wolverine and its something he had been teasing for a long time and yeah you can say he used deus ex machine but tbh thats what happens in story like this and its kinda like Days of future past but its pretty cool the way its done. Though I wish we had more of actual Ultron vs Avengers fight happen.
Its a good one time read with solid art by Hitch and hints as to what will happen next and great portrayal of Wolverine!
September 14, 2018
Well, that was certainly epic. Ultron is back, bigger and badder than ever. He’s never been more deadly, and things have never looked this bad for the Avengers before.
Unsurprisingly, they do prevail in the end, but the cost is high, and the end of the book seems to be the prelude to an even bigger storyline …
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: Brian Michael Bendis is this generation’s answer to Roy Thomas. Both writers seem to have a deep knowledge of past storylines, and are adept at building on and putting new spins on past continuities.
This was a satisfyingly long and gripping story. Recommended!
Unsurprisingly, they do prevail in the end, but the cost is high, and the end of the book seems to be the prelude to an even bigger storyline …
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: Brian Michael Bendis is this generation’s answer to Roy Thomas. Both writers seem to have a deep knowledge of past storylines, and are adept at building on and putting new spins on past continuities.
This was a satisfyingly long and gripping story. Recommended!
May 29, 2017
Mehh. Çok kötü
January 8, 2022
Yowza, another Bendis extravanganza, Age of Ultron is a great read with some interesting surprises that kick off from the very start as a conglomerate of Marvel super-genius doofuses including the Red Ghost, MODOK, and the Mad Thinker come together to set the story in motion. Out of their depths, these morons unleash Ultron and the destruction of mankind is at hand. And like Stephan from SNL says, this book has everything... Doombots with horns, time travel, the Defenders, multiple versions of Nick Fury, Morgan le Fay on a dragon, the Savage Land, a one-eyed Black Widow, half of the Vision, and Miles Morales in the Multiverse. The Ultimate Nullifier even makes a cameo appearance here, and I don't even know when the last time was I saw that...prolly sometime back in the '70s. Susan Storm actually does something besides get rescued, and Wolverine finds his whiskers.
So it seems mighty cheap of me to only give it four stars, but here I am faulting the whole thing for moving a bit too quickly and relying on a rather convenient way of wrapping things up. Maybe if I had read the entire arc in the various other titles, I'd feel like it came together more successfully, especially at the end. But it's pretty damn good. Feel free to add the extra star.
Just in case anybody is curious, this storyline helped influence both the MCU Age of Ultron (which is significantly different from what happens here) and the recent two-part finale of the Disney Plus What If? series. Give it a look if you are a fan of either.
So it seems mighty cheap of me to only give it four stars, but here I am faulting the whole thing for moving a bit too quickly and relying on a rather convenient way of wrapping things up. Maybe if I had read the entire arc in the various other titles, I'd feel like it came together more successfully, especially at the end. But it's pretty damn good. Feel free to add the extra star.
Just in case anybody is curious, this storyline helped influence both the MCU Age of Ultron (which is significantly different from what happens here) and the recent two-part finale of the Disney Plus What If? series. Give it a look if you are a fan of either.
March 27, 2016
meh, podría haber sido mucho mejor
January 16, 2023
Ultron kazara uyanır ve dünyayı yerle bir eder. Birçok kahraman ölmüştür. Geriye kalanların da cesareti kırılmıştır, durum umutsuzdur. Wolverine gizlice geçmişe gitmenin ve Ultron'un yaratılmasının önüne geçmenin peşindedir. Zaman yolculuğu yaparken kendisine gizlice Invisible Woman eşlik eder. Biri son derece vahşi diğeri ise kesin bir pasifist olan bu ikiliyi bir arada görme fikri güzel gelmişti. Yer yer çatışmaları olsa da günün sonunda tek taraflı bir mücadele oluyor. Sonrasındaki olaylar biraz fazla klişe. Zamanı değiştirdik-daha kötü oldu-tekrar eski haline getirelim.
