Bendis does it again, his stink is on another event that falls short, his name is a on a storyline that was supposed to set up a major turning point but was saddled with delays, remember how 'Secret Wars' was supposed to lead into 'Secret Invasion'? Age of Ultron was meant to lead into the Marvel Now launch, so this event failed in many levels to me
Age of Ultron
Marvel's first 2013 crossover event, the Earth is plunged into chaos when Ultron returns and conquers it.
Off My Mind: How AGE OF ULTRON Changes the Marvel Universe
i'm glad my girlfriend brought this, so i could read it without buying. after avengers vs. x-men, i was very dissapointed in marvel....
So much complaining and comparing but no actual reasons why.
I liked AoU and I like a lot that was setup, especially the possibility that time-travel will no longer be a band-aid fix for any terrible plot.
I always found the set up a bit weak, Wolverine travels back in time to kill Hank before he creates Ultron. Like time travel's ever solved anything before. That aside I can at least admit that this is a good series
AoU was my first marvel event and I was completely disappointed. I was disappointed so much that i don't know if I'm picking up a marvel event for awhile
Seriously, Age of Ultron was a complete fail of a marvel event.
People are stupid.
It wasn't that bad.
@knightrise: Not really. They have changed nothing of the universe. They've not boned a character permanently like DC did with Tim Drake. They've not erased character's from existence. They've not permanently changed a character like DC did with so many. This is nothing like New 52 which makes me wonder if you actually read New 52 or this series...
We have too many time travel/reality crossing storylines right now in Marvel:
- All New X-Men: teams from both past and future
- Age of Ultron: wolverine breaks the time stream
- Uncanny Avengers: the children of Apocalypse are trying to kill the "seven futures"
- New Avengers: other realities are crashing into ours possibly destroying it
I know this stuff is Marvel's bread and butter but it's just a lot all at once. It's like, really? Wolverine ruined everything? Then why do we care about what's going on in New Avengers? Does the original five X-men matter anymore?
the Age of Ultron storyline sounded cute in a "AoA/2099/Deadpool kills marvel universe/marvel zombies" alternate story kinda thing. But trying to make it actually matter? No. We already have stupid crap like Avengers Arena for killing off beloved characters.
No-one actually died in Age Of Ultron though. Except Ultron.
And, He will probably return as soon as another writers needs it. How many times Ultron was destroyed "for good" in the past?
How about a person from the future going back in time to kill some of these awful writers, don't they realize all this universal confusion is the single thing that is making DC so crazy. Universes are not to be taken lightly or made flimsy, anyway at least there not retconning stuff, and most of that stuff doesn't see action in 616
@idontlikebirds said:
@smart_dork_dude: Their Ultimate Universe would be more comparable to DC's Earth 2. New take on classic characters while retaining the previous ones and having them exist in another world. Earth 2, just like The Ultimate Universe, has killed off major characters and kept them dead.
No, no, no, no. The entirety of the New 52 is like Ultimate Marvel. The difference? There's no regular DC universe to fall back on.
Really the New 52 feels like Ultimate DC, but without a REAL DC universe to fall back on. It reminds me of that issue of She-Hulk where she was taken by the Living Tribunal to decide whether the Ultimate Universe should completely replace the classic Marvel universe. She defended her home universe, and as it was more fun, it was spared. That's the keyword right there. Fun. In an Ultimate universe, there's less room for the silly or really out there stuff. Thor putting Asgard in Oklahoma, floating 10 feet off the ground? Fun! Batshit insane to say out loud, but fun! Anthropomorphic duck and raccoon existing in the same universe and interacting with everyone? Fun! Having a world devouring space giant in a purple suit with a giant helmet? Fun!
With DC going "Ultimate" I feel the same way I do about Ultimate Marvel. I like many of the ideas and concepts, but I don't like the universe as a WHOLE. The only reason I had anything to do with the Ultimate universe was because of Ultimate Spider-Man. I loved the hell out of Ultimate Spider-Man and I am not ashamed to admit I did enjoy the first Ultimates volume. Didn't LOVE it, but I enjoyed it. I loved how mutants were feared and hated because the mutant gene is actually a virus that can spread and that mutants in this universe are just that, accidents and mistakes which is what a mutant by definition is.
