Ultimate!

[vynsane]

idk, i think you're reading too much into it. it's more like a cross between the red and blue costume and the initial design for the black costume (with red accents instead of white ones).

plus he's half black, half hispanic.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

And it'd be tough to do a 'Hispanic colored costume'

In all serious truthiness, I think it's a cool design.

[anarky]

I don't have a problem with it. Just surprised either someone in legal or some overzealous blogger hasn't yet.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Dipped into the 'T-U-V-W' box and decided to finally dig into all these Ultimate series I have. I had previously read the bulk of the 3 main ongoings (Spidey, X-Men, and FF) but I started by reading the random issues I had got since then to fill in gaps. Then I turned to the mini series from the first iteration of the Ultimateverse(ie everything before Ultimatum). I'd already read some, heres what was left.

Ultimate Secret. The second part of Ellis' Gah Lak Tus trilogy. I'd read Ultimate Nightmare when it came out. In this 4 issue series, Mahr Vell of the Kree is on Earth to witness its devastation by the coming Gah Lak Tus swarm. Eventually he switches sides and the heroes attack a Kree command ship because it's got info on the swarm and how to maybe defeat it. Leads into...

Ultimate Extinction. The final part of Ellis' trilogy. Gah Lak Tus shows up (in the form of millions of skyscraper sized robot alien bugs) to consume Earth. The heroes repel him/it.

Ultimate Vision. A follow up to the GLT trilogy. In this case Ult Vision was an interstellar beacon sent from world to world trying to warn/prevent GLT destroying worlds. As she/it prepares to move to the next world, she's intercepted by AIM on a space station. They have captured one of the leftover GLT robots and are trying to control it. It escapes and attacks Earth. By Mike Carey and Brandon Peterson.

Ultimate Human. 4 issue series by Ellis and Cary Nord. Banner goes to Stark for help in curing his Hulkiness with Nanobots. The two men are kidnapped by The Leader(who in the Ultiverse is Pete Wisdom, Britain's failed Super Soldier attempt from the 40s). Hulk saves the day, but forever loses his chance at a cure.

Ultimate Origins. 5 issues by Bendis and Butch Guice. Ties all the secret Ultimate origins together. Everything goes back to trying to recreate the Super Soldier serum. Nick Fury is a failed attempt. Weapon X and Wolverine is a failed attempt, which actually created the Mutant Gene in the Ultiverse(which comes back later). The Hulk is a failed attempt by Banner, Richard Parker, and Hank Pym. The first time Banner Hulk's out, he kills Richard and Mary Parker. Which explains why Fury takes an interest in Peter early on.

Ultimate Secrets. A Handbook style oneshot that gives bios of everyone who didnt get one in the first two OHOTMU issues.

Ultimate War. 4 issues by Millar and Bachalo. The first time the X-Men and the Ultimates faced off.

Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk. 6 issues by Damon Lindleof of Lienel Yu. Famous for Hulk ripping Logan in half. Also famous because the first two issues came out in 2006, and Lindelof didn't get around to finishing it until 2009. Since I didn't have to deal with the delay, it was probably more enjoyable for me.

Ultimate X4. Two issues(technically two oneshots) of the first meeting between the X-Men and the FF. A forgettable rogue member of Reed's Baxter Building think tank tries to take over the world or something. By Mike Carey and Pasquale Ferry.

Ult X-Men/FF and Ult FF/X-Men Annuals. A two part story where the X-Men from the future travel to the present to kill the FF before they start an anti-mutant dystopian regime 20 years from now.

Ultimates 3. Jeph Loeb and Joe Mad's 5 issue mini. Given a lot of shit on the Internet because Quicksilver and Wanda were incesting. Which is still gross. But the crux of the story is Ultron(calling himself Yellowjacket) having the hots for Wanda and getting Magneto to flip out and attack the Ultimates after Wanda is killed. The fallout of this series is what led to...

Ultimatum. which gets its own post. Because, damn.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Dear god, the amount of death in Ultimatum is just...indescribable. Jeph Loeb has issues. This is just devastation porn. I knew a couple of these, but they really cleaned house in the Ultiverse with this series. Ready?

Issue 1. Magneto, who is pissed because his daughter Wanda was murdered(and supposedly his son also, but Pietro faked his death) fucks with the Earth's axis and floods the East Coast of the US. Millions are instantly killed, including Dr. Franklin Storm, the X-Men Beast, Nightcrawler, and Dazzler and later on we find out Daredevil. Dr. Doom walks outside and finds everyone in Latveria is frozen dead(and presumably the rest of most of Europe as well). Professor X sends out a mental message to all the other heroes: It's Magneto.