Çok güçlü ve potansiyelli bir başlangıç yapan hikaye ne yazık ki biraz fazla uzatılarak ve son kısımda aceleye getirilerek sonlanıyor. Bu platformdaki puanını biliyordum okumadan önce. Öyle ki başlarda hayret ediyordum böyle bir hikaye nasıl bu kadar düşük puana sahip olur diyerek. Büyük yıkımın yaşanmasından sonra başlayan kitaptan daha sonrasında yıkıma dair bir şeyler vermesini beklemiştim fakat bazı şeyleri olduğu gibi kabul etmemiz beklenmiş. Bazı gereksiz kısımlar yerine serpiştirilebilirmiş bence.
Kitapla ilgili bence bir sıkıntı da Peter Parker'ın olması. Superior Spider-Man döneminde yani Doc Ock'un Peter'in bedenini ele geçirip yeni Spider-Man olduğu bir dönemde geçiyor bu hikaye. Haliyle bu hikayede de Spider-Man'i görünce başta Octavius sanmıştım fakat Peter gibi davranıyordu. Muhtemelen taslağı önceden hazırlanmış olacak ki böyle bir hata mevcut.
Kitabın sonunda tabi ki her şey eskiye dönmüş, yaşanan şeyler yaşanmamış hale gelir fakat bunun bir bedeli olacaktır. Zamanda bu kadar sık değişimler yapmak sadece kendi evrenlerini değil diğer evrenleri de etkilemektedir. 2015 Secret Wars'a giden yolun ilk duraklarından desek sanırım yanlış olmaz.
Çok güçlü ve potansiyelli bir başlangıç yapan hikaye ne yazık ki biraz fazla uzatılarak ve son kısımda aceleye getirilerek sonlanıyor. Bu platformdaki puanını biliyordum okumadan önce. Öyle ki başlarda hayret ediyordum böyle bir hikaye nasıl bu kadar düşük puana sahip olur diyerek. Büyük yıkımın yaşanmasından sonra başlayan kitaptan daha sonrasında yıkıma dair bir şeyler vermesini beklemiştim fakat bazı şeyleri olduğu gibi kabul etmemiz beklenmiş. Bazı gereksiz kısımlar yerine serpiştirilebilirmiş bence.
Kitapla ilgili bence bir sıkıntı da Peter Parker'ın olması. Superior Spider-Man döneminde yani Doc Ock'un Peter'in bedenini ele geçirip yeni Spider-Man olduğu bir dönemde geçiyor bu hikaye. Haliyle bu hikayede de Spider-Man'i görünce başta Octavius sanmıştım fakat Peter gibi davranıyordu. Muhtemelen taslağı önceden hazırlanmış olacak ki böyle bir hata mevcut.
Kitabın sonunda tabi ki her şey eskiye dönmüş, yaşanan şeyler yaşanmamış hale gelir fakat bunun bir bedeli olacaktır. Zamanda bu kadar sık değişimler yapmak sadece kendi evrenlerini değil diğer evrenleri de etkilemektedir. 2015 Secret Wars'a giden yolun ilk duraklarından desek sanırım yanlış olmaz.
December 1, 2020
Age of Ultron, the event crossover story that seemingly kicked off the Marvel NOW! brand. Not to get confused with the Avengers film of the same name. Plot wise the two are very different.
This acts as a good jumping on point for those curious about Marvel graphic novels. There isn’t years of build up to an epic event, it’s just this. Unlike some of the crossovers that happen after this, such as Infinity, Axis or Secret Wars. Those all benefit from having read the lead in storylines across different series’s. There is also little in the way of tie ins and whilst it does have impact on other events, this is fairly self contained.
The plot itself revolves around Ultron finally beating the Marvel heroes, from the Avengers to the X-Men and all the teams and characters in between. This leads to a dystopia and post apocalyptic tale, with the survivors trying to get by in a world ruled by Ultron.
It wouldn’t be a superhero story though if our heroes didn’t try to revert and conquer this crisis. We then get some crazy time travel shenanigans and get to see some intriguing alternate timeline if certain events played out differently. Think butterfly effect.
Character wise we do get to see plenty of different Marvel characters deal with this crisis, but the focus does shift more towards Wolverine than anyone else. Additionally we do get some moments of moral dilemmas, how far do our heroes go to save the future?
There are plenty of blockbuster action sequences, and due to the time travel nature of the story it does let the creators have a bit of fun.
Overall a fun, pop corn munching affair. Killer robots and time travel, what more do you want from a crossover event?
