Nov 24 2008
Ultimatum #1
Greetings – once again – from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld]. Today is Monday, November 24th, 2008. Welcome to my daily comic book review blog – thanks for tuning in! Are you interested in a comic book but not sure you want to shell out the cash? Let me know and I’ll review it for you – letting you know if it’s worth your hard earned money!
Today’s Issue:
Ultimatum #1 - a brand new comic from Marvel written by Jeph Loeb (Spider-Man, Batman) with art by David Finch (Moon Knight, Disturbed’s Indestructible album cover). It is the first in a 5 part mini series that takes place in Marvel’s Ultimate Universe. Cover price: $3.99.
Premise:
Let’s talk about the hype for this comic because I think that’s the best way for you to understand what it’s about. It was originally announced as the destruction of the ultimate universe. In Ultimates 3, we saw the death of Magneto’s children, Wanda and Pietro (check out my review on Sunday, October 19th to figure out why you really shouldn’t bother reading it for yourself). Now Magneto is claiming that, “For what they’ve done, they must pay the ultimate price.” Recently, every single Ultimate book has been part of the countdown to ultimatum - whether or not it actually had anything to do with this crossover. Even Ultimate Origins was released because “You need to know how it all began before you can understand how it ends.” (<— Jeph Loeb quote, Mighty Marvel Podcast.) Just to go a bit more in depth, Brian Michael Bendis (the architect of the Ultimate Universe) has been talking about how the ultimization of characters isn’t special anymore - they’ve been introducing new ultimate characters too often recently. He describes Ultimatum as an attempt to get the Ultimate Universe back to its core. I interpret that to mean that they plan on killing off a huge cast of characters during Ultimatum, so that the Ultimate Universe can go back to having a small managable cast. Especially because Bendis claims Peter Parker might not even be Spider-Man anymore after this event is over. So then… what exactly is the premise of this book? Magneto causes cataclysmic weather changes which kill off a whole bunch of people!
Awesome Parts:
Hey - they’re actually living up to their hype for once! In fact, most of this first issue was just all of the Ultimate characters getting caught up to where we are - they discover that Magneto is pissed and planning on destroying the universe, which we’ve known for many many months now. I thought the execution of the comic was great! This is by far the most enjoyable Jeph Loeb product I’ve read in quite some time. It seemlessly hopped back and forth between ALL of the major Ultimate characters so that we can see how they are reacting to the coming destruction. A few things even happened that I didn’t see coming - bravo. Jeph also did a great job of capturing all of these characters’ very human moments immediately before the impending doom. Even anyone who doesn’t know anything about these characters will care about them by the time they start dying off. In fact, this book did SUCH a good job of introducing all of the major players, that I don’t think you need to have read a single Marvel book ever to understand what’s going on.
Un-Awesome Parts:
Ultimate Power and Ultimates 3 led me to believe that Dr. Doom would be playing a crucial role in Ultimatum. But based upon his reaction in this first issue, it seems as though that won’t be the case. That disappoints me not just because I love the character but because they’ve been sewing seeds which it doesn’t look like they intend to harvest. I hate it when they drop the ball on an awesome opportunity like that (unless they’re pulling a Bendis and plan on coming back and explaining it in 5 years.) Also, a character appears whose very presence is a HUGE spoiler to the end of the current Ultimate Spider-Man arc. I don’t like that they got their release timing off on that. Finally, the last page of this book is total crap. It’s Professor Xavier expositising in a completely transparent, uncharacteristic way. I don’t mind the fact that he’s expositing, it’s just that the dialogue itself was written so badly that I literally cringed. Really Jeph - that’s the best you could come up with?
My Recommendation:
Ultimatum #1 was a great read. I absolutely recommend it. Anyone who likes a disaster movie will probably love this comic. Anyone who likes big events with real consequences will like this comic. Anyone who likes to see characters they care about thrown for a loop will like this comic. Anyone who likes to see something unexpected will like this comic. Anyone who likes a large cast of superheroes will like this comic. Anyone who likes it when comic book heroes die will like this comic. Anyone else, well, probably doesn’t like superhero comics very much.
That’s it for today. As always - thanks for reading - see you tomorrow. And don’t forget to let me know if there are any comic books you’d like me to review for you – I take requests!
-Searnold, SuperSearnold@yahoo.com www.myspace.com/SuperSearnold
