We’ll see.
For a man I never met, Roger Ebert taught me a lot. His Little Movie Glossary trained my eye to spot a cliché from 900 yards and assess whether or not it mattered; I haven’t seen a red digital readout on a bomb in twenty years without thinking of him. He introduced me to a Louis Armstrong quote (“there’s some folks that, if they don’t know, you can’t tell ’em”) that I have said more than any thought that originated in my own head. Mostly, he taught me that I probably don’t have the temperament for criticism, at least not until old(er) age mellows me out. I’m still a little too scrappy to handle a situation where, say, I negatively review a movie and the director publicly wishes cancer on me. (This round to you, Gallo. Hope you had a super week!)
If I had to narrow Ebert’s impact on my way of thinking down to a single idea, however, it would be an axiom that he used many times over the years, though not so many times that I don’t still mutilate it every time I quote him. It more or less goes like this:
It’s not what a thing is about; it’s how it is about it.
Though I still have to resist the urge to roll my eyes at the first mention of the high concept, I am more aware because of Ebert that the story is in the telling. Just because there have been a thousand monster movies doesn’t mean there can’t be a 1,001st brilliant one. A movie about the creation of Facebook, which as I type it still sounds like Data Entry: The Motion Picture, can be one of the most riveting films of the year. A movie with a title sculpted out of pure, uncut fun like Cowboys and Aliens can make you spend two hours questioning Harrison Ford’s retirement planning and wondering if maybe you wouldn’t rather watch that.
This was the mental background music playing this week as I read Age of Ultron. A few years ago, you may recall, there was another “Event” book about an insurmountable, implacable force who could not be reasoned with and who landed a spacecraft in New York City to make it his domain. In that case, the force was our old friend the Hulk, who for a number of reasons failed to really strike any fear into our hearts. It was partly because Hulk was an old friend of ours, and we couldn’t really believe he had it in him (it was dramatic when Dr. Strange’s hands got crushed, but Dr. Strange’s skull was right there) but it was mostly because we knew nobody’s series was getting canceled.
Poor World War Hulk. It had to be set in a shared universe to work– if the reader doesn’t have a history with the Hulk and the Illuminati, who gives a damn about any of it?– but it could never work set in a shared universe because on some level you knew it couldn’t end. The Hulk comes back as angry as he’s ever been with a battleship and an invading army who believe these Earth shmucks destroyed their civilization, and they all want revenge. That’s a hell of a premise, but in the end either the Hulk has to kill the Illuminati and take over the world or he has to be vanquished and beheaded or something. If the last issue doesn’t announce “surprise, the Marvel Universe is over, everything is canceled” then you know without a trace of spoilers that it’s all going to be One Big Misunderstanding and everyone will heal and the Hulk will go on, $17 billion in property damage later, to get a job as a mid-level government employee without it ever coming up again.
And where’d that army go, by the way? Did they retreat? Get jobs at the post office? I must not have read that tie-in.
No, not so much.
To some extent, all corporate comics have this problem. There’s a threat, but you know Spider-Man is probably not going to die, even when he really, really does. (I told you so, you basketcases.) In Age of Ultron, though, we have a series that is patently, brazenly rubbing it in our faces. In the very first issue, it announces, “Everyone is dead! Ultron murdered Thor and the Hulk and Aunt May, and Brian Bendis killed Jessica Jones and her baby off-panel. Brian Hitch killed She-Hulk’s hair and your ability to figure out who you are looking at in a given panel. It’s all over.” From page one, it says this, and it sticks to its story.
But that’s not true. Even the brain donors who were hysterical about Spider-Man dying know that’s not true. This is not a story that ends, best case scenario, with five surviving characters rebuilding human civilization for the next ten years.
So why do I find Age of Ultron so compelling after writing off an earlier series that was cut from so much of the same ripped, bloody cloth? Because it’s not what the story’s about. It’s how the story is about that.
