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Post by Doctor Bong Crosby on Sept 1, 2015 17:56:11 GMT -5
SPOILERS AHEAD, IF YOU HAVEN´T READ RAGE OF ULTRON (OR FOUND OUT ABOUT IT´S ENDING)
I just finished reading the "Rage of Ultron" hardback from my local library branch and I have to say I didn´t care for how it ends. Hank Pym merges with Ultron into one being and flies off to space. Has anybody else read it...? If so, what´s your take on it?
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Post by humanbelly on Sept 1, 2015 19:51:15 GMT -5
SPOILERS AHEAD, IF YOU HAVEN´T READ RAGE OF ULTRON (OR FOUND OUT ABOUT IT´S ENDING) I just finished reading the "Rage of Ultron" hardback from my local library branch and I have to say I didn´t care for how it ends. Hank Pym merges with Ultron into one being and flies off to space. Has anybody else read it...? If so, what´s your take on it? Wow. Sooooooooooooo glad I haven't been reading anything like that all. "Merged" characters are the opposite of a gestalt-- they become less compelling and far less interesting than either of their original sources. Is there anyone on the planet who mourns the (I must assume?) passing of "Douglock"-? I found the whole "whose-memories-are-these?" turmoil of Rogue's early years to be the least interesting aspect of her character at that time-- painfully tedious, even though it wasn't always badly scripted. That is a writer who is out of ideas and is mistakenly self-convinced that he/she has latched onto a daring, new, "edgy" twist for these two looooooong-established characters. There is nothing on earth that could me to look at a stupid development like this with an open mind. Could it be that Marvel simply wanted to divest itself of both entities for the foreseeable future with the new reboot? HB
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Post by Doctor Bong Crosby on Sept 2, 2015 15:56:25 GMT -5
My major complaint with many of the developments which came after the beginning of Bendis´ New Avengers is that, in the name of telling good (sentational) stories they in many cases sacrificed years of character development. In Rage of Ultron Pym´s inner monologue states that nobody in the superhero community, not even among his avenger peers, respects him or takes him seriously. Perhaps if Rage of Ultron was a story taking place during his Yellowjacket years I could buy it, but I would argue that the way in which Pym was seen by many began to change significantly with Busiek´s third volume. Heck, even as recently as when he lead a team of Avengers as the Wasp and later the Avengers AI team he showed himself a force to be reckoned with. But enter Rage of Ultron and Pym is back at being the guy who slapped Jan and who was easily duped and seduced by a skrull.
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Post by Marvel Boy on Sept 3, 2015 9:44:23 GMT -5
I didn't see Hank in the same light that you apparently did. Whenever Ultron appears, I think Hank is going to slip mentally regardless. It's almost inevitable, given their history together. What I observed in ROU though is a Hank with very strong convictions on handling dangerous AIs. Remender crafted a very strong ethical debate in that regard, on the sentience of AIs, real or perceived. Obviously, Hank's opinion on the issue is heavily biased, and as presented here, he feels completely justified in his convictions and actions in dealing with such matters (such as building his killer AI weapon). Vision, naturally, disagrees just as strongly, and soon their debate splits the team members as well.
So, in the context of the moral righteousness of killing AIs, no, I don't think all the team agrees with Hank's position. Which in turn may help fuel old feelings of inadequacy in Hank. But instead of being a step backward, I saw it more as a step forward, Hank being convinced of his righteous cause in this matter.
Now, at this point, discussing Hank's 'father' relationship to Ultron is like beating a dead horse. I thought Busiek had the worthy last word on the matter back in Vol 3. But I can't fault Remender for trying to find new avenues to explore in their relationship and having the two merge at the end, I think, qualifies as such. I don't see that as being a writer out of ideas (no, that's when you decide to simply kill off your character) instead, I see it as an unexplored avenue. Who may sway whom in what regard?
Yes, merged characters are somewhat cliched, but I think it's wrong to write this merger off as being worthless. For starters, we have yet to see anything concrete about their future motivations, actions, or encounters. They simply flew off at the end and that's all we've seen so far. I would, at least, like to see in what directions they take them before writing this merger off as perhaps a bad idea. In fact, I would love to see where Remender would've taken this thread but alas he has chosen to focus more on creator-owned projects on this time.
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