Age Of Ultron (#1-10) PART TWO

"You think this world is a better place?  You absolute fool" - Tony Stark

Wrapping up the second half of this 2013 Marvel Event Comic, that has nothing to do with the film Avengers: Age Of Ultron except they both have Ultron doing bad things in them.  Ultron launched a massive attack on Earth targetting all the major cities with biomechanial machines, flattening them and using his Ultron army to patrol and deal with any survivors.  The few heroes left in New York, minus many of the heavies like Thor, Hulk and Ben Grimm who were all killed, gathered under Central Park.  They formulated a plan that got Luke Cage into Ultron's base where he found the top half of Vision overseeing things. Ultron is using him to attack from the future.  Luke Cage is mortally wounded by the nuclear blast that his escape triggers but makes it to the Savage Land to pass that information on to the other heroes who arrive there after him.  They then break into Nick Fury's bunker where he was waiting for them.  He tells them he is going to take them into the future and take the fight to Ultron directly using Doctor Doom's time machine.  Wolverine says they should be going back in time and killing Dr. Henry "Ant Man" Pym who was the one who created the A.I. that evolved into Ultron. After Fury and his merry band take off to the future, Wolverine pops his claws and says he wants to be sent back, no arguments, this is what will happen. So now the conclusion.  Writer is Brian Michael Bendis, art is by Brian Hitch and is joined by Brandon Peterson and Carlos Pacheco.  They styles blend quite well thanks to the millions of inkers, but the other two pencillers render their heroes less rugged and gritty looking and not so much detail.  The story now tightens its focus and Wolverine and Sue Richards step up to carry the rest of the storyline.

We begin with Wolverine in the Savage Land, Antartica, "Years Ago". He notes that everything is alive so that's a good sign, then he says "you can show yourself" and Sue Richards who can turn invisible as one of her many psychic powers.   She asks if his mutant senses detected her and he says it was that and the fact neither have showered in at least a week.  He then asks what she is doing here, "I thought you went on the future time suicide mission with Fury and the others."

She says she had a last minute change of heart. She saw the look in his eye and knew the moment he was told not to try something like this he was going to to something like this.  He asks if she is here to stop him, but she surpises him by saying "honestly, I don't know.  I know in my heart there is a right thing and a wrong thing..."  Wolverine says it isn't complicated, she says it is, but he asks her if she would kill someone to save her kids?  Because this is it times a billion.

Sue: "I lost my children and... and my husband and my brother... and I didn't get to say goodbye."

Wolverine says to keep those feelings and use them. Then he grabs her and tells her to cloak them.   They spot Nick Fury landing in his flying car and going into a cave.  So Sue and Wolverine car-jack him and start flying to New York.

Logan and Sue, the dynamic duo.

In the future the heroes have arrived and they realise Sue is missing.  Nick is vexed because she was the stealth component of the mission.  But Tony says that her cloaking abilities wouldn't have worked against Ultron.  So Fury orders Quicksilver to do a speedrun to Manhattan to check things out, the rest are going to follow by flying courtesty of Storm's wind manipulation powers.

Wolverine and Sue land in New York, and we cut to Henry Pym in his lab, he analysing a monster dead on his table. As he does so he goes on a very long monologue about artificial intelligence and comes up with the idea of creating an A.I. that can learn and grow into "something greater than the human mind can even imagine".  He thinks it would enhance other technology and end war and disease, "it's the best thing that could happen to us... as a people.  As a species".

Wolverine interupts him saying "it just happened didn't it?"  That this was the moment Henry doomed the world. When Henry asks who he is, Wolverine says "I'm the ghost of christmas future." Henry says he picked the wrong place to break into, but coldly Wolverine says that he comes from a place where everything he knows and loves will be gone, because of Henry Pym.   Henry asks if he knows who he is, Wolverine says that evryone knows who he is.

Wolverine: "And I know enough to know ain't nothin' gonna stop you from being you. And any small chance you would is a chance I ain't willing to take."

And he pops his claws, so Henry grows to giant size and grabs hold of Wolverine.  In the future, the hero brigade arrive at New York City to find it a mass of technological buildings which Tony can't help but call "beautiful."  But there is no humans left, only Ultron.

Henry Pym doesn't just grow smaller.

Red Hulk says they are too close then suddenly a flock of Ultrons home in on them and battle commences in the sky.   They manage to take out the first wave, but more missiles start flying and the heroes begin to die, Captain America being graphically decapitated being a highlight.

In the past, Henry drops Wolverine yelling "what are you made of?" at him.  Wolverine slashes his gut and Henry ends up bent double.  Wolverine says he knows Henry did good in the world so this isn't easy for him.  Before he can strike the deathblow, Sue comes in.  Henry recognises her and begs for her help.  She stammers that there has to be a line they do not cross.

Wolverine holds his claws to Henry's head and shouts at Sue to remember her husband and kids if he doesn't do this they will all end up gone.  And Sue sheds a tear whispering "all those people".  And Wolverine shoves his claws right through Henry's head.  She looks unwell and asks Wolverine "now what?"  He says they go home and know that whatever is waiting for them "we know it's got to be better than what we left."

Henry gets stabbed to death.

Travelling back to the time machine in the Savage Land, Sue is quiet.  Wolverine says she chose to get herself involved.  She asks him how many people he has killed in his life and he says "nobody who didn't have it coming".  She tartly responds that they struck down a true hero in the prime of his life, that Ultron created Vision and he was one of the greatest Avengers, "without them, what will the world be like?"

Wolverine insists it has got to be better than what they left behind.  He parks the car a way away from the hideout in the hope that Nick Fury in this time period won't use it so they can pick it up when the return to the future. Present. Future present. 

Suddenly a Tyranosaur!  Wolverine is about to slay it but Sue creates a temporary forcefield bubble round it's jaws and it wanders off leaving them alone. They reach the time machine and travel to their own time.  And they find the Savage Land is now a graveyard of wrecked spaceships.  They find a Skrull skull and Sue says some of the ship look Kree.  Sue ponders that the Kree/Skrull war must have reached Earth in this reality whereas before the Avengers stopped it before that happened. 

They overhear several guards in red and gold armour talking about working for "Starkguard".  Sue queries this to Wolverine who just mutters he'll get the car. They reach New York in the flying car to find the ominous prescence of multiple helicarriers, some greay, some red and gold.  "What have we done?!" says Sue holding her head in her hands.  Grumpily Wolverine says "the world's still here ain't it?" Then their car is hit by an energy blast.  Sue and Wolverine crashland the car and suddenly an eye-patched Captain America, brown costume Wolverine, Thing, Hulk, Wasp, Dr. Strange and a couple of others I don't recognise fly down saying they can't just waltz into American airspace, "not without The Defenders having something to say about it!"

The defensive Defenders.

Wasp says the pair of them are "dumb Skrulls". Thing says to Sue, "are you back?"  One of the others says he doesn't think they are Skrulls, it's some other weird thing.  So she says maybe it's a "Le Fey trick".  Brown Wolverine holds his claws to Wolverine's throat and tells him to start talking.  Sue blasts them and she and Wolverine take off.  Thing says that it might really be Sue, while brown Wolverine says Wolverine smells just like him.

As Sue and Wolverine run, he says it's hopeless to try and evade the other him once he's got the scent.  The Defenders catch them up, and Sue and Dr Strange do a bit of of psychic stuff at each other, while both Wolverines fight.  Hulk manages to grab hold of Sue saying if she knew anything about Sue and Reed Richards she'd know they left and haven't been back to Earth in ages.

She manages to escape him, only to be blasted by Wasp.  Meanwhile Wolverine decides to end the fight between him and his alt by crushing his face into a wall then practically slicing him in half.  As he stands over brown Wolverine he says that he'll heal, he'll ave his team and his friends and maybe a girl in the future, "it cost us our souls to have this, so try to make the most of it."

But as he goes to leave the restaurant kitchen they crashed into, Thing punches him through the door knocking him out.   Wasp says they can't be Skrulls because they turn back into their alien form when unconcious. Captain America, who is actually Colonel America in this reality asks Dr. Strange if he has ever seen anything like this before.  Dr. Strange says "I think we need to talk to him".  And then Tony Stark, look way more bionic than usual appears, backed up by a horde of flying robots and says "who wants to tell their Uncle Tony exactly what's going on around here?"