This acts as a good jumping on point for those curious about Marvel graphic novels. There isn’t years of build up to an epic event, it’s just this. Unlike some of the crossovers that happen after this, such as Infinity, Axis or Secret Wars. Those all benefit from having read the lead in storylines across different series’s. There is also little in the way of tie ins and whilst it does have impact on other events, this is fairly self contained.
The plot itself revolves around Ultron finally beating the Marvel heroes, from the Avengers to the X-Men and all the teams and characters in between. This leads to a dystopia and post apocalyptic tale, with the survivors trying to get by in a world ruled by Ultron.
It wouldn’t be a superhero story though if our heroes didn’t try to revert and conquer this crisis. We then get some crazy time travel shenanigans and get to see some intriguing alternate timeline if certain events played out differently. Think butterfly effect.
Character wise we do get to see plenty of different Marvel characters deal with this crisis, but the focus does shift more towards Wolverine than anyone else. Additionally we do get some moments of moral dilemmas, how far do our heroes go to save the future?
There are plenty of blockbuster action sequences, and due to the time travel nature of the story it does let the creators have a bit of fun.
Overall a fun, pop corn munching affair. Killer robots and time travel, what more do you want from a crossover event?
January 17, 2020
**second read**
This is even better the second time. Easily one of my favorite events. I swear... I’ll never understand how anyone has the audacity to talk shit about Brian Michael Bendie. Home run after home run with this guy!!! His stuff rules, straight-up. I’m probably gonna read this a third time as well. This is a bad ass comic book.
****first read****
This is amazing. I loved it. It’s incredible. Read it now.
This story starts in one place, GOES OFF THE FUCKING RAILS... and then comes full circle. It’s what comics are all about.
The tie in material is worth it and awesome. Make sure you follow a reading order and have the Companion near by.
The art is great. I especially love how glimpses into the past look like old school Jack Kirby. Such a cool effect.
The movie, while good, really doesn’t have shit on this.
I give this a full throated recommend! Read today!!!
This is even better the second time. Easily one of my favorite events. I swear... I’ll never understand how anyone has the audacity to talk shit about Brian Michael Bendie. Home run after home run with this guy!!! His stuff rules, straight-up. I’m probably gonna read this a third time as well. This is a bad ass comic book.
****first read****
This is amazing. I loved it. It’s incredible. Read it now.
This story starts in one place, GOES OFF THE FUCKING RAILS... and then comes full circle. It’s what comics are all about.
The tie in material is worth it and awesome. Make sure you follow a reading order and have the Companion near by.
The art is great. I especially love how glimpses into the past look like old school Jack Kirby. Such a cool effect.
The movie, while good, really doesn’t have shit on this.
I give this a full throated recommend! Read today!!!
February 6, 2015
I really enjoyed this, even if the parallels to X-Men: Days of Future Past are disturbingly close (at least the film version, I have to admit the art has always scared me off the graphic novel). The Avengers are faced with a situation so dire they have no recourse but to go back in time to try to fix things. It's a fun time-travel narrative with superheroes. Sold.
September 28, 2023
Never had the chance to read this when it first came out (10 years ago, as a matter of fact), which is weird considering how much I like the villain ‘Ultron’, in general; the classic premise of the AI that turns “Evil”, it seems an over-exploited concept in the genre, specially in comic books, but ‘Ultron’ is one of the few characters in fiction I believe has been consistently well-executed. And, well, I heard the several opinions towards this particular “Bendis event”, and I was curious to see what exactly went wrong, for readers to be unsatisfied with it.
But first, what’s ‘Age of Ultron’ all about? Obviously, it has zero to no relation with the ‘Avengers’ sequel that came out in 2015, since this came a couple of years before, but essentially, I’d say, in concept, it should’ve followed the footsteps of the comic book. Turns out, the AI known as ‘Ultron’ has conquered the world, simple as that. It finally won against the heroes of the universe, and it has taken over New York City, as its main base of operations. The event starts with ‘Hawkeye’ in a solo mission to rescue ‘Spider-man’ from the hands of a few street-level bad guys, amongst them we have ‘Hammerhead’, and Daredevil’s foe, Owsley. We know now that the world is under Ultron’s siege, and the remaining heroes are desperate to come up with a solution, and the more you know, eventually it all turns out to be a literal “race against time” to avoid Ultron’s takeover. But ‘Wolverine’ being ‘Wolverine’ suddenly realizes it wont stop there, so, alongside ‘Susan Storm’, them both will go back in time to kill Hank Pym before creating the artificial intelligence, while the other ‘Avengers’ go to the future to kill ‘Ultron’, since it is controlling ‘Vision’ in the present.
