Review: Age of Ultron #1
Posted By Joe Grunenwald on March 5, 2013
Detail from the cover to Age of Ultron #1. Art by Bryan Hitch, Paul Neary, and Paul Mounts.
Brian Bendis is no stranger to event comics. He’s rewritten the universe in House of M and invaded the Earth in Secret Invasion. With Age of Ultron, he appears poised to do himself one better – by destroying humanity entirely. If the first issue is any indication of how the rest of the series is going to be, the heroes of the Marvel U are in for a rough time.
The issue opens with Ultron having won. The time is today, the place New York City. The city is a wreck, buildings crushed under the weight of what is presumably Ultron’s war machine. The reader is presented with a series of double-page spreads of the devastation. Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary’s attention to detail is on full display here, and they knock the cover off the ball as it leaves the park. The images are breathtaking, and set the tone for the series perfectly. Everything in this book is dirty and broken, including the characters themselves.
The opening spread of Age of Ultron #1. Art by Hitch, Neary, and Mounts.
Bendis’s dialogue is as it always is – sharp and natural. His Hawkeye is a man of few words as he takes care of business, and his Spider-Man cracks wise, albeit weakly, even after having been tortured. The issue focuses on those two, as Hawkeye rescues Spidey from some thugs working for The Owl and Hammerhead. A lot of the characters here are bit players that likely won’t show up again – though a Marvel event centered around The Owl would be a sight to see – but Bendis manages to give all of them as much personality as he does the two lead heroes.
One of the issues’ strengths is that there is next to no exposition to be found. There’s no explanation of how Ultron took over the world, or even of how Spider-Man was captured. It’s a really enjoyable experience to be dropped into a fully-formed world and to have to fend for yourself – the way our heroes do here. While it does require the reader to recognize Hawkeye, Spider-Man, and a few other heroes who appear at the end, there is very little foreknowledge required to get into this book.
The first issue of Age of Ultron is a strong start to the story. It’s a fun action movie of a comic, with entertaining characters and some gorgeous art from Hitch and Neary. The endings of Bendis-written event comics have been hit-and-miss – House of M finished strong, but Secret Invasion seemed to peter out as it went on. Here’s hoping Age of Ultron can keep the momentum of this first chapter going through the remaining nine issues.
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