Monday, May 23, 2011

Ultimatum #3-4




The death count rises and the audience's patience falls.



120 comments:

Razorvine said...

I think I am almost more disturbed by Hank Pym biting off the Blob's head. At least the Blob is supposed to be "evil".

Also YAY! Ninja-Style Dancer, keep dodging that Entity.

HailNaraku said...

Actually, the Axial Polar shift is far more rapid. We shift one degree on our axis every 71.6 years. Wikipedia has an extensive Article on this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_precession_%28astronomy%29

Cubey said...

That Scarlet Witch didn't look strange for me - but then, I watch too much anime. Might be just me, but I noticed (female) characters having sorta anime-sque designs in several panels.

Wasn't Dr Strange supposed to be one of the strongest super heroes ever? And here he goes down like a chump. In fact, that's the worst part of this comic for me. If characters don't get ignoble offscreen deaths, then in a fight they last for like two panels, and then lose a bodypart like some kind of Getter Robo redshirt - and another one bites the dust. It would work if it was some kind of gritty war story (war story with people made from putty...), but this is a SUPERHERO book.

Yogurt said...

Hank Pym just pulled an Ozzie Osbourne?

Wow...just....wow!

Jyger85 said...

Whoa, did anyone else see an eye in the distortion created by The Entity? The heck was that?

...Man Linkara, I've seen you lose it over a plot hole, but this whole Magnetic Poles thing has really got you pissed off, huh? Not that I blame you even in the slightest, mind you.

And could Captain America be any more badass in this comic? It's one of the few elements of this comic that comes close to saving it.

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"Actually, the Axial Polar shift is far more rapid. We shift one degree on our axis every 71.6 years. Wikipedia has an extensive Article on this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_precession_%28astronomy%29"

Well, wiki's been edited since I wrote the script, since the "1 degree every 130 million years" thing came from them.

Unknown said...

Is it odd that I still enjoy this event comic regardless of the bloodbath? I can't tell you why but the slaughter house style of writing doesn't bother me in this case.... Odd.

Michael Heide said...

Mystique's shapeshifting abilities explain the messed up proportions of that face. Doesn't make it any better, but at least that explains it.

Also, nice bamf effect at the ending. Will the Ultimatum #5 review have the climax to the missing Ninja Style Dancer subplot?

David Monticchio said...

I'm loving the science rants in these.

And here's to hoping Dazzler and Longshot one day return. They were complete polar opposites from 616...practically original characters.

Jannet_Jazz said...

Sweetie, what am I looking at? This isn't a Marvel comic, it's "Faces of Death: The Graphic Novel". What is the point of creating a universe to bring people in without the specter of years of continuity only to kill everyone?

Unknown said...

why? just why? This is just, why? What was the freaking point of killing off the Sorcerer Supreme? Why? WHAT IS THE POINT OF KILLING OFF ALL THESE CHARACTERS?! WHY WOULD DOCTOR DOOM BE SO MOTHER-F-ING STUPID AS TOO THINK KILLING THE CHILDREN OF ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS VILLAINS IN THE MARVEL UNIVERSE WOULDN'T HAVE HORRENDOUS REPERCUSSIONS?!!!
Also, glad that at least Captain America isn't an asshole in the Ultimate universe.
Oh, and Wolverine gets a special treat next issue. Just wait.

Mountain King said...

Any and all comments I could make are held back, so I can correctly vent at the end of the whole mess.

Still three points for the sake of it; First this is really trying to out do Countdown for deaths. It's already succeeded. Second, it's trying to out do the gross out of the more disturbing parts of Countdown. Again succeeding. and finally its; trying to hurt us. Really the writer is dedicated to hurt the reader. Again it worked fanatically. Even experiencing this second hand hurt.

Badly

Thomas

RBYDark said...

While this comic is undeniably bad, it does have one thing going for it, I guess. I have NEVER wanted to track down and read Captain America comics so badly before. If only this was any good.

I have to admit, though, I'm worried for Ninja-Style Dancer. This escape was more of a close call than the last - I have a bad feeling he won't escape their next encounter....and what was that, moving in the distortion? Was that the Entity?

Derangel said...

All we need is poorly done pointless ressurection and Ultimatum will perfectly encapsulate everything I hate about comics. Pointless death? Check. Bad writing? Check. Dumbass heroes? Check. Moronic villains? Check. Horribly idiotic, impossible to believe plots? Very Check. Are we sure this piece of shit didn't come from the 90s? It sure as hell feels like some of the worst examples of comics from that era. I don't even like the Ultimate universe that much and this thing is infuriating.

Ghjklbnm said...

hooray, you mentioned the super soldier serum thing i tried to point out in the comments last week.hooray for captain "bad-ass" america. thank you for thinking of the doom-bot theory too, it would also explain why doom looks like the 616-universe doom instead of the ultimate doom.
stop with the spooky endings, they're seriously scaring me now, jk, continue biulding to something awesome

Radar said...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks Capt. America is badass! Nobody else would think such a complex plan would work? Uh, Palpatine?

SchweitzerMan said...

I want to make a comment on this but...I just can't. It's almost painful.

Anonymous said...

Arcanna is Arcanna Jones, who is the Supreme Power Reboot of the Squadron Supreme character of the same name. She's somewhat of a teammate of Zarda.

Which means, of course, that she is the Marvel-pastiche version of Zatanna Zatara. The original was a sorceress. The Supreme power version has the ability to see the alternate dimensions/futures and see/choose which will become reality. You'll love this, she invokes Schrodinger's cat to explain her powers.

Austin said...

Awww please stop trying to kill the ninja style dancer.

The Mad Scientist said...

AMAZING use of "America, Fuck Yeah!" in this review, Lewis! I never expected to hear that in one of your reviews, so that really made me laugh! Nice work!

Also, Magneto COULD cauterize his wounds with magnetism if there was some superheated metal in a liquid form nearby that he could gravitate to his body. However, given the physics of such an action and the fact that the heat would bleed off far too quickly to make such a thing possible. At least, that's going by the picture, since it looks like the metal over his arm is shaped in such a way as to appear liquid.

Either way, great review! Looking forward to the finish! Any chance of another "Combine Harvester" moment? =D

Mario Di Giacomo said...

Derangel:

The 90's are coming back. Polybags, variant covers, editorially-driven storylines. This was relatively tame, considering.

Iceman said...

No matter how many times I hear it that theme song never stops being...utterly awful. It's horrendous. It goes on way too long, and even a few seconds is way too long for that piece of garbage some people would call a song.

KingInYellowTatters said...

All I can think of after watching that is a quote from "Miracles", by Insane Clown Posse... "F*cking Magnets, how Do They Work?"

Coyote's Own said...