By leading with World War Hulk‘s greatest weakness, Age of Ultron transforms the story into a kind of magic trick. We know how this has to end, more or less; how can it possibly end that way? How does Bendis escape from the straitjacket and catch the bullet in his teeth? “For my first trick, I will have my lovely assistant completely ruin and pulverize everything in the world, only to reclaim the status quo in ten issues.” We are now the kids in the front row, squinting for trap doors and doves in sleeves. The thing that made this same story so uninteresting last time (besides the goddamned Sentry) is the most interesting thing about this one.
Has there been another “Event” that started like an indie movie from the nineties, where we start at the end, in the thick of the action, and spend the rest of the story seeing how we got there? How has it taken this long?
The series is only at its midpoint; there’s still time to force feed me a few helpings of these words later. In the meantime, I’ll be over here, grateful for the story and the man who helped me learn to appreciate it.
Jim Mroczkowski wrote this at Walt Disney World, because he gives and bleeds and gives for you people.
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My only thought on Age of Ultron – which I am not reading – is: Annihilation: Conquest was probably the better Ultron story.
Heh, my only thought on it (I’m not reading it as well) is that it sounds on awful lot like “Secret Invasion” based on what I’ve heard.
I’m reading it and so far I’d say it’s closest to House of M.
@grandturk: I was never much of a Conquest fan, I thought the original Annihilation was much better. That said, it very well could turn out to be the better Ultron story. This has been kind of so so thus far. Tons of action, the art is great, but not really any story to speak of so far.
@ithosapien: I honestly don’t see many parallels between Age of Ultron and Secret Invasion in the fist four issues.
@USPUNX, I just see a few parallels between both of them; both are events that have been built up for years, both are written by Bendis, both involve many of the Avengers characters, both star classic villains, and both have some kind of “jump” where the bad guys just won and the present day landscape is altered by it.
@USPUNKX: This statement “Tons of action, the art is great, but not really any story to speak of so far.” That’s just about what I think of any Marvel event book. Glad I passed.
@ithosapien: In all fairness, most of what you said there describes pretty much every Marvel event of the past ten years or so. The Avengers have been the core of the Marvel U, and therefore the core of their events, since Disassembled. And actually “the jump” is the reason I compare this more to House of M than SI. SI was a slow build to the invasion and their was never really a point where the status quo completely changed without any explanation, it was all pretty well built up in the Avengers titles the year leading up to the event itself. However, AoU starts in media res in a continuity that has no resemblance to the current Marvel U, where tons of characters are dead, and the “bad guy” has already won. And like House of M this will call clearly be undone by the end of the event and set back to the “normal” continuity. That’s why it reminds me of House of M much more than SI.
@Grandturk: Yeah, honestly so far you’re not really missing much. I only picked this up because I really like Ultron and I’ve skipped the past several Marvel events so I felt like I was due for one. Halfway through I’m equal parts enjoying this and wondering if I should have just saved my money…
@Uspunx, in SI you’re forgetting while the various Avengers were in the Savage Land the Skrulls successfully conquered the Earth. One of the complaints about that series that I’ve heard was that it’s never shown how they gained control over the whole planet (all I can remember is them taking down SHEILD and some other teams). Also House of M featured the X-Men; and at the end 99% of the mutants were gone from the population; which I’d argue was more impactful than Dark Reign and Norman Osborn running the Marvel U. Now I mentioned all that to show that, in all likelyhood, AoU will have about the same amount of impact as SI (some year long banner/theme in all the titles) rather than HoM (one or more corners of the Marvel U are drastically altered for the next 5-6 years).
“Halfway through I’m equal parts enjoying this and wondering if I should have just saved my money…”. You sound pretty indecisive on this event, personally any event that doesn’t wow me after I bought the first issue I drop.
The main difference between AoU/HoM and SI and the main point I’m making, which you seem to be missing, is that they both took place in an alternate timeline/universe than the “normal” Marvel continuity and SI did not. Eventually HoM(and AoU as well) had to revert back to the normal continuity with some consequences carried over from the event to the normal continuity. While SI never left the normal Marvel U, it was just an event that happened in that continuity, much like Civil War or Disassembled. I understand that the Avengers only played a minor role in HoM but other than that one fact I personally believe AoU is much closer to HoM than SI. If you think differently that’s cool too. However, I find it a bit hard to have this discussion with someone who has not read the book.
