What If? Age of Ultron # 2

Cover Art: Christopher Stevens

Published: June 2014
Original Price: $3.99

Title: untitled
Writer: Joe Keatinge
Artist: Ramon Villalobos
Letterer: VC's Joe Sabino
Colorist: Ruth Redmond
Editor: Jon Moisan
Editor-in-Chief: Axel Alonso

SYNOPSIS
Due to the time-travel effects from the Age of Ultron, an alternate reality is created where Tony Stark died during his struggle with alcoholism, resulting in a takeover of his company by Obadiah Stane.  That, in turn, led to the "endless armor war" that ravaged the world.

Thirty years later, in Malta, an aged Wolverine interrupts a smuggling operation by mercenaries working for Stane Jr.  He's aided unexpectedly by a new Ghost Rider, a young man who says his power was passed to him by Danny Ketch.  They discover that the smugglers are in possession of the last of Stark's original Iron Man armors, but they are shot and left unconscious while Stane escapes with the armor.  When they wake up, the two decide to stick together to find some help.  In China they approach the Hulk, who is now a pacifist monk that refuses to help them.  They then go to Rutland, Vermont, where they find a married and retired Peter Parker.  Logan tells Peter that the new Ghost Rider is a kid who's family was killed by Stane's technology and his hate called demons to him, turning him into a monster.  Spider-Man reluctantly agrees to go, then they travel back to China and successfully convince the Hulk to join them, reuniting the "New Fantastic Four" once again.

The team travels to the Savage Land, where they find a giant Master Mold being used to mass produce Stark armor technology.  They fight their way into the Master Mold and locate Ezekiel Stane, who is holding the last of the Trask family, a little girl with the DNA of the Master Mold's creator, hostage.  Realizing that the only way to stop Stane is to disconnect the Stark armor from the Master Mold, Spider-Man removes the armor and causes a power overload, sacrificing himself in the process.  A week later, Wolverine delivers the news of Parker's death to his wife, then he, Hulk, Ghost Rider, and the little Trask girl say their goodbyes at his grave.

ANNOTATIONS
"Age of Ultron" was a 2013 crossover event that involved Ultron taking over the world via time travel.  In order to stop him, Wolverine committed more time travel actions that effectively "broke time" across the multiverse.  This act is what killed the Tony Stark of this story's universe, which deviates from the ending of 1983's Iron Man # 167.

This story is an alternate future reunion of the "New Fantastic Four", which included Spider-Man, Wolverine, the Hulk, and the Danny Ketch Ghost Rider.  They first appeared as a team in Fantastic Four (1961) # 347 and have made appearances in numerous What If? specials over the years.

REVIEW
It's yet another What If? special that features the New Fantastic Four, boy they sure do pop up a lot in alternate reality stories, don't they?

This was the only issue of the What If? Age of Ultron mini-series that I picked up and I'm left wondering if all the issues contained a premise that had absolutely nothing to do with the Age of Ultron?  I'm assuming that the rather tenuous connection of "broken time" is what they used to justify this story, and probably the entire mini-series, but it doesn't have anything to do with the actual Ultron does it?  He's right there on the cover with Iron Man, who does at least provide an influence on the plot, even though it's only slightly less tenuous than the story's ties to the crossover it's supposedly spinning out from. 

Taken solely as an excuse to the New FF band back together, Blues Brothers style, the comic mostly works.  It takes a really strange narrative jump to thirty years into some dystopian future that doesn't really do much to establish that it's a dystopia.  Other than a flashback panel showing some dead Avengers and the back-story for the new nameless Ghost Rider, it just looks like the regular world.  Peter Parker has a house in the suburbs, the Hulk and Wolverine have moved into some really weird phases of their lives, but the rest of the world seems to be ticking along just fine despite all the talk of how much Stane's armor war affected everything.  It just seems really odd to me that a story all about Iron Man, or the absence of Tony Stark at least, is used to justify these four characters coming back together. 

The real selling point for the story is the artwork by Ramon Villalobos, though I could see it being pretty divisive among more traditionalist comic readers.  His work has this rough look that's only enhanced by its doughy animation style, but those two elements don't clash as much as you might imagine.  His work is obviously influenced by Frank Quitely, though I don't consider that to be a bad thing, there are far less interesting artists to learn style techniques from.  He makes some really interesting design choices, such as Wolverine looking like an old sea captain, which do add some credence to the "thirty years later" setting. 

I'm frankly sick to death of New Fantastic Four reunion stories.  They all miss the point of the original Simonson/Adams story and never seem to have much of anything to say other than "hey, wasn't it cool when these guys were a team thirty years ago?".  This one is slightly better than some of the other New FF comics, but not by a wide margin.

Grade: C+