At the end of the last issue, two Stark Carriers collided in the fight between Stark and his Defenders and Morgana Le Feys army of Doombots and dragons. The collision triggers a nuclear explosion of epic proportions, which opens this issue, abruptly ending the battle and destroying New York. Wolverine is one of the few survivors though his leg is totally destroyed except for the adamantium skeleton. He passes out in the rubble and 5 days later awakens with his leg fully healed. And THEN the roving patrols of Doombots decide to attack Wolverine! How about when he was passed out and defenceless? But for whatever reason they choose to wait until hes at full strength to pointlessly attack and are rightfully destroyed for their incompetence. One other survivor is Stark whos managed to hold on long enough to ankle-grab Wolverine as he passes by to tell him all about time-travel time is organic and its alive, apparently. Travel too much and you tear and damage it. And how does Stark know this? Has he time-travelled himself? Who knows. So then as if this event didnt have enough time travel in it, Wolverine travels back in time AGAIN just before the point in issue #6 where he kills Hank Pym in the past to stop himself from assassinating Pym. The good thing about jumping back into the past again is the artists switch from Brandon Peterson to Carlos Pacheco, whose art is the best part of this issue. Pachecos clean style hearkens back to classic Marvel comics while retaining something of the modern age about it his work on this Event has been one of the highlights, second only to Bryan Hitchs. The rest of this issue is the two Wolverines explaining to Hank about the problems they encounter with his Artificial Intelligence creation, Ultron. The dialogue between the two Wolverines and Hank Pym is actually quite entertaining but things become very convoluted, very quickly. Hank is given so much information by two (really one) of the most inarticulate characters in the Marvel U, and has to somehow put in fail-safes into a creation hes not even completed, so its no surprise that in one of the final panels an exasperated Hank Pym looks down and asks himself so what do I have to do?. At least we get to see Ultron for the first time in this mini-series. Sort of. The problem with time travel stories is you can do whatever you want like Bendis has done throughout this Event and none of it matters as it can just as easily be wiped out as it has been throughout this Event. The first 6 issues never happened. Then the next 3 issues never happened. Now were heading into issue #10 with a completely different setup, not knowing what Wolverine sparing Hank Pyms life, but giving him the knowledge of the future to alter it, will do. And despite this being the last issue in the Event, the way Bendis has played fast and loose with the story, I wouldnt be surprised if the whole thing gets retconned as too confusing. The other annoying thing about all this time-travel, alternate timelines stuff, is the way these insubstantial stories get stretched out. The sidetrack parallel universe ruled by Stark that Wolverine and Sue discover after killing Hank Pym, didnt need to be 3 issues - it couldve been 1 issue easily. And thats one of the biggest problems with this Event, as everything in it so far has felt needlessly drawn out the other big problem is that the stuff that gets drawn out doesnt matter anyway!
And whats to stop Wolverine jumping back in time ad infinitum until he finds a universe which hes happy with - is that why the next Marvel Event is called Infinity? Wolverine spends a dozen issues jumping backwards and forwards in time? How does the time paradox sort itself out now that there are two Wolverines? The cover is a hint. But hasnt Wolverine been stabbed before and survived? Hasnt he been hurt in far worse ways before - and survived? Is Wolverine unkillable? Yet somehow the original Wolverine manages to kill the other Wolverine with his claws. So thats it for the penultimate Age of Ultron issue retconning galore, more time-travel nonsense, and another alternate timeline created. Was Hank able to safeguard his AI to prevent Ultron from becoming a robotic Hitler? Well have to wait until issue #10 to find out - which is also the issue were supposed to see Angela! This Event, eh? It should be called the Age of WTF.
Age of Ultron #9 by Brian Michael Bendis, Brandon Peterson, and Carlos Pacheco is out now