Ultron Forever #1 Has a Surprising Lack of… Ultron

Ultron Forever #1 Has a Surprising Lack of… Ultron

April 6, 2015 0 By EVA

500 years into the future, Ultron has won. Humanity is all but extinct – dead or enslaved by the Ultron Singularity. Now, seven Avengers are brought through time by Doctor Doom to battle the machine god for the fate of the cosmos… or die trying! It begins here – an epic adventure spanning the past and future of the Avengers!

That’s the tag line for Marvels latest outing with Ultron, coming this time in the shape of a three part mini series. The real question you need to ask yourself is should you be along for the ride, or take a pass and watch the live Ultron Foreveraction take on Ultron come May 1st? Well, being that this is the first of three issues, it’s a rough start but could have a massive payoff. Let’s take a deeper look at the nuts and bolts of this Avengers outing.

Al Ewing gets the ball rolling right out of the gate, assembling our Avengers team from across time to battle Ultron and his forces, bringing together time periods that seem familiar enough but with a bit of a twist. The Captain America that we are following this time happens to be the daughter of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, while Vision and Black Widow are taken from our current time period. Thor and future female Thor make up the Asgardian portion and an early days Hulk joins the team, however he has a solid grasp on vocabulary.

While the setup may be great the first issue stumbles in the middle, and it really seems like in nearly every Marvel book lately time has been a central theme and the fact that heroes are needed to prevent time from being ultimately destroyed. The overall plot device seems really worn out and could have gone in a different direction than what we have seen over and over lately.

This first issue also has scant use of the villain in question aside from the final splash page that will have you wanting to come back for more. Ultron is a wonderfully evil character and less is more does not work well with him. I have always enjoyed his banter and was looking forward to him mocking the Avengers and issuing threats of ultimate victory, so I was a little let down by his lessened presence. So I am hoping in the middle issue we see quite a bit more of him.

The artwork is fantastic and will easily appeal to every level of Avengers fan. Alan Davis and Mark Farmer bring clean lines and a classic style to the art in the book. None of the characters look out of place, especially the Hulk has this awesome 1960s feel. Davis and Farmer bring across the enthusiasm and charisma of this series and the first book definitely hearkens back to the mini series it’s seemingly trying to emulate in Avengers Forever.

The real grab for me was the final cliffhanger splash page. While the middle of the book felt a bit slow and felt like we were going down a very well-trodden road, the finale to this first entry has enough of my attention to bring me back for more.

3.5star