Avengers Rage of Ultron

I sought this comic out, because I'm a fan of Hank Pym. This, though flawed, is a nice send off. My only gripes seem to be that Hank's "death" was completely avoidable and the blame really falls on the head of the Avengers. This is nice. The character should be brought back. He has a lot of layers, and mounds of potential left.

First of all, I am a super-huge AVENGERS' fan! Man, I've been reading THE AVENGERS long before they were ever "pop" or went all "Hollywood". Plus, one of my favorite Avengers of all time is Hank Pym (GIANT-MAN). Pym is one of the main reasons that I took a chance on this book and bought THE AVENGERS: RAGE OF ULTRON.While it is totally impossible to tell Avenger's history without him, Hank Pym has, unfortunately and sadly, forever split The Avengers' community into two groups: You either love Pym or you hate him.Rick Remender, the very talented writer of this particular Avengers tale, does a super job of showcasing Pym's brilliance and his emotional complexity as a man and as an founding member of The Avengers team. I give this book four stars way high just for the first 21 pages alone! Since I'm an ol' school Avengers fan, my favorite part of this book is "THE AVENGERS:THEN" chapter. I've read this epic and "untold" Avengers vs. Ultron battle like 20 times already! Marvel comics should really have Rick Remender do like an UNTOLD TALES OF THE AVENGERS comic featuring the past line-up. Dude, I'd buy every single issue!Unfortunately, there were a few things about this book that I didn't like.You see, I hate where THE AVENGERS comics are now!... (I groan in my soul every time that I drive past a comic book store and shake my head in disgust.) So, when the story jumps forward into the current time-frame of Avengers' comics, that's when the book loses some ground for me. I only have three problems with the current line-up of AVENGERS for this book...1.) SPIDER- MAN!...Spider-Man should not be in the Avengers at all. Spidey is too huge and way too epic a character for The Avengers team. Spider-man works better as a solo adventurer. Spider-man shines as an tragic outsider and a misunderstood loner. However, on this team and in this book, the once great and simply amazing Spider-Man is reduced to just lame comic relief. Spider-man is forced into the background as a bit player and becomes lost in the crowd for me.2.) SABRETOOTH!...Sabretooth being on any incarnation of The Avengers makes completely no sense at all! Sabretooth is and always will be a vicious mutant serial killer. He is beyond any kind of redemption. Sabretooth has brutally and violently murdered way too many people and has tried to kill THE X-MEN, and other Marvel super-heroes, dozens of times over the years. Plus, Sabretooth's powers are extemely lethal which also violates "the Avengers do not kill" charter of the team's membership by-laws.3. SAM WILSON IS THE NEW CAPTAIN AMERICA?....I love me some Sam Wilson..but as THE FALCON! Sam Wilson being the new Captain America, again, makes no sense! Sam Wilson's character from day one, has always stood for and desperately wanted his own independence both as a super-hero and as a man. Sam wanted to be his own man; not the "black token" among the white Avengers team members; or just another racial quota/fill-in until another black super-hero joins the team. So, Sam putting on Steve Roger's Captain America costume and taking Rogers' shield to be the new Captain America is totally out of character for Sam Wilson and makes no sense. It's like Hawkman deciding to be the new Batman. Besides, there will ever be only just one Captain America!..Anybody else is just pretending that they are Steve Rogers!Still, all in all, I must say that I had fun reading this book. I'm hoping that this isn't the end of Hank Pym and that he somehow can make it back to The Avengers where he rightly belongs. So, yeah, I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for an cool little Avengers' yarn to pass the time with.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe our last sighting of Ultron was in the meandering trash-opus AGE OF ULTRON miniseries from 2013 by Brian Michael Bendis. Well THIS book makes up for that mess, hands-down. What an incredibly dynamic and potent story! People who have read my reviews know that I'm a fan of OLD SCHOOL Marvel. RAGE OF ULTRON was the best Avengers story I've read since Kurt Busiek's run on earth's Mightiest. Rick Rememder is definitely a free-spirited writing talent. He may not possess all the necessary brass to run comprehensively with old school Marvel continuity in the way Roger Stern or Busiek have demonstrated, but he knows his stuff well enough to produce a fantastic and enjoyable yarn. This tale plays on mythos introduced as far back as Roy Thomas' Silver Age Avengers run. Avengers has always been one of my favorite Marvel concepts, though I have not cared much for Bendis' run or Hickman's current (as of 2015) run. Having said that, Rage of Ultron was a powerful breath of fresh air letting us old heads out here know that some folks still know what good old-fashioned, solid comicbook writing is all about.I won't regurgitate the plot of this OGN, since other reviewers have already taken care of that. The fact that the title villain is ULTRON should tell true Avengers fans everything they need to know. I will define some moments that stood out to me as 'Avengers-strong'--moments that made me want to stop reading and applaud as if watching a film. 1) A Bronze-age Captain America, Beast and Hawkeye taking on a faux Ultron; 2) A Bronze-age Thor and Iron Man charging headlong into combat with Ultron himself--and getting plowed down; 3) A Bronze-age Yellowjacket's sacrifice-play; 4) Modern-Age Captain America (Sam Wilson) going head-to-head with Ultron; 5) The Vision's heartfelt anger at what he feels is a refusal on the part of Hank Pym (and other humans) to acknowledge the legitimacy of an artificial being's "life;" 6) the clever incorporation of Eros of Titan (Starfox). Rememder even manages to incorporate his newer creations, The Descendants--seen during Remender's Secret Avengers run.Was not a fan of Jerome Opena's art at all, but whatever magic pill he took before working on this book has his art looking like a smooth hybrid of Joe Kubert and Adam Kubert. His action panels are sharp and lively. The action is almost nonstop.As I mentioned earlier, this is the best Avengers story I've read since Busiek's run came to an end. The prose and the philosophically-charged issues make this very high brow reading that's exciting, thought-provoking, and worth rereading. Definitely a story you'll be picking up five years down the road for another look. And there's even a very explanatory introduction from the previously--mentioned Kurt Busiek himself. This purchase is worth every friggin' penny. You won't be sorry.