For starters, this is a story about ‘Ultron’ as the main baddie, hell, it’s in the title, so with that in mind… there isn’t much of ‘Ultron’, at least, to most of the event. Second… A “time-travel” story where ‘Wolverine’ has to go back in time to avoid a specific thing that’ll cause Armageddon in the future, with the help of one member of the Storm family? That alone grabbed my attention the moment it became evident halfway through the event. I mean, I know Kitty Pride is the one who travels back in time in ‘Days of Future Past’, and that the latter represents a “before and after” in comic book history, but man, I use to make fun of the fact that James Cameron might plagiarized Chris Claremont for his ‘Terminator’, but now Bendis has came up with the ultimate carbon copy of both titles, mixing both ideas in the process.
To clarify a little, I don’t think this is horrible, or bad at all, in fact, my major issue is how limited this feels, considering the main sources of inspiration. An AI that takes over the world, with an unlimited army of killer robots, and a time-travel savior to end it all? You don’t need to be a genius to get the full picture.
As for the whole resolution, did I mention there’s barely any ‘Ultron’ in here? I mean, there are tons of mentions and dialogues Ultron-based, but other than that, he’s mostly a phantom menace throughout the 10 issues this lasts. Avengers #12.1 kind of helps building up the concept, but in general, the entire focus of this is to see the damage after Ultron conquered the world, next thing, the moral debate between Wolverine and Sue on whether or not Hank Pym should be killed before creating Ultron, and yeah, it does happen, only to find out the typical “time travel” plot-device of “screw the time-space continuum, and it gets worse”. It makes me wonder, is this actually following the time traveling rules set by ‘Marvel Comics’ where one cannot alter the past, only create several different timelines after the events are altered? Because I feel it didn’t happen like that, or, not to the best of my knowledge. I mean, obviously this is an alternative “Earth”, and the final pages in issue 10 clearly shows there were multiversal casualties, but other than that, the time travel scenes felt conventional, pretty much the standard procedures such as your typical ‘The Time Machine’ original novel premise.
As for the art department, the majority of this is penciled by Bryan Hitch, and he’s fantastic as always, and the real highlights (as always when it comes to him) are the page spreads, but unfortunately, the parts where the characters travel in time are draw by Brandon Peterson, and Carlos Pacheco, both really good artists, but Hitch’s pencils dominated the first five issues, so the sudden change feels inconsistent with the initial story.
All in all, this was passable at best. I liked the moral concepts of the time travel dilemmas, like the whole “is it fair to kill a single person, to save millions?”, it always makes for great character introspection, but then again, it is Wolverine doing it, in a rip-off of a classic story in which he participated! I cannot help but see this as a modernized version of an already exploited concept, and the worst part is that the original still did it better after all this time! There were inconsistencies on who were participants in the main story, since this started with Hawkeye and Spidey, and suddenly, they’re simply out of the picture when the whole “time travel deal” starts. I’m not really sure if I felt disappointed with this, since I was mostly curious about it, since I already know it wasn’t that well-received, but in fact, my disappointment comes from knowing how much potential this had initially. Bendis has proven he’s capable of crafting great mega-events for ‘Marvel Comics’, but sadly, this is as mediocre as the majority of his 2010s titles. It is visually pleasing for sure, but lackluster in terms of narrative.
But first, what’s ‘Age of Ultron’ all about? Obviously, it has zero to no relation with the ‘Avengers’ sequel that came out in 2015, since this came a couple of years before, but essentially, I’d say, in concept, it should’ve followed the footsteps of the comic book. Turns out, the AI known as ‘Ultron’ has conquered the world, simple as that. It finally won against the heroes of the universe, and it has taken over New York City, as its main base of operations. The event starts with ‘Hawkeye’ in a solo mission to rescue ‘Spider-man’ from the hands of a few street-level bad guys, amongst them we have ‘Hammerhead’, and Daredevil’s foe, Owsley. We know now that the world is under Ultron’s siege, and the remaining heroes are desperate to come up with a solution, and the more you know, eventually it all turns out to be a literal “race against time” to avoid Ultron’s takeover. But ‘Wolverine’ being ‘Wolverine’ suddenly realizes it wont stop there, so, alongside ‘Susan Storm’, them both will go back in time to kill Hank Pym before creating the artificial intelligence, while the other ‘Avengers’ go to the future to kill ‘Ultron’, since it is controlling ‘Vision’ in the present.
