Raging about the Rage
of Ultron
by rick olivares
The synopsis: The genocidal android, Ultron, has been
shot into outer space never to return. Or so the Avengers thought. Years later,
Ultron has returned after taking over the moon of Titan, home to the Eternals
and the Avengers’ old foe, Thanos. Except he finds an almost entirely different
crew of Earth’s Mightiest Defenders. And Ultron’s “father”, Hank Pym, is
confronted with issues and a solution that will no doubt reverberate for years
to come.
Avengers: Rage of Ultron, the new original graphic
novel from Marvel and in time to whet one’s appetite before Avengers: Age of
Ultron film will go down as one of the best in the history between the
protagonists and their nefarious robotic villain.
The Avengers have always had some dangerous villains.
I’d say Thanos is tops followed by Ultron and Magneto. Kang the Conqueror would
be fourth, then Loki, the Skrulls, and the Masters of Evil. My reason for the
first three – they have zero qualms about eliminating life. That is something
the other foes aren’t too keen on as they are after power. They still need
people to subjugate.
Ultron… like Thanos… is frightening. And it gets even
more difficult to defeat him because it comes back in the worst way possible.
And having said that… Avengers: Rage of Ultron, written by Rick Remender and
drawn mostly by Filipino wunderkind Jerome Opeña, has its hits and misses that
prevents it from topping the best of the Avengers-Ultron stories.
First off, the cover. It features Hank Pym, the
Scarlet Witch, the Vision, Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor. But save for
Pym and the Vision, the others appear only in the first 23 pages of this
99-page graphic novel. In the remainder of the book, it is the new squad led by
the Falcon with the female Thor, Sabertooth, Spider-Man, Vision, Wasp, and
Quicksilver with a guest appearance by Starfox.
I wish that new team should have been on the cover.
Was Marvel concerned there’d be a lack of sales without its original heavy
hitters on the cover?
Second, it looks like Marvel rushed the release of
the graphic novel. Jerome Opeña’s art is one of the draws of the story but he
clearly needed an assist as Pepe Larraz pitched in at least 18 pages including
the epilogue. This reminds me of the time when Bryan Hitch did the first five
issues of Age of Ultron only to turn it over to Brandon Peterson. Uh uh.
Uncool! I totally hate it when they change artists midway. That means either
someone was late or they moved the artist to something that demands equal
attention.
And if you ask me, because of that, it is a major
downer because Opeña is the lead artist. Remember when Marvel first teased
about this graphic novel months ago with some Opeña art? It was so awesome. And
it is rather disappointing that he didn’t get to finish this graphic novel.
Moving on… at the crux of the story is what is the
solution to rogue Artificial Intelligence? Pym shuts down the Descendants who
first appeared in writer Rick Remender’s stint on Uncanny X-Force (along with
Opeña) and that brings him into conflict with the rest of the Avengers most
notably, the Vision, who argue that the androids are sentient and shutting them
down is akin to murder.
I am surprised this is still an issue with the team.
Putting the kibosh on foes has been a major issue for the Avengers ever since
Operation: Galactic Storm when the Iron Man-led faction of earth’s mightiest
heroes decided to put to death the Kree Supreme Intelligence who engineered the
nuking of his people with the Nega Bomb in hopes of – re-starting their
evolution as a species.
These deeply-rooted differences once more reared its
ugly head during the Civil War, and now it’s a hotly debated topic among the
current crop of heroes when Planet Ultron returns with its final solution to
the problem of humanity.
Speaking of deeply rooted differences, former
Avengers writer Kurt Busiek, who provides the intro to this graphic novel, put
it best when he wrote that Ultron not only suffers from an overblown Oedipal
complex but his issues cross bloodlines from Hank Pym, who created him, to the
Wasp, to the Vision, Wonder Man, Jocasta, Mockingbird, Hawkeye, the Scarlet
Witch, and Quick Silver. Talk about a blood feud.
And there are even more fundamental flaws in the
team’s membership. I have always been against Wolverine on the team because he
is a killer, pure and simple. And now Sabertooth, a reformed version, is on the
team?
It’s like this is being rammed down fans’ throats
because it sells. And that is why I feel this was rushed (again, Opeña wasn’t
able to finish everything on time) ahead of the coming Avengers film (its
worldwide premier takes place on April 13 in Los Angeles). To delay the
printing of Rage of Ultron means it will miss the pre-film hype altogether.
I am sorry but I am not crazy about Larraz’ art that
reminds me of a darker Terry Dodson. Hey, I love Opeña’s art but his Steve
Rogers’ Captain America looks like it had the Super Soldier Serum beaten out of
him. But other than that… I think he’s the new Marc Silvestri/Andy Kubert.
Remender supposedly is best with sci-fi genre stories
but he flubs it when Planet Ultron enters earth space. Theoretically, that
should have caused tidal waves and whatnot. Instead, the danger comes when
Ultron tries to infect every human with spores turning them into his soldiers
(much like he did in Ultron Unlimited in Avengers #19-22 from the team of Kurt
Busiek and George Perez).
As a Remender fan, I love how he throws curves in the
plotlines that you don’t see coming; hence, the ending. Some may quibble that
graphic novels are supposed to be self-contained stories. And they should. But
the ending reminds me of Mike W. Barr’s Son of the Bat that had one hell of a
cliffhanger.
Rage of Ultron leaves you with a similar one although
it will leave you with your stomach churning not because it’s terrible
story-wise but because it sets up all sorts of other stories in this
never-ending battle against Ultron.
Look. My gripes aside, it is still a heckuva story. I
had high hopes it would top Ultron Unlimited or Age of Ultron; both killer
stories. This however leapfrogs The Bride of Ultron and The Ultron Initiative.
Now… will the film version of Age of Ultron top them
all?
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