Jun 28 2013

Age of Ultron 10 A.I.

Today, Shelby and Taylor are discussing Age of Ultron 10 A.I., originally released June 26th, 2013. This issue is part of the Age of Ultron crossover event. Click here for complete AU coverage.

Shelby: After the reality-shattering events of issue 10, we were left asking some big questions, namely, “What the hell was that?” For a second, the reality of the Marvel universe started to come unglued. Or maybe did actually come unglued, at least partially. Instead of focusing on the effects on the timeline itself, this issue focuses instead on the effects on one man, the man who started it all: Dr. Hank Pym.
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Jun 21 2013

Age of Ultron 10

Today, Drew are Shelby are discussing Age of Ultron 10, originally released June 19th, 2013. This issue is part of the Age of Ultron crossover event. Click here for complete AU coverage.

Drew: Age of Ultron 9 found Taylor asking “What is time?” It’s something so central to our perception of the world, yet something we barely understand. Issue 10 continues the trend of focusing on subjects at the edge of our scientific understanding, this time taking up the question “What is reality?” What really are these things we believe to be true? History, as they say, is written by the victors (and re-written by whoever beats them, and so on), suggesting that “reality” might be a bit more subjective than we like to think. But what if the victors could actually alter history, not just our retellings of it? What if reality was objectively malleable? That’s kind of the question this series has been asking all along, but its conclusion puts a finer point on it, making the very fabric of Marvel’s “reality” the focus of this issue. Continue reading →

Jun 6 2013

Age of Ultron 9

Today, Taylor are Patrick are discussing Age of Ultron 9, originally released June 5th, 2013. This issue is part of the Age of Ultron crossover event. Click here for complete AU coverage.

Taylor: What is time? This is perhaps one of the most fundamental questions to human existence, and as such, it has been discussed by mankind since time immemorial. While philosophers and physicists debate about what exactly time is (it’s a question that still rages today), science fiction and pop culture have popularized the question by using it in a countless number of plots and stories. So none of us should be surprised that a comic book entitled the Age of Ultron (my emphasis) would come to center its plot on time travel and its consequences. Indeed, with time travel we have seen a proliferation of ages in this event increase exponentially, the consequence of which has been the raising of an eyebrow both for better and for worse. Yet while the plot of Ultron isn’t always all that original, issue nine raises the question of what exactly time is and what the consequences of traveling through it could be.

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May 28 2013

Fearless Defenders 4AU

Today, Patrick and Taylor are discussing Fearless Defenders 5AU, originally released May 22nd 2013. This issue is part of the Age of Ultron crossover event. Click here for complete AU coverage.

Patrick: I make up our posting schedules around here, so any time you see two of our writers fighting about something, I’m partially to blame to for that. Also when someone is like “I don’t normally read this title, so I don’t know what’s going on or who any of these people are” – that’s my fault too. Our writers are always good sports, though, and I think they all sort of relish the opportunity to say “I don’t have all the information, but here’s what I do know.” And isn’t that the experience of reading superhero comics? It almost doesn’t matter what you’re reading – you’re in the deep end. Throw this whole alternate-alternate timeline from Age of Ultron into the mix and you’ve got yourself a perfect recipe for misunderstanding. Oddly, Fearless Defender’s contribution to this event offers context to both the event and the main series by making explicit connections between the characters that transcend conflicting timelines.

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May 24 2013

Age of Ultron 10 A.I. PREVIEW

Age of Ultron 10 A.I. comes out on June 29th, 2013 and is written by Mark Waid with Art by Andre Araujo. Click here for our complete Age of Ultron coverage.

Here’s a fun exercise: let’s all embrace the cognitive dissonance regarding Hank Pym. Wolverine may have gone back in time to murder him in Age of Ultron 6, but this event seems to be concluding with a new emphasis placed on the former Ant-Man. (Also fairly dissonant: he’s appears to be alive and well in the present in Daredevil and Scott Lang is Ant-Man in FF.) So what do these preview pages look like to you? A crusader for tiny things? For technology? For coming back from the dead / never dying in the first place? Maybe he’s just a crusader for brightly colored costumes?