Jocasta was actually build by Ultron in the 616 continuity. Her personality was however based on Janet's.

Actually on top of all of hole in Doom's plan, there also the fact that, form what i heard about Ulitmate Magneto, kill off humanity would be completely in character for him.

And while the Cap scene's are fun, they're pretty much ruined by the fact Ultimate Cap has as much to with 616 Cap, as Crazy Steve has to do with Batman

The Last Otori said...

I did a quick scan I don't think anyone said this but Magneto could possibly use magnetic induction to heat the iron in his blood to cauterize the wound, but he would have to pull a lot of the bodies iron to that single area with more than likely would cause more harm than the bleeding.

Anonymous said...

For the record, "Jocasta" is pronouced "YO-casta". In Greek it should be written as "Iocasta", and is originally the name of Oedipus' mother in Oedipus Rex.

Ah yes, Captain American, a.k.a THIS IS HOW YOU PLAY "LAWFUL GOOD", YOU IDIOTS.


And holy crap, I haven't seen you this angry at a comic in a loooooong time. As a science major (*fistbump with Peter Parker*) it really pisses me off too when people use terms with distinctly different meanings interchangeably. The idea that earth's magnetic field is somehow intrinsically tied to its axial tilt is one of the more groan-inducing science errors I've encountered in comics. This is junior-high level material, people!

Falcovsleon20 said...

"I think I am almost more disturbed by Hank Pym biting off the Blob's head."

Agreed. Seeing Hank Pym biting off the Blob's head in this continuity reminds me why I don't like Hank Pym in general.....at all!

This is why I prefer the Wasp. To me, no matter what continuity it is, almost every time Jan is a better character than Hank which pisses me that MARVEL KEEPS LETTING HACKS LIKE BENDIS AND LOEB KILL HER OFF!

Yeah sorry. Still not over that. (Dear god if it wasn't for Deadpool, I wouldn't even touch Marvel anymore. They're run by inbred monkeys)

Lotus Prince said...

What I think is far more questionable than Dr. Doom hoping that that convoluted plan would work is his idiotic comment that he never thought that Magneto would have the will to kill the human race.

Magneto cares about Homo Superior, and that's about it. I'd imagine he'd have no problem at all with wiping out Homo Sapiens, if he could.

zarrow said...

I'm not entirely sure that scene with wound cauterization isn't valid. I would have to ask my astrophysicist friend. But I know this though: If comic book authors would pay attention to science instead of utterly ignoring it, they would come up with really, really cool ideas. Like for instance this: Magneto should be able to influence brain and induce insanity before frying minds of his oponents. Literally. So he also should be able to cauterize the wound.

Jarkes said...

I get the feeling there's some other characters you forgot to add to the kill count...

But... wow. This comic is awful.

And, once again, there were some quotes in the comic that I'm surprised you didn't comment on: notably, Nick Fury's, "I was wondering when you bungholes were going to show up." I'm pretty sure Fury... wouldn't say something like that.

And actually, Samuel L. Jackson gave Marvel his blessing on using his likeness for the Ultimate version of Nick Fury, on one condition: That he portray Fury in any movie he appears in. And that's exactly what happened.

I think there was an joke about it in one Ultimate comic, where Fury said that Samuel L. Jackson was the only person who could portray him in a movie.

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"I'm not entirely sure that scene with wound cauterization isn't valid. I would have to ask my astrophysicist friend. But I know this though: If comic book authors would pay attention to science instead of utterly ignoring it, they would come up with really, really cool ideas. Like for instance this: Magneto should be able to influence brain and induce insanity before frying minds of his oponents. Literally. So he also should be able to cauterize the wound."

...Last time I checked, magnets had virtually ZERO impact on human chemistry. Even the iron in our blood isn't concentrated enough or in sufficient quantities to be affected by even high-powered magnets.

Jarkes said...

There's something I've never understood about Marvel: Why exactly is the main universe called the "616 universe?"

Jarkes said...

"...Last time I checked, magnets had virtually ZERO impact on human chemistry. Even the iron in our blood isn't concentrated enough or in sufficient quantities to be affected by even high-powered magnets."

...So I guess that means that one scene in "X2," where Magneto uses the increased iron in that security guy's bloodstream to escape his plastic prison, bugs you a little?

E. Wilson said...

Wait.

Why did the Madroxx clones detonate their bombs when they were obviously not near their target? It would have only taken two or three of them to take out Yellowjacket if they detonated near vulnerable areas, so what was the point of that?

Madroxx: officially less useful that Singwingers.

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"...So I guess that means that one scene in "X2," where Magneto uses the increased iron in that security guy's bloodstream to escape his plastic prison, bugs you a little?"

No, because that scene actually makes sense - Mystique had to increase the amount of iron concentrated in his body in order for him to be able to affect it.

Challenger said...

There's something I've never understood about Marvel: Why exactly is the main universe called the "616 universe?"

That is the designation that the Watchers have given the regular Marvel Universe, the Ultimate universe is 1610, and any other universe would have its own number.

ShadowWing Tronix said...

If you want to see really bad usage of magnetism in comics (usually from the Silver Age) you should check out the What Were They Thinking comics blog.

http://luchins.com/

I also saw the eye after Ninja Style Dancer made his escape. Also, some crime scene tape in the next room. What was with that?

zarrow said...

Taths right, but brain is funny thing. I'm absolutely sure that with electromagnetic field you can manipulate its functions-create feelings of joy, religious zeal etc. Proper test have already been made, this stuff is real. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_magnetic_stimulation
And I'm almost as sure that magnetic field powerful enough can damage living tissue, but I would have to ask somebody with better knowledge how powerful it should be. Honestly I doubt that such adequate source of magnetic field is somwhere in solar system-except for the sun itself. All others are to weak, including Jupiter's, and AFAIK Magneto only manipulates magnetic fileds, he does not create them. But maybe he can somehow "squeeze" earth's magnetic field enough to have such effect on human body. I'm not entirely convinced, but I would say that isn't entirely impossible.
Oh, and if Magneto can move what is inside Earth he can also move its axis by causing huge earthquakes. But that would be a horrendous event of planetary scale. Certainly that wouldn't change wheather in way presented in comic, that's still stupid. (though in effect polar axis could shift, but I'm not expert on that).

Batzarro said...

Head-biting doesn't really seem like an "anger" reaction. Wouldn't it have made more sense to go for a "crush in hand" or "Smash with fist"? But hey, whatever. Proper emotional reactions doesn't seem to be this story's forte.

Isn't it funny how a series that seemed to be about harsh, irreparable consequences of violence can't handle Magneto losing his arm? "Anyone can die...but let's chicken out on amputee Magneto, huh?"

