Uncanny Avengers #10 Review

The Uncanny Avengers #10

writer- Gerry Duggan

artist- Pepe Larraz

There was a war between the Avengers and the X-Men. Captain America pooled together a group using members of both teams, in hopes of encouraging peace between them. After the Terrigen Mists leaked all over the place, killing mutants and turing seemingly normal humans into super powered beings, the team also included the Inhumans in an effort to cut some of the tension. This team was named, The Unity Squad.

Previously in the series:

Apparently, the Avengers believed that their old buddy, Hank Pym, was killed by his evil robot creation, Ultron. Not too long ago, Hank showed up explaining that he and Ultron had merged. Hank claimed that he was in full control of his new robot body, and he began working with the Avengers once again. Captain America was a bit skeptical of these claims and quickly called in Hank's ex-wife, the Wasp, for a little back up and some sneaky spy work.

...and Now:

In issue #10, the Unity Squad runs to the call of monsters attacking people in the New York City subways. After the clean up stage, the Wasp asks Hank Pym to sit with her someplace private where they can talk. There seems to be a lot of awkward, “So, what have you been up to?” and “Who gave you that necklace?” Then their conversation gets down to the nitty-gritty. Wasp asks Hank what really happened and he talks about compromise and how both he and the robot finally admitted that that they were at least a little bit at fault. Of course this conversation is Wasp's way of trying to extract information from Hank Pym, so when the two part company she reports back to Captain America that Hank flunked every test and that Ultron is the one controlling him.

This book rocks. Ultron has been around since the early days of the Avengers and in my mind, it's taken this long for him to be interesting. Sure he can control computers by uploading his consciousness into them, and sure he's damn near indestructible, but it gets old. Thanks to writer, Gerry Duggan, an all-new/all-better Ultron has invaded the Marvel Universe in a way nobody expected. For the most part, I love it when old characters are turned into something new. Hank Pym was once Ant-Man. He was also Giant Man. And then he was just Hank. Now he's Ultron, and the thing that everyone said would bite him in the ass, has. It's fearless comic book writing. Duggan's not afraid to mess with Avengers history and he's into creating it. This is why I think Uncanny Avengers is one of Marvel's comics that really kicks @$$! Oh, and for pop culture icon collectors, Wasp uses a Ghostbusters reference to trick Hank Pym/Ultron into outing himself. Anyway, don't be afraid to pick this book up. It's well written with some killer dialogue and the art by Pepe Larraz is a little cartooney, but overall full of flavor and appropriate.  Pop into a comic shop near you and ask for it.