Ultron Retrospective Part 4: Alpha(s) and Omega
by Robert Clough
This will be a reasonably short review, as it's only a
1.5-parter, and a
crossover to boot, in Avengers 127 and Fantastic Four 150.
This is back
in the era when crossovers were exceedingly rare, and rarely
overlapped
for more than one issue. (The just-completed
Avengers-Defenders war was
a rare exception)
Avengers #127 (1974)
"Bride and Doom!"
Writer: Steve Englehart
Art: Sal Buscema and Joe Staton
Lettering: Tom Orzechowski
Coloring: Steve Englehart (!)
Editor: Roy Thomas
The Avengers are sitting down to dinner when suddenly,
Gorgon the
Inhuman pops into their dining room via Lockjaw. The
Avengers are
curious as to why the heck he's interrupted their dinner, and
Gorgon is
puzzled, saying that it's to fetch them to attend the wedding of
their
recently-departed member Quicksilver and the Inhuman
Crystal. Gorgon
realizes that Pietro didn't bother to tell his old teammates
(partially
because he swore never to speak to his sister Wanda ever again
after she
declared her love for the Vision) and gets seriously peeved,
stomping his
foot. Unfortunately for the Mansion, when Gorgon stomps his
foot,
earthquakes follow. Iron Man zaps him in order to prevent
him from doing
it again, and tempers are about to flare when Mantis steps in to
calm
Gorgon down. Wanda tells him that they'll attend the
wedding anyway.
Meanwhile, back in Attilan, Maximus the Mad meets his new
ally against
his brother Black Bolt, king of the Inhumans. After
babbling for a
minute about how THIS time he was going to topple BB, his shadowy
ally
zaps him.
The Avengers arrive in Attilan and see the Royal Family
and the
Fantastic Four. (Crystal had subbed for Sue Richards in the
FF while she
was on maternity leave; Johnny Storm was her ex-boyfriend)
Crystal and
Wanda meet for the first time, and explains, embarassed, that
Pietro had
other things to do. Mantis asks about a huge statue.
Medusa tells her
that it's Omega, a creature powered by the guilt of the ruling
Inhumans
over holding a group known as the Alpha Primitives as their
slaves. Once
they ruling class realized their guilt, and made changes, Omega
was
beaten. But they kept the statue around to remind them of
their shame.
A big wedding feast is held, and various of the heroes
perform assorted
feats of strength. Suddenly, several of them start randomly
attacking
Alpha-Primitives, spouting assorted racist nonsense. It's
clear to
everyone that the heroes seem under someone else's control, but
the
Alphas think it's a conspiracy to destroy them.
Wanda and Pietro, Mantis and Swordsman, and Crystal and
Johnny Storm
all go through little melodramas. Suddenly, Omega
reanimates and grabs
Crystal! He gets away but not before Mantis and Swordy
sound the alarm.
Black Bolt asks the Avengers to question the instigators of the
original
Omega, since he doesn't want the Alphas to resent the
Inhumans. BB, Reed
Richards and others go to question Maximus, who they find
unconscious.
Upon questioning the Alphas, they are none too pleased to
deal with
questions. Quicksilver none-too-surprisingly loses his
temper and
attacks the Alphas, before Mantis steps in. Both of them go
unconscious
mysteriously. As Reed and Co are carrying out Maximus, he
suddenly
animates and starts spouting racist talk and zaps Alphas.
There is chaos
everywhere, as the Alphas start fighting everyone in sight.
Omega pops
up again, and the heroes start to mysteriously collapse,
one-by-one. The
Vision thinks that the tactics being used are oddly
familiar. Omega,
powered by the hate of the Alphas starts kicking major tail, and
the rest
of the Avengers, FF and Inhumans are frozen in their tracks.
Omega then rips off his face, which was actually a mask,
saying that
his power was now high enough to abandon his pretense, and
reveals....
Ultron-7!
Comments: I'll hold them til the end of the second part as far as
the
story goes. The art in this issue was adequate but not
outstanding. The
book was in serious flux back in those days, never being able to
hold an
artist for any decent period of time. I don't remember how
many issues
Sal B. did around this time, but it wasn't many. The issue
feels like a
rush job. On the other hand, Steve E. doing his own colors
was kind of
funny! Of course, back in those days, Starlin did
everything except
letters on some of his books...
Fantastic Four #150 (1974)
"Ultron-7: He'll Rule the World!"
Writer: Gerry Conway
Artist: Rich Buckler
Inker: Joe Sinnott
Letterer: John Costanza
Colors: L. Lessmann
Editor/Kibitzer: Roy Thomas
Ultron-7 (going back to numbers again after his
"Ultimate Ultron"
phase) has a large group of heroes at his mercy. He starts
ranting about
how great it is to be him, and thinks he's so powerful, that he
unfreezes
the heroes to see what they can do. The answer: not
much. The Thing
throws some machinery at him, and gets zapped for his
trouble. Ultron
explains that even though he has Omega's body, he still retains
his own
powers. The rest of the heroes wait, because they realize
that Ultron
still has Crystal as his captive. Reed Richards tries to
stall Ultron by
asking how he got Omega's body.
Ultron obliges, saying that Maximus found his head, which
as it turns
out was not destroyed in the implosion at the U.N. back in
Avengers #68.
Maximus pulled it to Attilan with a "long-range tractor
beam", got his
systems operational, and attached the head to Omega's body.
Ultron then
gets bored and decides to pull out his trump card: using a
massive
brain-blast to dissolve our heroes' own brains. It works
pretty well,
knocking out everyone pretty quickly. He starts ranting
about his
inevitable victory, when something goes wrong. He had aimed
his blasts
at young Franklin Richards, who at that time was in a coma, due
to Reed
shutting down his brain (don't ask). Ultron's attack
disturbs Franklin's
sleep, activating his deus-ex-machina power. Franklin
causes a huge
feedback into Ultron, shorting him out and defeating him
completely.
Franklin suddenly wakes up, his powers apparently now shorted
out. (uh HUH).
Pietro and Crystal then get married.
Comments: After a long, exciting build-up in the Avengers,
Ultron gets
taken down in 9 pages by Franklin Richards. Pretty weak, if
you ask me.
Ultron reverts back to his original, scheming self from his first
appearance; I guess if you're not indestructible, you tend to be
a bit
more careful. How exactly Ultron retained all of his old
powers in
Omega's body, what exactly Omega's body was made of, what his old
powers
were (other than being a giant and very strong), and how he fed
off hate
was not clear. Ultron did really have them on the ropes,
though, but the
annoyingly contrived ending still annoys me to this day.
Also, part of
the allure of Ultron is his mechanical body in its various forms;
he
looked a bit ridiculous with his head on a giant's body,
particularly
since it was never explained how his old head grew to
proportional size.
I hate to pick on plot holes, because I'm usually quite willing
to ignore
them if I enjoy the story, but these issues couldn't make up
their mind
between soap opera and mystery story, and both elements tended to
undercut the other. Not really one of Steve's E's finest
moments, and
I've never thought of Gerry Conway as anything more than a
mediocre writer.
Such is life for our Adamantium Advesary. Luckily for us,
the next two
chapters are the Best Ultron Stories Ever. Stay tuned, and
mind those
electrodes on your skull...
--Rob Clough
Reviewer Undying