Also...Doom's plan... I get it in a way. You let your enemies fight and then they're weak and you have the advantage. But...how come he didn't expect it to be THIS bad and why does he care? What did he expect a pissed off Magneto would do? Posture? Challenge everyone to a dance off? I mean, I thought "Magneto kills a bunch of people indiscriminately" is one of the expected outcomes of driving Magneto to extreme anger. But then again, I'm no genius like Dr Doom so what do I know?

And further, why didn't Doom plan to kill whoever came out on top? Isn't that like, the most important part of this type of plan? He seemed to have a ridiculous amount of foresight to pull it off but apparently the last part of the plan was to wait for Magneto to kill himself or something.

ChuckZ85 said...

.....Well, I take back my comment from the last Ultimatum video, commenting on how Prof. X was Magneto's conscious....it turns out, he was the only person keeping him sane in general.

I'm starting to wonder where the whole "Ultimatum" title comes into play because so far, all this series has been about is "Retaliation". I mean, unless its coming up in the final 2 issues, I think its safe to say this mini was wrongly titled.

But as it should be, Captain America is one of the VERY FEW redeeming factors of the mini so far, so at least there's that going for "Ultimatum".

Valtz said...

I just noticed something at the end with the entity... it looked like a small animal. Like a kitten or a pug.

...I KNEW PUGS WERE EVIL!!!

Carl said...

Hey, Linkara mentioned my comment in the video!

So now that I'm the official science advisor ...

Precession of the equinoxes is not the same as axial shift. Two different things. Precession is caused by the gyroscopic effect of the Earth's rotation, axial shift by (as Linkara said) changes in the mass distribution of the planet.

The iron in our blood is not magnetic at all, period. In the chemical form found in hemoglobin, it simply does not react to magnetic fields. The scene in X2 involves the guard being injected with magnetic particles, not some kind of dietary iron supplement.

I don't think Magneto cauterized his wound at all. I think he formed some metal into a combination tourniquet/bandage to stop the bleeding and cover the stump.

Starman said...

Great review, but four things that bugged me about this story I'm amazed you didn't touch on.

1. Granting that Doom's plan for world conquest is insanely convoluted and needlessly twisted... Doom REALLY didn't think that Magneto would have the will to exterminate the whole human race? The same Magneto whose idea of compassion for Homo Sapiens was keeping some of the more intelligent humans in zoos or possibly as pets? Even granting that Ultimates Doom wasn't ever as clever as the original Sovereign of Latveria... Doom should not ever be that stupid.

2. As pretentious as the Bible quotes are... isn't it slightly more out of character for Magneto - a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz - to be quoting The Bible at all?

3. Why did Cap go to Valhalla when he died, anyway? I know in the 616 universe Thor said Valhalla would always hold a place for him at the table but I don't think that ever carried over into the Ultimates universe. Besides, don't you have to believe in the place to wind up there when you die?

4. For that matter, how did Cap AND Valkyrie come back from the dead when Hel would only trade one life for one life? If Cap went to Hel's realm upon death, he should have been fair game...

DMP said...

I'm getting the feeling that this event should have been called "Captain America and some expendable idiots."

As for Magneto's self surgery, I guess he could of pulled small amounts of metal to squeeze the blood vessels shut, but that would have probably taken far too long and the comic didn't imply it.

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"2. As pretentious as the Bible quotes are... isn't it slightly more out of character for Magneto - a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz - to be quoting The Bible at all?"

I thought about that, but according to wikipedia, they don't specifically state that he's Jewish OR that it was Auschwitz/any Nazi concentration camp in the ultimate universe. As such, I decided to not bring it up.

WhiskyTangoFoxtrot said...

The Entity's the Bear, isn't it?

Peter said...

So, as a separate bit of stupid, is Hawkeye's bow magic? The reason I ask is in the last panel you show not only is their no bow string shown (which I don't really mind since it would be fairly thin) but the arrow is pulled back like he is about to fire but the limbs of the bow are still straight. Maybe their is some in universe explanation, but I feel it is more likely that it was an artist being really dumb.

zarrow said...

Back to wound cauterization (yeah, I'm boring): he could increase temperature of metal and make traditional "steel from fire" trick.

And about concentration camps-not only Jews were put in there. There was considerable number of other nationalities exterminated by germans too. After all, first prisoners of Aushwitz weren't Jews at all, and later they were "just" majority. So Magneto could be a French, a Hungarian, Czech, German, Pole, Ukrainian or gypsy. Or gay. You pick one.

ramses said...

To earlier posters:
@Batzarro&Lotus Prince&Coyote's own : It's even worse, as Magneto already came within hours of destroying all human life of earth three times before. In the original ultimate x-men story, he reprogrammed 500 sentinels to kill all humans, in that same story, he tried to make every nuke on earth explode at once, in "ultimate war and return of the king" he had the same plan as in this story (only that story was good and he was shown doing a lot more than just shifting the poles). To be fair, in "return of the king" he put a male and a female human in his animal arc.
@Jarkes: The actor conversation appeared in the first volume of the ultimates and was what triggered Banner turning himself into the Hulk.

Loeb has some real problems with ultimate doctor Doom. Ultimate doctor doom is made out of metal (note that next issue), has no kingdom, has goat's feet, builds no doombots AND IS BLEEPING STUCK IN THE ZOMBIE UNIVERSE!

Some of Loeb's errors are outright bizarre. ultimates 3/Ultimatum is based on a number of stories: the excellent "return of the king", "ultimates 2" and "absolute power". So Loeb must have read both ultimate x-men and the ultimates. But he still doesn't realize Thor does not talk like that, Pyro is not a villain, the mother of Magneto's children being a normal american woman or any of the hundreds of other small continuity issues

Magneto quoting the bible is one of the worst offenses of this comic to me. He is someone who loathes religion, and even then, he has a jewish background, not a christian. I doubt he even read a bible. Ultimate Magneto is a complicated character. He loathes humanity with a vengeance, seeing us as animals, yet he loves all animals but us (he actually tried to create a better human race to replace us). Humans actually smell repugnant to him, and his greatest shame was having children with one. He and Xavier share the (probably wrong) belief that mutants actually have superior minds and ethics due to their genes, yet he is confronted every day by his weak-willed children and thug-like brotherhood. When he was mind-wiped it was not a mutant who saved him, but some genetically altered ape. Magneto is confronted with all these things that contradict his beliefs every day. He thinks humans are inferior, yet the mutants closest to him are sniffling and weak, he thinks humans are disgusting, yet he slept with one, he thinks of himself as a lover of animals, yet he continually tries to exterminate one species. Magneto is horribly, horribly in denial, and the only way out is to kill all humans.

Also, why was the unarmored, unarmed, less-than-average-strength, less-than-average-weight, underage, slow mutant boy the one to lead the charge?

