Comic Book Review: Ulimates 3 #1

It is a changing of the guards on the Ultimates. Millar and Hitch are gone and in comes Jeph Loeb and Joe Madureira. I have my reservations about this new creative team. I liked Millar’s gritty, realistic and political take on the Ultimates. I also thought Hitch’s artwork was perfect for the tone of Millar’s story.

Loeb brings a much different style of writing to the table. I run real hot and cold with Loeb’s work. I really enjoyed his efforts on Batman: Long Halloween, Batman: Dark Victory and Daredevil: Yellow. On the other hand, I thought Loeb’s run on Wolverine was simply unreadable and his run on Superman/Batman was less than impressive.

Madureira brings a distinctly manga inspired style of art that is extremely stylized. Madureira is going to give the Ultimates a drastically different look than it had under Hitch. I’m going to keep an open mind and hope for the best with Ultimates 3 #1. Let’s do this review.

Creative Team
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Artist: Joe Madureira

Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with the Avengers hanging out in Tony Stark’s mansion watching the Tony Stark/Black Widow sex tapes that have been leaked to the media. Suddenly, Venom busts into the joint and demands to know where “she” is. The Avengers attack and we have one huge brawl on our hands.

Venom takes out Thor, Wasp, Black Panther and Hawkeye. Valkyrie then appears on the scene and attacks Venom. Venom is about to take out Valkyrie when Thor gets up and blasts Venom. Venom turns into a pile of goo. Hawkeye shoots the pile of goo just to make sure Venom is dead. Thor and Valkyrie then start smooching each other.

Wasp tells Clint to stop shooting. Hawkeye whips his gun around and points it to Wasp’s head. Hawkeye snaps if Wasp calls him “Clint” one more time that he is going to drop her right here in the street. Wasp retorts that Hawkeye needs to start following orders. That Wasp is the leader of the team. Wasp says that Hawkeye has a death wish and it is obvious from the target he has painted on his head.

We cut to later today at Tony Stark’s mansion. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are all up on each other. Captain America approaches them and comments that Scarlet Witch’s sexy outfit is inappropriate. Captain America touches Scarlet Witch’s arm. Quicksilver grabs Captain America’s hand and tells Captain America that he will kill him if he ever touches Wanda again. Quicksilver and Wanda leave the mansion.

Wasp tells Captain America that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are in love. As in beyond brother and sister. That it is boyfriend and girlfriend with the brother and sister. Captain America is stunned. Hawkeye walks over and says that the Tony Stark/Black Widow sex tape scandal will be nothing compared to the public relations disaster that two Ultimates are engaged in an incestuous relationship.

Hawkeye then leaves to go find the Black Panther who never made it back to the mansion after the fight with Venom. Wasp then asks Captain America where he was when Venom attacked. That they haven’t seen a lot of Steve lately. Steve responds that he had to get his own life. Wasp asks if Steve wants to tell her about it. Captain America responds that he doesn’t. Captain America then leaves the mansion.

Wasp then goes and checks on Hank Pym in the laboratory. Hank is foaming out the mouth and has overdosed on prescription drugs.

We cut to Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch walking around Manhattan. They are about to kiss each other on the lips when Quicksilver hears a gun shot. Quicksilver uses his super speed to catch the bullet.

Quicksilver looks at his hand and sees that the bullet blasted a hole through his palm. Quicksilver then looks at Scarlet Witch and sees that the bullet has torn through her belly. Scarlet Witch collapses to the ground. A doctor in the crowd rushes to Wanda’s aid. The doctor gives her CPR. The doctor then tells Quicksilver that he is sorry. That Scarlet Witch is dead. End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Ultimates 3 #1 was a solid read. This was definitely not a slow or boring issue. Loeb kicks off his run on this title with a fast start. This issue moves along at a quick pace and treats the reader to plenty of action. The big brawl with Venom is sure to please action junkies who like over the top action.

However, Loeb is smart enough to not make this just a mindless brawlfest of a debut issue. Loeb actually turns in a rather nice balance of action and drama. Loeb focuses in on the state of the Ultimates since we last saw them. And clearly, things aren’t good. The Ultimates are a badly fractured team. This is a dysfunctional family that isn’t doing so great now that they are operating on their own rather than being under the direction of Nick Fury and the government.

Loeb serves up some solid dialogue. It isn’t anything spectacular, but at least we get a nice sense of the personalities of the different characters. And each character talks with a fairly well developed voice. What I love is the gobs of tension between the members of the Ultimates.

Personally, I prefer it when my heroes don’t really get along that well. It makes it more realistic. Honestly, how many of you work in a place where every single one of your co-workers love each other and are friends? That is pretty rare. Instead, what Loeb gives us in this issue is closer to reality than the close friendships and respect that we traditionally get on super team titles.

Loeb has begun his run on the Ultimates by placing the team at a low point. There are problems everywhere as the team seems to be a sinking ship and their leader Wasp can only watch at what is happening around her.

We have Tony who is constantly drunk. We have a pissed off Hawkeye who clearly has a death wish. Captain America is more distant than ever. Pym has overdosed on drugs. We have the sex tape scandal with Black Widow and Tony as well as the incestuous relationship with Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Now that is definitely a team that is rocked with problems.

