Ultimates #18.1 Discussion/Review *SPOILERS*

[Plawsky]

With Divided We Fall/United We Stand in the rearview mirror, where will Humphries take the Ultimates? It's the start of his run on his own - no crossover, no cowriter. But first, the Ultimates have to go through a bit of a transition and clean up the mess.

spoilers:

-Hawkeye has a runin with a souped up tractor/armor that's later referred to as Titanium Man. -Clint is taken out pretty quickly. -Monica calls for the Ultimates to assemble. -Cap answers the call after saving miners from a collapsed well; Carol is also there. -Tony is working on new designs for rebuilding America with Anthony the Tumor when Cap calls him. -Thor is pissed off still, so he's hitting a mountain. Cap and Iron Man fly in to pick him up. -They have a battle with Titanium Man, who is trying to destroy a Nuclear Plant. -It turns out the man inside, Dr. Jake Miller, saved the plant during the crossover, but his family was killed by looters. So now he's angry. -The Ultimates stop him, arrest him, and Tony asks him to work with him while he's in prison. -Cap asks Monica to put together a new team of Ultimates, as he doesn't feel confident with Tony and Thor right now. -Tony then flies off in his new Iron Patriot armor.

end of spoilers

Okay, Sam Humphries has taken this book downhill over the past few issues. Let's get that out of the way. I'll admit that I was very skeptical coming into this issue because of that, but I think this showed improvement. It does exactly what a Point One issue should do, which is show the reader who the characters are and do a little bit of a set up for what's to come. Sure, not a lot happened - and the issue is overall skippable - but it was a decent read.

For the first time since he started his run on the book, Humphries really takes time to focus on the Big 3. Each of the main Ultimates gets a nice extended scene here, and he shows that he actually can handle these characters pretty well. I'm still not a big fan of Anthony, but he actually works really well when it's just him and Tony talking. I loved this line from Tony - "You are by far the smartest of my brain tumors. And not just because you're the first one to talk back to me." The Doc Ock joke was a bit weak, but overall, I enjoyed Tony in this issue. Cap was kind of by the numbers, but I love the reinforcement that he's here to save the American people, everything else is secondary. It still leaves up to question what kind of president he'll be, but he makes a solid Cap still. And Thor gets down to the issue that should have been dug into WAY deeper during UWS - his loneliness. His people are gone; he just killed the last one. How does he cope with that? I would really like to see more of the ghosts of Asgard that Hickman setup, but this is at least a start. And Hawkeye, though he wasn't super effective on the battlefield, showed a nice bit of cockiness in the opening, which was nice. I also enjoy Monica's hardass soldier leadership.

For all the improvements with the characters, there wasn't much to offer in plot. I get that this issue was a character study, but the story could have been much stronger. Did the new Titanium Man really need to be made from a tractor? It just felt lazy. I did like Dr. Miller, though. And I guess this served its purpose as a small scale fallout from UWS, but I wish there had been more here. As for the "big reveal" of Iron Patriot... weak. They really need to quit teasing things that aren't going to be big, because this just felt like a huge dud. Who knows, maybe it's cool, but it doesn't feel that way yet.

Forget Sam Humphries for a second, the art was fantastic. Dale Englesham has been a favorite of mine for a while, and I loved him here. I wouldn't want him as an ongoing artist on this book, because I don't think he's the right fit, but it worked really well here. There were a few odd panels here and there, but nothing too bad. I love his Thor and I thought the Tony/Anthony scene was great. It's an old school feel on what should be a modern book, but I like it for a one off.

Overall, this was definitely an improvement for me. It certainly wasn't a great issue, by any means, but I don't expect a huge change overnight. I think it showed that Humphries is getting a feel for this book and these characters, and it leaves me optimistic. I'm also really intrigued by the new team of Ultimates that is teased. I'm less excited about Iron Patriot though. I think Humphries needs to learn how to make big moments big, because that's what's really missing from this book right now. Well, it's one of the things really missing.

