Ultimates, Ultimate Hawkeye, Ultimate Armor Wars

Ultimate Armor Wars 1-4

Meh.  Warren Ellis and Steve Kurth don’t bring anything new to the table.  This Tony Stark sounds a lot like Robert Downey Jr.  This came out a year after the first Iron Man movie.   

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

Ultimate Comics Hawkeye 1

This takes place in parallel to the first issue of Ultimates vol 4.  It’s fine, but past and present me don’t need to read more.  I’m sure he gets The Serum.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

Ultimates vol 4 1-12

This is so much better than I remember.  I daresay this is the best Jonathan Hickman story that I own.  Like most of his work, it’s insanely ambitious and epic in scope, but unlike his other titles, it doesn’t lose track of the narrative or fall apart under the weight of weirdness for its own sake.  It’s surprisingly focused, with no unnecessary fat.  

This story is unsurprisingly at its best when Esad Ribic is on art duties.  (Hah, I was going to say that the colors by Dean White really remind me of Uncanny X-Force, and it turns out he did the colors for that as well.)  Things are less good when the fill in artists are forced to come in, but even then, the strength of the narrative is enough to successfully see it through.

This is a great, creepy reveal.

Gorgeous juxtaposition of brain and brawn.

Lovely chaos.

Beautifully posed action scene.

Kaare Andrews doing some stunning covers.

Between the unleashed black hole, complete destruction of Washington DC, and making Reed RIchards the world's archvillain, it’s clear that by this point, Marvel gave zero fucks about the Ultimate universe, which really let Hickman do his thing.  (Though I question the continuity - I don’t remember this having any repercussions in Ultimate Spider-Man.)  

I really really enjoyed this, and I love it even more when it comes out of nowhere.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Good