Jarkes said...

So, Linkara... out of the Power Rangers episodes you've watched so far, what, in your opinion, is the single, absolute worst? It CAN be a two or three-parter, if necessary.


"I'm starting to wonder where the whole "Ultimatum" title comes into play because so far, all this series has been about is "Retaliation". I mean, unless its coming up in the final 2 issues, I think its safe to say this mini was wrongly titled."

...There's only one issue left.

Carl said...

OK, just for the record: you folks do realize that Magneto was quoting the Jewish holy writings that you Christians later incorporated into your "Bible" (which just means "book")? Right? All those lines are older than Christianity.

Two times he talks the Noah story, which is thousands of years older than Christianity. ("And behold, I will destroy them ..." is a quote from God in Genesis.)

The "to every thing" line is from Ecclesiastes 3. Again, a Jewish story.

Why would it surprise you that a Jew would ... know lines from Jewish holy books?

Anonymous said...

"Cauterising his wounds with ... magnetism?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_tVZFZ5PR4

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"Why would it surprise you that a Jew would ... know lines from Jewish holy books?"

That was the other reason why I didn't do it - my realization that nothing he was quoting came from the New Testament and since I'm not familiar with the Torah or other Jewish holy writings, it'd be best not to present myself as an expert on this stuff.

Jesse said...

Am I the only one that finds it strange that Magneto is quoting Bible verses when he's Jewish? I know there are some Christian stories that are still in Jewish texts, but I'm not sure if these are some of them. With everything that's wrong with this event how Marvel got religious things mixed up before (i.e. X-Men 423 and 424) these might be wrong too.

With ALL the crap that happens to Hank Pym, it was nice to at least see him go out doing something heroic, despite all the stupidity.

Headshot Bunny said...

I'm not sure who told you that the tie in books had nothing to do with the story. I am a big fan of the Ultimate Universe and have collected every comic in the series. Ultimatum had 2 prequels (March on Ultimatum, which was actually really well done, and Ultimates 3, which your previous review pretty much summed up my own hatred of that book). Then there was also 3 other books which were tie in stories that were happening at the same time as Ultimatum (which was Ultimate Spiderman, Ultimate FF, and Ultimate X-Men). Ultimatum also had an epilogue comic call Ultimatum Requiem which wraps up all of the tie in comics. The Ultimate X-men story line is self contained and doesn't really interfere with the overall story line of Ultimatum. What it does manage to do is kill off the rest of the entire cast of Ultimate X-men aside from those who made it through Ultimatum’s story. They even kill off Juggernaut by shooting a poison dart into his eye (which makes no sense). The storyline with Dormammu is broken around the tie comics and randomly appears in Ultimatum briefly. The Human Torch’s disappearance doesn’t get explained until Requiem when he is swallowed by a magically enchanted Statue of Liberty that teleports him to Dormammu’s dimension. Dormammu uses Johnny’s power to break into our world. At the same time (FF tie in) Ben teams up with the Mole Man to shrink down and go inside Sue in order to get her out of the coma she is in after the strain she went through to push the water back. At the same time (Spiderman tie in) Spidey and Hulk go around helping people when they find Daredevil’s corpse (he drowned in the flood) Hulk changes back into Bruce who thinks he caused all this and switches back to an enraged Hulk. Dr. Strange’s house begins exploding with magic as the flood caused many objects to break in his house. Dr Strange possessed by the demon Nightmare engages Spidey and the Hulk in combat before Hulk kills him and causes a massive explosion (this is the part Ultimatum randomly shows) as Dormammu enters our world. Hulk & Spidey disappear, Strange gets killed, and Sue & Ben engage Dormammu in combat. This fight doesn’t get resolved until Requiem (which ironically had the beginning with Johnny as well) where Sue beats the magical flame of Dormammu with science (making no sense). Requiem wraps up FF and Spidey fairly well, but X-men is just one overly extended funeral scene where 4 of the last X-men fight a entirely new enemy who dies in the same comic. Overall I am ashamed that one of my favorite universes was treated so poorly. I was invested in all of the stories that were going on in their separate comics and this big mess of a story just comes out of nowhere and ruins it all.

FugueforFrog said...

Somehow the only universe Hank Pym is awesome from what I've seen is on "Earth's Mightiest Heroes"...while Cap is just Cap I guess.

Sometimes you just wonder why the heck Marvel pulls this sort of thing to "clean house" instead of, you know, letting characters remain in obscurity until someone is reedy to tell their tale. but then that's one of the biggest problem with the mainstream universe and it's biggest strength: sure it make take forever but eventually someone "could" do it. I guess they wanted to not leave it like that in the Ultimate Universe but it just makes things gooey in that now they think "the only way to fix it is to just kill them and thus no lingering subplots." It's pathetic to think that a universe like this would resort to it but unfortunately that's what happens when it gets as popular as mainstream Marvel.

gamerdude72 said...

you know, the stupidity of this comic reminds me of something, hmmmmm..... what do i think of when a comic like this is so stupid? oh yeah this song stupid by the W'S in 0:34 to 0:40 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZxRahCjojs

enigmus20 said...

"I thought about that, but according to wikipedia, they don't specifically state that he's Jewish OR that it was Auschwitz/any Nazi concentration camp in the ultimate universe. As such, I decided to not bring it up."

Linkara, actually in both universes Magneto is a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust (hence why he flipped his lid when Xavier compared him to Hitler). Also, in both universes, Magneto is an Atheist (he renounced his faith when he was a teenager). He obviously remembers it from his youth, but that's about it.


So I guess Loeb was trying to be ironic: Magneto essentially viewed himself as a god (essentially the same mindset as Mao or Stalin). The problem with this is...well, it's really badly executed.

Of course, the entire story, premise, and artwork is badly executed so no surprises there.

enigmus20 said...

While we're on the subject: how did Hank Pym lift up the Blob?

Whatever happened to "NOTHING MOVES DA BLOB!"? I thought his whole power was that once he plants his feet, he can't be moved?

Dante said...

I'm starting to think that Captain America is the most bad ass hero from that company. I mean he is a WW2 hero and vet on top of being a bad ass.

Jaygular said...

@Starman

Yes, Ole' Cap should be allowed to pass through Valhalla's doors if he believed, but only if he died a glorious death. but he died by drowning, not in battle, so he should be sent to Hel with Hela (or Hel, as she's named in Norse Mythology). BUT here's where I'm kinda tilting my head.

As I zoomed in on the video, I noticed in the two page spread that there's a caption box or whatever that says "Valhalla. mystical land of the dead." or something like that. So it's the writers we have to blame for the screw up, not the Love Hog.

Headshot Bunny said...