Ratings:

Writing - 7/10
Story - 5/10
Art - 8/10
Overall - 7/10

For my vote up at the top, I will be giving this a "good" rating, but that's mostly due to the optimism that came from this issue. Hopefully that is delivered upon in the next few issues. If there was an option for "meh plus" I'd probably go with that one, though.

Final Verdict:

It's not a great issue of the Ultimates, but it's a nice look at the book's characters. If you dropped the book because of DWF/UWS, I'd probably wait until #19 to jump back in, but this wouldn't be a bad place to start.

[Balfro]

I haven't read it yet but I decided to pop in just to see what you gave it, and I'm very surprised you rated it as high as you did... Perhaps there is hope yet :)

[Plawsky]

I haven't read it yet but I decided to pop in just to see what you gave it, and I'm very surprised you rated it as high as you did... Perhaps there is hope yet :)

Don't get your hopes too high - this isn't enough to change the mind of anyone who isn't a fan of Humphries. I've always been guilty of being an eternal optimist for the UU, and some of that is definitely coming through in this review.

[StepsOntheMoon]

There wasn't enough here to keep me interested. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. I don't like Humpries's dialogue ("I hate it when they glow" Really Hawkeye?). I'm also bored of the America ra ra ra tone that's been going on. I mean obviously we are coming off of DWF/UWS but I liked it better when Ultimates had what felt like a wider scope. (What happened to the Kratos Club btw?). But I won't be keeping up with Ultimates regularly I don't think.

[sage6paths]

There wasn't enough here to keep me interested. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. I don't like Humpries's dialogue ("I hate it when they glow" Really Hawkeye?). I'm also bored of the America ra ra ra tone that's been going on. I mean obviously we are coming off of DWF/UWS but I liked it better when Ultimates had what felt like a wider scope. (What happened to the Kratos Club btw?). But I won't be keeping up with Ultimates regularly I don't think.

Yah definitely don't get Ultimates Regularly. I just browsed this issue at the store because I quit buying the ultimates. I really hate the dialogue more then ever. Disappointed at how far this comic has fallen.

[J/O/J/O]

I havent read this but notes of comparison:
-616 Tony big plan:Built the biggest,baddest superhero team to stop an ever growing number of universe shattering threats.
-Ultimate Tony big plan:Give his armor a paint job.

[Wolverine12]

I would say this was Humphries best issue so far, but I still had to roll my eyes a few times so it wasn't what I'd call a "good" comic. The idea of expanding the Ultimates is neat, but that is also exactly what spoilers:

Hickman did in Avengers #1 today

end of spoilers, and we also already saw that back when Fury brought in the black ops team with Widow, Hawkeye, Pietro and Wanda. Humphries dialogue is so weak every issue it makes me cringe, his ideas all seem solid but the execution just isn't there. For the first time I do have a bit of hope that Ultimates will improve though so that's a positive. Also the art was great.

[Codah]

This issue was fantastic. I've been critical of Humphries but you can't say this wasn't a good issue. Hopefully whenever he's not juggling a hundred plot threads he didn't create, the book will get a lot better. I have faith for now.

[Hostile_17]

Pleasantly surprised and a little more optimistic!

I like Humphries ideas but it's his execution that's been lacking. This was a definite improvement

[atlasjj]

Better than the last like 3 issues of the series. Hopefully the next arc can be fun.

[JaggedFel]

Reminds me where is Fury? Also yeah what happened to the Kratos Club? Still Terrible. I really hope his Uncanny X-Force is better because this just fails on so many levels. This hyper jingoism has reached self parody levels.

[Robbie_Jee]

Hate to be a hater but I thought the issue was awful and one of Humphries' worst. It was just a s**t comic. His #12 that he did with Hickman was a lot more enjoyable than this.

