AGE OF ULTRON is back with its third installment. Does it finally deliver the reason why we’re here? Not exactly.

Here’s the official description from Marvel:

The high octane brawl against Ultron kicks it up a notch as Red Hulk, Black Panther and Taskmaster take up arms against their robotic overlord! Can the few remaining heroes band together and find any way save the Marvel Universe before all humanity is crushed under the cold metal heel of Ultron?

Age of Ultron is a very interesting event. It’s extremely light on the action and lets the atmosphere do the work. It worked for the first issue, it successfully captured a destroyed New York with morale down the drain. It also gave us a defeated Captain America, a pretty powerful image. The second issue further established that Ultron had won, and the heroes were just trying to survive. Strangely the robot himself has been absent, but his presence was felt. This issue has the heroes mount a comeback with a very risky plan. It’s dialogue heavy and an interesting read…but severely lacking action and the ending is just maddening.

Brian Michael Bendis is probably laughing at the shock fans must have had when they turned to that final page. It might  just be a sudden shock, because when you really think about it, it contradicts what we saw way back when the Avengers traveled to the future in the Heroic Age. That aside, the plan to to ‘sell’ a hero is a smart one. The dialogue is very good, we have Wolverine, Luke Cage, and She Hulk wanting to be the one. Cap saying if Ultron saw Wolverine and that he would flay him alive was pretty intense and gives the reader a good idea of how merciless Ultron is. I do like how easily major characters are wiped out. It obviously means things will be reset in the end, but it’s still a great to see.

Bryan Hitch’s art is still fantastic. Granted, it doesn’t look as amazing as the previous issues, but it’s still probably the best art from any Marvel title. (Though the tears look awkward.) The action comes alive in a very gritty way, mainly with Red Hulk vs. the Ultron bots. The main cover is pretty good, it gets the job done and is accurate to the story within. The variants are quite stunning however. The first one is a pretty great shot of Red Hulk and the other is another shot of Ultron in his base.

Overall, another solid installment in the Age of Ultron event. It is losing its touch however, due to its lack of Ultron and action. It’s still a great read, but I am hoping it becomes more explosive with the next issue. The ending is quite the interesting plot twist, we’ll see where that goes.

SUBMIT OR PERISH_

4/5

My name is Daniel (@Destroyer_199), the main guy for comic reviews here at Unleash the Fanboy. I was born in 1995 in the Big Apple, spent my formative years in Staten Island, and currently reside in the awesome state that is New Jersey.