Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk TPB

I'm having a hard time making myself care about the Ultimate U these days. The whole universe is so weirded out and out of whack after Ultimatum. Anything I read set before that story just doesn't matter.

I'm pleased that Damon Lindeloff introduced a She-Hulk to the Ultimate U, and I like that it is a surprise person even more. It makes a lot of sense to get this person some powers and let her into the punching portion of the Hulk's universe. The actual battle between Hulk and Wolverine isn't so much a battle as a butt-kicking. When the Hulk gets going, Wolverine never really stands a chance.

Lindeloff plays around with timelines, flashbacks, and stream-of-consciousness narration, but the outcome of this fight is never really in doubt. This is a trade where the details read better than the big fight.

Leinil Francis Yu does a nice job. Everyone has seen that panel of Hulk ripping Wolverine in half (adamantium what?), and it does look good. I love Hulk's ridiculous Eastern garb too. It's fun seeing the big green galoot in something besides purple pants. The She-Hulk design is pretty good too, although there is only so much you can do with a 7 foot tall, green, nearly naked lady.

Average

Ultimates 3 TPB

What a mess. It's a beautiful mess because Joe Mad can still draw, but wow. Jeph Loeb picked up the Ultimates and promplty reverted Wasp back to her Marvel U incarnation, did what seems to be a pointless mystery with Cap, and then basically added Wolverine onto the Avengers. He flat out stated what we all figured about Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver (that they are very close). He threw in the world's most pointless Spidey cameo and made Hawkeye into even more of a jerk.

I will confess I like the idea of Valkyrie being on the Avengers, but that's about the best part of this story. Loeb does do a couple bits of foreshadowing, they are just to things in Ultimatum that I found stupid (Wasp's fate, Quicksilver's turn).

Why do I read these Ultimate books again? Oh yeah, the art. Joe Madureira still has some dynamic skills. The dinosaurs look great, the heroes look powerful and tough, and the ladies look like adult movie stars. Mad has some poses that he comes back to, and they work really well in action-based comics. The problem is, this book makes me want to go read old issues of Uncanny X-Men.

Average

Ultimate Spider-Man TPB 20: And His Amazing Friends

I fell behind reading Ultimate Spider-Man, so I'm reading this volume way after I've read the big Ultimatum crossover. I'm finding it pretty hard to care about Liz Allen becoming the Firestar of the Ultimate U when I know almost everyone guest-starring in this story will end up dead by the end of that crossover. The book is kind of trucking along as Peter gets a better balance of the many elements in his life. Kitty Pride, Iceman, Liz Allen, high school, and his job at the Bugle is a lot to balance, but things are starting to come together. In fact, for once Peter Parker is helping other people deal with their freak outs.

Magneto shows up to try and recruit Liz (her father is one of his Brotherhood members) but things get settle by the X-Men just showing up. I love Stuart Immonen's take on the X-folks, but it would have been fun to see a bit more action. Overall, the art isn't enough to carry my interest in a book that I know is going to hit a huge status-quo change (and a depressing one at that). I think I'll switch to checking out any further Ultimate books from the library.

Average

Ultimate Origins TPB

So chronologically, this took place before Ultimatum, right? There is very little here that is important, in fact, I think there are only two reveals. The first is that Wolverine is Mutant Zero, the first mutant and that he was created by the Weapon X program in Canada. So the mutants of the Ultimate U are man-made. The second is that the whole mutant program was an attempt to rebuild the super-soldier program that created Captain America. Bendis gives us a few glimpses into the original program (where Nick Fury was an early guinea pig) and the later re-creation attempts. I like the idea of a brain trust of Bruce Banner, Richard Parker, and Hank Pym trying to re-create the program, but all of those guys go to sad ends, don't they? The flashback portions of the story are interesting, but I'm not sure anyone besides the reader ever really knows everything that happens.

The "current day" portion of the story deals with the Fantastic Four as they deal with the first "watcher" to appear on Earth during the original super-soldier program. After that day, the watcher pillar has stood in a SHIELD warehouse called Project Pegasus. I do appreciate that Agent Wendell Vaughn (Quasar in the Marvel U) is in charge of the project, but he never really gets to do too much in the story. The watcher has a couple lines of dialogue at the end; I assume hinting at the destruction in Ultimatum. I guess the extinction level event that the pillars came to witness was the wave Magneto caused in that other series. So while there is a bit here to satisfy a reader, this mini is more a prequel for Ultimatum than anything else.

Butch Guice has a gritty style that works well on the tech-heavy aspects of the book. The soldiers in WWII look appropriately grizzled and I like his take on the SHIELD uniforms too. The FF don't look quite as young as they should in the Ultimate U, but I'm ok with that.

Average

Marvel's February 2010 Solicits

Marvel's February solicits preview is now up over at Comicsplusblog. This is a really shallow month, it seems. Not a whole lot of new launches or even storylines wrapping up.

Ultimatum #1-5

You can't be serious. I've heard all the bad press about Ultimatum, and I'm shocked to admit that everyone was right. This was terrible. Why bother setting up a complex new continuity just to allow Jeph Loeb to come and tear it apart. I don't have an issue with where things end up, since all the deaths and cataclysms will lead to the Ultimate U being very different from the Marvel U.

