Well, the wheels went off this bus pretty quickly.
My first gripe with this issue is the sudden disappearance of Nick Fury's alleged master plan. At the end of last issue, Red Hulk, Moon Knight, and Black Widow arrived declaring that Nick Fury had a plan that they could use to defeat Ultron. I mean, their exact words were: "And we wipe even the idea of him out of existence." "Entirely." "And God bless Nick Fury, because we know just how to do it." We don't really have a lot of ambiguity in those statements. They know how to defeat Ultron, how to "wipe even the idea of him out of existence." However, that knowledge seems to be completely forgotten in this issue. Instead, all they seem to know is that Nick Fury has a secret bunker in the Savage Land. Moreover, when they eventually find the bunker and Fury himself, Nick doesn't actually have a doomsday plan. Sure, he has a plan to use a Doom Platform to go the future to take out Ultron. But, he only has that plan because he knows that Ultron is attacking from the future as a result of some data he was able to obtain when Ultron attacked S.H.I.E.L.D. Nothing in this issue implies that Fury had some sort of pre-existing plan that could have given the group some advantage in the fight with Ultron. Plus, even if the plan did exist, it seems likely that it was to go into the past to destroy Ultron, not to go into the future to do it, as Fury actually recommends here, given that it seems unlikely that Fury would've predicted that he was attacking from the future.
But, beyond even the sudden loss of a plan that happens between these two issues, I'm not entirely sure what Fury and his team are expecting to accomplish in the future. After all, if they defeat Ultron, they're still left with a completely devastated world. It seems unlikely that they could ever possibly rebuild Earth, given the destruction that we've already seen. As such, Wolverine seems to be on the right path, believing that they should go into the past to kill Hank Pym before he can invent Ultron. However, to give Bendis credit, he makes it clear why this strategy is so problematic. In a flashback, Hank Pym mentions to Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic that he wished sometimes that he could into the past and convince himself not to make Ultron. (Somewhat hilariously, Mr. Fantastic admits that he would go into the past and be nicer to Dr. Doom in college.) But, all three acknowledge that at some point you're going to go to "the Garden of Eden and smack that apple out of Eve's hand." Even beyond these ethical considerations, Spider-Man makes it clear that the Butterfly Effect of destroying an Avenger would be enormous. Wolverine, however, isn't exactly concerned with the metaphysical ramifications, convincingly arguing that it seems difficult to believe that a different present could possibly be worse. So, we're now facing down two time-travel stories in the coming months.
The problem, at this point, is that it's unclear where Marvel is going with this story. We do have the potential for a "New 52!" reboot here, if Marvel were to have Wolverine and his team be successful in killing Hank Pym before he invents Ultron. Moreover, it seems the only likely possibility since, as I said, even if Fury and his team succeed in the future, it's not going to undo the damage caused by Ultron in the present. On some level, I'm intrigued to see what they do, since I honestly can't tell how we're going to revolve this problem short of the creation of a MnU. But, the problem is that I'm not really hopeful that I'm going to like the answer, given the likelihood that it'll be a third option that leaves the pre-"Age of Ultron" status quo unchanged. Bendis is clearly struggling to keep control over this story and juggling two time-travel stories doesn't seem like it's going to make it an easier on him. Given the liberal use of deus ex machinas in last issue and the lack of attention to detail in this one, I am not hopeful that we're going anywhere good here.
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