I could go on and on, but my point is that while I enjoyed these ideas and concepts, especially how Ultimate Spider-Man went, I would NOT want it to replace the mainstream Marvel universe. And thankfully it didn't.
@knightrise maybe AoU can explain Wally West not existing, having three Robins in five years and the other stupidity in the New 52? I blame Wolverine.
@nappystr8: I really hope you're wrong about Infinity...
BTW, 2 questions for those who read AoU, what the hell happened to the heroes who went to the future ? and
how the hell did Wolverine kill the other version of him ??
These are two of the many questions that arose in my mind after reading those last couple awful issues. I'm assuming the first one will be answered in one of the many spin-offs of Age of Ultron that are coming up. The second one was just bad writing. He could have drowned him, but there's nothing he could have done to kill him with his claws.
I dropped Age of Ultron after the first issue... So, now I'm lost. What happened? I haven't really seen any repercussions in other Marvel books.
the one thing about Angela I'm curious about is "when she arrived". Marvel keeps saying that her new history is intertwined with Marvel, as if she has always been in the MU. she might have arrived ages ago, but then just found the core marvel characters.
I think in an itnerview I read mentioning Galactus in the UU this was hinted at as well - Galactus literally just got there, the quote saying he hasnt been in the UU for 3-4 years. But with Angela it's she;s always been there.
I think that the real reason that Age of Ultron was delayed sooooooooo long is that originally Marvelman was to be the character who showed up at the end instead of Angela. But due to ongoing legal problems with just who has the rights to Marvelman the story was first delayed and then ultimately had Marvelman written out and Angela written in. It makes perfect sense if you look at the timeline of events in the announcement of Age of Ultron and Marvel's "purchase" of Marvelman.
Are we sure Galactus is in the ultimate universe or did miles come to the 616? There was talk of a new crossover where Miles comes to 616.
they need to reboot marvel is a hot mess......
I dropped AOU after issue 6 i so wanted it to be good but it just bored me to death. i read the last issue and glad i stopped when i did. Only interesting thing is miles and Galactus scene.
@smart_dork_dude: Marvel Now does none of the things you mention.
@shazam2017: Well, clearly your luck was out on this one. There's a lot of really cool marvel events. House of M, Civil war, Secret Invasion, those were amazing events, but you kinda need a lot of background to enjoy them. If I were you I'd pick up Bendis's first run on New avengers (the ones just after Avengers got disassembled) on Amazon, they should be cheap and then go with those three events, which, are simply awesome ! It's a shame that this event sucked because there are amazing Marvel titles right now, like Avengers for example.
@american_flag: I'm not talking about Marvel Now. I'm talking about the idiotic idea that this is going to be Marvel rebooting
I'm interested in seeing Angela's involvement in the Marvel U. The fractured space-time idea seems like an interesting way to have characters that wouldn't normally interact: Interacting beyond than just let's team-up and fight our villains who also happened to team-up. Like most marvel events the fall-out is usually better than the explosion. Event.Era.Event.Era.Event. Repeat as necessary.
I highly doubt this is a reboot, they may use it to retcon some things, maybe set up for the NEXT event, but that's probably about it.
@nappystr8: I really hope you're wrong about Infinity...
BTW, 2 questions for those who read AoU, what the hell happened to the heroes who went to the future ? and
how the hell did Wolverine kill the other version of him ??
These are two of the many questions that arose in my mind after reading those last couple awful issues. I'm assuming the first one will be answered in one of the many spin-offs of Age of Ultron that are coming up. The second one was just bad writing. He could have drowned him, but there's nothing he could have done to kill him with his claws.
Well as far as I could tell, the guys who travelled first went to a future that stopped existing when Wolverine killed Hank so when they travelled back those versions no longer existed, or something, time travel is weird.
