Ultimates

Ultimates 4 13-17

Writer Sam Humphries picks up where Jonathan Hickman left off; A United States where Washington DC’s been destroyed, most of the country is seceding, and things have descended into Harry Turtledove levels of alternate reality.  Where Hickman’s arc was just the right level of insane, Humphries’ veers too far into “this is just too weird for me.”  Captain America getting elected President isn’t even the most implausible thing.  It’s how easily he fixes all the hotspots that makes no sense to me.    

It’s possible that a different artist could have made it work, but Billy Tan and Luke Ross give off too many “bad 90’s comic” vibes.  It’s also super off-putting to have Michael Komarck do the covers; On the one hand, he’s way better than the interior artists, so the quality shift when turning to the front page is jarring.  On the other, his style is far more suited for the lovely Magic cards that he paints, not Captain America taking the oath of office.    

Just...looks wrong.

A sample of what Komarck is capable of.

His Iron Man's actually really good.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Didn’t suck (Cutting)

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