For starters, this is a story about ‘Ultron’ as the main baddie, hell, it’s in the title, so with that in mind… there isn’t much of ‘Ultron’, at least, to most of the event. Second… A “time-travel” story where ‘Wolverine’ has to go back in time to avoid a specific thing that’ll cause Armageddon in the future, with the help of one member of the Storm family? That alone grabbed my attention the moment it became evident halfway through the event. I mean, I know Kitty Pride is the one who travels back in time in ‘Days of Future Past’, and that the latter represents a “before and after” in comic book history, but man, I use to make fun of the fact that James Cameron might plagiarized Chris Claremont for his ‘Terminator’, but now Bendis has came up with the ultimate carbon copy of both titles, mixing both ideas in the process.
To clarify a little, I don’t think this is horrible, or bad at all, in fact, my major issue is how limited this feels, considering the main sources of inspiration. An AI that takes over the world, with an unlimited army of killer robots, and a time-travel savior to end it all? You don’t need to be a genius to get the full picture.
As for the whole resolution, did I mention there’s barely any ‘Ultron’ in here? I mean, there are tons of mentions and dialogues Ultron-based, but other than that, he’s mostly a phantom menace throughout the 10 issues this lasts. Avengers #12.1 kind of helps building up the concept, but in general, the entire focus of this is to see the damage after Ultron conquered the world, next thing, the moral debate between Wolverine and Sue on whether or not Hank Pym should be killed before creating Ultron, and yeah, it does happen, only to find out the typical “time travel” plot-device of “screw the time-space continuum, and it gets worse”. It makes me wonder, is this actually following the time traveling rules set by ‘Marvel Comics’ where one cannot alter the past, only create several different timelines after the events are altered? Because I feel it didn’t happen like that, or, not to the best of my knowledge. I mean, obviously this is an alternative “Earth”, and the final pages in issue 10 clearly shows there were multiversal casualties, but other than that, the time travel scenes felt conventional, pretty much the standard procedures such as your typical ‘The Time Machine’ original novel premise.
As for the art department, the majority of this is penciled by Bryan Hitch, and he’s fantastic as always, and the real highlights (as always when it comes to him) are the page spreads, but unfortunately, the parts where the characters travel in time are draw by Brandon Peterson, and Carlos Pacheco, both really good artists, but Hitch’s pencils dominated the first five issues, so the sudden change feels inconsistent with the initial story.
All in all, this was passable at best. I liked the moral concepts of the time travel dilemmas, like the whole “is it fair to kill a single person, to save millions?”, it always makes for great character introspection, but then again, it is Wolverine doing it, in a rip-off of a classic story in which he participated! I cannot help but see this as a modernized version of an already exploited concept, and the worst part is that the original still did it better after all this time! There were inconsistencies on who were participants in the main story, since this started with Hawkeye and Spidey, and suddenly, they’re simply out of the picture when the whole “time travel deal” starts. I’m not really sure if I felt disappointed with this, since I was mostly curious about it, since I already know it wasn’t that well-received, but in fact, my disappointment comes from knowing how much potential this had initially. Bendis has proven he’s capable of crafting great mega-events for ‘Marvel Comics’, but sadly, this is as mediocre as the majority of his 2010s titles. It is visually pleasing for sure, but lackluster in terms of narrative.
October 23, 2015
That was almost as boring and needlessly convoluted as the film good job Bendis
December 1, 2024
I thought it was okay, you’ll love this one if you’re okay with Ultron only speaking in the first issue and the very last.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 3, 2015
Disappointment.
It seems I'm very bad at heeding warnings. I had seen that people suggest, explicitly suggest, not to read this event of Marvel's as it is not good, and rest of the preceding Ultorn's stories are better. Dunno about the latter, but former is right - this ain't good, and, to my surprise, even worse than the movie of the same name that had NOTHING in common (!) besides the name with this comic and the arch-villain Ultron. Who, to even greater surprise of mine, was less prominent than even in the movie.
