Age Of Ultron Vs. Marvel Zombies #4 - Marvel Comics

AGE OF ULTRON VS. MARVEL ZOMBIES No. 4, November 2015

When at the start of this comic James Robinson writes about “the end of the world… terrors” which await those foolish enough to oppose “the iron will of... [Battleworld’s] god and master, Victor Von Doom” he probably never considered one of them, besides the Deadland’s living dead and Ultron’s automaton utopia Perfection, to actually be his script for Issue Four of “Age Of Ultron Vs. Marvel Zombies”. In fact the Manchester-born author probably felt he had done a thoroughly competent job of cramming this twenty-page periodical full of ‘brain-eating’ battle as the technologically enhanced zombie-cyborgs of Magneto finally break through Salvation’s Ionic Energy Shield and start hungrily eating its inhabitants.

Sadly however it is extremely doubtful whether any of this concluding instalment’s 31,220 readers garnered too much enjoyment out of a storyline woefully bogged down by the sort of technical gobbledegook that sees the Human Torch, Wonderman and the Vision merge themselves together into “a greater mind… that needs to be conducive to Ionic Energy” so as to ‘absorb the consciousness of both Ultron and the zombies'. Indeed Hank Pym’s straight-faced and supposedly tense explanation that Simon Williams’ “pixie dust” is at the heart of the problem, as well as the solution, is not only astoundingly surreal but heartbreakingly cringeworthy for a mini-series which initially sounded so very full of promise.

Equally as poorly handled is Robinson’s penmanship surrounding the fall of Salvation to “Ultrons-zombie-whatever –they-are’s”. Magneto’s excitement “about all the people I’m going to eat” disappointingly never fully manifests itself within the narrative despite the “combined meat ‘n’ metal… monstrosities” eventually breaking through the settlement's protective barrier and consuming any living flesh which they can get their grisly clawing hands on. For every time it seemingly appears that the plot is finally about to focus upon the carnage being caused by the living dead, such as a zombified Abomination chomping into a Hydra operative, the action is frustratingly replaced by close-ups of Ultron’s creator feverishly tinkering in his lab.

True Steve Pugh desperately tries to inject the proceedings with plenty of (un)life with his dynamic depictions of gruesome terror as the robotic ghouls munch their way through the human community’s population. But even these wonderfully animated double-splash offerings by the British artist are interspersed with tedious flashback sequences drawn by Paul Rivoche and John Rauch, or worse pitiful panels portraying the likes of Jim Hammond and the Vision sentimentally saying goodbye to their loved ones before they sacrifice themselves.

Writer: James Robinson, Artist: Steve Pugh, and Colors: Jim Charalampidis

Age Of Ultron Vs. Marvel Zombies #3 - Marvel Comics

AGE OF ULTRON VS. MARVEL ZOMBIES No. 3, October 2015

It would be interesting to know whether Editor “Magnanimous Mark” Paniccia had any hand in the fact that Issue Three of “Age Of Ultron Vs. Marvel Zombies” starts rather unpromisingly with the desperately scrawled sentence “It’s worse than we thought”. For despite all of James Robinson’s assurances that “the battle lines will force everyone into two camps -- zombies verses robots” and that “they’re definitely at war” this bitterly disappointing publication's narrative not only depicts a unified Ultron-Zombie host threatening Jim Hammond, the Vision and Wonderman. But one which actually consists of “the worst of both” forces following the adamantium-alloyed automaton’s experiments to combine “the inorganic and the dead”.

To make matters even worse for this twenty-page periodical’s dramatically declining 36,388 readers however, the former “Superman” writer doesn’t even provide this ‘possible intriguing merger’ with much ‘screen time’ and instead decides to regale any bibliophiles foolish enough to have bought this “Secret Wars” tie-in title with uninspiring insights into Hank Pym’s desperate attempts to understand how “the Pym of this domain done built hisself a compoota rowbot man”, Simon William’s love for a female Iron Cross incarnation, Agatha Harkness’ adoration of the green and gold-garbed “creation of order” and a thirteen-panel discussion between Ryoko and “the original Human Torch” as to their understandable concerns surrounding her “synthetic” pregnancy.

Unfortunately, all of this disinteresting exposition is actually the highlight of Robinson’s storyline when compared to the British writer’s inclusion of a lengthy flashback to “the Town o’ Timely” from whence this mini-series’ gun-slinging Wasp originated from. Just why Starman’s co-creator felt it necessary to subject his audience to six shockingly dire pages deliberating over a dancing girl’s rise to infamy as one of the “people with a stupid plan ta overthrow ol’ man Roxxon ‘n’ his whole darn outfit” defies logic and clearly suggests that the author’s much lauded “really cool twist” for a mini-series probably wasn’t all that great in the first place.

Likewise, Steve Pugh’s strength clearly lies in illustrating “reanimated hordes [who] crave live flesh”, as opposed to depicting people enjoying a 'sedentary' existence, as the former “Strontium Dog” sketcher provides some terrifically disturbing pictures of a zombified Magneto, Super Skrull and Sabretooth throughout this comic. Sadly, such ‘eye candy’ is though shamefully scarce as the majority of this magazine’s script instead concerns itself with events transpiring within the Deadlands sanctuary of Salvation; sequences which clearly failed to inspire its artist to deliver nothing but the most mediocre of visualisations.

