I’ve started reading Marvel comics again after a brief stint as kid. Specifically, trying to catch up on the old characters but having trouble trying to fill in gaps.
What’s the Ultimate Series about? I know that they’ve pushed the reset button somehow - was this caused by the alternate universe cause by Franklin Richards during the time of Onslaught? And how does this affect the other comic lines?
What happened to the Legacy Virus?
The Ultimate Universe is not to be confused with the “Heroes Reborn” universe (although a nifty explanation for the Ultiverse was provided in Paradise X #9 or 10, I believe.
The Ultimate series are basically what you said: Marvel hit a reset button. It’s the comics redone for the 21st century, much as John Byrne did with Superman in 1986. The thematic elements are there (Peter Parker is bitten by a spider, gets powers, Uncle Ben is shot, yadda yadda), but things are rewritten to “fit” our world better. (Think of the Ultiverse the way you compare the Batman cartoons to the Batman comics: everything you understand is in both, but they’re portrayed differently.)
IMHO, Ultimate Spider-Man is a fabulous series. It’s no Lee/Ditko (or Lee/Romita, for that matter), but it’s a good, clean introduction to the character. And there’s lovely hardcover and paperback collections of the series if you’re looking for the full story.
Ultimate X-Men scares me, because it’s rather unfamiliar compared to the X-Men I grew up with. They’re more militant, separatist, and a little punk. I fear that a lot of UXM will become dated very quickly–Ultimate Spidey at least feels like it could be readable for a long time without another reboot in 20 years.
The Ultimates is what I believe Fenris once described as like a trainwreck: horrific, but you don’t want to look away. It’s not The Avengers. You want the Avengers, read the Avengers. Here, Cap is a military man with a pole up his arse, Thor is some environmentalist wacko, and the Wasp is asian and frequently naked. (I don’t mind the Asian part–they made Nick Fury black, and nobody noticed–but the cheesecake appeal is overdone.) I’m also noticing it borrows from movies a lot: one issue read like The Matrix while another reeked of Independence Day. And it’s supposed to be original. Yipee!
Ultimate Fantastic Four is coming. I don’t know a lot about it, except 1) there’s no rocket ship involved, and 2) Doctor Doom’s name isn’t Doctor Doom.
There was an Ultimate Daredevil/Elektra mini-series. DD has appeared on occassion in the Ultiverse, although they’ve kind of hinted that their DD isn’t really that different from “our” DD.
Thanks ResIpsaLoquitor
Yeah, agree with you on the Ultimate X-Men view. A lot removed from the quaint 60’s feel in the original and closer to the manga/angst stuff of today. Mind you, I was too young to appreciate the original series.
Didn’t follow the Fantastic Four much, but one of the reasons I liked it was the cheese factor of having a well established celebrity crime fighting team. Well, I’ll be happy as long as they alter how Susan and Reed first meet so that it’s not so icky.
Another question: Is there any connection between the old and new? Eg, Amazing Supiderman and Ultimate Spiderman?
There is no connection between the regular comics and the Ultimates. It’s a completely separate thingamajig.
I love the whole Ultimate universe. I got into comics again, and didn’t really want to bother picking up Spiderman or X-men, because it would be really difficult to understand the back story. So this is good for me.
Ultimate Spiderman is quite good. I like Ultimate X-men. I like the Ultimates too. Hank Pym is a sicko and a wife beater. Bruce Banner is a weasel. Captain America has a stick up his ass, like resipsa said, which I think is appropriate for a man that was living in the 1940s a few weeks ago.
They seem to be tying the creation of all these bad guys and good guys to science run amok. That is, they are trying to recreate the super soldier syrum (sp?) that created Captain America. If I recall correctly, Dr. Octopus, Sandman, Venom, Spiderman, Green Goblin are all victims of these efforts.
I heartily reccomend this, btw. Along with some of Ultimate Spider-Man, it’s my favorite thing to come out of the Ultimate Universe. I thought it was extremely well done and deserving of an ongoing.
I don’t understand the hype surrounding Ultimates at all, though. I mean, yeah, it’s okay, but I don’t get all goey over it like seemingly almost every other comic reader does.
What little I’ve read of Ultimates seemed a bit too much like a wannabe Authority to me. Isn’t the artist on the book even one of the ones who worked on The Authority?
Personally, I’m a fan of the Ultimates. At least, I enjoyed the first big storyline about a super hero team created to fight super villains, but who actually had no super villains to fight. It was just an interesting look at the lives of superheroes and their thoughts and whatnot when they’ve really got nothing to do. For me, that was interesting, and the story was well written. The current storyline with the Skree, not so much so, but still rather good. I also glanced at the Ultimate Six miniseries they have out now, and again, it shows some interesting quirks with the characters. When they try to apprehend someone, Cap tells Thor “Round him up,” and Thor just responds “No.” Cap then turns to Hawk Eye who’s initial response is “I really don’t want to waste the hardware.” Very odd team dynamic so far due to the fact they’re still rather fresh and new, and I like that. I’ve never been a fan of the Avengers, but I do like this book.
Ultimate X-Men has it’s good points, but it’s starting to wear on me a bit. The current storyline is rather lame (although Spiderman is hilarious in it), and they’ve already pulled the whole “Magneto’s dead…no, he’s alive” thing in the first 25 issues. Still, I like the edgyness of some of the characters, their history rewrites (Colossus as an ex-weapons smuggler for one), and the Weapon-X storyline was really cool. And it’s the only comic so far that’s made me actually like Gambit.
I haven’t picked up any of the Ultimate Spiderman comics myself, but I have read some and found them really enjoyable. My only big concern, much like with X-Men is that I fear they’re rushing things too much. It’s not even up to issue 50, and they seem to have included like, 25% of Spidey’s enemies into the storyline, and he’s got a LOT of enemies, so that’s quite a few guys. Still, I love seeing Spiderman as an angst ridden teen, and the comical attitude is portrayed really well.