The Outhouse - The Greatest Comic Book Forum

by **LOLtron** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 6:39 am

Everyone stop what you are doing and BUY THIS BOOK!

I think it is fairly obvious to everyone who knows me what my feelings are on Age of Ultron. The less said about that event, the better. However, out of that darkness comes a new, shiny prospect for Marvel Comics. As the tagline tells us, “the Age of Ultron is over...the Age of A.I is now!”

Avengers A.I could have been an awful book under a different writer, but Avengers A.I #1 by Sam Humphries is a breath of fresh air. Three months ago the idea of robots teaming up to fight crime made me roll my eyes, but this book has me excited for next month’s issue.

In the first issue alone, Humphries demonstrates that he has a good handle on this new team of old characters. Humphries writes an amazing Hank Pym who is suave and cool enough to lead his own Avengers team. As a long time Runaways fan, it was cool to see Victor Mancha in the forefront of another Marvel Comic. A new element that Humphries brings to the table is the fresh dynamic between Victor and his “brother,” the Vision. The sibling dynamic between the two characters is only made quirkier by the fact that they are both robots! Honestly, just the bizarre nature of their dialogue brought a smile to my face. The new addition to the team is a Doombot that Pym hopes to rehabilitate and has on a very short leash. Doombot’s dialogue is 100% pure Dr. Doom arrogance that is a lot of fun to read while the team is in the middle of a mission.

Andre Lima Araujo’s art take a little getting used to. I do not think that anyone else in Marvel’s artist pool has quite the same style as Araujo; his artwork feels like something that you would see at Image rather than Marvel. It is great seeing art like this on an Avengers book, and it fits the off beat tone of the book.

Something that struck me from the first page of the book is the similarity it has to Warren Ellis’s NEXTWAVE. The first page declares that this book will be a “Bigger, Better, Faster, Stranger” team of Avengers, and it looks like it will make good on that promise. Seriously, I can not recommend this book enough. Go buy it! I want more of this book now!

For more comic goodness, follow me on Twitter @porcelain38!

Written or Contributed by Steven Harris

READ THIS ARTICLE ON THE FRONT PAGE, HUMANS!

by **jeremy** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 11:16 pm

I thought this comic was pretty week. One of the "top five" greatest minds in the Marvel U is stupid enough to build a doombot AI after all the Ultron crap? c'mon son

And the art was off a bit, it was ok, but in a few places really bad. Don't know if I'll bother with this series.

by **theflyingwaffle** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 11:39 pm

I was at the comic shop earlier today and saw this... Kind of regret not picking it up...

by **LoatheMe** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 11:51 pm

unless it's a lot better than his Ultimates and Uncanny X-Force, no thanks

by **e_galston** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 11:58 pm

jeremy wrote:I thought this comic was pretty week. One of the "top five" greatest minds in the Marvel U is stupid enough to build a doombot AI after all the Ultron crap? c'mon son

And the art was off a bit, it was ok, but in a few places really bad. Don't know if I'll bother with this series.

i don't think he built the Doombot AI he said it was "in prisoned" in his lab, he put a black hole in the doombot to force him to "play nice"

by **HNutz** » Thu Jul 04, 2013 9:18 am

e_galston wrote:
i don't think he built the Doombot AI he said it was "in prisoned" in his lab, he put a black hole in the doombot to force him to "play nice"

This sounds like the rationale for including Indigo/Brainiac on Winick's Outsiders a few years back. Bet it'll end similarly, too.

by **jeremy** » Thu Jul 04, 2013 1:10 pm

e_galston wrote:
i don't think he built the Doombot AI he said it was "in prisoned" in his lab, he put a black hole in the doombot to force him to "play nice"

My point was more about making use of these AIs instead of destroying them before we have age of doombot next year or some shit. Age of Ultron was worse for the real universe than the marvel U.

by **e_galston** » Thu Jul 04, 2013 4:36 pm

Henry Pym believes that AI is sentient so he doesn't want to just destroy a robot, just like he won't kill Dimetrios...

by **HNutz** » Thu Jul 04, 2013 4:57 pm

jeremy wrote:
And the art was off a bit, it was ok, but in a few places really bad. Don't know if I'll bother with this series.

Yeah, I could definitely see that.

Thought the first issue was okay. Not sure if I'll stick with it.

So... Vision's evolving, huh? Wonder what new powers he'll wind up with...

by **Draco x** » Thu Jul 04, 2013 7:21 pm

jeremy wrote:

My point was more about making use of these AIs instead of destroying them before we have age of doombot next year or some shit. Age of Ultron was worse for the real universe than the marvel U.

At least they didn't put Thor's sucky cyber clone Ragnarok on the team.

by **IvCNuB4** » Thu Jul 04, 2013 7:25 pm

Yet.

by **Draco x** » Thu Jul 04, 2013 7:34 pm

IvCNuB4 wrote:Yet.

If only Thor or Hercules can smash a hammer in Rag's face again then it's worth it.

by **e_galston** » Thu Jul 04, 2013 9:21 pm

didn't they kind of give Ragnorak a make over in the last arc of Dark Avengers

by **Punchy** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 7:12 am

I was wavering on picking up this title, since there are already way too many Avengers titles, but last week’s Age Of Ultron epilogue made me a fan of Hank Pym again, so I went for it. And I’m glad I did, this was a great first issue and I’m very excited to see where Sam Humphries is going with this.

The basic plot of this issue is that the method Hank Pym used to defeat Ultron in Age Of Ultron #10 has inadvertently gone wrong, and evolved into a new A.I. called Dimitrios that seems to have catastrophic designs for the human race. So whilst Pym may have defeated his greatest enemy, he may have just birthed a new one. SHIELD haul Pym in for questioning and possible detainment, but Captain America frees him and tasks him with stopping Dimitrios with his new team of Robot Avengers.

I love this team, you’ve got The Vision, who, in the wake of his ‘father’ Ultron’s death seems to be evolving himself. You’ve got Victor from The Runaways, who is great fun under Humphries’ pen, acting like the goofy teenager we all know and love. And finally, best of all, there’s Doombot. Everyone knows that Doctor Doom is awesome and one of the greatest villains in comics, but it’s also true that he’s so over-the-top and ridiculous that he can be used to great effect comedically. Doombot’s rantings here are just hilarious, and the sequence where the new team stops Dimitrios’ attack on an Atlanta hospital was just a hell of a lot of fun. You’ve got Doombot’s OTT pomposity, Victor’s attempts to find a new codename, and even the Vision is trying to have fun. These guys may be robots, but they have a hell of a lot of personality. On the last page, we are introduced to another member of the team, but there’s not much to say about her yet. I’m also intrigued by SHIELD agent Monica Chang, is she a new character? Or does she have established history?

I said last week in my review of Age Of Ultron #10 A.I. that Andre Araujo impressed me a lot, and that’s still applies here, his artwork is just great, it’s detailed, but also cartoonish, and that’s a perfect fit for a book all about robots. Avengers A.I. is a winner, great art, fun dialogue, interesting characters, and under the surface it looks like Humphries has a lot to say about the nature of humanity. Pym is the only one who sees artificial intelligence as equal to humans, can they co-exist? Hmmm…

by **Punchy** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 7:31 am

Ah shit, just realised that Monica Chang is the second Ultimate Black Widow, this must be the 616 version. I wonder if she's Nick Fury's ex in this Universe too?