When I read Age of Ultron #2, I joked that the only thing that happened in it was that Captain America stood up. It turns out, I just wasn’t thinking hard enough, as Colin Smith demonstrates:
Its provocatively empty-headed, stone-hearted, valueless pages must have been intended to serve as a blank canvas, upon which the obvious absence of worth will compel the reader to ask what’s missing. As such, we ought to celebrate Bendis as a conceptual superbook scriptwriter of the very first rank. A straight-faced prankster, a hype-wrapped agent provocateur, a long-embedded mole apparently playing for the other side while feeding us the secret information we desperately need. Yes, Age Of Ultron: Book Two must be the ultimate critique of idly deconstructed, carelessly decompressed Event storytelling, and it ought to be treasured for its ironic challenge to the very system that’s made BMB what he is. Long before Bendis’s promised textbook on how to write comicbooks appears, and reveals him to have been the nemesis rather than the enabler of pap anti-pop storytelling, here’s the evidence which reveals his true purpose.
Bravo, Mr. Smith. You’re rarely sarcastic, but when you are, it’s amazing.
I wonder, two issues in, whether or not Age of Ultron‘s accelerated release schedule is less a function of “We’re trying to give you as much Hitch as possible as quickly as possible!” as has been said, but more one of the story’s speed of development. If this were a monthly book, the glacier-slow unfolding of the plot would be even more apparent, and allow readers and retailers more chance to jump ship; as it is, there’s more chance that something of note will actually happen in the series within the first two months of release when all but one of Bryan Hitch’s issues will be released during that period. I mean, how could it not?
March 19th, 2013 at 11:02 am
It really was an astounding issue, and I don’t mean that in a good way.
March 19th, 2013 at 11:35 am
If you read a Bendis event series and expect anything different, you have only yourself to blame.
The reason why the “ending cannot be guessed” is because they just made it up a couple of weeks ago and got Quesada to draw it.
Marvel is under a lot of pressure to keep sales higher than DC’s in the wake of their new 52, and over the last few months, they have been successful with all the Marvel Now number ones. But with most of these series dropping by half in sales after just two months, Marvel is doing its usual thing of “don’t look there, look HERE!” misdirection. And as more and more bad press surrounds “Age of Ultron,” they will misdirect again to all the wonders that will come AFTER.
As long as it works, Marvel will keep right on doing it. However, I will say that the way they are hyping “Guardians of the Galaxy” is pretty amusing. They are trying to will a hit into existence, and in the short term, it might work because Marvel will go all-out to make this book important considering there is a movie coming next year. I’m just wondering if “Guardians” can sustain sales momentum until the movie arrives. Even then, can a Guardians movie break $200 million if Thor or Captain America (or most Marvel movies for that matter) couldn’t?
March 19th, 2013 at 1:13 pm
Jesus, that Colin Smith guy is retarded. He shows the horrifying splash page of San Francisco absolutely devestated, showing billions of dollars of property damage and worse, implying the loss of thousands of lives, and his response: “We need a whole page to tell us we’re in San Francisco?” Word to the wise: if you’re going to have your own comics blog, make sure you have at least a modicum of comprehension when it comes to visual storytelling.
March 19th, 2013 at 1:20 pm
Colin always hits the nail on the head. I love his blog.
March 19th, 2013 at 4:48 pm
Ah, if only there were someone out there to review comics reviews. Maybe then comics journalists wouldn’t be so quick with there half baked/trendy opinions. ugh.
March 19th, 2013 at 6:25 pm
I’m glad I’m not the only person who thinks this anti-AoU rhetoric is a bit much. This issue is gorgeous, its introducing a secondary narative while still continuing the original one (if marginally), and it is the second issue in 2 weeks. Bendis writes for trade anyway, and that seems to be what’s being done here. When its all collected, these issues will probably read just fine.
March 20th, 2013 at 6:09 am
“Bendis writes for trade anyway, and that seems to be what’s being done here. When its all collected, these issues will probably read just fine.”
Then Marvel should just release Age of Ultron as an OGN if individual chapters are meaningless.
March 20th, 2013 at 6:22 am
Roland Gunner wins the comments.
There is nothing worse than finishing an issue and feeling cheated on content. I felt that was happening way too much, particularly with Marvel and Bendis comics, so I dropped them all.
March 20th, 2013 at 8:38 am
I usually like Colin’s writing a great deal, but this installment severely bummed me out. Jonathan Swift he ain’t!
March 20th, 2013 at 9:31 pm
That guy has a lot of thoughts about comics, but I can usually only read his stuff in a sort of “Its good to read opposing opinions” kinda way.
That said. Age of Ultron is terrible for a lot of reasons, so I can’t exactly say I think Colin is completely wrong.
March 21st, 2013 at 3:04 am
Bendis and “Colin”: two different flavours of long-winded boredom.