Issue 2. Iron Man rescues a drowned Cap. Thor finds Valkyrie's drowned body and heads to Hel to rescue her soul. Hawkeye and Hank Pym are looking for the Wasp and find her eviscerated body being eaten by the Blob. 40 ft tall Hank flips out and bites off Blob's head. Magneto confronts Professor X at the mansion and after a bitter argument, Magneto snaps Charles' neck killing him.

Issue 3. The Academy of Tomorrow is confirmed destroyed by Madroxes beige sent on suicide missions by Magneto. Emma Frost, Sunspot, Cannonball, and Polaris are dead. Likewise Forge, Detonator, Longshot and Hardrive are killed in the Savage Land. Madrox bombers also take out Parliament in London, killing Capt. Britain and the Europe Initiative. Madroxes are attacking the Triskelion, so Hank takes them all and wades out into the harbor where he explodes. Thor secures Valkyrie's release from Hel by agreeing to take her place. Cap wakes up from his coma.

Issue 4. Hulk smashes Dr. Strange's house apart supposedly killing Spider-Man and releases Dormammu, who is using Johnny Storm as a power source. Dormammu kills Dr. Strange by crushing him with his own cape until he pops like a zit. Reed, Doom, and Zarda head to the Supreme Power universe to find Nick Fury(see Ultimate Power maxi series). Angel attacks Magneto's lair and is killed by Sabretooth. The rest of the heroes show up to fight Magneto.

Issue 5. Magneto kills Wolverine. Literally turns him to dust. Nick Fury shows Magneto the truth about Mutants(see Ultimate Origins) being man made. Cyclops blows Magneto's head off. After the fight is over Cyclops is giving a speech on the steps of the Capitol building he's shot in the head and killed. After Reed explains Doom was responsible for Ultron killing Wanda and thus setting Ultimatum in motion, The Thing travels to Latveria and crushes Dr. Dooms skull with his bare rocky hand. Pietro reveals himself alive on the last page and says he killed Cyclops. He is holding his father's helmet.

In the pages of X-Men, they track down Madrox who has no idea his dupes were suicide bombing everything. Wolverine ends up killing him(obviously it was before they left for the final battle). At some point, Psylocke, Juggernaut, and Toad were also killed but I'm not sure how or where.
There were also three Requiem issues for Spidey, X-Men and FF. The FF disbanded after the events of Ultimatum. The few remaining X-Men(Jean, Kitty, Bobby, Rogue, etc) bury all their dead teammates and raze the Mansion to the ground and go their separate ways. In the two part Spidey Requiem, JJ Jameson has a complete change about Spidey and writes a beautiful obituary about the hero. On the last page, Cap finds Spidey's body under some rubble. He opens his eyes.

Soooo...yeah. It was pretty horrific.

Next up are the Ultimate Avengers books and the Ultimate Spidey relaunch and all the stuff between Ultimatum and the Death of Spider-Man.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Read some more Ultimate series. The second iteration only lasted a couple years and ended with the Death of Spider-Man and Ultimate Fallout mini. Besides the ongoing Spidey and Avengers, there were roughly ten minis in that time. Here's what I read so far.

Ultimate Spidey 1-15, 150. The 2nd series up until it reverted back to original numbering. Six months have passed since Ultimatum. Peter is dating Gwen now. The first arc deals with Mysterio, who kills Kingpin by pushing him out an 80 story window, and trying to become the new Kingpin. Meanwhile, Johnny Storm shows up on Peter and Aunt May's steps and May takes him in. Later on the same happens with Bobby Drake. So Aunt May is running a boarding house for teen superheroes. The second arc deals with Kitty Pryde being arrested for being a mutant and two Chameleons stealing Peters identity and making Spidey seem like a bank robbing asshole and also fucking up his relationships with both MJ and Gwen. Finally, Carol Danvers, head of SHIELD has had enough of Spidey vigilante shenanigans and orders him to superhero school with the Ultimates.

Ultimate Avengers. The Avengers series were confusing. The inidicia indicated it was one series that lasted 18 issues. But the numbering on the covers split the series into three minis of six issues each. The first arc/series was by Millar and Carlos Pacheco. Captain America's illegitimate son comes back as neo nazi Red Skull trying to get a Cosmic Cube.

Ultimate Avengers 2. The Ghost Rider is killing rich people who killed him and his girlfriend in exchange for power, including the Vice President. Fury recruits the Punisher and other heroes as a black ops team to stop Ghost Rider. By Millar and Lienil Yu.

Ultimate Avengers 3. Blade is hunting his former mentor who is now the vampire king and turning superheroes like Hulk, the new DD, and Cap into vampires. By Millar and Dillon. Missing the last two issues, so I don't know how it ends.

Ultimate Enemy. Somebody blows up a bunch of science researchers like the Roxxon building, the Baxter Building, and Reed Richards' home killin him and his family. Spidey Clone Jessica Drew investigates the Roxxon attack while Ben Grimm professes his love for Sue. Then his body changes and he loses his rocky exterior and gets new powers.