And Uncle Tony Starkguard.

We then jump to a while later, Tony is suspended in the air examining the memories of Sue and Wolverine who are imprisoned aboard his helicarrier.  The memories are floating around him across a double page spread showing various famous incidence from the prime reality. He seems almost overwhelmed by what he sees, telling Jarvis "it's not every day you see an entire alternate timeline unfold in front of you."

He has Professor Charles Xavier and Emma Frost with him whose telepathic abilities extracted the memories. Tony asks Xavier to tell him it isn't real and he's just gone mad.   But Xavier and Emma say Wolverine is Wolverine, "just not our Wolverine".  Just as the Sue Richards isn't the same as the one from this reality.

Xavier: "The narrative inside each of their heads is identical... you cannot... you cannot fake that kind of psychic synchronicity."

Emma also says that the past few weeks they've both experienced the same kind of horrible memories.  Tony asks if Morgana Le Fey could have planted these memories.  Could they be a clone/trojan horse about to blow up in their faces?  Emma says if Morgana is that good, "she wins".

Xavier says that he thinks this is exactly what it appears to be, and Tony says these lunatics "have broken the timeline".  Emma says at least they are not dead at the hands of a homicidal A.I. Brown Wolverine wants to interrogate Wolverine but Tony says to send The Defenders away, especially Colonel America, "last thing I need is an earful of his mouth".  And he wants no one else knowing about this.

Emma asks if he wants her to wipe the memories from The Defenders' brains.  Xavier says he doesn't want her doing that.  Tony asks for an old S.H.I.E.L.D files on the investigation into Henry Pym's death.  The lab security footage especially.  Then we cut to him standing over Wolverine who is shackled to a chair.  He tells him that for a long time they thought Henry was murdered by Skrulls. When Wolverine asks for a beer, Tony tells him "you're so like yourself it's scary".

Wolverine asks what happened to Tony's body.  Tony tells him he lost half of it in the Latveria-Asgard wars, which was the last time he saw Thor.  He was ripped in half trying to stop Morgana Le Fey from conquering half of the world including Europe.   It seems none of this would have happened if Henry was alive.  He shows the security footage to Wolverine.

Tony: "You killed my very good friend.  The Avengers broke up soon after this.  Magic won in a battle against technology.  Asgard abandoned us. You broke the world."

Sue is also shackled to a chair in another room though she has been left on her own.  When no one comes to speak to her she begins to use her powers to free her from the dampening cuffs she is bound with, straining so hard she gets a nosebleed.

Sue begins to escape.

Back with Tony and Wolverine, Wolverine asks to go but Tony says where wil he go?  Wolverine asks if he is under arrest now.  Tony changes the subject asking is he knows what the butterfly effect is?  Wolverine says that's his whole life, did he think he did the wrong thing because he killed the man who left his world dead because he made a robot in his basement.

Tony says it was not a robot, it was an A.I.  Did he try and talk Henry out of it?  Wolverine says it didn't take, building things to people like him and Tony is like a religion to them. So you killed him says Tony.  "That's my religion" says Wolverine.  When Tony asks if he thinks he is the selfless hero who saved the world, Wolverine just says "bub, I ain't proud of myself."

On the Stark helicarrier deck, The Defenders are getting restless. Emma Frost and Professor Xavier come up to talk to them and politely tells them to get lost. Brown Wolverine is pissed at this, Emma tells him to settle down.  But as they argue, Thing suddenly pushes past saying "screw this" he wants to talk with Sue.  Emma tells him to stop or she'll shut down his brain, but Dr. Strange casts a disorientation spell on her and Xavier and they run inside the helicarrier.

Tony is still talking to Wolverine saying why didn't he think of suggesting something like a time release virus?  If both Reed Richards and Tony Stark had been alive they could have helped create one. "Well he wasn't and you didn't" retorts Wolverine.  As The Defenders crash their way through the carrier, Tony suggests another approach they could have gone back in time and had Henry Pym installed something in his original Ultron program.  The world would have unravelled as it was supposed to, "and just as this artificial intelligence was about to achieve his ultimate goal..."

Tony interrogates Wolverine.

But he's cut off by The Defenders arriving at the cell area, Thing demands Sue's cell be opened.  Suddenly the carrier goes into lockdown and Tony cries "you son of a bitch. That was quite a trick Le Fey!" Much to Wolverine's utter confusion.   Inside Sue's cell however is an empty chair and unlocked shackles.  As they have opened the door she sneaks out while invsible.

But Tony says he can see her and he's going to kill her for what she's done.  He calls Emma Frost to keep The Defenders aboard, she has just recovered from the brain scrambling.  Tony tells Sue she was on a suicide mission, she just says "I have no idea what you're talking about. I just want to see my kids!"

Then we get a double-page spread of Morgana Le Fey riding a dragon, followed by many flying knights.  The Defenders fly out to engage her despite Colonel America saying "we're not ready!  We're not nearly ready!"  Then a couple of montage pages of the battle in the sky as all the heroes clash with Morgana Le Fey.  Tony yells he doesn't know what her timeline plan of hers is but it won't work.  She says she has no idea what he's talking about but he should turn around because she doesn't want him to miss what happens next.  And she sends two helicarriers careening into each other and they go down in flames together.

Oh dear.

In the rubble of the Daily Bugle lie the smashed and broken bodies of all the heroes,  Wolverine comes around in  a killing rage and deals with an attacking Le Fey soldier.  Then a half crushed Tony grabs his leg and weakly says he knows Wolverine is going to travel back in time again to try and fix this, but he mustn't. There is a reason why although they have access to time travel they don't do it to change things the way they want because they can't:

Tony: "Time is an organism.  It's part of us.  It lives and breathes and everytime you travel through it. You rip it.  You tear it.  You hurt it.  If you keep doing it eventually you will kill it.  You'll break it beyond repair.  What will happen when time is dead.  What happens when you kill it?  It's not just us... we're not alone in the universe."

And he dies.  Wolverine walks resolutely off.  We then get a repeat of the scene where the Wolverine who travelled back in time with Sue is confronting Henry Pym, who once again turns huge and grabs him.  Outside Sue is wrestling with her conscience.  Then a passing figure knocks her out.  Inside Wolverine is about to jam his claws through Pym's head when his future self who travelled back from the Morgana Le Fey future appears clad in his original yellow suit which was all he could find to wear in Nick Fury's bunker.

Yellow Wolverine tells Wolverine that killing Pym won't work.  Henry breaks free and demands to know what is going on.  Yellow Wolverine tells him to stand down and listen.  He then tells Wolverine he kills Pym and he'll go home to a mess as big as the one he is trying to stop.  Wolverine is suspicious of him and thinks he might be sent by Captain America or Ultron, so Yellow Wolverine reveals a name that only the real Wolverine would know the meaning of.

Time for a better plan.

Henry Pym sits now somewhat fascinated.  He asks who they are and how they are travelling through time.  Yellow Wolverine says that Tony Stark gave him a plan but he can't execute it, he tells Henry he's an Avenger and knows everyone Henry knows.  The A.I. he is going to make will turn into Ultron, when Henry says he won't make it, Yellow Wolverine tells him that he has too, but just not the part where "Ultron mops the world with us."

How could that possibly work asks Henry?  Yellow Wolverine tells him Tony's idea, something he puts in it now but doesn't activate until the thing is about "to go full blown".  But before that happens there will have to be several close calls and Henry says if he knows, how can he allow those to happen?  Sue then appears saying "you'll have to make yourself forget."

Henry is surprised to see her especially looking older. Then she points at Yellow Wolverine saying "you hit me!"  He says he was just trying to stop her from not stopping him killing Henry.  Sue says she was going to stop him killing Henry and Wolverine says "no. You weren't."  She wants to call Reed but Wolverine says it's better if they keep things to themselves.  Henry lays it out, he has to create an A.I. that doesn't exist yet.  Put a time release program in it that doesn't exist yet.  Make himself forget about it and get on with his life.  How does he do this exactly?

