Comics are awesome.

[Sparky Prime]

Also, was Ultimatum worth reading?

No.

Well said. I'd rank it as the worst comic book I own, it was that bad.

Magneto's plot is just a rehash of a failed plot he tried in Ultimate X-Men #30, even has an 'Asteroid M' type base like he did in that issue, only in Ultimatum, he's able to pull off global destruction before anyone realizes he's trying it again. No explanation given for why SHIELD or the Ultimates didn't stay on his trail after events of Ultimates 3 (particularly Thor, with Magneto taking the hammer as he escapes), or the X-Men seeing how Wolverine was with the Ultimates when they fought Magneto in the Savage Land. The amount of violence and gore is way over the top, making the comic more about shocking the audience with the shear amount of gruesome deaths of popular characters than anything else. The characterization is way off as well, again, with a lot of it attributed to nothing more than shocking the audience with deaths. The whole thing is just a mess that literally left the Ultimate Universe in bloody ruins...

[Shockwave]

I'm currently reading the Ultimate Avengers trade and I gotta say that I feel like I'm coming in in the middle of the story (having missed Ultimatum and I can't remember if I read Ultimates 3 or not but I don't remember Magneto with Thor's hammer). Things are definitely referrenced that I didn't read so I'm kinda just having to guess some of it. They referrence some "thing with Wolverine" but I don't know what happened with him and the Ultimates nor how Danvers wound up head of SHIELD.

[Sparky Prime]

Danvers became the head of SHIELD during the Ultimate Power crossover with the Squadron Supreme universe. Nick Fury was taken prisoner by the Squadron, but was later returned to the Ultimate universe during Ultimatum.

Thing with Wolverine? I'd assume that refers to Wolverine getting killed during Ultimatum. Magneto forces Cyclops and Iron Man to shoot him, which nearly reduces him to just a skeleton (but still alive enough to stab Magneto), and then Magneto uses his powers to rip the adamantium from his bones in such a way it basically vaporizes what's left of him.

[Shockwave]

Danvers became the head of SHIELD during the Ultimate Power crossover with the Squadron Supreme universe. Nick Fury was taken prisoner by the Squadron, but was later returned to the Ultimate universe during Ultimatum.

Thing with Wolverine? I'd assume that refers to Wolverine getting killed during Ultimatum. Magneto forces Cyclops and Iron Man to shoot him, which nearly reduces him to just a skeleton (but still alive enough to stab Magneto), and then Magneto uses his powers to rip the adamantium from his bones in such a way it basically vaporizes what's left of him.

Hey thanks, that actually did clear it up. They make referrence to Tony "not being the same after the thing with Wolverine" so that makes sense now. And man, that's pretty messed up.

[Dominic]

"Ultimatum" sounds awesome.

Now, here is a short review..


Fantastic Four (True Story):
Paul Cornell riffs on Morrison and some of the more fru-fru theories of fiction and literature. I recognized a few oh-so clever references, saw a few others that I did not recognize, and likely missed others. The whole thing reads like a Saturday morning "reading is important" special, and would have been better as a one-shot. "OMFG, fiction am teh important!" does not warrant 4 issues.
Grade: C

[Onslaught Six]

I'm in the process of rereading The Dark Knight Returns, because my girlfriend has never read it (I've corrupted her so much in the nearly two years we've been together! I feel so proud of her.) and I realized I haven't read it since I initially bought it in 2008. So, might as well refresh it.

With a greater understanding of Miller's mental state today and comics writing as it is today, it's not difficult to see where this was the start of the "Comics must be gritty and 'mature'" trend of the late 80s and 90s and the place this came from. But everything needs its revolutionary things that push the boundaries, and that's where it gets hard to fault DKR for what it is. The art can get messy sometimes but it's mostly coherent. Miller pulls from so many sources, contemporary and before, that it's almost less of a story about Batman and more a story about the society we live in--or could live in.

There's a really interesting line where Bruce Wayne appears on TV saying that we need to believe in Harvey Dent--who has just gotten facial reconstructive surgery and is mingling with the public for the first time in over a decade. I suppose if I'd known this line better in 2008, I'd totally see its irony in being used as Harvey's campaign slogan in The Dark Knight film.

Anyone who says Batman is totally against guns hasn't read this recently.

I'm not to the Superman bits yet, though, which are seriously my favourite bits of both DKR and Superman in general. Yes, really--my favourite Superman story is one where he nearly dies and is mostly a douchebag.

[Shockwave]

Yesterday was my day for Cosmic Cube stories.

Ultimate Avengers: This story was really about Cap and Red Skull and the Skull being his son. The story of the Skull is told from his birth to being raised in a government facility where he trained to basically replace his father. Then on graduation day is apparently where he went nuts, killed everyone and became a hit man for hire. In current time for the comic he gets hired by AIM to steal the blueprints for the Cosmic Cube. They build it and the Skull grabs it and kills everyone at the AIM facility. The Avengers attack and the whole thing ends with cap teleporting a get through the Red Skull. Later, the Skull says that he just wanted to use the cube to go back in time so that his parents could be together and they could be a happy family. The Skull gets killed by Black Widow II. It ends with the reveal that Nick Fury was the one that hired the Skull to begin with as part of larger plan to get his job back as head of SHIELD. I continue to find the Ultimates universe interesting in that they take characters we're familiar with and put new spins on them. This take on the Red Skull I think makes for a much more interesting character than "He's Teh Nazi and am Teh Opposity EvIl!" It certainly gives his character more depth and complexity. And Cap's reaction to him is fairly straightforward although he never really seems to react to the fact that the Skull, who's this horrible evil, is his own flesh and blood. We never really see him have any moments with the Skull where he addresses or acknowledges that. He reacts to the Skull as he would for any other bad guy. Overall I think this was a good story. At least in that it certainly presented me with things that I didn't expect and twists that have longer reaching plot threads. It has me interested to see what is yet to come in the Ultimates universe.

