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 Hey
guys, long time no talk. I was originally going to write a scathing
article/review about the crap-fest that was the Ultimatum miniseries. I was going to ramble on about what Jeph
Loeb did wrong and how utterly disgusted I was, but I will just briefly talk
about that.
About 7 years ago my girlfriend at the time was going away
for school, and naturally I helped with the move. Her little brother came with
us and he had brought along stacks of Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men. At this time I hadn’t read or collected a comic
book in over a decade, and I had next to no interest in reading any now.
However, I hate car rides if I’m not driving and those comics began to look
pretty good.
I picked up Ultimate X-Men and instantly fell in love. I burned through all of the issues he had
brought and moved on to Ultimate Spider-Man. I was so
enthralled that I skipped dinner on the ride home to keep reading. The next day
I ran into a quaint little comic book store called Back to the Past and bought
the first 2 trade paperbacks of both series. From that point on I was a
collector again.
That being said, I was appalled with Ultimatum and how it was handled. I won’t get into details on
why I hated it, but I will say my thought after it ended was, “Well, it can’t
get any worse.” If you would like my opinion on the subject, feel free to
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and I'll share it.
However, Wednesday, August 12th was the day I purchased
the books that would tell me whether or not the comic line I had invested so
much time and money into was truly dead. I got
home from work and sat down with my copies of Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 2 #1 and Ultimate Avengers Vol. 1 #1, took a deep breath and opened up Ultimate
Avengers by Mark Millar and Carlos Pacheco.
My immediate reaction was that the art was great. Captain America and Hawkeye
looked so much better than they did in Ultimates 3 and I was very grateful for that. The story itself
wasn’t groundbreaking, but it didn’t make my head hurt with its absurdity.
Then, in typical Millar fashion the book got interesting. As soon as Captain
America runs into the main villain of the issue (I won’t say who it is just in
case you haven’t read the book yet) Millar sets us up for the cliffhanger
ending. I can’t tell you how good it felt to put that book down and know that Ultimate
Avengers is in good hands.
Ultimate Spider-Man
was a bit different. I had complete faith in Brian Michael Bendis and his
ability to prevent Loeb from ruining this book. My main concern was the art of
David Lafuente. The wrap-around cover didn’t exactly leave me filled with hope.
In my eyes he had some pretty big shoes to fill by following Ultimate
Spider-Man legend Mark Bagley and one of my
favorite artists, Stuart Immonen. But again, my worries were washed away after
the first few pages. He gave it a new, but familiar look that made me feel at
home. Coupled with the script, this book proved Bendis right when he said that
we can write #134 on it instead of #1 and we wouldn’t know the difference.
After reading both books I walked away with a satisfaction I
can’t describe. Neither book was a five star read, but they were exactly what I
had hoped for. They were the characters that I know and love, written in a way
that makes me feel like a damn fool for ever being worried. I am hopeful that Jeph
Loeb will prove me wrong and make The New Ultimates something I can look forward to reading again.
Come and check out both titles at Back to the Past!
Later alligators,
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