We then jump forward a short while to both Wolverines and Sue close to Fury's safehouse in the Savage Land.  Sue asks if both of them are coming back with her now, which would be a paradox.  But grimly Yellow Wolverine agrees to die to prevent that.  He tells Wolverine he didn't see what he saw in the Le Fey timeline, "we don't wanna live with it" when asked if what he saw was bad.  "This is going to haunt me" says Wolverine and he pops his claws as the other says, "you know exactly what to do."

Wolverine returns to Sue alone, blood dripping from his claws while we see a montage of Henry Pym creating something. Wen Sue sees Wolverines bloody claws and just the one of him she is shocked. Wearily Wolverine just says "let's just go back from where we came from."  We then see Pym sitting on the floor of his lab only to be startled by a cylindrical robot that says "no need to plug me in daddy... I'm alive... just like you..."

Ultron should have conquered the world looking like this.

So we begin the final chapter "Some months ago" in Henry Pym's New York Laboratory. Suddenly a message pings on his computer which says "Open Your Door, Doctor".  With some trepidation he does so and finds a small package.  Inside is a storage device that says "Play Me."

What comes up on screen is the younger Henry Pym, he tells him that he won't remember making the video it was very important he didn't remember until today.

Past Henry: "The world had to keep turning.  Everything had to get to this day.  It wasa probably, hopefully for the best.  But if you're seeing this video that means at least we still have a fighting chance."

He tells him that it's because of Ultron and the worst has happened, or is about to happen.  Of all the things they messed up in their lives, this was the big one.  To make it right they have one chance, so this is what's going to happen...

He tells Present Day Pym that a special Avengers operation is going to lead to a hideout where a group of intelligent criminal masterminds have teamed up.  They call themselves the intelligentsia, Pym won't be part of either team.  Then we see the current line-up of the Avengers "assemble" which includes a Yellow suited Wolverine (hey... doesn't that mean Logan and Sue returning from the past are going to arrive in this timeline where they already exist?), Ms. Marvel, Thor, Beast and Iron Man amongst others are on the team. 

Turned out they kidnapped Jessica Jones and Ms. Marvel dishes out some righteous punching for that to the Intelligentsia who give up without much of a fight.  One of them was a Spaceknight whose energy trail they were able to follow to find her.  Then Henry calls Tony up and tells him he's sending him something.

Meanwhile golden lights start shimmering round a figure where the Intelligentsia were which they insist just turned itself on by itself.  Henry sends him code, as Tony queries it Henry promises to explain later.  He tells Tony:

Henry: "Tony! Listen to me.  This is it.  Don't ask me how I know.  But this is the moment.  This is our nightmare.  Launch the code Tony, or we're all going to die.  Ultron is back."

And Ultron stands wreathed in light.  As the rest of the Avengers get stuck in fighting. Henry tell Tony it has to be now, it's a kill code that is very specific to a backdoor code portal built into him.  Into the deepest recesses of his primary program.

Less dorky Ultron.

Ultron starts to get distracted as the Avengers hammer on him and the code is uploaded into him.  Ultron demands to know how they were so prepared for him, "this has more ingenuity than you are capable of, Anthony Stark.  I feel my father's hand in this."  Ultron says he has made updates to his program too since he gave birth to him.  He says he is decoding the code as it is uploaded, closing the backdoor as he opens it, "you anger me.  You insult me." Tony says he is not sure he can hold out much longer, but the upload hits 99%, then installing. Then...

... a raging Ultron swearing vengeance on mankind and hatred for his father suddenly shuts down and falls from the sky.  Thor belts him and Ultron shatters into pieces. Tony asks him what he did and Henry says he sent what looked like an average backdoor trojan, but when Ultron tried to recode it, it triggered a self replicating virus that was implanted in him at his creation.  By the time he realised. Nothing was left of him.  When Tony asks why he didn't use it before, Henry says he didn't have it before. 

Wolverine and Sue fly the car back to New York and all looks well.  They land ontop of a tall building and Sue hugs Wolverine saying she takes back almost everything she said to him.  She leaves to go see her family, while Wolverine rests his arms on the wall looking out over the city expressing his desire to sleep for a millenium.  But cracks appear and we get a two page montage of various characters experiencing blurred moments of alternate reality versions of themselves.  And then space-time shatters, cracks radiating out from Earth before returning to normal.

Oopsy.

Discussing what happened, Tony, Henry and Hank McCoy have found out Wolverine managed to break time.  Although they have all time travelled before this must have been one time to many.

Tony: "These readings are insane. We're teetering on multiversal chaos."

Hank: "Plus we know we're not alone in the universe.  Imagine these tears in time and space reaching out through all of time and space.  Imagine other universes affected".

And we cut to Miles Morales, the Spider-man of the Ultimate Marvel Universe suddenly finding himself coming face-to-face with the Galactus rising out of lightning cracks in the sky.

Later Henry says he can't stop thinking about building an A.I. to help create a growing infrastructure which could support humanity's next steps.  That would help us reveal "our highest potential".  The point of Ultron was to support every thought, imagination, "I know what I did wrong now.  I know what I have to do."

Finally we hear but don't see someone out in space close to Earth saying "what is happening to me?  I don't understand.  I don't know how I got here.  I don't know who's responsible".  And we turn the page to find out that it's Miraclem... Angela?!  OK well let's go with it, she's a Neil Gaimen creation for the Spawn series and in her own words:

Angela: "I am an angel from the heavens and I will not be disrespected.  Whoever did this to me... whoever brought me here against my will... my name is Angela.  I'm coming to end you".

I could only scan half the page but she is riding a giant skull, which is pretty metal.

And with that this event comic ends.  I really enjoy this one, it's definitely one of the easiest to read without need to read an insane number of tie-ins.  I have considered covering Infinite Crisis as well, but there were so many tie-in mini's that haven't been released in trade format I would spend too much time explaining who was who and what they had previously been up to.  Like all time travel stories that deal with multiple realities there are plenty of logical flaws you could point out like the duplicate Wolverine and Sue back in the repaired present, so I am choosing to handwave that as being solved by the time crash at the end.  There was much more bang for your buck if you care about how long a comic takes to read in this five issues, but I am adamant that you needed those slow paced double page spreads of the utter destruction of the Earth to really show what the stakes were and how things had got so bad Sue could stand by and watch a man she called a friend be murdered for a mistake he had yet to make.  I liked her and Wolverine together, their waspish banter again showed how living through Ultron's holocaust had changed things for them both.  And I thought the Just As Bad Present was fascinating.  I love the old "For Want Of A Nail" trope in fiction and Henry Pym was a pretty big nail, losing him depriving the world also of Vision and the other offspring of Ultron that weren't meglomaniac mecha-Hitlers.  The artwork is much more "trad" in these issues, but perhaps it suits heavier focus on heroes at their brightly coloured best rather than tatty and grimy after weeks on the run from Ultron's enforcers.  Now I am not a Marvel scholar, but I was under the impression that this was setting things up for the universal reboot of a couple of years later that saw the end of the Ultimate Marvelverse.  As for Angela, I don't know how she fit into the mainstream Marvelverse.  She seems an odd fit for it, and I am sure my resident Marvel expert in the comments will fill me in on what happened next with her.  So if you like event comics this is definitely one of the top tier.  Epic, well written and drawn and it's nice to see a team up between two characters from series that were Marvel pariahs then because they didn't own the movie rights for them.  Top marks.

Age Of Ultron (#1-10) PART ONE

"Welcome to the end of the world" - Nick Fury

Time for my first event comic and I've always had a bit of love/hate relationship with them.  On the one hand it's always exciting seeing all the company's characters teaming up for a massive adventure.  On the other hand they disrupt on-going storylines and can cut short promising runs especially for smaller titles.  And they are a right pain to deal with when it comes to trade collections as a storyline is put on hold for a crossover that the reader may very well have no idea about due to only following a series casually via collections.  Some trades are classy enough to include a little explanation, but most will leave you flumoxed as all of a sudden your favourite characters become embroiled in an story in which Nothing Will Be The Same Again, only to pick up where they left off right afterwards.  I've decided to look at the ten issue 2013 Marvel event comic Age of Ultron, written by  Alias scribe Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by British artist Brian Hitch because it's the one I genuinely like the best of all I've read and reads pretty well on its own sans tie-ins.  It has nothing to do with the Age of Ultron Avengers film, not least because X-Man Wolverine and Sue Richards of the Fantastic Four are two of the main protagonists and at that time they were owned by Fox not Marvel Studios hence the entirely different filmic adventure.  I am proceeding on the assumption that readers are familiar with all the Marvel characters involved in this adventure, so lets continue with the first half of this story.