But Loeb's wholesale slaughter is just lazy. Drowning 3 X-Men off-panel is lazy. Describing the remote deaths of the Hellions is lazy. Using Dormammu and Hela in essentially their Marvel U interpretations is lazy. The deaths where Loeb actually showed more creativity went from effecting, like Magneto's snapping of Xavier's neck, to ridiculously unnecessary.

This series had the Blob eating Wasp's innards, Yellowjacket blown apart by a horde of suicide Madroxes, and Sabretooth ripping off Angel's wing before snapping his neck with a kick. Hell, even after Magneto was dealt with, Cyclops had his head blown off while making a speech? This was a hot mess. I mean, Thor taking Valkrie's place in Hel? What does that serve? This whole series felt like a bunch of barely controlled chaos. The heroes just run around and die for awhile, then take out Magneto when the series is about to end. There was no real rising action or normal story arc, just a bunch of choppy scenes followed by a "shock" ending.

There are too many pages spent dealing with the recovery of Nick Fury from the Squadron Surpeme universe too. I never understood why Fury's absence enabled Doom to kick things off by killing the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Hell, part of my problem with this series is that I never read Ultimates 3 or Ultimate Secret, so I felt like I didn't understand anyone's motivations. I've read a ton of Ultimate comics, but this didn't even have a consistent feel.

The choice to have Spider-Man disappear is an odd one too. What did it serve taking him out of the story? My only rationale is that sending him along on the strike mission would darken his character too much.

Avoid this. In fact, this might be so bad it will keep me away from Mark Millar's Ultimate Comics' Avengers. I mean, with Thor, Yellowjacket, Wasp, and so many more dead, why bother reading about the Avengers? Isn't it a 3 man team now (Hawkeye, Cap, and Iron Man).
David Finch's art was hyper-gory and dark. I will admit I'm amused at his hot ladies, especially the super-endowed Valkrie. I suppose I can't blame him for the story, and his gory panels looked shocking, there is no doubt. That panel of Blob eating Wasp is one I'll probably never forget.

Poor

Ultimate Spider-Man TPB 19: Death of a Goblin

Bendis' best work is on his solo titles. Daredevil was fantastic, and I still love catching up on Ultimate Spider-Man. I had been considering dropping this title, even in trade, because it seems the Ultimate Universe is being revamped or something, but man, am I glad I gave this book another trade to win me over.

With Nick Fury missing after Ultimate Power, Carol Danvers has taken over SHIELD, which means she is in charge of the many prisoners held in the Ultimates HQ. The most dangerous is Norman Osborn, who of course breaks free and wreaks havoc throughout New York. I really enjoyed the way Bendis included Doctor Octopus and Electro in the escape. Using those villains added a cohesive feel to the book. In particular, I loved the way Electro was just so sick and tired of dealing with Spider-Man. Osborn tried to wage his battle against Fury in the press, which made me wonder if Bendis was thinking through his eventual Dark Reign ideas here. Osborn ends up doing the exact same thing (with a better ending for him) after Secret Invasion, so it is interesting seeing the idea toyed with here.

Eventually, there is a huge showdown with the Hulkbuster SHIELD agents, Spidey, Shadowcat, and the Hobgoblin (Harry Osborn) against the Green Goblin on the deck of the helicarrier. It's a great fight, filled with the witty banter from Spidey that Bendis does so well. The story ends the only way it could, although I really doubt it is permanent.

Stuart Immonen came abord as the regular artist in this trade, and wow. His art is breathtakingly beautiful. The action scenes are dynamic and exciting, and his quieter panels are filled with emotion. I'm convinced that a huge part of why I liked this trade so much was because of Immonen's art.

Good

Ultimate Power TPB

This was actually a pretty enjoyable trade. The whole time I was reading this, in the back of my mind I was thinking how none of it really matters since the Ultimate U is being destroyed in Ultimatum. But since I haven't read that, I tried to go ahead and just read this story for what it was. It actually functions quite well as an inter-universe crossover.

There is no complex plot to be had here, but the trade delivers all the face-offs and rivalries that I hoped for. The Blur/Quicksilver fight was quite neat to see, and who wouldn't dig Thor vs. Hyperion? Of course, I would prefer to see more from the mainstream Marvel U heroes vs. the Squadron Supreme crew, but at least we get one of those two groups. Having the "classic" Squadron show up was a fun and unexpected bonus. I love that by having them get pulled into this story, we are basically tying the different Earths of Marvel even more closely. Each of the main writers (Bendis, JMS, and Loeb) play to their strengths here, and splitting them up like this kept me from getting tired of anyone in particular.

The regular stars are the major players once again, as Spider-Man, Thor, Fury, Mr. Fantastic, and Thing get the best lines from the Ultimate crew. I certainly didn't understand Power Princess' motivation in going to the Ultimate U, but having Fury stay in the Supreme Power universe is a cool idea. I did like that the two mega-villains Dr. Menace and Dr. Doom got to stir up all this trouble once again.

Everyone hates Greg Land, making him probably the most-despised artist on the internet. I don't hate his art. I can deal with each panel basically looking like a freeze-frame pin-up shot. I prefer more standard storytelling, but especially when dealing with characters I only kind-of like (like the Ultimate and Supreme characters), I'm fine with him using this style.

Good