I forgot to mention the 3rd prequel comic to Ultimatum which was Ultimate Origins which sloppily tries to explain the secret origin of everything in the ultimate universe while ignoring most of the previous continuity established by the main comics. Oddly enough it was written by Brian Michael Bendis who ignored his own established continuity in the Ultimate Spiderman comics just to write juicier plot twists. Volume 6 of Ultimate Spiderman gives us the explanation that it was a plane crash that killed Peter's parents (which is also confirmed in the tie in game) and that Peter was just a little boy when it happened. Ultimate Origins claims they were killed by the Hulk in the event that created him. All of which was written by the same person. It’s just a bad thing when you can't even remember your own writing.

Kari said...

Cuz I'm an art nerd:

In general, on the adult human face (Idealised version)- the eyes are in the center of the head from top to bottom. There is a space between the eyes sufficient to fit an additional eye. The corners of the mouth, when relaxed, line up with the pupils of the eye if the person is looking forward. The bottom of the nose is about midway between the eyes and the chin, and the mouth is midway between those points- but there is a lot of variation on those last two items. The ears appear to end, from a frontal view, at the bottom of the nose but actually end roughly in a line with the mouth.

Also, nobody is perfectly symmetrical, but look at Scarlet/Mystique again while ignoring that one lock of hair. Just DAMN.

Yogurt said...

@Dante

Of course! He's Captain America! He's the guy who made his debut by knocking Hitler on his ass, joined the Avengers by beating the stuffing out of Thor, Iron Man, and Giant Man (by himself), and whose response in the face of a government crackdown on superheroes was to tell them to kiss his red, white, and blue ass. The man is concentrated win...barring some really poorly written stories.

Anonymous said...

The Comic: During your recap, you made a comment about doing something to a corpse... Don't give them ideas... Otherwise, they just stuck with generally stupid this time around. Doesn't bode well for the last part.

Your Arc: Hmm... Not surprised that The Entity went after Ninja Style Dancer again, was surprised that it managed a hit this time around. I'm still trying to make out what was in the static and I'm clueless.

Fiery Little One

Ozaline said...

@The Last Otori

"I did a quick scan I don't think anyone said this but Magneto could possibly use magnetic induction to heat the iron in his blood to cauterize the wound, but he would have to pull a lot of the bodies iron to that single area with more than likely would cause more harm than the bleeding."

Actually I'm not sure if this would work... since iron when disolved in the blood stream looses it's ferro Magnetic properties... Which is why his escape from prison in X-men 2 also doesn't work even if there was extra iron in the gaurds' blood. Incidently for this reason healing with Magnetic jewlery does not work.

@The fedora'd Samurai

Hey buddy... didn't you just get a great feeling when Link pointed out the Valhalla fallacy? We matter yay!

Ozaline said...

Also I just realized why is this comic called Ultimatum?

I mean I know it sounds like Ultimate but what does the word mean?

"a final, uncompromising demand or set of terms issued by a party to a dispute, the rejection of which may lead to a severance of relations or to the use of force. "

Magneto never issues such a demand... he just sets about killing people...

For the title of this comic to make sense Magneto should have sent a message... "Declare me ruler of the world and the attacks will stop"

Then it'd make sense...

Otherwise it's just a linguistic fail ontop of all the scientific fail.

Jaebird said...

Yeah, that bit with Dormammu was really pointless in this book and only in Ultimate Spider-Man was it resolved.

spiderman1989 said...

Actually Jocasta was created by Ultron in the normal Marvel Universe.

Unknown said...

My theory on Angel's entrance is that he punched Magneto's shoulder, causing him to bite his tongue, which explains the small amount of blood coming out of his mouth.

Also, I got the impression that Mystique was disguised as Scarlet Which because she was either teasing or taunting Magneto, not because she was fooling him.

Personally, I thought that the Multiple Man suicide bomber plan was a good idea for Magneto to use, but I do not believe that it is ever explained how one managed to rebel against Magneto, or how anyone got on his asteroid. Seriously, does he not have radar to detect if 3 plains, are coming toward him, also, how did they all know the exact position of the asteroid, Professor X only told them that magneto was behind it, not where he was.

I think that the whole biting The Blob's head off was supposed to be some sort of poetic justice for eating Wasp.

By the way, is it just me or does the dance style ninja's outfit seem a bit different?

Oliver said...

Just a quick info for those who do not know who Arcanna is. She is basically the equivalent of the Scarlet Witch from another universe, specifically the "Supreme Power/Squadron Supreme" universe (Earth-31916).
She was introduced in "Supreme Power: Hyperion" a few years back.

Ramses said...

@enigmus20: The ultimate blob's powers are never officially explained, but its implied that it involves cannibalism.

@Headshot Bunny: The hulk thing wasn't really a problem, SHIELD cover-up could explain that just fine. How it ties in with the venom story is a bit more of a problem, but it could just be said that the government tied the cover-up into their personal history. Some also established problems with the x-men origin, but I really like it and think it ties in nicely to the overall universe (Wolverine was the first mutant, and somehow, others near him started also developing mutations). I do agree that ultimate origins did not need all the personal connections, but most of them can easily be fitten in the timeline.

@ r-nylander; The dancer just chose a suit that fits his next gig better :p

CyberXIII said...

Two things.

First, honestly, despite the gore and the idiotic plot points I'm honestly of the opinion that this was better than Countdown.

Second, why didn't you add that list of deaths in the beginning of the review to the count, or Thor staying behind or Sabretooth getting shot in the eye?

PWBOT said...

X-men and religious quoting... Oh my god, it's Uncanny X-men #423 and #424 all over again! Only this time, it's bigger and dumber! It even has asshole Cyclops! Captain America is freaking awesome though, sadly not awesome enough to make this anywhere good.

The ninja is still on the run... Inside your house... Man, your house is really big if running for one week can't get the Dancer to you yet. From the looks of things, I say perhaps a Halloween finisher?

shikome kido mi said...

So many problems with this comic, it's insane, from Doctor Doom not expecting Magneto to make a good run at wiping out humanity despite that being Ultimate Magneto's thing and losing his children making him crazier, to Dormammu apparently grabbing Johnny Storm for no reason (seriously, what part of the Torch's powers is in anyway useful to Dormammu? I know he looks like fire but his powers aren't actually based in physical flames).
Oh and did Linkara count Ultimate Sabertooth's death? Or did he survive getting shot in the eye by Hawkeye, even though that's been clearly shown as lethal several other times?
I'm more inclined to believe the writers messed up than Linkara, so I'll assume Ultimate Sabertooth has steel plates behind his eyeballs.

Anonymous said...

I feel like i should explain my "self-indulgent storylines" comment (I forget which name I posted it under, but rest assured, I'm the same guy)

First, I would like to apologize. That comment was made in a bit of a riled-up state, so forgive me for that.