Preview a couple pages after the jump. Continue reading →

May 24 2013

Uncanny Avengers 8AU

Today, Taylor and Ethan are discussing Uncanny Avengers 8AU, originally released May 22nd 2013. This issue is part of the Age of Ultron crossover event. Click here for complete AU coverage.

Taylor: The thing about parties is that they’re only fun if you know the people who are going to be there. Now, this doesn’t apply to everyone, some of the more socially fluid among us have an ability to mix and match with anyone. However, for your average Joe, going to a strange party means having to make conversation with a lot of people you’ve never met before and who you will never meet again. What do you do; who do you know; is that beer good; this song is great – become your most-used phrases for a couple of awkward hours. By the end of the night all the names and faces blend together and you’re more than happy to leave without saying goodbye to any of the people you just met but couldn’t care about less. In just the same way Uncanny Avengers 8AU is not a fun issue to read unless you are steeped in the mythology of the Marvel Universe. Even then, there is little that is appealing about this issue for fans of the series, both old and new. Continue reading →

May 17 2013

Age of Ultron 8

Today, Patrick are discussing Age of Ultron 8, originally released May 15th 2013. This issue is part of the Age of Ultron crossover event. Click here for complete AU coverage.

Patrick: A few weeks ago, I noted that I wasn’t having very much fun with the whole Age of Ultron concept – issue after issue of pure, relentless destruction and doom was getting to me. But that started to feel like the point: Brian Michael Bendis was taking my comic-book-fan apocalypse-lust and rubbing my nose in it. When the heroes decided they had to take drastic action and travel through time to fight Ultron on his inventor on different chronal fronts, I cheered the initiative. Anything to stop the suffer-slog through devastated cityscapes. But as the series moves further and further away from what’s familiar in the Marvel Universe, the harder it is to get a grasp on the story. Continue reading →

May 2 2013

Age of Ultron 7

Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Age of Ultron 7, originally released May 1st 2013. This issue is part of the Age of Ultron crossover event. Click here for complete AU coverage.

Drew: I wanted to start this writeup with the clip from Back to the Future part II where Doc explains the notion of “alternate 1985” — the idea that changing something while time traveling to the past can create a timeline different from the one you know. It’s a common notion (and plot device) in most time-travel stories, but Doc explains it quite clearly in a simple chalkboard diagram. When I went hunting for that clip, however, I was bemused to discover that most of the discussion of that scene hinges on how the rest of the movie doesn’t really adhere to its rules (how does Biff of 2015 return to the “original” timeline — which needs to happen in order for Marty and Doc to use the delorean to return to 1985 — if he is coming back from creating the “alternate” timeline?) which illustrates the larger problem of time-travel stories: they can’t ever make any sense. Continue reading →

Apr 19 2013

Age of Ultron 6

Today, Mikyzptlk and Ethan are discussing Age of Ultron 6, originally released April 17th 2013. This issue is part of the Age of Ultron crossover event. Click here for complete AU coverage.

Mikyzptlk: Age of Ultron has taken us to some pretty extreme places. We’ve seen cities destroyed, deaths of countless civilians, and heroes taken out left and right. In a series that’s all about going to dark places, this issue really manages to go to some darker places. Essentially, it asks us if the ends justifies the means. More importantly, it asks us what we would do to protect the ones we love. Continue reading →

Apr 17 2013

Age of Ultron 8 PREVIEW

Age of Ultron 8 comes out on May 13th, 2013 and is written by Brian Michael Bendis with Art by Brandon Peterson. Click here for our complete Age of Ultron coverage.

Marvel’s previews for these things are getting increasingly obtuse. Okay, what do we have here? Someone in the Iron Man armor sorting through images of Ultron’s destruction. The logical question – who’s in that armor? Unless Tony’s had a rough couple weeks, that ain’t him. I’ll get the ball rolling with wild speculation: LOST’s John Locke.

Also, the cover suggests we’ll see some of Sue and Wolverine’s adventures in the past. That could be fun.