Ultron Forever Part 2

Writer: Al Ewing

Artists: Aland Davis, Mark Farmer

Overview:

New Avengers: Ultron Forever-

Last time in Avengers: Ultron Forever, Doctor Doom of the far future assembles the mightiest Avengers of past, present, and future (Danielle Cage aka Captain America, Jane Foster's Thor, Future Thor Odison, old school Hulk, James Rhodes Iron Man, Vision, and Black Widow) to defeat, the long time foe of the Avengers, Ultron. In the last issue, Ultron's forces seem to have the upper hand. Can the Avengers bounce back and save the timeline unlike Briand Michael Bendis did (take that!)? Writer Ewing continues his Ultron Forever storyline along with artists Alan Davis and Mark Farmer.

Synopsis:

New Avengers: Ultron Forever-

We pick off where the story last ended, where Ultron-Thor impales Old Thor Odison. Ultron-Thor question on how Old Thor Odison is still alive. Thor Odison makes a throwback reference from Thor issue #373, which Hela had cursed Thor Odison, making him practically immortal. Thor Odison blasts Ultron-Thor with thunder. Ultron-Thor is then incapacitated and starts shouting binary codes. Female Thor tries to finish it off by hitting Ultron-Thor with her hammer. Ultron-Thor then pukes out a Loki/Ultron spirit and reverts back to his human self. This future Thor picks up his sword and strikes down the Loki spirit.

Meanwhile, Doom observes the Thors successful assault. Doom knew about Hela's curse and immortallity. Then he switches his watch on Vision and Iron Man.

We see that Ultron-Hawkeye, Ultron-Captain America, and Ultron-Vision have Vision and Iron Man cornered. Ultron-Vision phases his arm through Vision to disable him, while Ultron-Cap and Hawkeye are about to assault Iron Man. Ultron-Cap tries to infect Iron Man's suit via wifi, but since the suit is a very old model Iron Man is able to take out the Utlron Avengers.

Vision modifies his density to be lower than his Ultron counterpart. Rhodes launches himself through both of them, which interferes their connection. Iron Man pulls Vision away from Ultron-Vision and both of them fly away to complete their mission..

Doom observes on and is pleased that the mission played out well for Vision and Iron Man. He knew Rhode's suit wouldn't get comprised from the Ultron Avengers. But then switches to Black Widow and her team, and is shocked to see Hulk's head chopped head off. He's afraid that this will create a time paradox due to Hulk's death.

At Ultron's control systems, Black Widow and Captain America are struggling to fend off the bio-slaves and Ultron-Black Widow. Suddenly, Bruce Banner's head starts to grow from the Hulks body. Ultron-Black Widow decides to decapitate Hulk again with Cap's shield, but Bruce/Hulk manages to catch it and throws it back to split Ultron-Black Widow's head.

Bruce gets Hulk's head and let's it merge back to it's body. Bruce tells his team that he once went through a weird mutation/side effect with Hulk from experimenting with a gamma ray machine (referenced in Hulk #6, still find it weird that Banner's head is still sticking out along with Hulks). Black Widow decides to scrap the stealth part of the mission and orders the team to SMASH everything on sight.

Meanwhile, Doom is pleased on how things turned out for Black Widow and her crew; including, the fact that they are destroying everything on sight.

Switch back to the Thors Three (Female Thor, Old Thor Odison, Future Thor Odison), all the Thors plan their attack on All Father Ultron, as he is sitting on his throne. The Thors throw everything they got at Ultron, hammer and thunder; however, Ultron easily deflects their attacks.

Ultron addresses to the Thors that he has equipped himself to be far powerful for anyone to handle. He also tells them he has conquered everything and everywhere. He then asks the Thors “why?”. Even though he has conquered the universe and has so much power, he still questions his existence (“it's purpose that defines us!”-Agent Smith).

While Ultron continues on his rant, Old Thor tosses Female Thor his hammer. She then clashes both her hammer and his together. An immense lightning forms, and she directs it towards Ultron. This causes Ultron to vanish (it is unknown if he is completely destroyed or not).

Switch to Black Widow and her team, the computer systems starts to initiate it's backup system after detecting all the chaos and fighting. After realizing the mission is a failure, she orders the team to fall back.

Doctor Doom brings all the Avengers back to his base and congrats them on their efforts, despite Black Widow's team failing. Just as Doom is about to send the Avengers back to their respective timeline, Black Widow notices a structure that looks similar to the back up system she saw before. It is revealed that Ultron's back up system was sent to Doom. Doom also reveals that the kids were to be his bio-slaves and the operation system that Iron Man and Vision took out was actually the security system. Doom plans to use Ultron's operations and slaves for his own use.

The team launches an attack to Doom, but is suddenly transported elsewhere by Doom. The Thors uses their hammers together to dictate their travel destination.

Review:

Since Age of Ultron was released around May, Marvel decided to put the sequel of Avengers: Ultron Forever in their New Avengers line for advertisement. Ewing started off well from Avengers: Ultron Forever and delivers another solid Avengers story. He does a great job at throwing in old references and understands continuity (Brian Bendis should take note). Even the characterizations and interactions of Iron Man and Hulk creates a vibe that feels old school. There is plenty of action flowing through this book, and the artwork does a great job at portraying it. Especially the action sequences between the Thors and All Father Ultron. The only gripe I have is All Father Ultron's quick defeat. The story builds up Ultron to be this all powerful enemy for the Avengers, but it took three Thors to defeat him instead of the entire team. But Ewing makes up for Ultron's mediocrity with Doom's presence. The creative team gives an excellent story for Avengers readers with a nice blend of action and characters from past, present, and future. If you have time and would like to pick this up, give this issue a shot.