We open upon a New York that is in ruins.  Some villains led by Leland Owlsley (one of Daredevil's rogue gallery) comes out of a house that is still standing to invite in a confused looking young woman.   Suddenly Hawkeye appears telling her to run away as he barges into the house.  Downstairs is another woman and the assorted baddies are offering her various drugs.  Hawkeye cocks his bow and tells them to leave her alone.

There is a scuffle and people end up with arrows stuck in them including the woman who got aggressive when she realise she wasn't going to get her fix.  The villains retreat to the basement and Hammerhead says if the can capture an Avenger they'll "we can sell him to the big guy as well.  An Avenger buys us a lot of free passes."

But using a variety of arrows including exploding ones Hawkeye takes them all down and we finally see what Hawkeye has come for.  A bedraggled, barely concious Spider-man, his mask off his costume ripped to his waist.  Hawkeye pops something in Peter's mouth to pep him up a bit and Peter says he loves Hawkeye.  Owsley then tries to give an ultimatum that Hawkeye and Spider-man should fight and they'll let the winner go.  But Hawkeye fights his way out with Spider-man staggering in his wake.

Ultrons over New York.

Unfortunately the commotion has attracted the attention of some floating robotmen who all look like Ultron.  They command everyone to exit the premises immediately.  Owlsey shouts up at them that they paid, "there was an understanding!"  But the robots just impassively start firing on the building, and all the villains are killed in an explosion.  However that gives Hawkeye and Spider-man and opportunity to escape.

Spider-man: "Thanks for the rescue, Hawkeye.  And I... didn't get you anything."

He asks if there are others and Hawkeye says "not enough" and they run through the ruined streets. Until they arrive at a makeshift base.  Hawkeye says this won't be pleasant, but Spider-man says it can't be worse than the week he just had.

Inside Luke Cage lunges at Hawkeye saying they told him that if he left he shouldn't have come back. Hawkeye retorts that he was bringing him back and to get off him.  She-Hulk demands Tony Stark (Iron Man) check them over.  So he presses a scanning tool to various bits of Spidey and Hawkeye's anatomy and he declares them clean, of things that you know of says Luke darkly.

Spider-man has collapsed and Hawkeye says "could one of you 'heroes' help the poor guy.  He's been through a lot."  She-Hulk says how do they know nothing followed them, but them Emma Frost of the X-Men comes over and says "there clean. Leave them alone."  Luke says irritatedly that Hawkeye was told he wouldn't be welcomed back, and Hawkeye says he wasn't going to give up on what was left of their friends. 

Luke says there are rules they have to live by if they don't want to die. Hawkeye says they are going to die and he'd rather live what time they have left the way he wants to.

Hawkeye: "And I'm not going to let what happened change the value of my life.  And shame on the rest of you. Shame on you for giving up."

She-Hulk says that no one game up, but Hawkeye spreads his arms and says what do they call this? Tony Stark says they have no plan.  Hawkeye says "whose fault is that?"  Tony says he's thinking.  Hawkeye says is that what you call it as we see Captain America sat on the floor, head bowed, his arms crossed on his knees looking utterly defeated.

Should have asked Squirrel Girl for help.

We then cut to a hooded female figure walking through the ruins of San Francisco.  Flying robots pass overhead but don't see her.  Then a shaky looking man points a gun at her and demands she hand over anything she has, a car, food, anything.  She talks back to him sending him more panicky and he says he's going to shoot her.  But she says if he was he would have done, he's a coward.  She pulls away her hood to reveal she is Black Widow with a horrific burn scar on her face.

Black Widow: "Did you get to watch your family die?  Do you think they watch you now?"

And then he is shot in the head by a sniper who was watching over her.  She and him have a quick conversation via sign language in which they agree to meet up back at the safe house.  She tucks herself into the rubble as some civilians run by before being obliterated by the the robotic Ultrons.

She makes it back to the safe house and meets up with the sniper who is Moon Knight. She says that that the hospital is the worst place so far, she thought it would take "just a little longer for humanity to completely collapse in on itself".  Moon Knight asks if there have been any word from the outside world.  Black Widow says everyone is "dead or dying... it's getting worse."

Moon Knight turns his attention to where they are.  It's one of Nick Fury's safehouses.  He has a huge board with photos of all the heroes and villains pinned to it.  Black Widow says this looks like the place he holed up in during the Skrull Invasion (see Secret Invasion a previous Event Comic).  It's currently "the safest place in the universe."

Black Widow and Moon Knight in a Fury safehouse.

Moon Knight queries what if Ultron hacks into S.H.I.E.L.D files and finds all Fury's vaction spots.  Black Widow says that Fury never wrote anything down.  The machine can't find this place because nobody knows it exists.  Moon Knight says it was lucky they were both running a black ops mission when everything went to hell.   He says that they have to find someone else, there must be others who made it through this.  Black Widow says quietly that she doesn't mind going out, they are all going to eventually, and Moon Knight says they won't go until they take Ultron with them.

Back under Central Park where New York's surviving heroes are gathered. Spider-man is telling his story.  He first tells them he is Peter Parker, aliases seem pointless now.  Peter says he was asleep when everything started, at first he thought the strain of everything he'd been through had cracked him.  He almost welcomed that as a reason.  Somone off panel asks him what he saw and we get a double page flashback of himm swinging through the streets as a huge robotic construction crushes buildings and squats over Manhattan.

Flashback to Spider-man on the day of the attack.

Back in the present he asks if it's just Manhattan but they have assumed it's everywhere, they have to assume because they can't get anything into the air, not even an Avengers copter or plane.  Apparently Washington D.C. is just gone, like it never existed which is one fact they do know.  Peter puts his head in his hands and goes silent for a moment.  Then he says he saw a white flash and next thing he knew he woke up drugged and tied to a chair.

Peter then tells them they were going to sell him to Ultron. Tony Stark is confused by this.  Luke cage also says that why would Ultron need him and why would he need those goons to bring Peter to him. Peter says he doesn't know, "I don't think it's a matter of need.  Maybe just want."  But he's not an expert on world destroying artificial organisms.

He was under the distinct impression that they had done it before, "bartered a person of interest".  Storm comments that it conquers the world and barters with trash.  Luke says maybe Peter heard it wrong.  Peter just says are they going to do something now?  When Tony Stark says "survive", Peter says that isn't something. Suddenly Captain America stands:

Captain America: "No it's not...but that's because we didn't have a plan. Until now."

We then cut to She-Hulk and Luke Cage approaching the huge metallic structure. They check they are alone then Luke tells her to brace herself.  She-Hulk asks if he wants to switch?  Luke says that's not the plan and he punches her hard in the face, knocking her out.  He lifts her limp body up and makes his way into the metallic structure.

Luke Cage PAWNCH!

We return to the rest of New York heroes about one hour before.  They list several of the people they have lost, Cyclops, Thor, Hulk, Benjamin Grimm.  Peter asks Luke about Jessica Jones and their baby.  Luke doesn't answer, his face shrouded in darkness. They didn't make it.

Captain America then lays out his plan. Now they know Ultron is bartering for superheroes, they'll give it something to barter with. Storm still doesn't understand why a robot that could destroy the world is doing deals with "low renters?"  Tony Stark says Ultron was created to have human needs and desires, and those like "revenge, torture, hate" he's programmed himself to act this way.  Let's say he won, he took the world.  "Maybe it's not enough" says Emma Frost.

