Age of Ultron #6 – Worth the Price

Well, I missed a couple of books there, but uh…yeah, this is pretty intense stuff. The future is gone, which makes some feel like going further in the future will help restore the past…or…at least the future past. Others, meanwhile, want to go back in the past and change the future by changing the past. One path leads to almost certain death, and the other least to a certain death. In the midst of all of that, what is “right” is weighed against what one is willing to do to in order to make things “right.” Age of Ultron #6 is just straight-up, good ol’ fashion, super hero, and sci-fi fun.

Wolverine has decided the only way to fix the future is to go back in the past and kill the one that made the current future what it is. If Hank Pym is killed, Ultron is never created and everything will be all honky-dory, right? Man, what a can of worms that opens up. Why stop there? If you really want to fix the future by fixing things in the past, why not go back and kill Hitler, or Stalin? When you come right down to it, why not just go all the way back to the Garden and kill the serpent before he got to Adam and Eve? That would really fix everything, right? If the question is whether or not it’s right to take one life in the past in order to preserve billions of lives in the future, why stop at just the guy who created Ultron? This is heady, existential stuff that makes for great sci-fi, and I’m glad this series is at least giving a bit of attention to the whole moral quandary of all of this, including whether out and out murder is justified just because it will save lives? Sue Storm, for a moment, that even it means saving lives in the future, perhaps there are some lines that just shouldn’t be crossed. Good science fiction isn’t just exciting, but it should be thought provoking, and I’m pleased that we’re getting some of that here in the Age of Ultron.

Another question pondered is; what would one do in order to save those they love? How much would one risk, be willing to sacrifice, if they knew they could save the ones they love? If it means saving them, does doing the wrong thing become right? Are there any lines that can’t be crossed in a situation such as that? These are the things Wolverine and Sue Richards wrestle with. Meanwhile, the Bible already reveals one answer to that question. For God, the answer was he was willing to sacrifice everything, even his one, and only Son in order to save those he loved; you and I. He was willing to let Jesus take our place, take our punishment, take our death so that we wouldn’t have to suffer through that. He sacrifices it all out of his deep love for us, because he thought we were worth it. Indeed, he though we were so worth the price, he paid double on our behalf (Isaiah 40:2). Now, there are definitely lines that God says can’t be crossed under any circumstances, but that’s because he found a way to do all that was necessary to save us without having to cross or comprise any lines at all.

Meanwhile, this issue doesn’t skimp on the action. Much of it comes in the future as that teams plan pretty much falls to pieces. Still, it interesting to get a glimpse of the ultimate fate of humanity if Ultron isn’t stopped; in short, there won’t be a humanity. I need to go back an issue, though, because I’m still not quite sure how this future venture is supposed to help. Yeah, I get that they think Ultron changed the past from the future, but can you change the future to change the past? It just makes my head dizzy. Besides, if Ultron controls the future, that plan seemed even more desperate than any sort of Hail Mary pass.

When it’s all said and done, though, it might not matter. I will tell you that one of these two approaches was successful, but it remains to be seen exactly what that “success” may yield. In other words, I have a feeling that things are going to get messier before this mess is cleaned up. Could be fun.

Score: 6 of 7

A BIG thanks to Astro-Zombies for providing the material for this review. Learn more about them at astrozombies.com.