Brione Review:
Age Of Ultron #8
Story by: Brian Michael Bendis
Art by: Brandon Peterson
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: Wed, May 15th, 2013
The Good:
An alternate timeline unfolded when Wolverine killed Hank Pym in Age Of Ultron #6. Book #8 goes further to show us just how different this alternate timeline is. Seeing how powerful Tony Stark has become is very intriguing. The death of Hank Pym has caused this Tony Stark to become a paranoid, untrusting, callus person. An interesting point is how Tony uses Professor Xavier and Emma Frost’s telepathic abilities with his technology to be able to see every memory that Wolverine and Sue Storm has in their minds. This, as well as some other things, gives the impression that Tony has crossed the line and that he needed Hank Pym around to keep him grounded.
The back and forth between Tony Stark and Wolverine is a good one and we end up learning some more about how Tony and the world became this way. The most powerful quote of the comic comes when Tony says to Wolverine, “You broke the world.” Some irony is thrown into the mix when Morgana Le Fey and her army of magic bad guys shows up. This has Tony convinced that Wolverine and Sue Storm are imposters. They then go to war and the story is further expounded through the great art work of the last 8 pages.
The Bad:
This Marvel crossover event is named “Age Of Ultron” so I must comment on the fact that Ultron was not in this comic and was barely even mentioned. I think I understand where the story is going and where it came from but maybe they should have thought of a different name.
A better job could have been done to explain how the alternate timeline characters came to be who they are (maybe they will in #9). They seem to have interesting back stories and I hope that they are explained. At this point, with only 2 comics left in the series, it seems like they might have to rush to get in all that information and still have time to wrap up the story in a way that makes sense.
Ratings:
Story: 7 out of 10
Art Work: 9 out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 out of 10