Second of all, I found your earlier stuff to be alright. It's mostly the internet outside of your loyal fan following who watch you from time to time who find it most annoying, since you started it early on. I only got annoyed at it once the storylines started interrupting the review (like that Ewoks comic) or when they took up more time than the review itself (starting with the Mechakara fight)

Speaking of Mechakara, the storyline started out as a silly Dr. Insano Parody from what I remember, and I could have sworn something in the videos suggested that Insano made him (or at least was responsible for his being in the world) so I assumed it was going to be fun and silly. Problem is, you really really take this stuff too seriously, like I feel you shouldn't be playing this stuff straight when you are. When you summoned Neutro and morphed into a white ranger, that seemed less "lol haha look how crazy this is" and more "oh I'm doing this seriously, didn't you know?"

I think its just mostly in the way you present these storylines. Sure they are very "comic-book" but if you're doing this as a loving sort of tribute to comics, you certainly are falling into a few of the traps you speak against in your reviews.

Anonymous said...

I really hope you're waiting until the last issue to discuss the name of this thing.

The funny thing is, this would have been a lot more interesting if it actually had an ultimatum in it. How many times has a villain said, "Give me such and such, or I'll trash the world!" Our heroes would reject his claims, as they always do, assuming that they'll be able to stop him somehow -- only to have him actually go through with what he said, and feeling responsible for not taking such a powerful person seriously.

It really just puts the stupid on top, knowing that the name just uses a word that sort of has "ultimate" in it for no other reason than that it sounds kind of cool, even though there specifically is no ultimatum made by anyone in this comic.

And man, that thing with Doctor Doom. It's bad enough when we have something that's not clearly explained, but we know enough, and we have to go back and fill in every single detail (Wolverine's origin, for example). But it's so much worse when we take an event that has a completely sufficient explanation (Hank's robot killing some people and trying to take over the world, which happened in a sort of similar way in the regular universe with Ultron, adding to the sufficiency of that explanation) and then we go back and give it another, further explanation that's both completely unnecessary and totally nonsensical.

Anonymous said...

For those who hate Hank Pym, they've actually been rehabilitating him somewhat in the 616 universe lately. He built some kind of pan-dimensional fortress that Reed Richards hadn't thought of, has been a valuable advisor to the Avengers academy, and has been working on bringing Jan back after she died a year or two ago (even giving up Jocasta to Ultron to keep him from causing trouble). I include that last because Jocasta's always been kind of a Jan substitute, so I feel like it's a big step for him to give that up in order to have real accomplishments, rather than being satisfying with Jocasta alone.

I never liked him before, but the writers that have been working with him lately have really started to make him into a pretty cool character. He can be kind of a jerk, but he's really focused on doing the right thing, and he really wants to give Jan back her life, feeling like he's responsible for making it worse than it should've been.

He's almost like a Stark-level intelligence with a Peter Parker sense of responsibility for the bad things that have happened around him, with a little of Stark's arrogance too. People should check out some of that recent stuff.

Chup@Cabra said...

Gotta say I've been waiting for this one; and I haven't laughed so hard at one of your reviews for awhile now ^_^

The Ultimate Universe never seemed to get Dr. Doom down right as the Uber Villian he was ment to be (starting off with him having goat legs and belching noxious fumes in U.F.F. [WTF?!?!]).

His 'plan' here made no sense, and it seems the Ultimate writers have finally realized this and have made Reed Richards the 'new' Doom (see the Ultimate Doom mini-series for details: http://marvel.wikia.com/Ultimate_Comics_Doom_Vol_1_4).

It seems as if now they are trying very hard to return to the cohesiveness that the Ultimate Universe started with (i.e., everything Supers related had something to do with people trying to re-create the Super Soldier Serum). Hopefully we won't see anything like this again.

Anonymous said...

Well, I can't really blame Magneto for being pissed at being compared to Hitler... I mean, really. Hitler had an agenda. Magneto seems to be killing indiscriminately.


That makes him more like Stalin, really. :D

killthenrun1 said...

The thing that anoyed me the most (other than the needless killing of heroes) is that by flooding new york magneto is killing thousands of mutants, ones that could have joined him and some that could could have lived in his "utopia".

Katherine said...

Not only does Mystique!Wanda's nose look small, but it also looks off-center. Maybe that's due to the small panel of the burning building being placed under her left eye.

Speaking of Mystique!Wanda, here's a pet peeve of mine: why is the Scarlet Witch wearing such skimpy clothes? Her underpants (yes, I'm calling them underpants because that's what they amount to) resemble a thong. Why do her outfits get skimpier as the years go by? Whatever happened to her full bodysuit? Yes, I know that they half-heartedly addressed this in an issue of Ultimates where Captain America reprimanded Wanda for her clothes, but it still bothers me.

Yes, Captain America is awesome and so is the scene where he and Thor are fighting the undead, even if it is mythologically incorrect. Seriously, how hard it is to find out that Hel presides over the realm that bears her name, *not* Valhalla? Where does Loeb think that the English word "Hell" came from?

Don't worry, Linkara, you pronounced "Jocasta" just fine. In English, it's pronounced joh-KAS-tuh, which is what you did. The character Jocasta is also known as Jocaste, which in Modern Greek is pronounced "Ee-o-KAS-tee" or "Iokaste" (Iοκάστη), which is what I think Anonymous was talking about.

The stupidity of Dr. Doom's plot is mind-boggling. What did he think would happen after Pietro and Wanda were killed? Does he not know Magneto at all? Did he really think that he could just sail smoothly to the top while Magneto was rampaging through this story like a crazed bull? I wouldn't be surprised if he was in fact a Doom Bot.

And yes, Radar, Palpatine's plan was convoluted and complex, but it mostly succeeded because everyone in the Star Wars prequels was a moron.

Bruno said...

two things 1) i can kind of understand why magneto would get angry for the hitler comparison because, well, he was in concentration camps.

2) magneto keeps talking about god and the bible, but isn't he jewish, maybe i've got my religions confused so i could be wrong about this one

Carrie Kelly said...

This is five thousand times worse than Countdown ever was. Countdown may have been a horrible, horrible comic, but it wasn't like this. Countdown was crazy and bizarre and confusing and terribly written and nonsensical, filled with wall bangers, continuity dumps and ridiculous out of character what the hellery. i.e., it failed so epically on so many levels that the fail transcended measures of quality and became hilarious. You could not take the damn thing seriously, it was so insane, and that 's why the thing is so *fun* to mock.

