The new age of Ultimate Comics has begun! The Ultimates #1 begins the new era for Marvel’s Ultimate Comics. There’s definitely a lot riding on the new Ultimate Comics, between this, Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men and to a lesser extent Ultimate Hawkeye. For anyone picking up this title, you notice right off the back that it’s bagged in plastic. Meaning if you’re buying this you either saw the preview, a fan of The Ultimates already, or want the Stan Lee autograph. Whatever your reason, this comic has a lot of attention placed on it. With Jonathan Hickman’s writing and Esad Ribic’s impressive artwork are they up to the task? The thoughts on this are simple, does this first issue of The Ultimates generate the excitement needed for the revamped Ultimate Comics line? That’s what we’re here to find out. Hang on to your hats fellow readers, we’re in for a bumpy ride.
The first pages of the book involve a mysterious group, reminding me eerily of the soldiers from the Authority’s first issues but I digress, setting up a mysterious dome in Germany. That’s when we’re re-introduced to The Ultimates. Esad Ribic’s work on these pages is impressive. He makes everything look impressive, making you interested as to what’s going on. Hickman does a solid job of introducing everyone, doing his best to let each character have a chance to shine. Each one has their own sort of story-arc in leading up to the last page of the issue.
With the last paragraph in mind,by the time I got through with each of the stories, I found myself not having any real connection to any of them. Every part of this book felt patched together. Everything looks fine on the surface, but looking deeper, there’s nothing to connect you with anyone or anything in The Ultimates. Strangely enough, there seems to be an aspect of too much going on at once. With Thor, Iron Man, and Nick Fury, all having a chance to shine you think it would be a good thing. It turns into just not being able to connect to anything that’s going on. Sometimes with decompressed storytelling, things can get too decompressed.
Initially I went into this new iteration of The Ultimates with hopes that I was going to be blown away. The preview had me excited, looking like the comic of the future. Sadly this wasn’t the case. There was great potential, but by the end The Ultimates fizzles out. The last page didn’t hook me to want to grab the next issue. There’s a good chance though if you’re into The Ultimates or Ultimate Comics line you might like this. I’m not as familiar with some events happening in The Ultimates and the Ultimate universe in general, yet a lot of new readers looking for a jumping on point, I get the feeling are going to be absolutely lost. Even those up to date with The Ultimates could be confused. This makes me sad to say, but I can’t recommend this title. There’s so much in The Ultimates #1 to like, but by the end of the issue, there wasn’t enough there to make it satisfying.