The variant cover art of "AGE OF ULTRON VS. MARVEL ZOMBIES" No. 3 by Francesco Francavilla

Age Of Ultron Vs. Marvel Zombies #2 - Marvel Comics

AGE OF ULTRON VS. MARVEL ZOMBIES No. 2, September 2015

It is entirely plausible that James Robinson didn’t read the “Marvel Worldwide” pre-publication advertisement for this “Secret Wars” tie-in mini-series, as the plot to Issue Two of “Age Of Ultron Vs. Marvel Zombies” disconcertingly differs quite substantially from the claim that “in the southern wastes of Battleworld, two unholy factions wage never-ending war” with one another. Indeed the Eisner-award winner’s narrative actually goes so far as to depict “the genocidal robotic armies of Ultron” agreeing a peaceful alliance with the “rotting, flesh-eating corpses that lies just to the East” and even ends with a splash page of the adamantium armoured automaton shaking hands with a zombified Magneto; “In that case, I think I speak for all of us when I say… You have a deal.”

Such a stupefying cessation of the “unending war” inevitably means that the vast majority of this twenty-page periodical instead focuses upon Hank Pym’s arrival at the nirvana Salvation, and an incredibly lengthy exposition by Wonderman, Jim Hammond and the Vision as to how they built the settlement using the “ionic energy that we extract from Simon Williams and then synthesize”. The Manchester-born writer even finds the time to rather clumsily script a rather uncomfortable scene which unsubtly portrays the prejudiced attitude of America’s Old West by having the Human Torch’s oriental partner Ryoko challenge Ultron's three-piece suited inventor when he refers to her a Celestial…

So tedious a storyline doubtless distressed many of this comic’s 40,483 readers, especially when the first dozen or so promising panels of “Strange Bedfellows” depicts a puritan Punisher dancing “a merry jig” against a horde of “flesh-eating, super-powered living dead” whilst lopping off their heads and limbs indiscriminately. This marvellous sequence, full of bloody carnage, biblical rhetoric, and plenty of swordplay is as adventurously action-packed as any “Marvel Zombies” devotee could wish for, and it truly comes as an almighty blow that the black-garbed Protestant swashbuckler is sizzlingly silenced mid-sentence by “Ultron Unit 432.622A, designated communicator conduit for Lord Ultron.”

This comic’s artwork is also somewhat agitating in its composition. For whilst “critically-acclaimed artist Steve Pugh” competently draws the bulk of its content, Tom Grummett, Drew Hennessy and Jesus Aburtov provide all of the artificially-aged flashback illustrations, and arguably demonstrate just how lifeless and rather monotone the British penciller’s work appears when coloured using modern-day techniques.

The variant cover art of "AGE OF ULTRON VS. MARVEL ZOMBIES" No. 2 by Alex Maleev

Age Of Ultron Vs. Marvel Zombies #1 - Marvel Comics

AGE OF ULTRON VS. MARVEL ZOMBIES No. 1, August 2015

Whilst on paper the idea to produce a “Secret Wars” mini-series based upon an amalgamation of two of the most successful “Marvel Worldwide” franchises published during the Modern Age of Comics may well have seemed like a good idea, James Robinson’s script for Issue One of “Age Of Ultron Verses Marvel Zombies” inevitably runs out of steam once the adamantium robots and undead initially come together. Indeed, considering just how easily the mechanical monsters plough through the putrid walking zombified remains of the Vulture, Bullseye, Stilt-Man, Sabretooth and Mole Man, it is momentarily hard to imagine just where the British writer’s narrative can go next?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the disappointing answer is backwards. For having demonstrated just how easily Ultron’s brethren can dispatch the super-villainous living cadavers, this twenty-one page periodical’s plot suddenly transforms itself into a storyline which would not look out of place within a “What If ?“ magazine by having Hank Pym’s creation “muse how things might have differed” if, having gained cognizance as Ultron-1, “he hadn’t immediately killed his ‘father’...”

Admittedly the subsequent series of flashback sequences drawn by Ron Garnett and Matt Milla, and predominantly consisting of double splashes, doubtless proved diverting distractions to this comic’s 78,646 readers in June 2015. The battle sequences explaining how a combined army of Ultron-5 and Ultron-6 versions” of the mad robot sent “the other heroes of Earth… screaming to their graves” are well worth the magazine's cover price alone, especially as this 'turn of events' is additionally influenced by the idea that “a young Dane Whitman” never “infiltrated Ultron-5’s Masters Of Evil to warn” the Avengers and “turn the tide of his first attack…”

Ultimately though “A Stranger Came To Town” is meant to be about events taking place on Battleworld, yet sadly when Robinson’s script finally does return to the ‘present day’, and Steve Pugh takes back ownership of the artwork, it is clear that this comic book’s implied promise of ghouls verses automatons has disappointingly been replaced with a rather uninspiring story about a ‘Wild West’ version of Pym being banished to “the robot domain” for creating a “clockwork mechanical man”; “Got no mind why I went ta the trouble, neither… ‘cause where I’m goin’, they aint got much use fer snake oil.”

The regular cover art of "AGE OF ULTRON VS. MARVEL ZOMBIES" No. 1 by Carlos Pacheco