Hawkeye says a big "screw Hank Pym for inventing Ultron in the first place?"  Tony says it's not his fault.  This angers Hawkeye, who points out that him rescuing Spider-man got him treated like a pariah but Hank Pym gets a free pass for inventing the thing that shuts down the world.  Captain America yells at them, saying none of that matters now.  If Ultron is buying and trading for superheroes they should give him one.

They can use that to see how far one of them can get into Ultron's world, grab some intel and maybe do some real damage.  It would have to be someone sturdy who can take the punishment, both She-Hulk and Luke Cage say "I'll go" at the same time.  Emma tells them that Tony is about to tell them both they aren't going.  But She-Hulk says she isn't sitting around here one second longer, so Luke says he'll be the one who sells her.

Wolverine says that should be him, but Captain America says with his adamantium bones he'd just be seen as the bigger prize by Ultron, "he will flay you alive the second he sees you, strip you for parts and who knows what else." Tony agrees.   She-Hulk says that if by some miracle they make it out, they can't come back here again.   Captain says to meet up at the Mutate Village in The Savage Land.  The rest of them are going to travel there now and hope they have enough vegetation and supplies to get themselves back on their feet.

We return to Luke carrying She-Hulk now inside the Ultron base.  He says he is here to do a deal.  Elsewhere in Chicago Red Hulk, Taskmaster and Black Panther are scouting out the land.  Taskmaster spots an Ultron and Red Hulk goes bounding after it. He manages to rip its head off but wasn't fast enough to avoid attracting more attention from other Ultrons.  Red Hulk tosses the head at Black Panther and roars at him to go.  The Ultron unleash a barrage of energy blasts.  Red Hulk smashes them all to bits, but falling rubble causes Black Panther to fall and break his neck.  Taskmaster takes the Ultron head from him and runs.

Dun-dun-duuuuh!

Inside the Ultron base, Luke Cage can only mutter "Sweet Christmas" as he is lead to the centre. They show him across a bridge to a column of light and a horrified Luke Cage sees who is controlling this all.  It's not Ultron, hovering there, missing his lower half is Vision who flatly says "Luke Cage.  What do you offer?"

Luke asks to speak with Ultron but Vision just repeats himself.  Then says Ultron can see and hear them.  Vision goes quiet for a moment then he yells:

Vision: "He controls from the future!  He watches and controls us all from the fuaaagh!  Aaarrgghh!"

And his torso contorts in pain.  Luke mutters to himself that Ultron isn't even here.  Then Vision asks what does he offer again.  She-Hulk suddenly says she's heard enough, she starts fighting the Ultrons while telling Luke to get back and tell Tony what he saw here and she punches him away sending him crashing through the shell of the structure.

As she battles the Ultrons she says to herself that she told him she was stronger and that she is almost the strongest there is.  Then one of the Ultron's fires a thin energy beam through her skull, killing her instantly.  Vision bows his head.  As Luke falls Ultrons attack him, he fights them shouting that they killed his wife and baby. He crashes into a building and then from a distance we see a huge nuclear explosion which he is at ground zero of envelope a portion of the city.

In San Francisco Moon Knight wakes up with a start.   Black Widow asks if he was having a bad dream, he says he dreamed the world ended and he was hiding out in one of Nick Fury's secret bunkers with Black Widow.  Black Widow says that Fury has several emergency bunkers for end of the world scenarios.   One of which is in the Savage Land. Where there might be others.  All they have to do is sneak out of the city and find there way down there.

The rest of the heroes are flying out of the city, Storm is using her wind control powers to keep the non-flyers aloft and Sue Richards is using her psychic powers to keep them all invisible.  They hear the blast that caught Luke Cage and they hope Luke and She-Hulk weren't caught up in it and they carry on out of the city.

Red Hulk and Taskmaster.

In Chicago, Red Hulk has caught up with Taskmaster, he has a headless Ultron body tied to his back.  Red Hulk accuses him of "abandoning ship" and when Taskmaster says he was sticking to the plan to grab some Ultron tech and get out the city Red Hulk kills him saying "I don't trust you."

We then jump forwards eight days.  The heroes have arrived in The Savage Land only to find the place is in a worse state than New York.   But there doesn't appear to be any Ultrons hanging around.  They plan to head inland to the Citadel when Ka-Zar, the Lord of the Savage Land appears.  He leads them to his village and tells them that what they seek is here.  Luke Cage made it here before them.

Using her psychic powers, Emma Frost reads his mind from outside saying he survived a nuclear blast but he's dying.  He found a plane and piloted it here and when it crashed he dragged himself the rest of the way. He knows Ultron's secret, that he's actually controlling things from the future and using the Vision as a conduit.  Tony says that explains alot. 

Ka-Zar and The Savage Land.

Wolverine starts to tell them Luke has died but trails off. Emma says he should have died in the blast but hung on so he could tell them what they needed to do next.  Suddenly Red Hulk, Black Widow and Moon Knight appear saying that they'll go get Ultron and wipe him from existence and "God Bless Nick Fury, because we know just how to do it" says Black Widow.

We then get a flashback.  Vision is lying on a table with Tony Stark, Reed Richards and Henry Pym looking him over.   Vision is non-responsive, he was rippped in half in a previous Marvel Event.  Tony tells Reed that he's a "one of a kind biomechanism.  Created by Ultron".  Reed is impressed, Henry says they haven't been able to duplicate the technology that created him because they have never been able to do the same for Ultron.

Henry says he didn't really create Ultron, he just planted the seed.  He created the first version of his A.I. and from them Ultron took over and created what he became and Vison as well. Reed says he can understand why Henry wouldn't want to take full credit for creating Ultron.  Redd then asks how they can get Vision back on his feet, Tony says he doesn't know which is why he asked for their help.  He should have healed himself long ago, "maybe he's damaged beyond repair."

They discuss what they can do, apparently he did heal for a while then stopped.  Henry says that Vision was the only good thing that came out of Ultron's creation.

Henry Pym: "Sometimes I fantasize about going back and telling myself to never create Ultron."

Reed says he fantasizes about going back in time to be nicer to Victor Von Doom in college.  Henry says that then Vision would never have been created, "and who knows what the world would look like then?" Then suddenly the Vision's eyes flutter open and Vision sits up and tells them they all look well.  Tony Stark smiles with joy.

The Vision recovers back in the past.

Then we cut to him looking tired and sad in the present as the last heroes of Earth travel through the Savage Land.  Suddenly Tony starts laughing hysterically, saying that Ultron built a robot, so they took it in and made friends with it and one of them even married it.  They put him in place so Ultron could use Vision to attack them.  He babbles about how brilliant it was. Captain America tells him to steady himself, but Tony says "you don't see it, Cap? You don't see the brilliance?  This is our fault."

They arrive at their destination and Captain America orders a perimetre sat up.  Emma Frost can't penetrate the facility, it's been built to keep telepaths out.  Sue Richards turns blue and uses her powers to travel through the rocky tunnel until she finds a secret code entry pad and a huge locked vault door.  She returns to the others and tells them what she found. None of them have any idea what the code might be, so Red Hulk smashes the door open to be greeted by a barrage of gunfire.

Inside is Nick Fury and when he realises who it is he stops firing.  He tells them not to come any further and holds up a green computer window which he uses to check everyone is who they are supposed to be.  Once he has satisfied they are all legit, he welcomes them into his bunker.  He says he's been down here a week, he had it built after the Skrull Invasion. 

Nick Fury.

The place is full of captured tech including the Ultimate Nullifier. Peter asks if they are at that point yet?  But Tony says he won't entertain the thought.  He asks Fury what the plan is.  Fury says he's standing on it.  Tony is startled to find he is standing on Doctor Doom's Time Platform.  Fury had figured out Ultron was attacking from the future too, he found out when the S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier was crashed into the Kremlin by Ultron. 

Nick Fury: "The transmissions were timestream based.  Last thing I overheard before it all went to hell."

He says he was going to give the superpeople three more days to find their way to him before he went on assignment himself. His plan is to head up into the robot's house and "unplug him for good."

Various heroes volunteer to come along, but Tony says that Ultron now knows they know where he is. He might have used Luke Cage to set a trap for them so when they go there he can disintegrate them, or Cage did get the information legitimately and now Ultron knows they know and is ready for them.  Quicksilver says "it's our only hope." 

