Dread, why the **** do you keep referring to Ultron as "Great Ultron"?
Because that was what Ultron named himself, and what the Phalanx called him, in his last appearance as the head villain in ANNIHILATION CONQUEST, set some time after his gig on MIGHTY AVENGERS.
You know if it was the other way round you'd complain it was predictable,
I don't mind "predictable" if it is handled well. There were times when Bendis could handle an action sequence, or at least allow his writers to do so. This issue had a lot of middling, padding. But we can argue that most stories that are beyond 6 issues in length do. I haven't read a story in years that was more than 6 issues that I actually felt warranted that, that it couldn't have been edited down.
To be fair he has been studying one and already knew how they were doing it. The rest is perfectly in character.
In issue one he mumbles something about it, and then, BOOM, he busts out a gun. I mean, that's IT!? Reed MAKES A GUN!? I just watched the latest FF cartoon, the one that was on CN, and while Reed did stuff like that a lot on that show, the writers at least knew how ridiculous it was and didn't take it 100% seriously. This story, however, is serious and it just seemed too easy. Just because we KNOW Reed can save the day doesn't mean it should be easy. I mean, I rag on Millar, but I have to say, his sequence where Reed busts out an Anti-Galactus MECHA tom fight CAP in the first FF arc of his was handled a bit better than this. There was more scale, more drama, to it. While I did like that Reed was irked about the situation (and noted so), I just though the ray-gun came too quickly (even for issue #5 for a story, no less) and made the Skrulls look inept.
See, here is the thing; while the Skrull invasion I suppose has been "big" world-wide and all with super-Skrulls, aside for that, they've been morons. They make tactical blunders not even the Rhino would fall for. They rail on and on about not underestimating their enemies, as they continue to underestimate them. They fall for the oldest, stupidest tricks in the book while uber-powerful heroes can't detect them at all until a Plot Hole opens and allows them to.
Quite frankly, ANY writer could have come up with the idea of having the Skrulls just juice themselves up and attack in waves. That was, basically ANNIHILATION (only swap Skrulls for Annihilus, and the Universe for Earth). This story has tried to have trappings of more, with the religious stuff and the preening, and that is where it falls flat. Bendis presents these Skrulls as being "different", but they're really not. They're just more pretentious.
For gods sake calm down. A writer hyping his story is not a personal attack and should not be considered as such.
Anyway got any links for him saying his stories are superior or have you just pulled that (like most of your personal attacks on bendis or whedon) out the ether?
I always get a snarky tone from Bendis interviews, especially when he is defending himself when fans think he made an error (which he often did, especially years ago). And it comes out in his writing. I recall that NEW AVENGERS issue where Ronin was going on about the "mystery" about the identity and all but calls the readers "idiots".
(Don't worry, I know these aren't personal attacks on me or anything. You've cited agreement and respect for me enough that I got the hint.
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I noticed Lilith too. Gives Blade another reason to be in the book
Exactly. Like I said, it may NOT be that, as Spitfire is a vampire now, but Blade would be interested in putting Lilith down. Especially since the rest of the Midnight Sons are basically defunct.
It's like clockwork--a Bendis comic is released and inevitably the Bought/Thought thread features a scathing rant from Dread followed by a rebuttal by gildea. It's almost eerie in its consistency.
Life works in cycles.
But they weren't. This is the hilarious part. They weren't responsible for anything and Bendis made big point of reminding us every single issue of Avengers that they didn't do jack. They had nothing to do with Civil War. They had nothing to do with the Hulk. They impersonated a bunch of B-listers like Blackbolt, Pym, Elektra, Jarvis, and Spider-Woman and then proceeded to perform their incredibly efficient and stealthy task of...waiting for the heroes to **** up themselves.
To be fair, which I almost hate doing with Bendis, if the Skrulls have been impersonating Hank Pym since about when the New Avengers started up, which is what has been implied and stated in some issues, that would mean that the Pym that was involved in CIVIL WAR was a Skrull. And while, no, he wouldn't have caused it, he would have helped it along. Pym made Clor, after all. The Initiative was supposedly dreamed up by him (or he played a major role in it). He runs Camp Hammond and helped allow some of the disasters there by allowing Gyrich and Co. to go unchecked and playing the fool.
So the case could be made that they "helped" CW along. Not the strongest one, but a case. At least it explains why Pym was wildly out of character. The rest of the heroes, that's another story.
But, yeah, you do have a point that the Skrulls snuck onto Earth and waited all this time for a basic massive invasion that any hack could have thought up. Wasn't this basically "shock and awe"?
