Ultimatum # 5 – Review

By Jeph Loeb (writer), David Finch (pencils) Danny Miki (inks), Peter Steigerwald (colors)

The Story: The last chapter in the Ultimatum saga concludes with the deconstruction, rather than destruction,  of the entire Marvel Ultimate Universe. Magneto faces off against Wolverine and the rest of the heroes as they confront him for the untold mass destruction he unleashed across the Earth.

What’s Good: It’s over, it’s finally, finally over. 9 months and 5 issues later, Jeph Loeb’s wacker-piece is done and we can move onto the next chapter of the Ultimate Universe.

Outside of that, the art is slightly redeeming and although not my taste in style, it is detailed and very pleasing to the eye.

I wish I could find some more that was good with this story, but with the exception of how Cyclops handles Magneto, that’s it.

What’s Not Good: I can’t give away too much because of our non-spoiler policy, but characters are constantly offed by their lesser rivals. For example, I thought Doom was the strongest being in the Ultimate Universe? Well, actually the Thing can defeat him, permanently, in one second. Additionally, Loeb, as is his habit, rewrites characters just to fit the given scene. Another example: remember how Namor could cause a tidal wave that could swallow Manhattan? Remember how he defeated every character in the Marvel Universe and could also teleport?  Well, now he is kept captive in a tank of water and is unable to escape.

But perhaps the most frustrating part of Loeb’s work here is that he does the most irritating writing anybody can do that frankly makes his script look as if it was written by an amateur. Here’s what I’m talking about and it is a golden rule: You cannot have high-paced action scenes with needless, wordy, and drawn out dialogue. It doesn’t make any sense that characters stop to talk or tell each other off as they are fighting for their lives (well unless, your writing Spider-Man, but I think that’s the exception as that is pretty much one of his super powers). It just comes off horrible and reminds me of all the comics I hated in the late 80’s and most of the 90’s.

As far as the internal logic of this story, there is none at all, which is why I called this event Loeb’s wacker-piece. It is wacked out, non-stop nonsense in tone, mood, and events. Nothing is more evident of this nonsense than the “big” “reveal” at the “end” where we find out who was really orchestrating these events.

Conclusion: Just a bad, bad comic. Sorry to do this to David Finch– who is the plus side of this equation, but regardless of his nice work here, he’s on a sunken ship.

Goodbye Ultimate Universe. This is a death you didn’t deserve.  I hope Ultimate Comics has a better life than you.

Grade: D-

-Rob G.