As for Wolverine killing his double, Wolverine isn't immortal, and I'm sure out of anyone he'd know how best to kill himself, also probably why it happened off-panel.
@knightrise maybe AoU can explain Wally West not existing, having three Robins in five years and the other stupidity in the New 52? I blame Wolverine.
No, blame Barry Allen.
And, for all you Event haters, just skip them! The fallout is usually the interesting part anyways, and Marvel usually has decent books that spin off from these events. If you must, just read a summary of the event online.
AoU was definitely slow going but I came away from it liking the fact that Marvel continues to not use time travel as a crutch and that theres actual consequences to monkeying around with the time stream. Sure my comic budget took 10 hits but oh well lol, price gotta pay for getting the new foundation in my greasy little hands. Putting AoU right next to Flashpoint on my shelf and now we'll see which becomes irrelevant first LOL! Colonel America was kinda cool, the Defenders were my fave part.
The end of AoU occurred at Avengers 12.1. So it couldn't be a reboot because then we'd only restart at that point in time. The changes are more subtle than the New 52. In fact, All-New X-Men may only be taking place because of the fractured state of the timeline. While the event was forgettable, the fact that the ramifications affect not just the future of Marvel but the past and present as well is interesting.
It was nice to see that there will be changes and I look forward to them, but AU as an event is the epitome of everything that is wrong with comics right now due to that ending we had. My feelings on AU are summed up nicely by this meme I found...
@knightrise: Not really. They have changed nothing of the universe. They've not boned a character permanently like DC did with Tim Drake. They've not erased character's from existence. They've not permanently changed a character like DC did with so many. This is nothing like New 52 which makes me wonder if you actually read New 52 or this series...
I bet you're great at parties.
This is why I can't get into Marvel no matter how hard I try. The even described above sounds convoluted as hell.
While I appreciate your pragmatic approach sir - it's unfortunately just not that simple. The marketing strategy du jour for the last 12 years has been to ply the readers with tie-ins taking place in the regular ongoing titles which make them nearly dependent on the semi/quarterly event that is emblazoned on the cover. That makes for uninteresting or confusing books for half of a year or more.
When you don't have any independent stories from the 'events' on your ongoing titles you are more or less trying to monetarily compel your audience to buy these other books in order to keep up. It's a proven money-maker for numerous reasons however it also denies the discerning consumer what they came for; stories about the characters with the names on those respective books.
I'm not trying to kick mud in your face on this matter - however I've spent many a monologue about the efficacy of this business strategy and I feel like it's an important note to all folks still reading Marvel books. I buy a select few myself - but have boycotted most at given intervals for 20 years for these reasons and increasingly so over the last 12 (since Annihilation ended truly). Anyhow, thank you sir.
Announcing Marvel's New 52!
That was the original plan, Bryan Hitch told me that at the last minute marvel pulled Age of Ultron and replaced it with AvX Spacefiller event. Its pretty clear MarvelNOW! was supposed to happen at the end of ago of ultron, but marvel didn't want to be seen to be copying DC. I suspect we didn't even get the original ending aswell, as it was probably changed to shoehorn in Angela and the end of the ultimate universe.
Given several things in MarvelNow are heavily linked to the idea of universe collapsing(Avengers/NewAvengers) and time travel (All New X-Men) its pretty clear these were supposed to be the original fall out
The biggest question is where does Age Of Ultron actually end in? Pre Fearitself Avengers 12.1 or MarvelNow!
@grey56: I here ya, I've been a sucker for tie-ins as well. New Mutants was a victim of this, and I eventually just stopped reading it because I didn't care for the tie-ins. Honestly I'm just coming back from a comic book hiatus, because I was overwhelmed with all the books I was reading.
But since Marvel has been using this strategy for years, and doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon, it's clear whining about it doesn't help.
And this time around, Marvel actually didn't really interfere with any of the titles. The tie ins had special AU numbering, akin to their .1 initiative, and didn't really interfere with the on-ging storyline in those books. And even the aftermath doesn't seem to effect much. Just the specific books and storylines that spin-off from it.
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