THIS?? This has none of Countdown's charmingly awful insanity. There is nothing to enjoy here other than the few moments of Cap being awesome. It's just depressing shit page after page, with no riveting characterization or compelling plot to make the carnage meaningful. It's like that one depressing part of Countdown (y'know, between ridiculously bad awesomeness like Mary Marvel beating up Donna Troy with Kyle Rayner's unconscious body and Superboy Prime screaming I'LL KILL YOU TO DEATH!!) where the Mortacoccus virus decimates the pre-Kamandi universe; except here it's stretched out over a 5-issue series, and instead of being a one-off universe, it's the highly developed Ultimate universe.

Unlike Countdown, Ultimatum is not enjoyable at all. When you reviewed Countdown, I was entertained by the *comic*, not just your review. Here, the only enjoyment I get out of this at all is from watching you rant and make jokes. The comic is just repulsive schlock, like Cry For Justice without the hilarity of epic fail. And you know what? That's the difference between Marvel and DC these days — no matter how terribly DC writes, there's still something there to enjoy, even if the something is just the sheer amount of insanity. When Marvel is terrible, it's just bland, depressing, revolting crap. This comic BLOWS.

Ebon said...

It should go without saying that pretty much the only guys in character during these two issues are Cap and Thor. Hank Pym biting off Blob's head was completely OOC even for a guy as unstable as Ultimates Hank.

The thing with the Bible quotes bothers me. Not just because of how OOC it is but because Ultimate Magneto might be ethnically Jewish (that's unconfirmed) but he's heavily implied to be religiously a pagan, so the Bible would be meaningless to him.

This series would have been far better if it had concentrated on Thor and Cap fighting the entire contents of Hel to reclaim Valkyrie's soul.

Awesome review, as usual.

Anonymous said...

Seriously
The only Marvel line I could read without having to read wikipedia every five minutes, and they had to kill it
*sigh*

Well, I can always look forward to the upcoming Ultimate Spiderman cartoon, written by Paul Dini and Brian Michael Bendis
Let's hope that one makes me forget this mess

Volvagia said...

Forgive the corny gag, but this isn't an Ultimatum, it's an Ultimate Um.

Jarkes said...

"And man, that thing with Doctor Doom. It's bad enough when we have something that's not clearly explained, but we know enough, and we have to go back and fill in every single detail (Wolverine's origin, for example). But it's so much worse when we take an event that has a completely sufficient explanation (Hank's robot killing some people and trying to take over the world, which happened in a sort of similar way in the regular universe with Ultron, adding to the sufficiency of that explanation) and then we go back and give it another, further explanation that's both completely unnecessary and totally nonsensical."

I believe TvTropes calls that a "Voodoo Shark."

Jessica said...

I know what happened with Giant Man and the Blob! They just got their scripts mixed up with another event comic, Marvel Zombies. It was an honest mistake that anyone could have made. Too bad it resulted in death, but at least that mix up is finally resolved!

Now as for all the other murder and stupid well *eyes track different directions for a moment* ahh, there it killed my brain. I loves Ultimatum! Without brains there is no hurts. Join me? *drool*

Anonymous said...

http://www.hotfilesearch.com/download/13633214-11-Steve-Conte-Turn,-Turn,-Turn.mp3.html

Much better version.

I can't wait for issue 5...

Eric said...

great review!!!! I must ask when is the next lightbringer coming out?

Michael said...

The thing that Barda blows up isn't a column, it is the car that Nick Furry was about to get into. It is hard to tell but a few panels earlier I noticed he was about to get into a car and when she punches the object; the debris is the same blue color as the car earlier.

VermillionBrain said...

Okay this "Magneto wouldn't quote the Bible" thing is getting on my nerves.

Yes, yes, the "Old Testament=Torah/Tanakh" thing has been discussed, but there is one thing people seem to be missing:

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BELIEVE IN A PARTICULAR RELIGION IN ORDER TO QUOTE FROM ONE OF THEIR BOOKS.

If this "quotation = belief" were true, then Oppenheimer must have converted to Hinduism at some point. And I am now apparently a Norse Shinto-Buddhist Nietzschean Jew with a chainsaw for a hand that worships the Kwitzach Haderach.

The Bible is considered a work of literature for a reason. It is not just a religious text, but a cultural and historical one as well. Heck, it has at least two books dedicated to poems and proverbs. Stuff pretty much MEANT to be quoted.

And it is one of the few things that makes sense about Magneto in this damn story, because if the asshat really DOES have a contempt of religion, and really DOES feel like he is some sort of vengeful god, he really WOULD use Bible quotations, amongst others, because that is what is his idea of a all-powerful and royally pissed off GOD comes from. It is cultural shorthand, used far before this tripe.

Gah. Had to get that off my chest.

Anonymous said...

So let me see if I get you. Dr. Doom planned to piss off Magneto, so that he would destroy most of the world, enslave the rest, and then Dr. Doom would....pick up the pieces? How? If the man is powerful enough to wipe out life on a scale unheard of outside of Galactus, where does Dr. D gather the necessary combination of balls and stupidity to think he can take the world back from Magneto and whoever he's dominated?

As a great man once said, "I do not think you thought your cunning plan all the way through."

Anonymous said...

Wait a damn minute! How in the hell did take control of the Ultron robots anyway? Was he in control? How did he reprogram them away from Pym? So the whole story about the Scarlett Witch's powers causing them to Skynet were total Red Herring?

What the....but you.....but that doesnt.....FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU----

Anonymous said...

AND ANOTHER THING!

Dr. Doom is, above all else, an unparalleled egomaniac. He believes that his genius, his power and his will ALONE can and should conquer the Earth and destroy Reed Richards.

This is a guy who ruins the plans of other villains because he's worried they might deprive him of the joy of killing Richards and dominating the world himself.

This is more so in the Ultimates universe, where the guy has a lineage drawing back to Vlad the Impaler and beyond and believes that he and he alone is fit to both conquer and rule the earth.

Why the hell would he want (or need) someone else to do the job for him (let alone run the risk of killing his arch rivals, thus depriving him of the main driving force in his life)?

This comic is made of so much fail, that I'm surprised it hasn't blown a hole through space-time.

BoosterG said...

Loeb is at his best when he's working with Batman. Just look at Hush or The Long Halloween. Heck, speaking of Hush, that was a convoluted scheme that was actually logical and worked. So we know Loeb can write, but wtf was going on with this book?

Unknown said...

A. I do not know if Ultimate Magneto is Jewish, as is the mainline counterpart. Ultimate Magneto is *not" a holocaust survivor, though.

B. The rest of the story makes as much sense as cleaning your house by burning it down to the foundation.

Robbie Ridgway said...

Theoretically, Magneto could manipulate the hemoglobin (It has iron in it, so it is affected by magnetism) in the blood, moving it to create a outer layer/seal of hemoglobin, which, while it wouldn't be called cauterization, would seal the wound in a similar fashion.