This book asks some interesting questions: Are AI people, and should the Avengers go to the ends of the Earth to save AI entities just as much as they would for humans? What is the parental duty an AI creator has over their "child?" And what responsibilities do we have over our children, artificial or otherwise?Unfortunately, this book doesn't get very far in answering these questions, but not for the usual reasons. Often, a comic book might start with a philosophical question (as with Civil War), but these get forgotten or used as excuses to have a climactic battle. Here, however, each of the questions get in the way of each other. Instead answering the question "Are AI people?" they instead ask a new question "Well, is my AI creation my child?" And it keeps going from there.Philosophy aside, the book is okay. The dialogue is a bit stilted, but not terrible. Towards the end, the cast of characters is reduced to Ultron, Pym, and Vision, and Remender does a good job writing them. The action is more obligatory than anything. Flashy pages for the characters to talk over.In the end I'd give it 3.5/5. It'll scratch an itch, but I'll probably resell it later.

Underwhelming. I had high hopes for this book: Ultron is my favourite Avengers foe; the Vision is one of my all-time favourite Avengers; I have always liked the Falcon/Sam Wilson; and the rest of the line-up is pretty solid (although the five primary leads for the story are effectively ‘male’, even the non-human ones, and that could have been better balanced). But despite the general positives ahead of reading, this was in fact a disappointing read for me.I really enjoyed Warren Ellis’ Avengers: Endless Wartime, and expected another out of continuity standalone story with familiar characters. What we got felt to me like something tethered to recent and upcoming continuity, and ultimately a story that needed better construction, which is why I found Rage of Ultron underwhelming.There are a few ‘big ideas’ in here, but for me Remender spends too much time positioning pieces and justifying story direction that ultimately the core conceit of Ultron’s plan needed better reflection in its impact on earth and elsewhere, and the ultimate resolution after the heroes intervention gave no glimpse of what they actually did, how that affected two worlds that were imperilled.The character writing seemed purely constructed to explain different philosophical stances on the story’s main two axes (how far can actions go and still be judged reasonable; the notion of dysfunctional relationships as driver to choices). I didn’t feel particularly engaged with any of the characters.Ultimately, this could have been much, much better, and my expectations were high after Endless Wartime. That served a better model as on OGN in my view; a story with recognisable versions of characters yet unburdened by continuity. I can only recommend this for completists and those reading the current series, and even then probably only for what seems the fate of one of the characters at the end.

