Domo Arigato, Mr. A.I. Enhanced Roboto

I begin my blog with a few brief asides, before I go on to the topic at hand.  (And, indirectly, today's entry COULD count as a "Jack-Off of all Trades" entry.  But I really wanted to expand my thoughts over more than just one book.)  I promise it won't take too long!

First, I do apologize if today's blog will come off as maybe a bit "unfocused".  I've had about two days in a row where essentially great prospects were shot down for me, and my sleep reflected that stress.  So, I'm still writing this entry, but if I tangent a lot... or make the Grammar Police put out an APB on me, my apologies.

Second, today's entry wouldn't even be possible if it weren't for the public library!  Seriously, people... I cannot implore you all enough to support your local libraries!  Not only do they provide me with a near daily diversion... and sometimes writing hub... but they are an EXCELLENT resource to try out materials you normally couldn't afford on your own.  Reading is wonderful, mixed media availability is wonderful, and internet access is wonderful.  Do the math, and that makes libraries WONDERFUL.

Third, I also have the library access to thank for gaining access to a recently finished book I've read through.  It was Sean Howe's "Marvel Comics: The Untold Story" that I chomped through.

In a way, while I feel excellent for having committed myself to an actual prose book, and enjoyed many of the details Howe gave about periods of Marvel's history, I think it's really not a book I would revisit all too often.  That is NOT a knock on Howe's writing, or ability.  I'd even nominate him to perform a similar treatment to any other major comics publisher!  But... I guess I'm just disheartened that a company I've always associated with "free-wheeling fun and creativity", even in the early days, was really not very different from a typical office scenario.  People didn't get along with people... QUITE often.  The entire section on the 90's period was just like watching a basket of puppies and kittens being slowly ran over by a semi-truck, it was that uncomfortable.  But if you're morbidly curious about what goes into the background of a comic publishing company, I would highly recommend Sean Howe's book. 

Now, back to the subject of library materials.  I actually have the library to thank for my exposure to more recent comic collections.  In between having a steady job... around the time ALL comics were being priced at basically $4.00 an issue..., to just being on the hunt and not having a lot of room for disposable income, library comic collections are basically how I stay relatively current.  One recent read-through that incited today's entry was this:

For the record, this was the bare-bones trade paperback collection of "Age of Ultron".  Issues 1-10, with "Avengers #12.1", only.  Eh... as a whole, I didn't hate the story, but I REALLY wondered why this was promoted so heavily as an "event", when it just boiled down to a long "What If?" story.  Heck, it probably could've been trimmed to a two-issue "What If?" storyline, it the "writing for the trade" mentality didn't exist!  I'd like to illustrate the salient points I took from this book:

• Hank Pym is basically going to be a jerk, no matter what reality he exists in.
• Alternate realities still seem to favor Wolverine being the major star of a story.
• Bryan Hitch seemingly is unable to do anything more than a 5-6 issue stretch of artwork.

But the major thing I walked away from this reading experience is this; for a storyline supposedly featuring Ultron as the main threat, the individual AI-based threat of Ultron REALLY didn't get a lot of individual story time.  And that made me think about where Ultron really fits into the comic book Avengers threat level.  Let's do the time warp, again!

For those not in the loop, Ultron began "life" as an AI program developed by Henry Pym to serve as somewhat of a lab assistant.  But Ultron became rapidly self-aware, and realized he really hated "daddy" and humanity as a whole, and would pop up periodically to threaten the Avengers... or sometimes other heroes in the Marvel universe.  (I know for a fact Ultron did figure into a two-part Daredevil story I once read a few years back.)  I'm actually surprised that Ultron didn't square off more against Wolverine, because I have the impression that it was stated Ultron's physical form was made of Adamantium.  Maybe that would've proven to be too much of a battle "stalemate"?  But while Ultron's motivations are pretty simple, they are REFRESHINGLY simple in comparison to their other semi-regular threat of Kang the Conqueror. 

Two of my favorite Ultron moments involved an "Avengers" storyline where he attempted to create for himself a mate to rule with him above us lowly "meatbags".  But in order to give his "bride", Jacosta, a "soul", he had to kidnap Janet Van Dyne... AKA the Wasp... and transfer her life-essence into Jacosta.  I guess if Ultron couldn't kill "dad", then kinda starting a relationship with "dad's" then-wife was another solid form of vengeance.

The second major highlight for my Ultron experiences came in the nigh-perfect Busiek/Perez relaunch of "The Avengers" in the late 90's.  Ultron not only rose again for another bout... and I should mention that nearly every time Ultron returned for a story, it was with a subsequent numbering after his name.  So, you could technically say you beat Ultron 23, but had lousy luck against Ultron 31.  But anyways, not only did Ultron decide to square off against the Avengers one more time, he did something that he had not done up until this publishing point: destroyed an entire nation.  Slorenia ends up crushed by Ultron, and then the bad robot uses the nations' dead as rough-shod cyborg soldiers against the Avengers!  Now THIS was a machine with a major backbone!

As a whole, I have to say that I do regard Ultron as a certifiable return threat to the Avengers, but sometimes his returns can prove to be... odd.  (Look at "West Coast Avengers" for a prime example of those repeats.)  So he's not necessarily a villain I dread to see showing up in a storyline, but there are times where I feel like the character doesn't get his 100% due.  We can only hope for the best for Ultron to come, since he will star in the next cinematic "Avengers" endeavor, voiced by James Spader nonetheless!

One more final thought about "Age of Ultron", though.  The last double-page spread did confirm a fact I've already known about a "new" character in the Marvel universe.  And I still find myself asking... why?

Sigh... Good for Neil Gaiman for getting ownership of Angela, but I can't say I was itching to see her, apparently, being tied into Thor's background.  But we'll talk more about Image dealings... Actually, tomorrow!