Age of Ultron #6 Review

STORY BY
Brian Michael Bendis
ART BY
Brandon Peterson, Carlos Pacheco, Roger Martinez
COLORS BY
Paul Mounts, Jose Villarrubia

THE STORY SO FAR

The machines have risen up to take over the Earth. Skynet has become aware and sees all humans as a threat and has exterminated the human race. Only one person, Sarah Conner, knows the future and must fight to…oh wait, wrong apocalyptic future story. Okay, despite being the Marvelized version of The Terminator, Age of Skynet, er Ultron, is actually enjoyable.

THE REAL STORY SO FAR

Ultron has risen up, replicated itself into a worldwide army. Almost all of the human race has been wiped out. Only a handful of the Marvel heroes remain, living underground to avoid detection. They learn from a recon mission that kills both Luke Cage and She Hulk that Ultron is controlling his army and exterminating humans from somewhere in the future. They learn of a secret bunker in the Savage Land once belonging to Nick Fury that might contain their only hope. Once there, they find all the weapons they need including Nick Fury himself. Using Doctor Doom’s old platform time machine, some of the heroes travel to the future to confront and stop Ultron on his home turf. Remaining behind, Wolverine decides to use the platform to travel back in time to kill Hank Pym before he can create Ultron.

AGE OF ULTRON #6

Wolverine arrives in the past and immediately sniffs out Sue Storm, a stowaway who came back with him. She tries to reason with him not to kill, but even she is having a hard time buying her argument. They hide in the bushes as they watch a younger Nick Fury arrive at his Savage Land bunker in a SHIELD flying car, which they carjack as soon as Nick is out of sight. They fly back to New York, which is still vibrant and intact. Wolverine confronts Hank Pym at the very moment he conceives the idea for Ultron, claws ready. Never seeing Wolverine before, Hank fights back.


Meanwhile, in the far future, Nick Fury and our band of heroes arrive at a future New York that has been rebuilt by Ultron and is free on all human life. They are immediately attacked and overpowered by a swarm of Ultrons. This is clearly the end of our Marvel resistance. We even see Captain America beheaded!

SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!!

Back in the past, Wolverine bests Hank and is ready to finish the job. Sue pleads with him that there must be a better way, but he’s not buying it. He asks her “would you kill to save your children?” The point hits home with Sue, since she watched Ultron kill her whole family. She walks away to let Wolverine do what he thinks it right and Hank is quickly gutted.

PROS

Brian Bendis is currently writing two time travel stories, Age of Skynet, er Ultron, and All Star X-Men. Age of Ultron is well paced and engaging, unlike All Star X-Men where all of the characters do nothing but talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk and talk. Then when they’re done talking, they talk some more. Even though Age of Ultron feels like the Marvel version of The Terminator movies, it’s fun to watch these familiar heroes deal with the paradoxes of time travel and this issue is the one that kicks the story up a notch.

CONS

There are some small cons for the story as a whole so far, but I had none for this issue. It had me from start to finish.

GRADE

This issue gets a solid A from me.