Age of Ultron #4 (mini review)

(w) Brian Michael Bendis     (a) Bryan Hitch


**SPOILERS AHEAD**


So...Age of Ultron is starting to get a little...eh.

Not bad, mind you. Just 'eh'. Much like the super-sized Avengers vs. X-Men, Brian Michael Bendis' Age of Ultron is starting to drag. The saving grace is that this series is coming out on such a quick schedule -- what took AvX seven months is taking AoU only three.

Age of Ultron #4 picks up right where last issue left off, with Luke Cage facing down the Vision, who seems to be in control of the Ultron army subjugating the planet. That was a big deal. Unfortunately, that plot twist kind of goes out the window when everyone's favorite android Avenger blurts out that it is, indeed, Ultron running the show, only from the future, using Vision's operating system as a conduit. Whoa! It's neat, but it also cheapens the effect of Vision's reappearance. Now we know he's just under Ultron's control.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Flashpoint up in this piece. Not only because I heard that theory before the event started, but because time travel is at the core of this story's conflict. Obviously, the surviving heroes of Ultron's rampage are going to have to jump through time and space to save their present. And as we all know, messing with the space-time continuum always has side effects.

Of course I'm going to keep reading Age of Ultron, it's just this particular issue isn't particularly interesting.

GRADE

6/10

Featured Review: Avengers Assemble Annual #1

(w) Christos Gage
(a) Tomm Coker, Mike Mayhew, Mike Deodato, Luke Ross, and Valentine de Landro

The Vision hasn't really been around much recently. Eight years ago, Brian Michael Bendis killed the character off in the pages of Avengers: Disassembled along with Hawkeye, Scott Lang, and a zombified Jack of Hearts. While all the deaths had major weight and significance, the Vision's was especially haunting because the murderer, or course, was Wanda Maximoff, Vision's wife. It's taken years, and a lot of savvy storytelling, but all of the characters who bit the dust due to Wanda's reality-warping freak out have come back (sans Jack of Hearts, due to his kind of already being dead). 

And again, Vision's resurrection was unique in that his reconstitution came at the cost of his memory, meaning he was only a shadow of a friend the Avengers held dear for so long. Later on, Vision regained his memories and adult form, but that's kind of where the story ended until Avengers Assemble Annual #1. Christos Gage has used the 'Annual' format in one of the best ways I've seen in recent memory: reintroducing an old character that hasn't been used in a while but who has major significance in the greater scheme of things. 

The plot of "Company Man" is seems pretty run-of-the-mill at first; Dr. Arthur Dearborn is dying because of experiments conducted on him by his employer, Roxxon Corporation, and now he wants revenge. The situation gets a big more complicated when Dearborn claims Roxxon is purposefully letting him die because they have replacement subjects for their ongoing gene-altering experiments. Unlike many disgruntled employees, Dearborn is dying because his body is composed of living energy and it's slowly degrading. Now, after forsaking him in his time of crisis, Dearborn simply wants to destroy Roxxon completely. 

Gage doesn't hide the fact that Dearborn's situation mirrors that of the Vision. Both are men solely invested in their respective organizations, only to be taken for granted by said organizations they've given their lives to serve. For Dearborn, that means being left to die. For the Vision, that means being forgotten by the only family he's ever known while the world went to hell a few times over (see Civil War, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, Siege, etc.) Like the android he is, Vision logically understands why the Avengers couldn't reassemble him earlier, but that doesn't make the pain any less real for him.

The last work I read by Christos Gage was The First X-Men, a series I started reading and stopped after the second issue. I found the entire concept to be completely unnecessary. On the flip side, Gage's story in Avengers Assemble Annual #1 is a stunning example of how the writer can handle a story with a little more significance under its wings. The Vision is a fan-favorite character that's been absent for too long, and Gage brings him back in style while also forging an exciting new path for the android who has served everyone but himself since he was first switched on.

GRADE

8/10

(COMIC) AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #0

Written by Brian Michael Bendis and Jason Aaron
Artwork by Frank Cho

For months, Marvel has been teasing it's Avengers Vs. X-Men crossover as the event to read this summer. With a huge 12-issue main series, the all-fight companion series AvX: VS, and countless tie-in issues from across the imprint, Marvel is bringing fans an awesome event without going overboard, an issue that's plagued crossover events - for both Marvel and DC - over the past ten years. And it all starts this week with Avengers Vs. X-Men #0, a prequel issue that features two stories about the Scarlet Witch and Hope Summers.

We start with Scarlet Witch and her fight against M.O.D.O.K. Spider-Woman and Ms. Marvel show up to lend a hand and a few words about friendship. Against Wanda's better instincts, they all fly back to Avengers Mansion only to be greeted by Scarlet Witch's ex-husband, Vision who wants nothing to do with her. It seems a bit odd to me that it's been eight years since the Avengers: Disassembled story arc and seven since House of M, and loose ends from both of these events are just now being tied up. Why wouldn't Wanda and Vision have at least seen each other before now? It might be a bi-product of Brian Michael Bendis' writing style. Dedicating twelve issues of a series to a day's worth of events - for example - severely hinders the ability for the entire imprint to keep a consistent timeline.

The second story focuses on Hope Summers, the mutant messiah, as explained to me by the character bio at the beginning in the issue. Holed up on Utopia, the X-Men's island sanctuary off the coast of San Francisco, Hope has been sneaking out to fight crime and Cyclops has finally decided to approach her about it. Before I keep going, I'd like to mention the fact that Scott Summers (a.k.a. Cyclops) is supposed to be the leader of the X-Men and an inspiration for all of mutantkind. It's been 70 years and he still has to wear a visor. Seriously? It's actually kind of annoying that Marvel hasn't allowed Cyclops to evolve beyond needing his visor. Anyway, Hope is set to be the next avatar for the Phoenix Force, which is hurtling through space toward Earth. Scott doesn't want to talk about the Phoenix, due to the whole Jean being possessed by it thing, and Hope wants answers about this mysterious alien force coming to possess her body.

For fans who regularly follow Marvel's titles, Avengers Vs. X-Men #0 is probably an integral issue that offers payoff for months of build-up, but as a jumping-in point for new readers, it fails to give enough backstory to create a narrative understandable enough to continue reading.

GRADE:

B+