I thought this issue was going to be a quieter time for The Ultimates, but instead we got more awful, silly comicbook action, written for kids. Just a couple pages in and everything's gone Condition: Black. This book is no longer for teens and up. It's just a chaotic mess of cartoonish fun. I'm rather annoyed by it.

Not only had everything gone straight to hell all over again, Titanium Man, the antagonist, looked terrible. It was hard to really know what he looked like, he was a complete mess. Gauntlets? Didn't really feel like I got a good look at them. It was dreadful.

Straight away Hawkeye gets blasted with something that should have killed him. The fact that it didn't, straight away made the entire issue feel silly and cartoonish. And it further showed the villain in a very bad light, making the mech suit seem weak and forgettable, despite Humphries trying to big it up by getting Tony to say how "impressive" it was. I certainly wasn't impressed. I also have an issue with how everything was resolved. It was (just like Humphries' previous issues) rushed, predictable, and unprofessional. Dr. Miller was very willing to share his feelings. He just gave up, no questions asked. And then after he said he would co-operate and help put America back together again.. he still got thrown in jail. It further makes the book seem very corporate and authoritarian.

Also, the characters were dull. Tony, Cap, Monica, Thor.. they were their predictable Humphries selves: Boring and badly written.

Humphries has got to go.

[Robbie_Jee]

There was absolutely nothing good about this book. What exactly was an improvement? It certainly wasn't the characters. I think posters are making excuses because they WANT to like it and they're desperate for the series to be good. It was barely readable. It further reminded me that The Ultimates is still in a rut. Anyone feel like that? I'm certain it will turn of thousand of readers considering getting into the UU. So you see, it actually failed miserably at being a good stand alone story, or any story for that matter.

Iron Patriot was finally revealed!!

And it was shockingly disappointing. The way he was revealed, it seemed as though Humphries was actually trying to annoy us fans. Like he was sticking his tongue out at us thinking 'You fools'.

C'mon Humphries, at least TRY to write well. You're not making any effort whatsoever.

[Apothecary]

There wasn't enough here to keep me interested. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. I don't like Humpries's dialogue ("I hate it when they glow" Really Hawkeye?). I'm also bored of the America ra ra ra tone that's been going on. I mean obviously we are coming off of DWF/UWS but I liked it better when Ultimates had what felt like a wider scope. (What happened to the Kratos Club btw?). But I won't be keeping up with Ultimates regularly I don't think.

I asked him a question at nycc and we might not see the kratos club and other sub plots for a while. He apparently thinks poor pacing is a good thing.

[Codah]

Hate to be a hater but I thought the issue was awful and one of Humphries' worst. It was just a s**t comic. His #12 that he did with Hickman was a lot more enjoyable than this.

I thought this issue was going to be a quieter time for The Ultimates, but instead we got more awful, silly comicbook action, written for kids. Just a couple pages in and everything's gone Condition: Black. This book is no longer for teens and up. It's just a chaotic mess of cartoonish fun. I'm rather annoyed by it.

Not only had everything gone straight to hell all over again, Titanium Man, the antagonist, looked terrible. It was hard to really know what he looked like, he was a complete mess. Gauntlets? Didn't really feel like I got a good look at them. It was dreadful.

Straight away Hawkeye gets blasted with something that should have killed him. The fact that it didn't, straight away made the entire issue feel silly and cartoonish. And it further showed the villain in a very bad light, making the mech suit seem weak and forgettable, despite Humphries trying to big it up by getting Tony to say how "impressive" it was. I certainly wasn't impressed. I also have an issue with how everything was resolved. It was (just like Humphries' previous issues) rushed, predictable, and unprofessional. Dr. Miller was very willing to share his feelings. He just gave up, no questions asked. And then after he said he would co-operate and help put America back together again.. he still got thrown in jail. It further makes the book seem very corporate and authoritarian.

Also, the characters were dull. Tony, Cap, Monica, Thor.. they were their predictable Humphries selves: Boring and badly written.

Humphries has got to go.

I disagree with this but even so, you realize it's a comic-book, right?