But Wolverine has an idea of his own.  They go back in time before the robot was created and cut off the hands of the an who created it.  When told it was Hank Pym, he says "so we go back there and we cut off his head." Some of the others say why don't they go back and just tell him not to do it.  Wolverine says that won't work, they'll be daring him to do it, "he will look at our warning as a challenge".

A few of the assembled say they agree, but Sue says that would "completely obliterate the space-time continuum".  Peter says killing an Avenger would be "astronomically insane! Not to mention morally horrific".  Storm tells Wolverine he has no idea what the world would look like if he went back in time and did anything like that. He angrily says it's got to be better than this.

The superheroes who are heading into the future start to take various weapons from Fury's collection.  Tony Stark is happy to find an old suit of his that isn't connected to any outside servers or communication systems and so Ultron can't take it over.  Fury drafts a few more including Sue Richards leaving the rest to set up a defensive perimeter and they all get on the time platform and disappear into the future.

Immediately Wolverine demands to know if anyone can get the time platform up and running again.  He is still determined to go back in time and kill Hank Pym.  He extends his claws and says he's seen everyone die at the hands of this thing, it's taken everything, big hitters like Thor included.  The others won't stand a chance against Ultron, they won't be coming back.  He hasn't been around as long as he has for it all to end like this.  So start up the time platform so he can put the back the way it's supposed to be, "and just so we're clear. I ain't askin' for permission."

Wolverine lays it all out.

And on that cliffhanger we end this first half of my look at the series.  So far it's really been artist Brian Hitch carrying the comic with scenes of destruction and ruins rendered utterly beautiful to look at, an extremely impressive achievement that really sells the power of Ultron and also means I couldn't scan a lot of the best images.  Of course that brings us to a complaint that is often levelled at Brian Michael Bendis which is something called "decompression", that's when a comic is considered padded by lots of double page spreads and splash pages at the expense of dialogue which makes the comics quick to read and leaves people feeling ripped off.  Now I like decompression. I like a story that takes time to set the scene, to breathe as it were, I get just as much enjoyment from a page of lovely art with no text as I do from a heavily dialogue based sequence.  Bendis isn't the only one who draws accusations, it's been levelled at the industry for around the last ten years when "writing for the trade" mentality set in and stories that might have been told in four issues would get padded to six for a trade release. But I only read trades so again I have a bit of a different perspective on this.  I can understand why readers on a monthly basis might feel they are not getting their money's worth, so the best comics tend to be the ones that balance things a bit better.  The second half of this story is far more dialogue and plot heavy than this half, but I would argue you needed all the double page spreads and splash pages of just how utterly ruined the world has become to set up the stakes that will become a big part of the rest of the story.   I'll comment more on the overall plot when I wrap this up in a few days time, until then toodles!
               

Midnighter and Apollo (#1-6)

"Keep your hands filled Mawzir.  I'll find you" - Midnighter

Ah remember the DC You?  That brief period when DC acknowledged LGBT people existed?  Happy times.  Anyway one of my favourite series that ran that year was Midnighter's.  He's an openly gay man, with no memory of his childhood, but also genetically engineered and augmented to be the ultimate hand-to-hand fighter.  He's like a bionic Batman.  He was in a long term relationship with Apollo, a solar powered Superman expy but split up from him at the start of his series and the writer and artist weren't shy about showing Midnighter fooling around with men, although he was burned by the first serious boyfriend he gained who turned out to be super villain Prometheus who wanted to rip out Midnighter's technology and use it.  But Midnighter nearly killed him in the fight they had, Prometheus escaped and Midnighter hit the scene again still looking for love.  In the second book events conspired to get Midnighter and Apollo fighting a common enemy together again.  After the fight Apollo kisses Midnighter passionately and it is heavily implied they are going to get back together again.  And that did at least end the all too short series on a very happy note.  Now alongside the rest of the DC Rebirth, Apollo and Midnighter get a six issue miniseries to wrap up some loose threads from the series and explore the depths of their love for each other.

We start with Midnighter dealing with some subway pirates.  These were a creation of Grant Morrison's and featured in the Manhattan Guardian mini of his Seven Soldiers of Victory series.  They are basically old skool pirates who hijack and ride subway trains.   Turns out this bunch have been kidnapping children to power their trains and people hurting kids is Midnighters beserk button.  He travels through several carriages crushing all who stand in front of him.

He gets a hold of this bunches leader "Half-Beard", he tells Midnighter that the "God-train runs on innocence" so he won't give up the kids and taunts Midnighter saying "There'll be no stopping our God today".  Midnight grins and says  "A God?  Good thing I brought one of my own."  And we see Apollo destroying the train.  Midnighter locates the children and he comforts one by saying Half-Beard is in jail and the rest of his friends are gone. 

Apollo takes out the God train.

Apollo looks a bit uncomfortable as Midnight reassures the girl.  But Midnighter approaches him and rests his forehead on Apollo's saying they did good, "you punched a train golem for me."  We cut to Midnighter's apartment where he and Apollo are having a couple of friends round for dinner, cooked by Apollo. On the balcony Midnighter;s friend Tony asks when Apollo will be moving in.   He says it's been months, Midnighter's fight computer must be telling him it's OK now. 

Midnighter: "That computer ruined this once, Tony.  This time we're taking things as they come."

Then Marina, another friend, calls them in for food.  As they eat Marina says she is glad one of them could cook.  Apollo says he had a pretty normal upbringing unlike Midnighter.  They discuss dating and tease Midnighter a bit.

After they are gone, Midnighter and Apollo wash up but Apollo makes a move on Midnighter and soon the clothes are off and the hanky panky begins. Later they relax post-coitally in bed and Apollo asks if he needs to kill so much.  He knows Henry Bendix took him and experimented on him, stole his memory and put a fight computer in his head, "perfected you for murder", but he worries that killing isn't always the solution.   Midnighter says he was made for, he can't change it and "some people just need to be killed."

We then get a montage of an off screen voice asking various super-natural villains and anti-heroes something.  They all say no, including Extrano a Peruvian wizard who notoriously was DC's first gay male character and was a flamboyantly offensive stereotype.  Though he's toned it down here.  Finally three zombie people agree saying "no price is too high..."

The employer turns out to be Bendix, Midnighter's creator.   He hands them a package which contains the supernatural gun "The Ace Of Winchesters" which first appeared in Garth Ennis's Hitman comic.  In return for it, the beings who are "The Lords of the Gun" will make Apollo and Midnighter suffer. They leave and Bendix calls for a door and walks through it back to his bunker.

Bendix

Midnighter is now on his own.  He also has access to door technology and jump round verious locations beating people up until he discovers one who knows Bendix's location and very quickly transports there.  Bendix isn't phased by this despite how dangerous Midnighter is.  Midnighter states his intention to kill him, but Bendix says he is ready. He blocks off all the door access and limits the way out to on foot, "and in my pocket I've got an impossible choice."

Back in Opal City, Apollo is fighting The Mawzir, the demon who wields the Ace of Winchesters.   Midnighter watches them in horror. The Mawzir fires the Ace of Winchesters at him and they penetrate Apollo's defences.  For Apollo, everything goes black.  Some time later he wakes up where a voice says to think of the time he felt perfect happiness and to "know that you will never reach it again."  The voice belongs to Neron, Lord of Hell and he continues saying "now let's see if we can put out that light, shall we?"

Bendix tells Midnighter that the bunker is teleport shielded and to get to the surface he'll have to fight through a gauntlet he's created for him, "every second you waste your lover is dying."  Bendix says he'll have to spare him and starts to say Midnighter's catch-phrase that he knows how this fight ends, but Midnighter cuts him off by jamming a sharp object into Bendix's throat.

We then get a montage of Midnight smashing his way to the surface while the Mawzir stands over Apollo's prone body. When Midnighter reaches the top he calls for a door and travels to where they are and delivers a mighty kick to the Mawzir's head. Mawzir just tells him he cannot be killed "the Mawzir is the kill."  Midnighter says that's his brand. Mawzir tells him The Lords of The Gun would welcome him.

