Nine issues and we’ve gotten to this point. The second last issue of Marvel’s “epic” event that saw time being bent in almost head hurting ways. Wolverine has figured out his actions in the past have lead to a new Marvel Universe that might be worse than the one he left. To fix it he predictably needs to head back to the past to stop himself from making a mistake.

And that’s the whole issue, Wolverine debating Wolverine. There’s a lot of standing around and talking all in a rather predictable manner. And this “major event” seems to be exiting with the same issues it began with, a slow story and issues with pacing. While a lot is resolved in this issue, also, very little happens. It’s boring to read and debates that take pages could have been handled in panels. The entire issue could have been a quarter of an over-sized final issue. The series has felt like a money suck to me, and this issue caps that off.

There is a twist as to what to do with the duel Wolverines, and I wouldn’t be shocked if this comes back at some point down the road. *cough* The rumored Wolverine dying story coming up. *cough*

Marvel NOW! seems to have a partial goal in uniting the various corners of the Marvel Universe, making it a more cohesive world where varied characters interact more and this event the more I read just feels like part of that plan. There was a “tech” side of the Marvel Universe (anyone remember Marvel UK?) that doesn’t get the focus or attention it deserves in today’s world. Age of Ultron seems to have a goal to thrust that aspect before us. It works, sort of. But the mechanism of time travel and different worlds being bounced around seems like it’s been played out time and time again. Mostly because it has. There’s very little that’s been new.

And that’s part of the issue with Age of Ultron #9, there’s nothing here that’s not predictable or new. It doesn’t surprise me at all, in fact, it feels a bit like a cop-out and easy way to reset things but introduce these new aspects.

I expected more from Marvel’s first big event post NOW! but this hasn’t delivered like I hoped. There’s still one more issue to go, so crossing my figures it is more like the middle chapters which exuded excitement as opposed to this issue and the first half of the series.

Story: Brian Michael Bendis Art: Brandon Peterson and Carlos Pacheco
Story: 7.5 Art: 7.75 Overall: 7.5 Recommendation: Read