Short week, but I guess those happen in months with 5 Wednesdays like this one. Spoilers ahoy.
DREAD'S BOUGHT/THOUGHT FOR 5/15/13:
AGE OF ULTRON #8: Marvel Comics' first of two crossover events for 2013 continues to peter out into realms of the absurd and convoluted from writer Brian Bendis, artist Brandon Peterson and colorist Paul Mounts. This event used to be about the robot Ultron who finally succeeded in taking over the world via launching an attack from the far future. While most of the heroes tried to fight the robot there (and failed), Wolverine and Invisible Woman traveled into the past to kill Ultron's creator, Hank Pym, before the robot was made. Figuring whatever happened to the time stream couldn't be as bad as rule under Ultron, the two have found a world ravaged by wars with Skrulls and a current campaign against Morgana Le Fay. One gets a glimpse of the new Defenders team of this world, the issue spends much of its time showcasing how badly Wolverine has screwed up.
Much like previous issues, much time is made trying to establish yet another parallel reality which is set to be undone by the conclusion of the series. Originally a series sold as the ultimate showdown against an evil robot, it's become a half hearted and poorly written time paradox story. Despite the idea of the universe punishing Wolverine for a drastic moral choice he made, he still has to sell lunchboxes so expect ramifications for him to be minor. In the end, it remains a lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
IRON MAN #10: By default, because this week's pull list was light, this installment of Kieron Gillen's relaunch of the main "Iron Man" comic book series is the best of the week for me in terms of content. It is the second issue of Gillen's "Iron Man" series to ship this month and also the second drawn by artist Dale Eaglesham and colorist Guru eFX (which is presumably a pen name). With the absence of regular artist (and the term is used loosely) Greg Land aside for covers, the quality of this series immediately improves. With the previous issue being a prelude, this issue kicks off the latest arc, "The Secret Origin of Tony Stark". As a disclaimer, this arc will essentially be a dose of "retroactive continuity" (or "retcon") which serves to not only capitalize on the popularity of the third film in theaters as well as the current push at Marvel to enhance their space franchises to lead up to "Guardians of the Galaxy" film next year. Thus, Gillen is mingling both by doing an "important" Iron Man story which also mingles him with the space elements of Marvel more so than simply making him a member of the "Guardians of the Galaxy" comic book team.
Iron Man is hardly new to drastic revelations regarding a "secret origin". Back in 1995, an Avengers crossover events called "The Crossing" seemingly revealed that the villain Kang the Conqueror had been manipulating Iron Man since his inception to utilize as a mole, which resulted in him being replaced by a teenage version from an alternate reality (seriously). By 1997, after more crossover events, Tony was sorted out back to his usual status quo. While it is doubtful that Gillen would do such a drastic thing to Iron Man, this story inserts some drastic revelations in regards to some affiliations that Tony's father Howard had, and the events leading up to his birth "half a lifetime ago". Under normal circumstances, this might be offensive to hardcore fans. However, under Gillen's pen, it becomes a caper story involving a team of experts that Howard Stark organizes dubbed the "the Stark 7" undergoing a heist at a Las Vegas casino run by alien mobsters.
Eaglesham has done work for Marvel Comics before, such as runs on "Fantastic Four" or "Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier", and continues on his stride here. There is a dilemma in that three of the major male characters in the story have mustaches, but aside for that, he manages to work with some complicated designs in terms of armor or some advanced technology as well as some grimy scenes in the casino. The mingling of the sci-fi elements with standard heist elements which were old hat even when the original "Ocean's 11" hit theaters shouldn't work, but it does in an entertaining fashion. In the end, this arc seems to be about a brilliant but desperate father making some strange allies in his attempt to save his son, and now the son is learning of those aforementioned deeds. This also seeks to add some weight to Stark's new enemy, the recorder robot 451, via using a "retcon", which has become a trend with many newer villains in comics.
The jury may still be out as to how well this story sorts out and how much its revelations help or hinder the overall narrative of Iron Man. For the moment, however, it is an interesting and entertaining ride, which is about all one could expect of an opening chapter. A long flashback story could be a bit absurd for a long arc, but it could work for a short one.
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t:
. Art is great and loving Kato's attitude towards Britt