This comic wasn't about Ultron and his rule. This was about Wolverine who doesn't give a damn about the butterfly effect and breaks the flow of time just to kill of the #1 responsible person for creating Ultron - Henry Pym, who is... at best a lost cause. I won't spoil anything, but let's say in the end it is all quite pointless (and predictable) , as with many time traveling stories from Marvel - in the end - if you can go back in time once, why wouldn't you go again to correct the mistake of the previous trip. And thus begins, pardon my rudeness, clusterf*/#% of universe breaking proportions. And it all ends with a lead in into a new Event of Marvel's featuring another mistake of Frank Pym. It all felt really pointless and underused when Ultron is in question, but overused and abused when everything else is brought to the front.
Thankfully it is still better than The Fear Itself, which still is, in my book, the worst superhero comic book I had read. And I really hope that there will be nothing worse than that (I have heard that AXIS is competing fore that spot though). But this, Age of Ultron, is definitely taking the second spot in the list of worst Marvel comic events I had read. I simply wanted to see more of the Ultron, from the movie, but got even less of him (it?)... 2/5 and a barely "it's OK" badge, as there were some good one-liners (same could be said about the movie), some good spreads (but overall art is nothing to write home to) and at least partially well done feeling of overall dread and tragedy. Besides that - hollowness and disappointment.
It seems I'm very bad at heeding warnings. I had seen that people suggest, explicitly suggest, not to read this event of Marvel's as it is not good, and rest of the preceding Ultorn's stories are better. Dunno about the latter, but former is right - this ain't good, and, to my surprise, even worse than the movie of the same name that had NOTHING in common (!) besides the name with this comic and the arch-villain Ultron. Who, to even greater surprise of mine, was less prominent than even in the movie.
This comic wasn't about Ultron and his rule. This was about Wolverine who doesn't give a damn about the butterfly effect and breaks the flow of time just to kill of the #1 responsible person for creating Ultron - Henry Pym, who is... at best a lost cause. I won't spoil anything, but let's say in the end it is all quite pointless (and predictable) , as with many time traveling stories from Marvel - in the end - if you can go back in time once, why wouldn't you go again to correct the mistake of the previous trip. And thus begins, pardon my rudeness, clusterf*/#% of universe breaking proportions. And it all ends with a lead in into a new Event of Marvel's featuring another mistake of Frank Pym. It all felt really pointless and underused when Ultron is in question, but overused and abused when everything else is brought to the front.
Thankfully it is still better than The Fear Itself, which still is, in my book, the worst superhero comic book I had read. And I really hope that there will be nothing worse than that (I have heard that AXIS is competing fore that spot though). But this, Age of Ultron, is definitely taking the second spot in the list of worst Marvel comic events I had read. I simply wanted to see more of the Ultron, from the movie, but got even less of him (it?)... 2/5 and a barely "it's OK" badge, as there were some good one-liners (same could be said about the movie), some good spreads (but overall art is nothing to write home to) and at least partially well done feeling of overall dread and tragedy. Besides that - hollowness and disappointment.
May 14, 2022
Another ultra-cynical and violent Bendis-Marvel crossover. There are better ways to establish stakes in comics than seeing She-Hulk get her brains blown out or Captain America and the Wasp get beheaded. The story revolves around Ultron, a threat that has been building in several crossover events throughout the Avengers series for the previous two or three years, but there is not actual leadup to this series (The series begins after Ultron has attacked and the Avengers lost), and Ultron himself only briefly appears in the final two issues and has little dialogue. After a few issues as a "gritty" post-apocalyptic story, the series shifts to a time-travel story in issue four, and then an alternate timeline story after that, but doesn't do anything interesting with either. It just uses both just to introduce more ultraviolence with no real stakes. Wolverine, the main protagonist for most of the series, does not learn any lessons about why his murderous actions were wrong, just that they didn't work. The entire universe is saved by the existence of Hank Pym, but he is not explored as a character at all (Except in a weird epilogue issue that isn't included here).
To wrap up my scattered opinions, this is a hollow, cynical, violent and disjointed series that has no real stakes or consequences, and is a low point for Marvel's run of annual crossover events, though not the lowest. I'd go as far as to say a lot of them aren't very good but at least most of them are fun. This is not fun. It's just depressing.