MODOK'S 11: Got this on recommendation from Scourge and I gotta say... I totally agree with him. This has all the "heist movie" fun of the Ocean's 11 films and all the stuff you would expect from a team up of supervillians. And I'm back from break so more on this later. But overall , a very fun book.

[andersonh1]

Alright, I'm going over to the dark side here... I actually checked a Marvel Comics trade paperback out of the library. Gasp!!

Seriously, I haven't read a Marvel comic in years, but the whole fan griping about "One More Day" has me kind of intrigued, particularly since it seems to be a prototype to DC's coming undoing of all the major marriages in their universe (Superman/Lois Lane, Barry Allen/Iris Allen, Oliver Queen/Dinah Lance, (presumably) Wally West and Linda Park, etc). The particular book I checked out is part of what seems to be a compilation of Stracyzinki's run on Spider Man, starting from Tony Stark giving Peter Parker an Iron Man version of the Spider Suit, through Civil War, and ending with the devil (or equivalent) somehow undoing Peter and Mary Jane's marriage.

This doesn't mean I'll be picking up any Marvel books on a regular basis, mind you. Not unless I want to be nostalgic and read a book with a number above 1 or 2 anyway. But it's a library book, and doesn't cost me anything except some time, so why not?

[138 Scourge]

"Ultimatum" sounds awesome.

And man, that's pretty messed up.

In Ultimatum, the Blob ate the Wasp. When I first heard this, I thought maybe she was flying over at him, he snapped and ate her at tiny size. Which would be bad and all, but make a sort of sense. Dumb sense, but still sense. But no, that wasn't the case. The Blob at the Wasp while she was full-sized. So he held her down and just went all George Romero on her. And then the splash page that reveals this not only features the Blob making a horrible cliche joke ("Tastes like chicken!"), he's still tearing at her corpse. Then Hank Pym gets pissed off, so he grows to giant-size and bites the Blob's head off.

Now look, I love horror movies with gore in 'em, so it's not the gore itself I'm against. But this is just dumb. It's like someone trying to write superheroes like a grown-up by filling the "story" with characters being violently murdered every few panels.

So yeah, I'd probably pass on Ultimatum if I were you.

And anderson: As far as OMD goes, I can understand the morbid curiosity of reading the most-hated Spider-Man story ever, but I feel like I should point out that not all Marvel's books are that bad. Just like not all DC books are as bad as JMS's runs on Wonder Woman or Superman. Screw it, let's get JMS and Leifeld on a book together, just to see what comes of it.

[Shockwave]

"Ultimatum" sounds awesome.

And man, that's pretty messed up.

In Ultimatum, the Blob ate the Wasp. When I first heard this, I thought maybe she was flying over at him, he snapped and ate her at tiny size. Which would be bad and all, but make a sort of sense. Dumb sense, but still sense. But no, that wasn't the case. The Blob at the Wasp while she was full-sized. So he held her down and just went all George Romero on her. And then the splash page that reveals this not only features the Blob making a horrible cliche joke ("Tastes like chicken!"), he's still tearing at her corpse. Then Hank Pym gets pissed off, so he grows to giant-size and bites the Blob's head off.

Now look, I love horror movies with gore in 'em, so it's not the gore itself I'm against. But this is just dumb. It's like someone trying to write superheroes like a grown-up by filling the "story" with characters being violently murdered every few panels.

So yeah, I'd probably pass on Ultimatum if I were you.

And anderson: As far as OMD goes, I can understand the morbid curiosity of reading the most-hated Spider-Man story ever, but I feel like I should point out that not all Marvel's books are that bad. Just like not all DC books are as bad as JMS's runs on Wonder Woman or Superman. Screw it, let's get JMS and Leifeld on a book together, just to see what comes of it.

Wow that's even more messed up than I thought. And gross. Yeah, I'm not against gore either but damn.

And yeah, Anderson, I have to second what Scourge said. If you wanna check out a good Marvel book, you could hardly do better than the highly-recommended-by-Scourge-and-now-me MODOK's 11. If you liked Ocean's 11 or even heist movies, you'll love this.

And as promised, a more in depth review.

So MODOK comes up with an equation and decides he needs to gather minions to complete the "equation". So he gets a bunch of down on their luck villians together to do the job. Everything starts off looking like it's gonna come together great, but about halfway through you start to realize that half the team are working for other parties. I particularly love Monica's shouting "Doesn't anyone on this team actually work for who they say they are!!" Great stuff. I even like the details like introducing each section like "part 1: The Team" and "The Plan" and so forth. In the end the plan works and MODOK winds up with the Cube. And some of the villians seem to learn some lessons about themselves. There's a lot of interesting and fun concepts used in this story and I highly recommend it. One of the great things about this is it's so self contained that you don't have to have ever read a Marvel book before to understand it. Everything you need to know about the characters is right there without wasting a lot of time on backstory. That's often a tough thing to do but Van Lente really nailed it with this one.