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"Theoretically, Magneto could manipulate the hemoglobin (It has iron in it, so it is affected by magnetism) in the blood, moving it to create a outer layer/seal of hemoglobin, which, while it wouldn't be called cauterization, would seal the wound in a similar fashion."

Check the comments above. According to them, the iron in our blood is not magnetized.

Robbie Ridgway said...

It needn't be the iron that's affected by the fields, deoxygenated hemoglobin is affected by magnetic fields, assuming that Magneto has power over more than just metals. I don't follow comics in the slightest, so I wouldn't know, but I suspect he would.

Additionally, since blood is electrical conductive, placing a magnetic field through would generate a electric current, which could either add a charge to the iron (thus allowing it to be effected by the magnetic field), or be used to burn flesh enough to cause cauterization.

Carl said...

No component of blood, no matter whether it is oxidized or not, is ferromagnetic, really.

MRI machines use incredibly powerful superconducting magnets that can fling steel objects across rooms and kill people (not unlike Magneto) but they do not affect any living tissue, including blood.

Period. Please stop arguing with facts!

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised that with all the scenes of Magneto being douche, you didn't bother making references to the old X-Men arcade game (and the hilariously bad lines he had).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjuWKAMAlQU

"I AM MAGNETO, MASTER OF MAGNET!"

"XMEN! WELCOME TO DIE!"

"X CHICKEN!"

Anonymous said...

I was looking over your previous multi part event episodes, I noticed alot of them have tie ins that you'll "get to eventually". It would be fun if, at some point in the future, you did tie in month, or something. Just a suggestion.

-Sabre

Anonymous said...

Hi, first time poster, long time viewer.

Wow Ultimatum looks terrible. So did they actually get around to doing anything with Dormammu? Because judging from your review, it looks like he appeared without any explanation or relation to the plot, killed Dr. Strange, then just disappeared.

That Dr. Strange death was just sick. So a superhero (with stories and a fan following, like anyone else) get squeezed so hard that his HEAD POPS OFF in cartoonish fashion? What a disgusting, not to mention degrading way to die.

The Mythril Exchange said...

Amazing as always! :D

Anonymous said...

Oh god this is bad almost as bad as you know what...

every time I think I should go back I get slammed in the face.

well looking forward to next week.

Mask said...

I am honestly impress'd by how bad this is.

Alternating a strong magnetic field can heat metal, which could then be used to the cauterize the wound. He could also just be preventing blood loss by diamagnetically polarizing his blood, repelling it to keep it in his body. I'm sure both of those possibilities were totally unknown to the writers, but there is plausible explanation for how it could work.

The entity is very effectively creepy. I'm rarely affect'd in the slightest by such things. Well done.

Lizard-Man said...

Say why didn't you add those nine new dead people Mystique mentioned at the start to the kill count? Just curious. Was because they weren't on screen?

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"Say why didn't you add those nine new dead people Mystique mentioned at the start to the kill count? Just curious. Was because they weren't on screen?"

I say as much in the text at the end of the credits.

Dan said...

Ultimate Doom and hawkeye have some ugly designs.

also I agree with the sentiment of scarlet witch's costume but then its mystique in disguise so unless that's her normal costume I can't complain.

IF it is her normal costume.... then they really upped the whore factor to a costume that was already revealing. Though the costume early on never came off as slutty in the comics somehow

BrendanConcannon said...

Here are some targets for people to shoot down:

1) I thought Magneto had reflex control over any metal that would strike him in combat? Wouldn't that have prevented the sword from cutting off his arm?

2) I thought Dr Strange could teleport at will? I thought Dr Strange had protective shields? I thought Dr Strange could go back in time? Wouldn't those have prevented him from being strangled from the yellow-ribbon attack?

3) I thought Reed Richards was hell-bent on believing that Namor caused the Tidal wave, even after being told otherwise? What suddenly made him change his mind?

4) I thought Angel was extremely durable? I thought Angel was trained how to fight by Wolverine? I thought Angel primarily attacked by using his wings? Especially against back-stabs? I just don't think that Angel could have been taken down so easily by Sabretooth...

I don't know, but this comic is really starting to break at the seams.

Anonymous said...

How does Doom plan to get around the whole magnetism thing? Couldn't Magneto just crush him inside his armor or would he fight Magneto in regular clothes?

Anonymous said...

Also I just realized why is this comic called Ultimatum?

I mean I know it sounds like Ultimate but what does the word mean?

"a final, uncompromising demand or set of terms issued by a party to a dispute, the rejection of which may lead to a severance of relations or to the use of force. "

Magneto never issues such a demand... he just sets about killing people...

For the title of this comic to make sense Magneto should have sent a message... "Declare me ruler of the world and the attacks will stop"

Then it'd make sense...

Otherwise it's just a linguistic fail ontop of all the scientific fail.


The event was called Ultimatum because at the very end an Ultimatum was issued for mutants to turn themselves in or be shot on sight; the outcome of Magneto's actions.

Dan Kegerreis said...

The fact that this comic is so bad is really a bummer. It was meant to re-energize the Ultimate print line and the "Ultimate Comics: [Title]" relaunch of a lot of series, most of which (I follow the UC: X-Men the most) are actually really good and avert the usual comics "nothing ever changes" crap. But... the event meant to spur it on is just so bad! :(

Unknown said...

literis nai4:25 - I dunno, maybe Mystique's just trolling? That's the only reason I can really think of that would make any degree of sense seeing as what happens in the next issues (could've been trying to dissuade Magneto... but that's screwed over in the next video).

4:41 - What the hell is she wearing?! Um, did the Scarlet Witch wear a thong/g-string as part of her costume?! What the hell?! I get that superheroines often have revealing costumes, but that's going a bit too far. Seriously, when you make Psylocke look modest,I think you're going a bit too far.

Unknown said...

"That Scarlet Witch didn't look strange for me - but then, I watch too much anime."

Glad it's not just me. I didn't really notice much wrong with the face until Linkara pointed it out and I really thought about it. Facial proportions are warped in my mind, I grew up primarily with anime :)

Jarrett Matthews said...

God, you sound talk like a dim witted, autistic baboon. Stop yelling.

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"God, you sound talk like a dim witted, autistic baboon. Stop yelling."

And you sound like an unpleasant douchebag. Stop posting.

Brendan G said...

Thor's Hammer in the Ultimates is able to control weather, it had a teleporter or something wierd. I forget exactly... However anyone using it could control weather. They didn't go with that obviously, but it hypothetically could.

Have you read Ultimate Thor?
It's actually really good (so not for this show) but it's a fun read and it tells three intertwining narratives (Asgard at some point in the past, WWII, and the Modern Day), if you can find a copy it's a fun read.