Age of Ultron #5

The cover is the high point of this issue. Of course, nothing remotely close to this happens anywhere in the comic.

Ugh. Seriously, is there any way we are supposed to cheer for Wolverine after this?

SPOILERS!

So the surviving heroes actually accomplish something this issue. After many, many pages, they finally reunite with Nick Fury in the Savage Land. Fury has a storehouse of weapons and a plan; head to the future where Ultron currently resides. With Ultron controlling the present through his “son” Vision, someone’s got to take the fight to the real villain. Cap chooses a pretty strong strike team; Iron Man, Invisible Woman, Red Hulk, Black Widow, Quicksilver, and Quake. That’s a fun mix!

But not all the heroes want to use Dr. Doom’s time platform to fight villains. Nope. Wolverine wants to travel back in time and kill Hank Pym before he can invent Ultron. Yeah, head back and kill a founding Avenger before he’s even made the mistake that he’s blamed for. Bendis knows this is a slippery moral slope, since the issue opens with Reed Richards, Tony Stark, and Hank Pym debating this very issue. I mean, seriously! Thank goodness the other heroes present just dismiss Wolvie’s idea out of hand. I would have thought Bendis’ Clint Barton would be keen to kill his longtime teammate. The next issue better start with Wolverine fighting the other heroes.

I get that Wolvie is upset, but man; it really is a character-mangling argument to make. It’s also blatantly obvious and has been since the first solicits for Age of Ultron (go back and look at my review of issue 1; this has been obvious from the start.)

I’ve made another decision too. Bendis and Bryan Hitch bring out the worst in each other. Hitch’s claim to fame is the widescreen action, the panels with few words that show the destruction and power of the modern super-hero. Bendis’ claim to fame is writing a ton of dialogue and letting the plot move along very, very slowly. Combining these two talents has made for 5 very boring issues. It took 5 issues to SET UP the main story. The real villain still hasn’t shown up! Why show Black Panther? Why deal with the Owl? Why does this issue have an interlude in Austin, Texas?

I’m a tad frustrated. I should stop buying this book, but I do love Carlos Pacheco and Brandon Peterson’s art…

Average