[Comics] Rate Marvel's "Ultimate" titles.

[C.W.Richeson]

Inspired by Shannon's excellent point here (http://forum.xenagia.net/showpost.php?p=79&postcount=2), how are the Ultimate titles? I agree that Marvel has done a good job of taking the existing comics universe and both modernizing it and cleaning it up. My own experience with the Ultimates titles, however, has been a strongly mixed bag.

Ultimate Spider-Man was fantastic for its first several years, and even today it's a good comic (though I think some of the early magic has been lost). I am sad to see that, like the movies, Peter's status as a scientist has largely been downplayed. I miss webshooters and solving problems with clever thought, but the characters are interesting and smartly reimagined.

Ultimate X-Men's first year run didn't do it for me, and I"m afraid I quit after that. I liked the look and feel of the team, but there was an awful lot of focus on Wolverine and a lack of other strong characters.

Ultimate Fantastic Four also failed to draw me in. I don't know what it was, but I think I lost interest when Sue was held captive underground early on. Maybe I want more strong female characters? I don't know.

The Ultimates (Avengers) I have always been a little hesitant to pick up. I've never been able to really get into the Avengers, but I like the focus on SHIELD this series seems to have.

What do you think? What about others that I haven't mentioned, such as Ultimate Galactus?

[ShannonA]

1. Ultimate Spider-Man. This is the flagship of the line, and rightfully so. Bendis will hopefully stay with the comic forever. Not only does it take a fresh look at Spider-Man, but it does so with a very positive perspective. I'm eagerly awaiting the new 'clone' storyline to hit TPB. USM would be well worth the cost of the current hardcover, but it wouldn't fit on my shelf right(!). Grade: A.

2. The Ultimates. This Avengers adaptation is almost as good as USM, but its problem is that it feels like it's set in a totally different universe. Sure, there's characters in common, but the mood is dark and gritty, very post-Dark-Knight rather than the return-to-the-silver-age that most of the line is about. Still, an interesting comic, and it might be top of the line if it came out with any regularity. Grade: A-.

3. Ultimate Fantastic Four. I enjoy the take on the FF as kids, because on the one hand it's never been seen before, but on the other hand it feels totally right. That helps to distinguish the comic and keep it interesting. Unfortunately UFF suffers from multiple-author syndrome. It has some interesting individual plots, but I don't feel like the whole thing is going anywhere. Grade: B.

4. Ultimate Iron Man. It's hard to rate this with just one TPB, but I thought that first trade was a great take on Stark. It's by Orson Scott Card, which is going to be a bonus or a minus depending on whether you like his writing or hate his politics. Grade: Undetermined.

5. Ultimate X-Men. I started off really liking this comic, but it's suffered more than any other Ultimate comic from too-many-writers syndrome. I thought some of the early writers were pretty good, but since then plots have been dropped and the comic has gotten more uneven to the point where I don't think Marvel even cares about it anymore. Grade: C+.

6. Ultimate Galactus. (And Other Ultimate Mini-Series.) Not one of them has really impressed me yet. The characters and world are recognizably that of Ultimate, but I never felt like the souls of the characters appeared in these crossovers. Ultimate Galactus has been the best of them, solely because it introduced a few Ultimate characters for the first time like Vision and Mar-vell.

7. Ultimate Marvel Team-Up. A great concept until Marvel realized that they really didn't want to define Ultimate characters just for the sake of a few issues of a team-up comic. As a result this comic has ended up trashing the Ultimate continuity and is barely worth reading. Grade: D.

[Turbo]

I'd rate Ultimate Spider-Man at the top, for the long-running consistency of the creative team and Bendis' take on updating the character to reflect 21st century youth. Peter looks like a scrawny 15-year old, rather than magically becoming a ripped ballet dancer when he puts on the costume. I wasn't a huge fan of the color until I realized that what they're doing is like a 21st century four-color, narrowing the color scheme to evoke a certain naivete which coincides with the character as well as echoing the old coloring paradigm.

Ultimates pisses me off sometimes, and other times it's awesome. I'm not a huge fan of turning Ultimates into The Authority, but there's interesting stuff going on, so it's worth looking at for many people.

I followed Ultimate X-Men for a while, but the Wolverine focus and general lack of excitement led me to drop the title. I've read a fair amount in trades from friends, but I think my familiarity with X-Men continuity actually worked against my enjoyment, since I've got a firmer version of it in my head than the others, and when the Ultimate continuity clashes with that version, I'm less flexible in accepting difference.

The other ones I haven't really read so I can't comment.