J. Scott Campbell Spotlights Peter Parker And Mary Jane's Ultimate Love Story In New Ultimate Spider-Man #1 Cover

went by my local some time ago, picked up a few of these issues. That was months ago....still only got through one of them. Maybe I just need to focus a bit more.

Man, back in the day comics had me reading cover to cover, absorbing the panels, the writing style, even the letters column

There was a moment waaaay back in the original Ultimates--the Chitauri arc--that set a "tone" with me for the title and brand as a whole:IIRC, SHIELD or some soldiers and the Ultimates had thwarted some Chitauri incident, it's in the aftermath, and so kid looks on the soldiers with what is drawn as a bit of awed expression.And they mockingly push the kid to the ground.I looked back at that story and immediately picked up a mean-spirited under-current throughout, and I know enough about writing to know that something like that isn't accidental. It was subtle, but it was sure there if one read a bit between the lines and the panels.Subliminals are either parody, or something the writer is trying to convey beyond parody.I don't know if the new series will contain the same tugly one, but it really tainted my impressions of the whole Ultimates brand.

On 10/3/2023 at 11:46 AM, Atlantis said:

Well said. I did like the first iteration of the Ultimates; the new approach, the artwork etc was fantastic... but ultimately (no pun intended) it just couldn't sustain itself.

Old fashioned, perhaps, but I find superheroes at their best when their motivation is "I have abilities and I'm using them to fight for justice" or that kind of thing. These characters are just there to show off, to act out, to play to their egos. Maybe that's a reflection on who's writing these stories.

You are speaking 100 my friend. All these writers know how to do is self insert themselves into our beloved characters. They care nothing or know nothing about what the readers want. All they do is get the reigns and do what they think is cool from their own perspective. Nothing made that more apparent than Children of the Atom. No creativity in building any characters. They were all just cheap imitations of existing characters mixed with a lot of contemporary fads. We want to see superheroes do superhero stuff but instead we get to read about their adventures in cosplay and Reddit and Mutant Music. Like what does that even mean? Total amatuer hour.

At least the art looks good.

Don't let Nick Lowe see this

On 9/30/2023 at 7:08 PM, TheArrow said:

Right from the start I've always though that the Ultimate Universe was an exercise in brand confusion because it was "different" but not different ENOUGH. They kept referring back to and comparing itself to the mainstream Marvel Universe. They then based the movies off a hybrid between the Ultimate and mainstream Universe and it became even more confusing.AND THEN they tried to close shop with the Ultimate Universe and tear it all down.............and then again........they tried to bring it all back.Sorry, but.........personally speaking, this just gives me BS fatigue. It's like the New Universe all over again.........and again, and again and.......it's a worse play than what DC did with all their Crisis stories.it's muddled, confusing and dare I say.........impenetrable, because what the attractive appeal about diving into an utter mess??I read some of the Ultimates stuff early on. The characters were frequently ugly and malicious and that made any progression in the stories to be bleak. Sure, they could be cinematic, hence basing the MCU on a lot of it....but a lot of the time they weren't heroes----they were more psychos or monsters. That turned me off the line and there was never any draw back to it.

Well said. I did like the first iteration of the Ultimates; the new approach, the artwork etc was fantastic... but ultimately (no pun intended) it just couldn't sustain itself.

Old fashioned, perhaps, but I find superheroes at their best when their motivation is "I have abilities and I'm using them to fight for justice" or that kind of thing. These characters are just there to show off, to act out, to play to their egos. Maybe that's a reflection on who's writing these stories.

Right from the start I've always though that the Ultimate Universe was an exercise in brand confusion because it was "different" but not different ENOUGH. They kept referring back to and comparing itself to the mainstream Marvel Universe. They then based the movies off a hybrid between the Ultimate and mainstream Universe and it became even more confusing.AND THEN they tried to close shop with the Ultimate Universe and tear it all down.............and then again........they tried to bring it all back.Sorry, but.........personally speaking, this just gives me BS fatigue. It's like the New Universe all over again.........and again, and again and.......it's a worse play than what DC did with all their Crisis stories.it's muddled, confusing and dare I say.........impenetrable, because what the attractive appeal about diving into an utter mess??I read some of the Ultimates stuff early on. The characters were frequently ugly and malicious and that made any progression in the stories to be bleak. Sure, they could be cinematic, hence basing the MCU on a lot of it....but a lot of the time they weren't heroes----they were more psychos or monsters. That turned me off the line and there was never any draw back to it.

So the art looks fantastic..but ugh.. just die already Ultimates Universe!!

....guess I still hold some residual bitterness on how this version of Marvel was forced down our throats in every medium (comics, Ultimate Avengers cartoons, Ultimate Alliancw default suits...)

Then of course Marvel ruined their own cash cow with terrible writing and decisions....