Ultimate Spiderman: Ultimatum

So, apparently the Ultimate Marvel Universe is ending.

Screw, says me.

Now, I'll admit that I've always had good feelings about Ultimate Marvel. The Ultimate Marvel lines were starting right around the time I got into comics, and they were a great introduction to the medium. The various book presented classic characters in updated stories that went in interesting direction. 

Ultimate X-Men was great. I've always loved the idea of a group of young mutants coming together, but frankly, the 616 X-Men(616 is the standard Marvel U, don't ask me why) are usually so weighed down by mythology that the stories make no sense even if you have taken the time to read through several decades worth of back issues. Ultimate X-Men really cut it down to the essential nature of the concept, the hip, different young people doing their best to survive. And that was awesome.

Ultimate Fantastic Four was also a lot of fun. A shocking amount of the backbone of the 616 Marvel U springs from FF mythology, and reading through the Ultimate version, well, it made both universes make more sense. Ultimate FF really shined, though, in its reintroduction of the characters. Yes, they were younger, hipper versions of the 616 team, but they were also more like the Fantastic Four of the Jack Kirby days than the 616 FF had been in years. Once again we had Reed Richards being not only one of the smartest men in the world, but also a deeply broken person. First his egotism lead to the accident that gave the FF their powers, then his guilt over Ben Grimm being turned into the Thing constantly blocked him from achieving things. 

And man, it was good to see Ben Grimm truely horrified at being turned into the Thing again. I'm sorry, but 616 Grimm just isn't as interesting since he's learned to accept his fate as a giant, rocky monster. Dude got turned into a monster. He needs to rage at the heavens some.

And Johnny Storm, the Human Torch. The 616 Torch has long since grown up, become a mature, caring individual. The selfish, childish, often mean-spirited character that Kirby created? You can't find him anywhere outside of the Ultimate Universe.

And Ultimate Sue Storm, well, three out of fours pretty good, yes?

And Ultimates, the Ultimate version of the Avengers? Dear Reader, if you want to see a perfect example of how to do a Big Action Comic that captures the feeling of a specific time, a weird little slice of the end of 2001 through the middle of 2003, well, Ultimates is that. The first two Ultimates series are almost as good as superhero comics can be, and the third, well, that's where the problem is.

See, Ultimate Marvel started out really well. Like, amazingly well. Problem is, when you have an amazing set of comics, it's not going to last. Writers move around, artists move around, shit happens. A single series might be able to maintain high quality, but a bunch? Never.

So the Ultimate Universe has been spiraling down. Gone are the simple, earnest stories featuring interesting characters, what we're left with is one big "event" after another. Prof X DIES, the comes back, then Nightcrawlers evil, and maybe an assassin, and Gambit's living in Rouge's head, and on and on. And Ultimates 3. Oh man, Ultimates 3 was awful. That series somehow managed to find every new and interesting thing about the previous two Ultimates books, and make it boring, overdrawn, oer acted, a parody of itself. Seriously, if you got late stage Frank Miller to put the whole mirror up his nose, I doubt you could squeeze out anything quite so awful as Ultimates 3.

...

But, even with all that, I'm sorry to see the Ultimate Marvel Universe end. Ultimate Spiderman has been a good comic, all through its 130 issue run. The characters have stayed strong, but they've also grown. The book's riffed on some old mythology, but it fun and smart ways. It's never fallen into the "let's see how many references to old 616 comics we can cram into each issue" trap. Ultimate Spidey has just been fun.

Oh, and it has a trans character. Spiderwoman? Totally a female clone of Spiderman, complete with Peter Parkers memories. She's a girl who remembers being a guy. And is a superhero. And is awesome. Now, here in the last three issues, it looks like we're going to get some more story featuring Spiderwoman, and I'm thrilled about that. Spiderwoman, though realizing that she used to be male, feels female, and has no intention of going back. I want to see her character goes.

 I hate to see this comic end. It just doesn't feel like it's over to me.

Ultimate X-Men and Fantastic Four, eh, they've had good runs, but it really feels like they've run out of ideas. Ultimate Spiderman is different. It keeps going, keeps having new and better things happen. I wanted to know how Peter and Gwen are going to share a house, go to school together. I want to see if girl-Peter can be integrated into the Parker family life now that Aunt May knows about her. 

Arg, stupid Ultimatum.

Comments

[viagra online]

Throughout recorded history, several cosmologies and cosmogonies have been proposed to account for observations of the Universe. The earliest quantitative geocentric models were developed by the ancient Greeks, who proposed that the Universe possesses infinite space and has existed eternally, but contains a single set of concentric spheres of finite size – corresponding to the fixed stars, the Sun and various planets – rotating about a spherical but unmoving Earth. Over the centuries, more precise observations and improved theories of gravity led to Copernicus's heliocentric model and the Newtonian model of the Solar System, respectively. Further improvements in astronomy led to the realization that the Solar System is embedded in a galaxy composed of millions of stars, the Milky Way, and that other galaxies exist outside it, as far as astronomical instruments can reach.

[kamagra online]

Marvel's legacy and all its characters are unique and unparalleled thanks to the open mind, a brilliant, talented and Stan Lee insurmountable. I am happy to know that we'll be ahead of these diverse characters and out of this world, the blog is great congratulations

[generic propecia]

Now, scientists are very much aware of the incompleteness of the
available theories to provide with fully consistent models, so they
themselves typically point out the flaws of their proposals needed of
further research.

[viagra online]

You can't put an animal raised in captivity, in it's alleged natural habitat. I bet so much money this chick wouldn't last in the wild for more than 5 days.

If she didn't take herself so seriously, this could be a funny piece of performance, but instead it's kind of embarrassing.

[online generic viagra]

Hello Dear,
Really your blog is very interesting.... it contains great and unique informaiton. I enjoyed to visiting your blog. It's just amazing.... Thanks very much for the share & keep posting such an informative articles. I'm
looking forward to your blog. Thanks!

[Michelle Pendleton]

When I was able to watch the old Spider-Man cartoons during my free time, I'd usually ask my brother online if the story actually sticks to the canon. The movies starring Tobey Maguire were far from the Marvel canon. I really hope that the revamp version of the movie would be patterned after the Ultimate saga. You're right. The Ultimate series were really great! So great that even a girl like me got into reading them.