Ultimate Mystery. The sequel to Enemy. Captain Marvel arrives at Project Pegasus and ends up fighting a super powered Rick Jones. They teleport to the Baxter Building then Rick and Sue Storm teleport back to Project Pegasus in Wyoming to discover the villain: Reed Richards!

Ultimate Doom. The final part of the trilogy. Sue battles Reed who almost kills her. Spidey and Jessica fight Doc Ock at Roxxon. Then everybody(all the FF, Ultimates, Spidey, Ock, and SHIELD) gathers and fights Evil Reed in the Negative Zone and destroy his base, leaving him stranded there. Jessica becomes a SHIELD agent. Doc Ock gets an offer from SHIELD. And Sue Storm proposes to Ben. All told, this was excellent 12 issue series by Bendis and Rafael Sandoval. It kept you guessing and moved a lot of the characters forward in different directions from the main 616 verse. Highly recommended.

Up next, the rest of Spidey's series, and a half dozen minis including Armor Wars, Cap, Thor, New Ultimates, and Ultimate X.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Here's the rest of the Ultimate books.

Ultimate Armor Wars. 4 issues by Ellis and Kurth. In the aftermath of Ultimatum, Tony goes to retrieve a macguffin from his Manhattan penthouse. There he fights The Ghost using stolen IM Armor and Justine Hammer. He realizes his tech is being used illegally and travels to Europe and the Southwest United States. The bad guy ends up being his grandfather, Howard Stark Sr. Bleah.

Ultimate Captain America. 4 issues by Jason Aaron and Rob Garney. Steve is captured by the Vietnam era Cap, aka Frank Simpson aka Nuke, and tortured for four issues. Then he breaks free and beats the shit out of Simpson. Meh.

Ultimate New Ultimates. 5 issues by Loeb and Frank Cho. After Ultimatum, the Ultimates regroup and KaZar, Shanna, and Black Panther join the team. Loki powers up the Defenders and attacks Mew York as part of an elaborate plan to bring Thor back from Hel so he'll go crazy and decimate Midgard. So by the end, Thor is back on the team and Valkyrie is dead...again. Also, the first issue has the most obnoxious fold out cover ever. It's literally like 12 pages of one giant fold out image. I dunno I stopped counting. It's retarded how many pages it is.

Ultimate Thor. 4 issues by Hickman and Pacheco. Basically tells the origin of how Ult Thor wound up on Earth. Borrows a lot from the original Millar/Hitch runs of Ultimates. Not bad.

Ultimate X. 5 issues by Loeb and Art Adams. I don't know what the original plan was but this book got derailed almost immediately because Adams had some personal stuff going on. The first 3 issues came out in Jun-Aug 2010, issue 4 didnt hit until April, and the final issue came out in Sept 2011. Anyway, in the post-Ultimatum world mutants are hunted and each issue follows a different mutant hiding out and slowly banding together. The first issue is Jimmy Hudson, illegitimate son of Logan raised by Mac and Heather Hudson of Florida. The second issue is Karen Grant, who is really Jean Grey with a dye job, living in Philidelphia. The third issue is a new winged mutant from Chicago and the fourth issue is Liz Allan, who was in the Ult Spidey books as the new Firestar living with her mom in CA now. The fifth issue tried tying the trainwreck off and having the Hulk, Nick Fury and Pietro and his new Brotherhood all show up. Four decent vignettes followed by a limp ending. Yes, I'm praising Loeb's writing. It started good.

The last two were both part of the "Death of Spider-Man" event. Although the only thing tying them together was Castle accidentally shooting Peter while he pushed Cap out of the way. In the context of reading both series, it's actually very awkward and forced.

Anyway, Ultimate Avengers vs New Ultimates. 6 issues by Millar and Lienel Yu. Nick Fury and his black ops Avengers team get accused of selling Super Soldier tech to rogue nations like North Korea and Iran. So they fight the Ultimates. Actually it's all a ploy by Tony Stark's brother Gregory to take over SHIELD for himself, but he ends up getting fried by Thor's lightning and Nick Fury ends up back in charge of SHIELD.

Ultimate Spidey. The first few issues deal with Spidey getting trained by Iron Man and Cap in heroing and also a plot where Black Cat and Mysterio are fighting over a Zodiac Key. Then in the final arc, Norman Osborn and Kraven, Ock, Electro, Sandman, and Vulture break out of prison and decide to go kill Peter. Ock says no, so Norman Goblins out and kills Otto. Then they go to Queens and have a huge battle on Peter's front lawn where he heroically defeats them all and saves Aunt May before succumbing to his injuries. Really great read.

Then there was a denouement series called Ultimate Fallout that wrapped up this iteration of the Ultiverse and set up the current incarnation. Of which I dont have enough issues to read yet(the current stuff, not Fallout. I have Fallout. Read it awhile ago.)