Age of Ultron #8

With the Marvel Universe turned inside out, who will take responsibility for breaking the world? And is there any way to put it back? Wait until you see who is in charge of the new world order and how they got there…!

Directly picking up from last issue, this new Marvel Universe attempts to figure out who Wolverine and Sue Storm are and what they might be hiding. There’s lots of debate as to the authenticity of these two travelers.

What’s really nice about the issue is the compression. The first five issues of this event had too little going on over too many issues. Instead, this issue explains the new world, what issues it faces and its hierarchy in one issue. It’s the exact opposite of what proceeded it and gains for it, but at the same time, if the first volume’s pacing was picked up, we might have had more time to explore this new world, which is interesting enough I’d have liked to.

Overall, the series is at a point where anything can happen. It’s clear more time travel will be involved in an attempt to fix current issues and when it’s all over there might be so much time traveling it might not make sense. But this second volume has hit it’s stride.

I wanted a roller coaster ride and we’re finally at that point where we’re getting it. I’m now looking forward to see what happens next.

Story: Brian Michael Bendis Art: Brandon Peterson
Story: 8 Art: 7.75 Overall: 8 Recommendation: Buy

Avengers Assemble #15AU

ULTRON RULES OK! The Age of Ultron hits Britain, and Captain Britain hits back with a little help from his friends – including a vacationing Captain Marvel! Fighting a guerilla war in the ruins of London, AGGRO! is a way of life for Avengers UK – but when they might just be the last super heroes left alive, can there still be hope? Or is England dreaming?

The Age of Ultron tie-ins have been hit or miss. Few have added to the story, instead they’ve answered questions about characters we might have be wondering about. Characters the main series doesn’t use. So, each really are aimed at either completest or people who really care about those characters.

Here we get Captain Britain, Captain Marvel, The Black Knight and Faiza Hussain. Their battle revolves around either a character who is brand new or one that’s o obscure I don’t know him at all, I’m leaning towards the former.

There’s some cool moments in the issue, but since the main story has moved on at this point, the timing of the issue is the bigger problem for me.

It’s hard to not give away the highlights without spoiling things, but overall it’s an ok story. The art has some great 8-bit moments that I liked a lot.

Overall, with the conclusion of this issue, my question is, “what’s next?”. It leaves a cliffhanger and opening that I want to see explored more. The issue answers a bunch of questions, but at the same time, it leaves us with a lot of them too.

Story: Al Ewing Art: Butch Guice
Story: 7.75 Art: 7.75 Overall: 7.75 Recommendation: Read