Age of Ultron 3, Fantastic Four 5AU, Superior Spider-Man 6AU

Age of Ultron 3
Bendis (w) and Hitch and Neary (a) and Mounts (c)

This is a strange event. I was actually a little more confident in it when the crossovers weren't coming out. With just the main series, I didn't need to really worry about where this fit in with the Marvel Universe. The crossovers, particularly Fantastic Four 5AU, seem to be saying pretty firmly "no, this is happening this instant and you need to accept that and move on. Anyone who's died is dead and anyone who has shaved their head has short hair now." That's tricky because, as this is such a contained event (it's in its own book and only a handful of crossovers as the series continues) I can't buy that. Twenty books came out this week. If you subtract the three tied to Age of Ultron, that's seventeen books where Age of Ultron ISN'T having any repercussions and likely will continue to not have any repercussions. It's seventeen books where Thing, Mr. Fantastic, Johnny, Black Panther, Hulk, Thor, and so many others aren't dead. That's the difference between an event like this and just two different team books featuring the same characters, or even between a solo character's book and a team book he or she is on. Captain America is in Dimension Z in his book right now but he's also at the head of the Avengers and on the Uncanny Avengers. It doesn't even really matter how that works because he's not dead in any of them.
Maybe that's too much to pick at. With the popularity of books like Avengers vs. the Marvel Universe and Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, we've clearly said that we want to watch our heroes die (well, not me, I've clearly said that I don't enjoy watching my heroes die). Maybe this is a reaction to that. Maybe the heroes aren't actually dead and Ultron has enslaved or is hiding them. I don't think we've seen a body yet, except, and I can't talk about this too long because I'll just get angry, Black Panther's. Black Panther, who, after an explosion behind them, got launched a little ways in the air and, despite his unparalleled agility and athleticism, landed flat on the side of his head and snapped his neck. That's crap. If that's the real Black Panther (either of them, T'Challa or Shuri), that's crap. The only word we got that he was dead was Taskmaster quickly checking his pulse, so maybe he's not, but WHATEVER, still crap. Anyway, the hidden heroes decide to offer up one of their own for trade, based on Spider-Man's account of the villains holding him. Cap puts forth this plan, as it's the only one they have, as a way to send someone into Ultron HQ and hopefully survive and root around for clues and break out, which seems flawed on many levels and also not exactly like the most ingenious plan but WHATEVER again. Cage and She-Hulk both offer to go and they eventually decide on Cage offering to trade She-Hulk. He brings her there and is escorted to where they assume Ultron is only to find out that Ultron isn't on site but half of Vision is and he's acting as Ultron's stand-in. Interesting idea, we'll see where it goes. Maybe this will change, but I still didn't feel sold on this main title. I don't know why. I think the death thing I mentioned above has a lot to do with it. I think the idea that the world is in ruins doesn't help because I can see the world not-ruined in every other Marvel book. Maybe it's because I'm not getting a good feel on any of the characters. Weirdly, despite what I might have implied above about the crossovers, I liked the crossovers far more than I've liked any of the main book issues so far. So let's just get on to them, shall we?

Fantastic Four 5AU
Fraction (w) and Araujo (a) and Villarrubia (c)

Like I said just above, I think I liked the crossovers more than the main series. There's a good chance that that's because of the focus on character that a crossover book can give. Instead of being forced, like the main series, to focus on the entire group of heroes underground and several more spread out around the country on top of focusing on story, the crossovers can focus on how these characters are impacted by everything that's happened. Instead of sitting and wondering how all these heroes are going to come back, you watch the effect this is actually having on people, which is more intriguing to me. Even though I, in my cleverest of brains, have deduced that probably nothing super major will actually come of this event, the characters all treat it as they have to, as a world-shattering thing that's happening. So it's very sweet and incredibly sad to watch the Fantastic Four leave messages for Franklin and Valeria that essentially are only activated if any of the F4 die. It's structured beautifully yet tragically. The kids, still up in space, find the recording with a brief prologue from Reed. Then we see Johnny's message to the kids on one page, followed by a couple pages of him sacrificing himself to give the team time. Then we get Ben's message followed by a couple pages of Ben getting swarmed by Ultrons. At this point, when we see Reed's message start, we pretty much know what's about to happen down on Earth and, sure enough, he expands his whole body to try to block Sue and Ultron's jump inside of it and self-destruct. Sue's message never plays, as She-Hulk finds her alive under some rubble. Franklin and Val are left, scared and alone, in space.
It's a very touching issue that gives us a good look at the characters in this book. It's easy to forget that this is just Fraction's sixth issue of the book as it already feels so natural and deep. Johnny leaves a message to the kids that basically takes the whole thing as a joke, having died himself so recently. Ben's message includes a confession: he thinks he might be responsible for Doctor Doom. He messed with parts of the experiments that made Doom who he is now because Doom was such a jerk even before that. It's a confession that has weighed on Ben, never revealed before. Reed ends up writing most of his last thoughts to them on paper, unable to speak. It's very touching all around and the worry in Franklin and Val's eyes are real, which makes it all the harder. Very good tie-in. I'll be interested to see what Fantastic Four 6 is going to be shaped like, following this. I mentioned in my pre-game that I hadn't seen tie-ins done quite like this before, still taking place in the regular series continuity but as a little step to the side. I'm intrigued to see where it goes.

Superior Spider-Man 6AU
Gage (w) and Soy (a)

As opposed to Fantastic Four, this tie-in was more story-driven. Tony Stark doesn't love the plan of sending She-Hulk as an offering and so has come up with a different plan; with a device he concocted as one-time head of SHIELD, he intends to transport the entire Ultron HQ into the negative zone. Essentially the device requires beacons to be placed all around the HQ and then a doorway to be opened into the negative zone. That doorway is in Horizon Labs, where Spider-Man worked. Spider-Man, who it turns out is still Doc Ock Spider-Man playing a convincing Peter Parker, agrees to aid Tony and Quicksilver (who will place the beacons) in the mission. Once inside Horizon, though, we learn that Ock had ulterior motives, as he so often does. He activates all his spider-bots across the city and latches them on to nearby Ultron units to take control of them. He has determined that, with his intellect and knowledge of machines and knowledge of Ultron (who he met during the Secret War), he can override the units and control them, maybe even use them to fix and better the world. It works pretty well at first but, as he tries to guide one Ultron unit to the real Ultron, his plan starts to fail as Ultron has planned for this sort of thing. He loses control of the units and is descended on by Ultrons. He narrowly escapes and returns to the other heroes, allowing Tony to think that he just didn't have time to charge the device. He does, though, tell Tony that the plan would have worked.
This one is more story-driven than Fantastic Four was but it certainly isn't only interesting for the story. There are plenty of character moments mixed in as we get a little more insight into this new Spider-Man. He mourns the possible losses of those closest to him (like Aunt May and MJ) though pushes those thoughts down and explains them away as Peter's consciousness leaking through. He also shows some respect to Max Modell, who clearly died trying to usher people to safety. After his plan fails, he recognizes that maybe Peter hadn't been weakened by relying on others, as he had previously decided, but rather strengthened. There are some good person-to-person dialogues too, especially between an angry Spider-Man and a weary and somewhat defeated Tony Stark. Quicksilver, too, gets a couple of nice lines in, largely about Spider-Man's maturity in this time of crisis. It's an interesting story with enough compelling character moments to absolutely make it worthwhile. Another good tie-in.