Ultimates #9 Spoilers/Discussion

[Plawsky]

Awesome issue. So Reed is the new Apocalypse huh. Wonder when we get to see War, Famine and Pestilence. Great issue.

I think that'd be awesome! Apocalypse deserves a proper Ultimization after Kirkman messed up what BKV had going.

Seriously am I really the only one bothered that the women in a Michael Bay film have done more then in Hickman's entire run?

Yeah, probably.

[PhilUrich'sFlamingSword]

God, I can't stop staring at the page of Zorn fully unleashed. Dude is ripping apart an entire freaking mountain, with magma and sh!&!

One more thing, I think that was maybe overlooked: What's going on with Tony? He had a nosebleed there at the end of his scene. Is his brain tumor back?
Also: Thor is a badass.

Another important factor that is easy to overlook, considering all that happened this issue. Tony's nosebleed will certainly end up playing a role at some point in the future. Hickman has obviously done copious research on these characters and as such knows their histories very well, so I think the allusion to the tumor is intentional. No wasted panels from this man. Should be interesting.

I promise I will read this when it's not almost 3 AM, I tried and all the words started merging lol.

Haha, no worries...I realized after I posted it how absurdly long it was. It's something of a defense of Hickman's story, but it acknowledges that, while it would be nice for the females and some other characters to be doing a bit more, it may not be realistic within the established parameters of the story. That's basically the gist. Sorry I got so annoyingly verbose...this story just fills me with things I feel I need to say, which is the true sign of something great in my opinion.

[Cryptid]

Tony's nosebleed will certainly end up playing a role at some point in the future. Hickman has obviously done copious research on these characters and as such knows their histories very well, so I think the allusion to the tumor is intentional.

It would be cool if Tony had to upload himself into the new armor to get around the death of his human body. That's something I haven't seen happen in an Iron Man story yet. Slightly less interesting if the Kratos Club has poisoned him with cancer-bots or something for leverage.

[Cryptid]

Yes, the book has underplayed its female characters under Hickman, but his run has not been especially character-oriented in general. Each of the major players has gotten at least one interesting character beat, including Black Widow, but the emphasis of the title has consistently fallen on world-building and political maneuvering. The story seems to be about what happens when the world changes faster than people can adjust...so the comparative shortage of character moments to plot moments makes sense.

I love that Zorn has a black hole for a head where his brother presumably has a sun. I'd say he were overpowered, but then that seems like exactly the point. This isn't a character meant to enter the line-up of some future UAVX, he's a walking game-changer for the global balance of power.

[Sparrowsabre7]

Ok, first reactions: Awesome! Fury's being the man, Tony's being snarky, Thor's being thor-y. The stakes have been raised to a ridiculous level now, I'm just wondering how the hell anything will get bigger than this? I really don't think they can, though I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not... My only big complaint is the continued one of Esad Ribic's expressions. His shocked faces just look so weird... When Tony says "Oh" after the nuke revelation it just looks ridiculous. I know some artists can have their off days and do a bad expression but Ribic's run is filled with dumb faces like this, eyes popped out like a googly eyed doll.

[PhilUrich'sFlamingSword]

It would be cool if Tony had to upload himself into the new armor to get around the death of his human body. That's something I haven't seen happen in an Iron Man story yet. Slightly less interesting if the Kratos Club has poisoned him with cancer-bots or something for leverage.

You know, I read this and my initial reaction was 'that would be way too unrealistic,' but then I realized I was talking about a fictional world where a superhuman just revealed that, among other powers, his head can apparently open a freaking black hole. Once I realized that it wouldn't be too much of a suspension of disbelief considering the technology available in this world, I changed my mind. It would be a really unique direction to take an alternate version of Iron Man, and hey, isn't that why the Ultimate Universe exists in the first place? I know the original idea was to create a continuity freed of the over fifty years of backstory, thus making it unintimidating to new readers, while simultaneously using a more modern, mature and realistic (relatively speaking, anyway) tone.

