So as it turns out, the main point of The Age of Ultron was for Marvel to launch a bunch of new books. It was a rather disappointing to end to an event that showed some promise but just turned out to be a Trojan horse. Among the books that have sprung forth from the Ultron promotional event is Avengers A.I. In issue #1, as is often the case, we meet the team, get a basic setup, are introduced to the first threat, and all the usual stuff that takes place in a first episode of just about anything. It’s all fine and good, but I couldn’t help wonder if it was really necessary to go through all of that Age of Ultron stuff just to introduce a new Avengers title.
Truth be told, I’m not even sure why this is an Avengers title. Seems as though the Marvel U is replete with boundless versions of that team, so aside from having Avengers in the title to help sell the book, I don’t see what the point of calling every Marvel team of heroes either Avengers or X-Men. In any event, there are some members of the Avengers on the team (then again, what hero in the Marvel U isn’t an Avenger), along with some new faces. Hank Pym heads up the team, and what sets this particular team apart is they’re all some form of artificial life form and the main threats they’ll be facing are, as the title implies, those of an artificial intelligence nature. In this case, some remnants of Ultron are taking over drones and other UAVs and wreaking havoc, so it’s up to Pym and his team of robots to find a way to stop them.
Among the team is Vision, who is always cool to see in action, and there’s also a Doombot. Yup, another villain playing the role of a “hero”, albeit reluctantly. Admittedly, the Doombot does provide quite a bit of amusement as it’s not really interested in being an Avenger, but Pym has basically given it no choice. Indeed, for a team made up mostly of robots, it would be easy to think that they would lack personality, but they actually have quite a bit of it. There’s a snarky upstart youngster, Vision’s son (how does that work?), the disgruntled Doombot, and the slightly off-kilter, probably not quite right in the head Pym, who’s not really a robot but has had his humanity questioned in the recent Ultron events.
And that’s really about it. This first issue isn’t really all that bad, it isn’t all that great, it’s fine but doesn’t leave much of an impression. Whether or not another Avengers team will find a lasting niche remains to be seen, plus it will be interesting if Avengers A.I. can find a way to keep telling stories with a 21st century tech/A.I. slant to them.
A BIG thanks to Astro-Zombies for providing the material for this review. Learn more about them at astrozombies.com.