I like Loeb’s idea to begin his run with the Ultimates at their lowest. This creates plenty of tension as the reader is curious to see what happens next with this team that is clearly struggling now that they are out of the control of SHIELD.

I like Loeb’s distant Captain America. It fits well with the concept of Steve being a man out of time. He should feel removed and out of step with the rest of society around him. To have him adjust to modern society with ease would simply be unrealistic.

I liked Loeb’s Hawkeye, even though it isn’t as good as Millar’s version of Hawkeye. I will admit up front that I’m a sucker for a hero with a death wish. And Hawkeye has a huge one. This is the natural progression of Clint’s character given what happened to him during Millar’s run. Clint’s wife and kids were brutally murdered. It only makes sense that Hawkeye would seek to retreat into his Hawkeye persona in order to deal with the pain and the overwhelming sense of loss. Wasp said it best when she commented that it seems like Clint died when his family died and all that is left is Hawkeye.

I feel bad for Pym. This poor character continues to be nothing but a punching bag for writers. I wish a writer could come along and find an interesting purpose for Pym’s character other than being an emotionally unbalanced loser.

I like the sex tape scandal. It makes sense that any team financed by a notorious playboy like Tony Stark is simply going to have to deal with these types of scandals. Unlike the other Ultimates, Tony Stark is a true celebrity. And he keeps that celebrity lifestyle rolling to full effect.

I dig the addition of Valkyrie to the Ultimates. I always liked her character on the Defenders. Obviously, Valkyrie and Thor seem to be a logical couple. They also appear to be the only characters in this title that are actually in a good place at the moment. I’m certainly curious to learn more about Valkyrie’s character.

Loeb definitely ends his debut issue with a monster hook ending. I mean, talk about dropping a huge bomb on the reader with the death of Scarlet Witch. That is certainly how you make an impact on the reader with your first issue. This ending got me to the edge of my seat and I can’t wait to find out who killed Wanda and why.

Joe Madureira serves up plenty of pretty artwork. Madureira is able to create an incredibly dynamic fight scene. I dig the detailed and slick look of Madureira’s artwork.

The Bad: Ultimates 3 #1 was a bit of a disjointed and choppy read. The scene transitions were poorly done. This issue lacked a nice internal flow to the story. Loeb started the issue abruptly and the story seemed to move in a forced fashion. Loeb failed to get the story to unfold in an organic fashion.

Loeb’s story is lacking that feeling of the spectacular that Millar was able to pull off on this title. Millar treated the reader to unique stories where you never knew what was going to happen next. Millar’s Ultimates was very textured and nuanced. Loeb’s take on the Ultimates is much more generic. Loeb gives us a version of the Ultimates that reads much more like a 1990’s Image title.

Loeb’s story is more shallow than the incredibly deep stories that Millar gave us. Loeb seems to just skim across the surface and eschews investigating the little details like Millar did on his run. Millar crafted a nicely detailed world for the Ultimates while Loeb appears to be working more in basic broad strokes.

While I thought that Loeb’s dialogue was serviceable, it was noticeably inferior to what Millar treated the reader to during his run. Loeb relies more on basic stereotypes to carry the characters, while Millar gave us more fully developed and realistic themed characters.

Hawkeye is a good example of this. Millar’s Hawkeye was just a bad-ass soldier who could turn anything to a deadly weapon. Millar’s take on Hawkeye was a much more gritty and realistic character. Loeb’s version of Hawkeye is more like Grifter from the 1990’s. Not particularly textured or realistic. Instead, Loeb relies on the stereotype of the “crazy” shoot first hero.

Wasp comes across as shallow as ever. I know that Jan isn’t a brain surgeon, but she appears to be incredibly incompetent and down right bungling in her role as leader of the Ultimates. Jan’s personality is rather one-dimensional. It is disappointing that Loeb really short changes Jan’s character in this issue.

I was pretty bummed about Wanda’s death. I really dig Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch together. I think that their incestuous relationship, while totally gross, is incredibly entertaining. You just don’t see incest in your typical comic book. Their relationship is at a unique aspect that is missing on most team titles.

Plus, as a general rule, a writer should never kill off a character as hot as Scarlet Witch. That is just wrong.

The color work on this issue is horrible and really impacts Madureira’s artwork in a seriously negative fashion. The colors give this issue a muted, dark and muddy look. It is hard to make out just what is going on at certain points of this issue. It practically hurt my eyes to try and strain to read this book and make out what was occurring in some of the scenes.

Overall: Ultimates 3 #1 was a solid debut issue by Loeb and Madureira. While I certainly didn’t enjoy it as much as what Millar and Hitch gave us, I still think that Loeb and Madureira’s run on this title has some serious potential. Loeb appears to be committed to maintaining the mature theme and tone on this title that Millar had established. And Madureira is a talented artist who is more than capable of handling a team title.

I think that Ultimates 3 #1 is an average read that doesn’t move me either way to tell you to run out and purchase it or to avoid it at all costs. It isn’t going to challenge your brain and is not going to be anything more than mindless entertainment. There is no doubt that Loeb’s version of the Ultimates is completely devoid of that something special that made Millar’s Ultimates such a wonderful read. The Ultimates has gone from a must read book under Millar to just another typical super hero team title under Loeb.