To wrap up my scattered opinions, this is a hollow, cynical, violent and disjointed series that has no real stakes or consequences, and is a low point for Marvel's run of annual crossover events, though not the lowest. I'd go as far as to say a lot of them aren't very good but at least most of them are fun. This is not fun. It's just depressing.
September 11, 2016
Yet another storyline about an apocalypse where it's easy to kill off hundreds of characters who never die in the regular issues. Yet another storyline about time travel and everything needing to be fixed. A lame attempt at explaining why time travel doesn't happen all the time.
No fun, all grim, characters are abandoned after having been built up for an issue or two. Are you sick of Wolverine's lethal attitude being the final solution for everything yet?
Yet another indication that modern comic books pander to an audience of 30+ nerds rather than the kids the same age as those nerds once were. The genre will starve itself out by continuing to make tripe unsuitable for young readers, because young readers are what the industry needs.
No fun, all grim, characters are abandoned after having been built up for an issue or two. Are you sick of Wolverine's lethal attitude being the final solution for everything yet?
Yet another indication that modern comic books pander to an audience of 30+ nerds rather than the kids the same age as those nerds once were. The genre will starve itself out by continuing to make tripe unsuitable for young readers, because young readers are what the industry needs.
March 8, 2015
From what I have read about the movie and seen in the trailers, this graphic novel has little, if anything, to do with this year's anticipated blockbuster, Avengers 2: Age of Ultron. If this graphic novel was the script for the next installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I would call it a black hole.
There's lots of time travel, Wolverine, and splash pages of gray, desolate landscapes. I can't say there was much in the way of memorable dialogue or a scintillating story. All in all, extremely disappointing.
There's lots of time travel, Wolverine, and splash pages of gray, desolate landscapes. I can't say there was much in the way of memorable dialogue or a scintillating story. All in all, extremely disappointing.
April 6, 2019
…Well, that was weird. Another library find I was previously unaware of. The movie bears very little resemblance to this storyline, but I’m not enough of a comic book/graphic novel reader to know if there have been other Ultron books. IMO the movie’s story is much better. I prefer the film versions of the characters. But I did like the sequence in which Hawkeye rescued Spider-Man against orders. (I mean—come on, Luke Cage! You don’t leave Peter Parker behind!) And I enjoyed the Wolverine stuff, because his dialogue amuses me.
December 15, 2019
3.5 stars. It started pretty strong, but I'm kind of tired of the "time travel to the past to prevent the horrible future from happening whoops i made the future worse by altering the past and the wings of a butterfly and now i have to go back AGAIN to stop my other self from preventing blah blah blah paradox" stories.
And, honest question if anyone knows the answer: just how many times has Bendis destroyed New York in one reality/timeline or another?
And, honest question if anyone knows the answer: just how many times has Bendis destroyed New York in one reality/timeline or another?
April 18, 2015
I read this in almost one sitting so yeah, I enjoyed reading it. Even though the parallel to Days of Future Past bothered me a bit and the end seemed too rushed. I also expected more actual fight scenes but well, I guess I get these when I watch the movie.
November 29, 2020
Pomalo konfuzan crtež. Priča koja se grana kroz vreme i prostor. Zamara me vise to ponavljanje putovanja kroz vreme. Mislim da je to zesca glupost ali nekako je ispalo sve u svemu ok. Možda je najrealnija ocena izmedju trojke i Četvorke.
February 14, 2022
3,5 myślałem, że będzie ciekawsze niż bieganie po czasoprzestrzeni dwóch postaci, ale przynajmniej jedną z nich była Niewidzialna Kobieta, którą uwielbiam <3 Poza tym jest to naprawdę poprawna seria, która przykuła mnie ma tyle bardzo, że przeczytałem ją w 1 dzień z zaangażowaniem.
November 11, 2013
Awesome! This book is the reason why I keep reading comics. It tells a STORY. And the art is top notch.
February 21, 2017
By far one of the better books to come out of Marvel. Having said that the story does need some filling out.
August 1, 2015
Oh good. I found something to like less than AvX.
September 5, 2014
Parts of this were awesome; alternate versions of heroes, messing with the past, things like that. But the ending just kind of fizzles out.
March 18, 2016
An enjoyable time-travel romp. It's a bit convoluted at times, as all time-travel stories normally are but fairly enjoyable.
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