Quote Originally Posted by Plawsky View Post

But I still don't see what's wrong with the pacing. It's really not that fast, unless you compare it to a book like Ultimate Spider-man.
Actually for most of Hickman's run the pacing has been relentlessly fast paced. And I don't see how the new spiderman book is slower paced than it ever used to be. Cats and Kings for example, an eight issue USM arc was very slow and drawn out, but Bendis' current arc is actually one of the better arcs he's written. Issue by issue we've seen the Prowler gradually become more villainess and threatening. It's an exciting arc and it's the usual Bendis greatness. What's not to love? Whereas in the recent issue of The Ultimates we didn't even see the climax of the issue before unfold due to it's super quick pacing. I'd much prefer it if Hickman's run was drawn out for longer, if only to see more character conversations and other details in between. He's too thorough in how he edits his issues. Or at least that's my opinon.

It's like, I see some scenes in the book and they're amazing, but I always feel underwhelmed by the amount that's on offer within the scene. I feel like Hickman should be giving Ribic more things to draw, especially in a book with so much going on all the time. If that 'Zorn black hole thingy' was drawn out for longer, it's climax would've been even sweeter. That, you can't deny.

There's been a lot of slower and drawn out moments, it just doesn't take eight pages for them to happen.
That's a bit of an exaggeration to what it is I expect from the pacing. But I agree that there have been slower moments. Issues 4-7 were excellently well paced and they helped to make the story feel a lot more 'whole'. But now the Children vs People battle is (for the most part) all over and done with. And within just a few pages too. I hate to sound so negative, but it just seems so wasteful to me.

I've read plenty of books that are way faster paced than this.
Perhaps you're more used to it then.

All-Star Superman, for instance (really, all of Morrison's work), jumps around like crazy. I'm sure I could come up with more examples, but I'm in the middle of that right now, so it stands out to me the most.
It all depends on how thorough and substantial it all feels. And by that I don't mean for individual issues or 'bang for your buck' etc; I mean for the story arc as a whole.

Despite a lot of stuff happening, it's not hard to follow at all, which is the only concern I ever have for fast paced books. I don't see why a new reader would be turned off by the pace. The only thing, in my opinion, that might turn away a new reader is that they don't know the characters because they haven't read any Ultimates before, but that's not really a huge problem. Not everything can be written for the new readers.
Actually by the sounds of many of the video reviews I've seen and podcasts I've heard about the UU and it's relaunch is that the Ultimates has been way too crazy to get into and a lot of newcomers were straight away put off by that. Even the sales reflect this, despite how awesome the book may be.