Monday, April 14, 2008

Mighty Avengers: The Ultron Initiative

Here's an ethical dilemma: I did not read this entire trade's worth of stories, because when I was buying it in single issue format I hated it so much I dropped it. Now, if you know me and my comic buying habits, you know it takes a lot for me to drop a book - usually I will hold on to a book for at least 10 issues after I start hating it. But this one was awful. Here's the plot: after the Marvel Heroes' Civil War, professional douchebag Iron Man forms this group of government approved Avengers to avoid evil, and good thing to, because evil strikes in the first issue. The not so nice robot Ultron takes over Iron Man and then makes the weather really stormy, and for four issues the Avengers basically stare at the robot while standing on the same street corner, no exaggeration. Bendis, a famous comic writer despite being largely untalented, tries to incorporate thought balloons, but if this is all that's going on in these heroes' heads, then no wonder I dropped the book. (PS - I readded the book a couple issues later when an artist I love took over, Mark Bagley).

RATING: 21%

6 comments:

John said...

Bagley fan, eh? I remember his work on Amazing Spider Man and the incredibly lame-ass New Warriors, of which I still have the first issue somewhere. I always thought his hatching was a little weird--the lines were really fat, like in a woodcut or something. Haven't really given him any thought since like 1993.

John said...

Speaking of Bagley, did you ever read The Thunderbolts?

Jen said...

Why does John Stamos earn your douchebag link and not Robert Downey, Jr.? As douchebags go, I think Downey has it tied up.

DCP said...

Bagley also did 111 issues of Ultimate Spider-man, and was never late once, so that's part of the reason I like him.

I read Thunderbolts years after it came out, so the effect was probably not the same. It was a good book, then it was bad, now it is a good book again, written by Warren Ellis.

I thought it would be funnier to have the douchebag link have nothing to do with Iron Man.

John said...

I thought you and John Stamos were pretty tight. Besides, it's Dave Coulier who should be shot in the stomach and buried alive.

Metaphorically speaking, of course. I mean, his career should be shot in the stomach and buried alive.

Jen said...

Too late!