Midnighter says he attacked Apollo.  Mawzir says Apollo's death is a debt paid and that bargains are their stock in trade.  Midnighter tells him it'll suffer the way Bendix has.

Mawzir: "Absurd.  You couldn't hope to touch me.  I'd think one such as you, and aspiring master of death would appreciate my craftmanship."
He fades away leaving Midnight holding Apollo's dead body, kissing his head tenderly and just sitting with him as a crowd gathers round.

Apollo has fallen.

Three days later Midnighter is jogging with Marina.  She ends up embracing him saying she doesn't have to grieve alone. But Midnighter says that's Apollo's not dead, she thinks he's in denial, but at his home he has Apollo's body laid out, it still glows and doesn't appear to be decaying. He suits up and says "I won't stop Apollo.  I'll never stop."

We then journey to Lima, Peru.  Midnighter is talking with Extrano, he says he's dropped that name, he's just Gregorio now. Midnighter gets down to business, he knows Apollo's soul has travelled, but he needs to know where.  He asks Gregorio to "help me, or show me the door." Gregorio says he was always going to help he just wanted Midnighter to know the weight of the thing.

They drink a potion which makes a spell course through them.  He tells Midnighter not to fight it as they go "beyond our world, beyond the solid, the real... listen...for Apollo's heart."  Which is currently roasting on a fire as Apollo is shackled and being taunted by a Lord of Hell called Percifer.  Apollo is still wounded from where the Mawzir hit him, Percifer says he can be healed at the cost of forgetting Midnighter. 

Apollo in hell.

He ends up making Apollo so angry that he blasts the shackles apart and starts flying up with several other tortured souls holding onto him.  Using his eye beams he blows Lord Percifer up, and keeps heading upwards.  But the blackness never ends and long tentacles wrap round him and drag him back down. He is brought down to where Neron is. Neron tells him there are no gods here only him, "and your light is mine to extinguish".  You may recall Neron as the demon John Constantine tangled with in The Art of The Deal.

Gregorio wakes up and breaks the news to Midnighter that Apollo is in hell.  Midnighter says a lot of people are going to get there wish, "I'm finally going to hell."  We cut to him still at Gregorio's place and Midighter is kneeling in the middle of a magic circle, Gregorio says he's ready now and he hands Midnighter a black candle, one of the voluntary ways to  get into hell. 

The Black Candle.

Gregorio tells him that the Mawzir is made out of stitched together criminals and that the Ace of Winchester is an "eldritch rifle." He tells Midnighter that now he can fight in hell but if he activates its full power his body will burn out, even with his healing abilities he'll burn out in seve minutes.  Midnighter says don't talk numbers,they have Apollo down there.

In hell Neron tells Apollo that many people think his greatest wepon is lies, but that is a lie.  In fact "my sharpest blade, the one that cuts clean and deep is the truth."  Apollo is sitting at a board with a game on it.  It's called the Mansion of Happiness:

Neron: "Players advance and regress at the whim of their own virtue and vice, struggling to reach happiness. In the ages since I plucked the board from time, I've come to love it. Shall we test your virtue Apollo?  Shall we weigh your sins."

Apollo says bring it.   He rolls and moves, landing on a vice square, pride. Neron says for a "fraud God" that's accurate.  Apollo says it's not that simple but Neron says no matter how stubbornly he averts his eyes "aspiring pride and insolence" are his sins.

Apollo says he named himself after a god to give people hope.  They needs symbols like he did when he was young.  He gives up part of who he is so he can be more for them, "it's not pride. It's sacrifice."  Neron takes a turn and lands on a blank square.  Neron tells Apollo "ignore the simple fact... you're not a hero.  because there are none." Apollo makes a move and lands on the "Murder" square, something he and Midnighter know a lot about says Neron.

Back on Earth Midnighter calls on a suburban house in Virginia.  A kindly looking old man opens the door.  But Midnighter can see through that and sees the hulking green demon he really is and he punches him back into the living room.  Midnighter stands over him saying he wants the Ace of Winchesters.  The demon tells him the Lords of the Gun have it now.  He taunts Midnighter saying where is his revenge now?  And so Midnighter smashes his fist into his face to "relieve some stress."

He goes to Al's Masse, his favourite bar. He tells Tony, the bar owner, that he's going somewhere where even he doesn't know what to expect.  He tells Tony this could be their last drink.  Tony asks if he's doing the right thing.  Midnighter says Apollo is gone, this is the only thing he can do.  Tony says go and get his man back but this won't be a last drink, he'll keep a glass clean for him when he gets back.

Back at Midnighter's flat he touches his forehead to Apollo's and tells him to hold on, he's on his way.  He tells Gregorio he didn't find the Ace of WInchesters but he found a bullet.  So if he can get a hold of the gun he can put the bullet in it and fire.  Midnighter then lights the black candle and fades away leaving the candle hovering in the air.

Apollo and Neron play a game.

Apollo and Neron are still playing, Apollo lands on a Murder square again.  Neron says he must take the hint, he kills and kills.  Apollo says Neron doesn't understand killing.  He knows all to well what it means "and I accept it."

Apollo: "It's a bad world.  It hurt me.  It hurt Midnighter.  People deserve what we never had.  They deserve to know the bad things are gone for good."

He says that murder didn't bring him here and he would gladly go to hell if it meant someone else didn't have to.  Silently Neron takes a drink then says he's never lost the game and he said he'd show Apollo the truth that he can hope, rationalise and believe but in the end no one makes it to the Mansion of Happiness.

Midnighter has arrived in hell and is doing what he does best, ripping demons apart. He approaches the Lord of the Gun's home.  The Lords hover above him, telling him where he can find the Mawzir.  They say he has no way of harming the Mawzir, "there are no fight computers in hell.  Just fighting. You're walking into a slaughter house." 

Midnighter versus hell.

Midnight carries on regardless thinking that won't be the first time. Inside the building the Mawzir is in the smashed and broken remains of the Ace of Winchesters is dropped at his feet. The Mawzir says that Midnighter had lost his hope now.  His hands are filled with guns, what about Midnighters?

Back with Apollo and Neron, he says the game is pointless.  Neron says the game has shown him pride, lust, anger and murder. He should give up his soul, "whatever you were in life, hell is where you belong." Apollo yells that it isn't and fires his eye blasts.

Midnighter is facing off against the Mawzir.  The Mawzir throws one of Midnighter's badass boasts in his face.  Then he says that Midnighter is challenging him in the place where "murder was defined." He says he shot Apollo down but the price for Apollo's death was the gun that lies in bits on the ground, the only one that can harm him.  He says Midnighter has no hope, but Midnighter grins and produces the bullet.

Meanwhile Neron and Apollo are hovering in the air, Apollo demands to know what Neron doesn't just take his soul.  But Neron says there is no relish in taking it "when you could give it to me instead".  Meanwhile Midnighter and the Mawzir are fighting Midnighter dodges all the Mawzir's bullets and throws the single bullet he has at him.  The Mawzir catches it sneering that it's not the first time he's caught a bullet, but Midnighter rushes him and headbuts the hand holding the bullet, driving it deep into the Mawzir's brain.

The Mawzir is going down.

The Mawzir collapses and Midnighter tells him that's for hurting Apollo.  Who is currently still floating in the air with Neron, who tells him he wants to break Apollo's mind, "it is the long pain that interests me."  Apollo says he's heard it before.  When he was twelve he came out to his family, it didn't go well and he was sent to live with his aunt.  Then he was abducted by aliens and spent years on an operating table as they tried to make themselves their own version of Superman.

When he escaped and got home his dad now had two reasons to say he wasn't human, "you think you can break me, Neron?  People have been trying to break me entire life."  But he tells Neron that if he wants his soul he just needs to answer one question.

Apollo: "Get it right?  My soul is yours.  Get it wrong?  You restore my power... and I leave this place."

Back with Midnighter, the Lords of the Gun say they are impressed with Midnighter. They offer Midnighter a place with them.  But Midnighter firmly tells them no world exists where someone could hurt Apollo and escape his vengeance.  He grabs one of them and asks where Apollo is, it tells him they bartered his soul to Neron and Midnight asks where to find him.