I also have no interest in reading the book as well. I was perfectly aware that both HoM and AoU took place in different continuities but I didn’t see how those would’ve helped my argument. My point stands that this will likely have very little impact when it’s done because that seems to be par for the course for Marvel events like SI, Siege, Fear Itself, AvX. As far as I can tell none of those had any big changes to the whole Marvel U.
And about AoU taking place outside the normal continuity, I’m betting Bendis’ MK run had alot to do with this series since Ultron appeared in that; which leads me to believe (possibly incorrectly since Ive read none of issues thus far) that AoU is an alternate future/timeline scenario like Rotworld, or several others that escape me at the moment. Something happens in the regular continuity, jump to “new” reality after it occurs (but still taking place post-regular continuity), then at the end reverts back so that the alternate future/timeline ever happened. HoM the whole world and history itself was re-written so that Mutants were the dominant species, the FF never formed, Iron Man was like a WWE entertainer, Spider-Man was some kind of public celebrity, and Wolverine was an agent of SHEILD.
Now if there’s absolutely no way that AoU can happen in the regular Marvel continuity or even sprang out of it then I’ll admit it’s more HoM than SI.
If you aren’t reading the book and “also have no interest in reading the book” than why are we talking about this? Why do you have an interest in repeatedly arguing about a book you have no interest in?
I never once said that in terms of consequences this wasn’t similar to SI. I agree that this, like most Marvel events, will have little in the way of long term effects on the Marvel U. I didn’t argue that point and it has nothing to do with my original point.
I was talking about the story telling approach and structure of the series. In that respect it is much more like HoM than SI. You seem very caught up in the specific minutia of how these events are or are not similar, while I am talking about the generalities of the series. It seems we aren’t even having the same discussion so perhaps we should just agree to disagree.
Also, I never meant to start an argument here. I was simply stating, in my first post, I didn’t see many similarities between AoU and SI. Your tone seemed a little agressive from your first response and frankly your responses to my posts often seem somewhat agressive. I know we have had our disagreements in the past, and I have certainly instigated some of those disagreements, but that was not my intent here and I try not to hold grudges, so if I have pissed you off here or in the past I honestly apologize. Also it is always dangerous to read tone into online text posts so if I am totally off base here please ignore this last paragraph.
I was debating it in the hopes that I’d win an argument with you @Uspunx, it’s sort of like a mental workout to me. But they keep ending in stalemates so… I guess this has run it’s course. You’re reading the series and if you say it’s similar to HoM than I’ll take your word for it. I just want to add that I was very fond of HoM (story wise, writing, art) but not of SI. I only read SI to cleanse my reading palette of “Final Crisis”. You still seem unsure of a commitment to finish this series, so I want to suggest you reconsider finishing it (and feeding the ” event machine” at Marvel) and maybe put that money to a book that would make you happier. Any book that makes me reconsider if it was worth buying makes me examine my options for future reading is all.
“Has there been another “Event” that started like an indie movie from the nineties, where we start at the end, in the thick of the action, and spend the rest of the story seeing how we got there?”
The original “Secret Wars” and “One Year Later” both attempted this to some extent. Readers were privy to the impact of the “event” before they knew how it happened. People can obviously disagree about how successful these attempts were at actually paying off on that promise, but I think the structure was basically the same.
I would disagree that “One Year Later” was an event; it was a status quo.
@conor: I remember having this same disagreement when “Dark Reign” was going on. I’ll confess / concede to having a much more liberal definition of “event”. Basically, if it has a banner across multiple titles, it’s an event in my book. The *true* status quo does not need a banner.
@ctrosejr: Would you call “The New 52” an event? That logo has been on the cover of every book for a year.
