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AVENGERS: THE ULTRON IMPERATIVE #1
Recommended (7/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writers: Kurt Busiek, Roy Thomas, Roger Stern & Steve Englehart
Pencils: John Paul Leon, Paul Smith, Tom Grummett, John McCrea, Jim Starlin, Pat Olliffe, Jorge Lucas & Klaus Janson
Inks: John Paul Leon, Paul Smith, Karl Kesel, James Hodgkins, Al Milgrom, Livesay, Mike Royer & Klaus Janson
Colors: Hi-Fi Design
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Price: $5.99 US/$8.99 CAN |
Busiek and a trio of prominent former Avengers scribes offer up a follow-up story to the popular "Ultron Unleashed" story arc from the Busiek/Perez Avengers v.3 run. They deliver a fun and accessible read, but it lacks the more modern sensibility that I've come to expect from the Busiek Avengers.
Robot duplicates of the Vision, Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, the Wasp, Goliath/Yellowjacket and the villainous Grim Reaper start turning up in New York, and it leads the Avengers on a global search for more of their kind, not to mention their creator: Alkhema. She is an indestructible mate the nihilistic Ultron once created for himself, based on the cerebral patterns of Mockingbird, the late wife of one-time Avenger Hawkeye.
My favorite aspect of this one-shot was the surprising array of artistic talent that was lined up. These are artists one wouldn't normally associate with the Avengers; some of them aren't even normally associated with mainstream super-hero comics. McCrea and Hodgkins's collaborative vision was stunning, much stronger than what we saw from them in the first three issues of Tangled Web. All of the art pleased in some way.
It's not hard to tell that Busiek scripted little of this Avengers adventure. The tone of the dialogue and exposition is a bit simpler and more obvious than I've come to expect, and the occasional Stan Lee-esque tone to the narrative captions was intrusive and not in keeping with somewhat dark tone of the story. I also didn't much care for Hawkeye's appearance. It felt forced, and his inner conflict and its resolution was terribly stereotypical and predictable.
In the end, though, this is a solid, if ordinary, tale told in the super-hero genre. Despite the high price, it might be of particular interest to newer, younger readers. A wide variety of characters and artistic styles are on display, and it's bound to capture young imaginations.
Email Don MacPherson comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board.
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