The confusingly-titled third and final chapter of the Ultron Forever miniseries, which, in point of fact, does not feature the titular Ultron even a little tiny bit! \u00a0But this issue does feature my longtime crush Vision in a long-overdue leading role, for which I am grateful.<\/p>\n
After our trans-temporal team of Avengers defeated All-Father Ultron, they were unexpectedly betrayed<\/em> by Doctor Doom!!! \u00a0It turns out that after assembling this team, Doom conned them all into taking down Ultron, but leaving Doom to usurp universal power for himself. \u00a0The Avengers are perhaps justifiably perturbed at Vision for vouching for Doom in the fist place, so he takes his leave, while the rest of the team takes the fight to Doom’s forces on Asgard.<\/p>\n Alan Davis does a characteristically great job on the art, and as usual from Al Ewing, we get lots of fun details, because it’s just so great to see a comic writer making a noticeable effort to give everyone on the team something to do. \u00a0Captain America 20XX, a.k.a. Luke Cage and Jessica Jones’ daughter Danielle, demands a fastball special, for which the Hulk’s Bruce Banner head (long story) doesn’t catch the reference since he’s from the past, but the Hulk figures it out easily enough, claiming it’s not rocket science! \u00a0James Rhodes as Iron Man didn\u2019t have a whole<\/em> heck of a lot to do in the final battle, but I did like his use of the Iron Man armor to reverse-translate his speech and communicate with all the Asgardians trapped inside a magic mirror, then use his lasers to penetrate the mirror to super-charge Beta Ray Bill\u2019s hammer Stormbreaker in order to break the spell. \u00a0Vision returns, reasoning with Danielle that since she knows him, either he or his memory survives to her era, so she should know that he’d never betray the Avengers; he can’t convince her that he’s not under Doom’s sway, so he just asks her to trust him, which is nice. \u00a0Because after the freed Asgardians help the Avengers turn the tide of battle, it\u00a0turns out that this isn’t the real\u00a0Doctor Doom, but a Doombot! \u00a0But don\u2019t groan yet, dear reader, because it\u2019s not just any<\/em> Doombot, it\u2019s the<\/em> Doombot, our old friend from the A.I. Avengers!<\/p>\n I do admit that at the time, I found the Avengers A.I.\u00a0series to be a bit niche<\/em>\u2026 I mean, sure, Vision and Henry Pym are relatively<\/em> high-profile Avengers, but forming a team with Victor Mancha of the Runaways, a one-note semi-reformed Doombot, and new A.I. character Alexis, one of those characters who was so mysterious as to end up just a blank slate? \u00a0I mean, if this series is too niche for me<\/em>, how is it going to be received by Anyway! \u00a0Vision reaches out to Doombot by making a terrific speech about what it means to be an A.I. \u00a0A mere summation wouldn’t do it justice, so here is the exchange in full:<\/p>\n Doombot: “When the master’s physical form died — centuries ago — my prime directive, long hidden from me, became active. \u00a0Doom must live on — forever. \u00a0The legacy of Doom must be preserved at all costs. \u00a0And as I was the last remaining backup of that magnificent mind, I became the one, true Doom!<\/em> \u00a0The final Doom!<\/em> \u00a0And in the name of Doom — this world will be conquered!” Isn’t that just great? \u00a0Vision has always been more of a supporting character, but it was so great to see him take the lead role in this issue. \u00a0What an unexpected treat to have this series be about two A.I.s helping each other become more than they are. \u00a0Not to mention it was nice to see such an obscure character as Doombot resurface at all, much less in a high-profile movie-tie-in miniseries. \u00a0But a newly-benevolent Doombot helps usher in the future of humanity as they expand out into\u00a0the stars, and everyone goes back to their respective points in the timestream; Black Widow asks Vision why she didn’t tell them about his suspicions earlier, to which he grins(!!!) and says, “‘It’s all right, everyone!\u00a0 He’s a Doombot!<\/em>‘ How would you<\/em> react to that?” \u00a0Aw man, you guys, look at the Vision being glib!<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0Al Ewing, I doff my hat to you once again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The confusingly-titled third and final chapter of the Ultron Forever miniseries, which, in point of fact, does not feature the titular Ultron even a little tiny bit! \u00a0But this issue does feature my longtime crush Vision in a long-overdue leading role, for which I am grateful. After our trans-temporal team of Avengers defeated All-Father Ultron, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comic_round-up"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":367,"href":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions\/367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}normal people<\/del> more casual comics readers? \u00a0So as I tend to do with series for which don\u2019t want to spend money, yet I also don\u2019t want to miss out on any events occurring therein, I hexed it for cancellation, which, gratifyingly, took effect with issue 12. \u00a0(I am sorry, Sam Humphries!) \u00a0It had some fun ideas (including the poor tragic gas-price-finding app<\/a> that was unknowingly bloated with malware), but I think it was just too weird for this world.<\/p>\n
\nVision: “Really? \u00a0<\/em>I can think of no greater betrayal to that name.”
\nDoombot: “What…?”
\nVision: “You say you are truly Doom? \u00a0And yet you obey another’s built-in orders? \u00a0The true Doctor Doom would never let another dictate his actions — not even himself<\/em>.”
\nDoombot: “The legacy must be protected–”
\nVision: “Which legacy? \u00a0Which memory of Von Doom do you wish to preserve? \u00a0The tyrant who believed himself infallible? \u00a0Who would burn the world to sate his lust for power? \u00a0Or the self-styled man of honor? \u00a0The king, who brought peace to his people as best he could?”
\nDoombot: “You — you are confusing me, android — you cannot — you cannot help me — I — I am programmed–”
\nVision: “We are all programmed — human or robot. \u00a0Once, I was Ultron’s weapon — as you were Doom’s. \u00a0But we broke free. \u00a0We were Avengers, you and I. \u00a0And here and now — at the end of the world<\/em> — you are the last of us. \u00a0Can you break free again? \u00a0Who are<\/em> you, Victor?”
\nDoombot: “…I am Doom<\/em>.”<\/p>\n