@conor: Touche. I know a lot of people wish “The New 52” would end and revert back to the old continuity; however, your point is well taken. The banner is giving DC a lot of marketing mileage, so their using it. That said, the banner does somewhat undercut the idea that this new universe is permanent. The longer they flog that banner, the more I will begin to think that this new status quo will end too.
https://ifanboy.com/articles/ifanboys-best-of-2011-top-10-events/
I guess Nu52 is an event.
@ed209AF: It was an industry event but not an “event” in the way we use the term in comics.
When you the original “Secret Wars” do you mean the Bendid series from a few years back or the mini series from the 80s? Because I honestly can’t remember how that 80s series started.
@John: I meant the 80’s series. I am talking about the fact that you had things like the new black Spider-man costume, but you didn’t know why until the miniseries played itself out.
Brilliant. This article helped me realize why I was liking AoU so much and articulated that realization way better than I could on my own. That’s what criticism should do, which made the Ebert tribute so fitting.
Reviewing something since-Ebert is like writing a song since-Beatles: you might not not be consciously thinking about them, but at this point the influence is osmotic. I have to believe this guy’s life and work made a huge impact on the ifanbase. We all have critical impulses, or we wouldn’t be here, right? We’d be content just reading our stack and moving on with life. But no, we wanna talk about them. Ebert played a huge part in developing the language we use to speak and write and think critically and thoughtfully about art. This article speaks that language and carries on that tradition.
I’m not reading Age of Ultron but the setup kind of reminds me of Rotworld where it was obvious from the beginning nothing would stick in actual continuity. So it came down to how interesting the story was in the moment. The problem with Rotworld was it was dreadfully boring and a bit too similar to Blackest Night. So the temporarily-outside-of-continuity/just-don’t-worry-about-it setup can go either way. Which further solidifies the point that it’s all in the telling.
This makes me wish i hadn’t picked this series as the event to trade wait on. I’m wondering how you guys that are reading it think it will read as one big volume
Based on the first four issues it will read as a non-stop action thrill ride! This to me feels like a summer popcorn blockbuster. Great visuals, tons of fun action, but very light on story.
Age of Ultron so far has a lot of great art and wonderful detail. But honestly, there hasn’t been a fantastic story moment for me yet and we are already on issue 4. It feels like I was reading Secret Invasion all over again with no real story being revealed until issue 5 and nothing really happening yet. Yes I knew She Hulk bites it, but we really havent had enough story to care since most of it is huge pictures and spurts of people complaining to each other about how bad the end of the world has become. Cap’s incoherent ” self pity in the corner thing” doesn’t have much weight and I find myself not caring about these New Avengers characters rehashed from a few years ago.
I love all the great work Bendis has done, but really aside from his Avengers Disassembled work and the Dark Reign stuff which I enjoyed, his events really leave you wanting more. He will always be great at his character work with young coming of age heroes (All New X-Men, Ultimate Spider-Man) but these event books just don’t suit him well.
I’m always one to say stick to what you’re good at. If Marvel wants to really succeed at the event stuff again, pay MIllar some cash and get him to do something because Civil War was really the last event that had some impact.
Or get Abnett and Lanning to come back and do another Cosmic Event for us. Annihilation was great and had lasting repercussions that make the characters we are enjoying some much now all the more interesting.
Agreed on all points, especially that this is just like “Secret Invasion”.
I believe you mean “how it goes about it.”
How Age of Ultron goes about it is amateurish and confusing. ThIs is Hitch’s worst work ever, and I understand why he said it wasn’t a good experience for him.
Honestly, I don’t do events anymore. I don’t care who lives, who dies, the initial creative team, or the new status quo, in the end I increasingly feel like I don’t get enough story in the main series and I really can’t be bothered to pick up the tie-ins. The one thing I will say in Marvel’s favor is at least their two main events this year involve heroes fighting actual super-villains (Ultron and Thanos) and not each other for some dumb reason. Boy, I sure do hope I never see another giant crossover like that anytime soon…