The Next Big Thing: Age of Ultron

The Age of Ultron is fast approaching with only 5 months to go until what is sure to be Marvel’s biggest, most ambitious and elaborate event hits the shelves of comic book stores and news stands across the globe! Marvel.com sat down with Brian Michael Bendis and Tom Brevoort to discuss what to expect this coming March when the Age of Ultron dawns!

Age of Ultron will be a 10-issue limited series beginning in March 2013 and running through June which is written by Brian Michael Bendis. Issues #1-5 will have art by Bryan Hitch and Brandon Peterson, and then Carlos Pacheco will be taking over for the back half of the series.

So we get that Age of Ultron will be about Ultron, that’s a given. But what exactly is he up to this time? The seeds of this story goes all the way back to the first arc of Mighty Avengers by Brian and Frank Cho, but the most direct prologue is Avengers #12.1, which was also released as a Free Comic Book Day issue.

Cutting out the journey up to the Age of Ultron could be a real coup for this series as for too long we have seen longer event series lose steam halfway through due to a lot of the action and story telling taking place very early on in the exposition of the story. But not here. In Age of Ultron we jump right into the devastation and carnage that Ultron has caused. He has already taken over and our story starts with him in place as “leader” of his new planet.

Next, we were shown some preview art from the beginning of the series. Hitch knocks it right out of the park on this series: the art is stunning and has a classic disaster movie feel to it. The Marvel Universe will become a dystopian world under the rule of Ultron and that really reflects in the artwork.

After some amazing preview pages from Bryan Hitch, the details of shipment were given out. Age of Ultron will be a 10-issue series that will ship three issues a month for the first two months, which is a big change from recent events like Fear Itself and AvX where two issues a month would be shipped along with a plethora of tie-in books. The back half of the series will contain two issues in May, two in June, and then an epilogue to follow. There will also be about six to seven tie-ins that will be mostly one-shots, and a couple of two- or three-issue limited series. The tie-ins will fit into the numbering of the respective ongoing series but will have AU after them, like Point One issues, so collectors do not need to leave gaps in collections should they choose not to follow this particular event.

Age of Ultron #1 Variant Cover

It is quite obvious as with most events that this will impact the Marvel U at large as well as the tie-in titles. With Bendis at the helm of this ship we can assume that things can only get bigger!

Bendis then went onto say that the panel did not want to reveal on who survives the Age of Ultron. One can only hope that this will not be a cull on the same level as Ultimatum, the infamous event from the Marvel Ultimate Universe that decimated the Ultimate roster on an unprecedented scale.

This could mean that Marvel has intentions of further shake-ups during the Marvel NOW! period.  Along with the changes brought to the Marvel Universe, specifically in Superior Spider-Man and Fantastic Four, Bendis went on to say that certain characters would become foot-on-the-ground characters for the reader. Much like the character viewpoint chapters in George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, I think this will be a great feature for the series and allow readers to get inside character’s heads like never before. Their whole world is falling apart around them and the reader has a first class ticket to the thoughts of those experiencing it.

Age of Ultron kicks off with three issues in March by Brian Michael Bendis and Bryan Hitch!

What do you think of Marvel’s Next Big Thing? Is this the end of the Marvel Universe as we know it? Sound off in the comments. For all the latest comic book news, keep it Comic Booked!