Rick Remender has been working away at his own little corner of the Marvel Universe for some time now, and Rage of Ultron is the latest installment in...whatever the hell he's been doing. While this book is somewhat self-contained, it makes reference to events that may make some readers tilt their heads, and includes the current Avengers team - FalconCap, FemThor, most notably. However, the important stuff is explained pretty clearly for newer readers. There has been some confusion, but Remender has confirmed that this book is in-canon with the main Marvel Universe, apparently post Secret Wars.Rage of Ultron begins with a flashback that shows the classic Avengers defeating Ultron in a grand final battle, before shooting him into space. This is a great scene, filled with awesome character moments for both Ultron, Hank Pym, and the rest of the Avengers. Unfortunately, I can't help but feel that it goes on a bit too long, as it robs the proper story of a lot of space in an already compressed format, and leaves the rest of the book feeling a tad rushed. The main story proper cuts to the present day, and, just as the Avengers are having a debate over the ethics of Hank Pym developing technology to kill artificial intelligence, Ultron pops round for a visit, like that awkward, crazy uncle every family has. Except this time, he's calling himself Planet Ultron, and with good reason...I have to say, I do like this story, overall. Remender can be hit or miss for me, but this is definitely a hit...if not exactly a critical one. The main problem comes from the fact that the story feels very compressed: most of the characters come across as pretty flat, with the exception of Vision and Hank Pym, and even then the two are defined mostly by "I'm a real boy!" arguments and incessant whining respectively. There are some fantastic ideas: Planet Ultron, Ultron's Evil Plan, a team of Ultronvengers, but none are given too much focus or exploration before it's time to move onto the next action beat. Said action beats are very good, but unfortunately, Opena's otherwise gorgeous art has a tendency to falter here, and on a few panels I had to make an effort to figure out what exactly was going on. For the most part it's fine, though. Also, for a book that's all about exploring the relationship between Hank Pym and his son, Hank himself is given surprisingly little focus. Thankfully, the same cannot be said of Ultron.When marketing this book, Marvel referred to it as Ultron's Killing Joke and I see why. Despite gaining a completely inexplicable power boost, he remains a thoroughly menacing villain throughout, getting a lot of great moments and a fair few insights into his character and his motivations as well. It's probably my favorite portrayal of the villain, and a huge improvement over his wasted portrayal in the woeful Age of Ultron event comic.And then we get to the ending, which will probably be the most divisive aspect of this book, and appears to have split the fanbase down the middle. Fans of Hank Pym are unlikely to be particularly impressed, and I feel that Marvel kinds of sidelines him in something that's, at least partially, meant to be his story. The possible future for Pym set up by the cliffhanger ending is interesting, however. My main problem with the ending is how Ultron defeated. It combines almost every trope assosciated with rubbish, cop-out endings that have unfortunately become somewhat synonymous with these big Avengers stories. I don't want to spoil, but suffice to say, a villain as great as Ultron deserved a much, MUCH, better defeat than the one he received here.Overall, I'm somewhat conflicted on this book. There are a lot of things to like, just as there are a lot of things to dislike. If I could give this book 3.5 stars, I would, but let's be generous and round up to four stars.TL;DR:PROS:- Ultron is awesome- Great concepts- Beautiful artwork- Some interesting discussion on AI in the Marvel Universe- Some great action beatsCONS:- Weak ending- Feels rushed- Mixed bag portrayal of Hank Pym- Good ideas not used enough

Avengers : Rage of Ultron Ultron has never looked better and seldom been written better. If your experience of Hank Pym's greatest worst invention does not extend all the way back to the '60s and issue fifty whatever don't worry, Kurt Busiek's intro' sets the scene and for long time Assembler fans that intro' reassures - you are in good hands."The Avengers used to be a family - Now its a an Army" said Simon "Wonderman" Williams back in the Children's Crusade. Well, Remender's tale of one of the family's wings has pathos, bags of action and even irony laced one-liners with double meanings. In one panel, yet.While Pym retreats into an ever cooler, more robotic personality Ultron's vestigial humanity could, just, to be his undoing and Vision has to come on like a synthzoid Captain America, but even that might not save the day.Two "real" Caps feature among the supporting-Avenger cast, but even the "extras" get their say on Godhood and immortality.Highly recommended, I loved it. Avengers : Rage of Ultron

Probably best read as an individual story rather than fitting in with any existing Marvel timeline, unless it's positioned somewhere after Secret Wars. Great art and the story is good although there's a few unanswered issues towards the end.Spoiler warning ...Ain't it amazing how huge events like a mass infection of the human race can just be swept aside / ignored as presumably fixed after the fact.

Some very wise words about parenting in here, parents-to-be...This book was excellent with a flashback at the beginning which could be considered pointless to some, however not to me personally what with my limited knowledge of the marvel universe. I found the father to son psychological aspect intriguing and successful after having seen the new film.The artwork is great and portrays Ultron as the true menace he is.I'd definitely recommend it.