It's still that in some ways, but it's evolved into the universe where literally anything can happen, and I, for one, love it now that it's being done with knowledgable, professional, magnificently talented writers. There is a big difference between what guys like Bendis, Spencer and Hickman are currently doing or have done recently to a large number of characters many readers had grown to love, as opposed to, say, Loeb's Ultimatum, which was a decent concept that really could have worked quite well, and was completely in character for Magneto to do (in fact, wasn't he going to wipe out all life on Earth in a previous story Ultimate X-Men story...I wanna say it was called 'Magnetic North,' maybe?...by forcibly reversing the Earth's magnetic polls in an instant?), taking the idea of a completely radical anti-human extremist, with the power over magnetic fields and thus logically insanely powerful, actually using the full potential of his power to do anything in his power to carry out the genocide he's always wanted.

The story was meant to take the 'anything can happen, anyone can die' concept and take it up about twelve notches, which I guess it accomplished, ostensibly for both shock and to set up a new direction, but ended up doing so in an utterly tasteless and frankly amateurish and completely disrespectful way for nearly every character involved (the Wasp died by drowning, in perhaps the most infamous example, which makes sense since a tidal wave randomly hit Stark's mansion in the middle of Manhattan, catching everyone completely unawares, but then what happens? Her dead body is found partially consumed and being eaten by the Blob, who is inexplicably a cannibal now....also, don't even get me started on the fact that

Loeb obviously knew nothing about Ultimate Pyro, deciding, probably because he looks like a horrifying burn victim, to inexplicably make him a violent, sadistic rapist overnight after being a decent human being and a true hero throughout his tenure with the X-Men, despite feeling compelled to hide his scarring in public....sigh...I'm going to stop this now. I'm giving myself a headache, and things are way too good at the moment to be focusing on that story, the bane of my Ultimate Comics reading existence).

Seriously, if somebody had told the me from a year ago, before DOSM, that an upcoming storyline would not only kill off indisputably the most interesting, relateable, likeable, and straight up engaging character in that continuity, but that doing so would be the catalyst for a new golden era in the history of the line, I'd have certainly scoffed.

Then, that exact thing happened, and I'm so glad, now that I have the gift of hindsight, that I hung in there and gave DOSM and the subsequent stories a chance (even though, when I heard the rumors and then the confirmed title of the storyline, the freaking DEATH OF SPIDER-MAN, I refused to believe Peter would actually die until he did, and even after what I thought was my worst nightmare actually came true before my eyes, I had to admit that it was one of the most emotionally touching and flat out devastating stories in a comic book that I'd ever read, and was an absolute instant classic that gave a mainstream, serialized fictional character an extremely rare thing: a fully realized, complete story, from beginning, middle,

to end, and thematically a near perfect, 'coming full circle' ending to Peter's story). The quality of the story made me literally reverse my position overnight, as well as restoring my faith in the Ultimate Line to really be able to deliver on its potential, to the point that, not only have I fully embraced the new Ultimate direction (including the new Spider-Man, which I always assumed I would drop if Peter actually died, becoming one of those unpleasant haters calling for a boycott on the internet...thank Science that didn't happen), but I'm on the verge of declaring this the single best era in Ultimate history, even better than the early, first 'golden era' of Bendis on Ultimate Spider-Man, and some combination of Bendis/Millar on Ultimates, Ultimate X-Men, and Ultimate Fantastic Four. After those days ended, I never thought the line would approach that level of quality again, but against all odds, here we are. Life is good.

[PhilUrich'sFlamingSword]

Okay, once again I have flooded the thread with my near stream-of-consciousness ramblings, and have once more written a much longer post than I intended. While I would still urge those that are inclined towards that sort of thing to read them, as I'm a fairly intelligent guy with, I think, some good points to make (I'm also exceptionally humble...I'm probably the most humble person in the world), I will not be offended if you just skip it. Granted, I wouldn't know if you'd read it or not one way or the other unless you replied to me, but still, don't be afraid to skip if you want. Also, it's now 6:22 A.M., when many people are getting up, and I'm just now about to go to bed. Thanks Ultimate Board, for enabling my insomnia and giving it the only excuse it needs to keep me up all night...comic book discussion with some like-minded individuals. Good night, or day, to you all, and to all a...good night? I guess? You people know what I mean.