Neron has accepted Apollo's challenge.  Apollo tells him that he has to guess why Apollo chose that name for himself.  Neron says he thinks he is a god and Apollo thinks he has earned that name and thinks he deserves more, "you think you've earned power, I've seen it before."  He says he has answered and Apollo must speak, Apollo stays silent while Neron rants:

Neron: "Human"  I am hatred itself!  You stand before the wages of your every sin!  You cannot deny me in this place!  You will speak!"

But Apollo stays silent.  Meanwhile Midnighter has fought his way to Neron's castle.  He enters the throne room and sees Neron on his throne and Apollo in a giant bottle.  He tells Neron he is here for Apollo and also to kick his ass. Neron laughs saying Midnighter can barely stand but he'll accept a deal to fight for Apollo's soul.  He says that Apollo tried to outwit him with a riddle, Midnighter says he's always been a thinker but he has something simpler in mind, and caked in demon blood he grins and says "lets go."

Still ready for battle.

We get a flashback to when Gregorio handed over the black candle, saying that as long as it stays lit the portal to hell will stay open.  He then tells him that he has bound something "the most powerful of his kind" inside Midnighter. It will grant seven minutes of power and seven minutes of agony.

Back in Neron's castle, Neron says Midnighter has no enhancements here and yet he would still fight for Apollo's soul.  He says Neron isn't just a name, it's a concept, "what chance does a man have before the inspiration of all that hurts?"  Midnighter says he has his fists.  Neron says he will grant Midnighter the first strike for all the good it will do him.

Midnighter says "screw your charity".  He kneels on the floor and says he's been thinking of how they got here.  He thinks that maybe all the fights they have had, their whole lives have been building to this.  Us against Neron the "father of all bastards."  He says he puts people down using one simple rule, hit softs things with your hand and hit hard things with a utensil, "and I'm wondering as utensil's go..."

..."how's this" and he releases a energy powered being.  Neron says he can see that Midnighter has brought a sliver of an angel's power with him and his body can barely contain it.  But he says he has no power over him, "I devour angels.  I am the living refute to their creator".  He punches Midnighter who just says "liar."

Midnighter and Neron fight.

They grapple as Neron says that he and Apollo were always destined for hell, "you cannot change the working of reality!"  But Midnighter says he's never been much for rules and headbutts Neron. They keep beating on each other until Midnighter throws a punch hard enough to floor Neron. Midnighter stands over him saying that Neron thought he was safe here, "you think you answer to no one.  But you're wrong.  You answer to me".  And he stamps on Neron's head, before saying ".. guess my seven minutes are up" and he collapses.

Neron manages to say to him that he'll never touch Apollo again.  Midnighter crawls towards where Apollo is being held in the bottle.  He breaks out and holds Midnighter saying they'll get out of here and it's going to be OK.  But that turns out to be an illusion, the Apollo was a fake, "is that how you thought it would end?" Neron says standing over Midnighter's prone body.

He says he destroyed Apollo's soul after he tried to outwit him.  So no matter what the outcome of their meeting "... you would never have anyone to save."  Apollo was gone before Midnighter even got to the castle.  But Neron was lying, Apollo is alive and flying around hell somewhat lost.  Neron tells Midnighter that a beating was worth it to craft this moment where Midnighter lost.

Midnighter keeps trash talking Neron despite being badly injured and Apollo, who is flying aimlesssly about hell, hears his voice.  He can't believe it, but he starts racing to where it was coming from saying to himself, "you're late.  But don't worry.  I'm not leaving without you."

Neron gloats.

Neron stands over the broken Midnighter and sneers "do you feel like a winner?"  As Apollo races towards where they are, Neron tells him Apollo is dead and Midnighter gave up his body to beat him, "did you ever think I'd let you go?"  Midnighter redefined murder and was destined to meet him.  There are no heroes in hell, "you've fought me since your first punch."  He is going to unspool Midnighter's soul, "evil wins."
"Not today asshole" shouts Apollo as he blasts his way in and punches Neron smashing him backwards shattering his throne.  He yells at Neron saying he lost the bet, restored his power and released him from his castle, but stranded him a billion leagues across hell. He would have been lost forever but he heard Midnighter's voice. Neron says the illusion Apollo is dead is broken, but Apollo will remain free.

Neron then summons a horde of Midnighter and Apollo's victims and fades away.  Midnighter is on his feet again, Apollo says he hopes Midnighter has a plan to get out of here.  Midnighter says that Apollo was his plan.  Apollo lifts him up and they fly up searching for the portal the candle has been keeping open.  They are still being chased by the beings out to kill them.

Midnighter: "You know, Neron thought he knew how this would end.  He was wrong.  But I knew.  Screw him.  Screw this place.  This is our story.  And in our story... we don't die in the end."

And they come barrelling out through the portal into Midnighter's flat.   Apollo wakes up back in his body and rushes to Midnighter's side.  Midnighter says he feels sore like he hasn't for years and his body and fight computer are rebooting, "just tell me one thing.  Did we kick the devil's ass?" And they have a huge kiss.

And the pair are physically reunited.

A few days later both of them are visting Gregorio in Peru with some of their friends.  Gregorio says it's good to have them here:

Gregorio: "They walked lands few dare to tread.  Beat back death itself.  They did not stop.  And I thank them for that.  For the inspiration to fight on."

He goes on to say that this isn't the end, that more attacks will come over the next few years.  But as he looks around he sees bad news for them, "because we're stronger than ever."

Back in Opal City, Midnighter and Apollo are playing a board game.  Midnighter pauses saying he needs to say something.  He went down there for him, he's already ready to kill, but then he was ready to die. He almost died and that would make anyone rethink things. He knows death better than ever and it didn't scare him, losing Apollo did.  No one should have to lose what's closest to them.

He says that "anyone who tries to take that from people deserves to die. And I'm happy to help". He says that maybe that's not what Apollo wants to hear but that's who he is and he won't change and he just wants Apollo to be sure.   Apollo responds by saying that he beat Neron with one question, why he calls himself Apollo.

He thought it was just power but it never was.  Hyacinth, Apollo's lover.  Apollo knew Hyacinth was doomed but refused to let Hades claim him.  So he turned him into something better. He knows who Midnighter is and eve if he thinks he's doomed "I refuse to accept it".

Apollo: "You and anyone else in the world who thinks they've fallen too far... I'll always pull you back to the light."

Midnighter tells Apollo he loves him. Damn right says Apollo.  So what will they do now?  Midnighter says "I figure we spend the rest of our days reminding bastards they can survive living without a spine.  That work for you".  They walk to the bedroom and start getting undressed as Apollo says, "what do you think?"  And that brings this miniseries to a close.

And the lived sexily ever after.

So we bid farewell to Midnighter and Apollo as they fade back into bit players of the DC universe, probably being wheeled out for guest appearances every now and then. I absolutely think Midnighter will get another series at some point in the future.  He's a very interesting character, hard on the outside with a soft centre.  And of course being a gay man who is not stereotyped or has his sexuality played down makes him a very important character when it comes to LGBT representation in comics.  This story was a excellet one.  I'm a sucker for grand romantic gestures and travelling to hell to rescue your lover is the stuff legends are made of.  Some great fan service too, the Grant Morrison Subway Pirates and the Garth Ennis Mawzir and Lords of the Gun were weaved in seamlessly.  And it was nice to see a rehabilitated Extrano too.  Somehow it's fitting that the first DC gay male character got to appear in a story about a current gay male character reminding us how representations have changed over the years.  Writer Steve Orlando gives us a tight plot that wraps up loose ends from the series and tells the story with wit and intelligence.  I must also praise Fernando Blanco's artwork.  It has a nice crunchy, gritty feel to it but also depicts faces extremely expressively.  It does make me sad that Midnighter right now can't support an ongoing series, I'd love it if DC would make more of an effort to push modern diverse superheroes instead of the same old, same old heroes that have been round for decades and whose characterisation never goes anywhere lest it incur the wrath of fanboys.  Oh well.  Without getting too bitter I will end on a positive note.  This is a grand tale of love beyond death and well worth reading if you are at all interested in the characters.  Two thumbs up.