[RockyBanks]

It would be cool if Tony had to upload himself into the new armor to get around the death of his human body. That's something I haven't seen happen in an Iron Man story yet. Slightly less interesting if the Kratos Club has poisoned him with cancer-bots or something for leverage.

I like that idea. I'd read that.

Actually, that kinda reminds me of a miniseries called Iron Man: Hypervelocity. Tony uploads his consciousness as an AI into one of his most advanced suits. The suit suffers some kind of damage, knocks Tony unconscious, and goes haywire. SHIELD intervenes and tries to destroy the suit.

It's interesting because the story's told from the point of view of the AI Tony inside the suit.

Plus, it's a really fun read. Six straight issues of balls-to-the-wall carnage.

[Hegelund]

This issue certainly made me officially sick of The People. WAY too overpowered.

Really? They just got their asses handed to them by the children... Who also easily overpowered the European super-army.
I'm getting sick and tired of Reed Richards and his army of Mary Sues. At this point they've continuously overpowered anything thrown at them and instead of upping the stakes, it's devalued their contribution to the plot - 'cause now we know they'll have to use a Deus Ex Machina to end them. Predictability is, to me personally, one of the greatest flaws a plot can have.

[Cryptid]

Really? They just got their asses handed to them by the children... Who also easily overpowered the European super-army.
I'm getting sick and tired of Reed Richards and his army of Mary Sues. At this point they've continuously overpowered anything thrown at them and instead of upping the stakes, it's devalued their contribution to the plot - 'cause now we know they'll have to use a Deus Ex Machina to end them. Predictability is, to me personally, one of the greatest flaws a plot can have.

The alternative is that their obsession with evolution is a problem that solves itself. The City might turn on The Children, or the Children might decide that Reed is obsolete (his greatest fear, given the ugly grafts to his head) and diffuse themselves into the population at large.

[Number_5]

It would be cool if Tony had to upload himself into the new armor to get around the death of his human body. That's something I haven't seen happen in an Iron Man story yet. Slightly less interesting if the Kratos Club has poisoned him with cancer-bots or something for leverage.

I can see it now: Engaging heavy scotch consumption simulation. Ahh, that's better. Now brandy. And vodka. Yeahhhhh

[Number_5]

Okay, once again I have flooded the thread with my near stream-of-consciousness ramblings, and have once more written a much longer post than I intended. While I would still urge those that are inclined towards that sort of thing to read them, as I'm a fairly intelligent guy with, I think, some good points to make (I'm also exceptionally humble...I'm probably the most humble person in the world), I will not be offended if you just skip it. Granted, I wouldn't know if you'd read it or not one way or the other unless you replied to me, but still, don't be afraid to skip if you want. Also, it's now 6:22 A.M., when many people are getting up, and I'm just now about to go to bed. Thanks Ultimate Board, for enabling my insomnia and giving it the only excuse it needs to keep me up all night...comic book discussion with some like-minded individuals. Good night, or day, to you all, and to all a...good night? I guess? You people know what I mean.

No problem with long posts, no problem at all. You should just tell your stream of consciousness to stream out the enter key once in a while.

[Static-Pulse]

Actually, that kinda reminds me of a miniseries called Iron Man: Hypervelocity.

Hypervelocity Tony vs. Ultimate Reed.

My body would need a thousand years to be ready.

[RockyBanks]

Hypervelocity Tony vs. Ultimate Reed.

My body would need a thousand years to be ready.

Ohhhh yes...

[robcastor729]

So was the Kid at the end of this issue kind of like Anton 1 From Ultimate Comics Ultimates #2 ? Or is it Anton 1?