Post by goldenfist on Jun 26, 2008 8:30:31 GMT -5
Ign.com reviews Ultimates 3 #4.
I'm tempted to cut and paste my original review of Ultimates 3 #2 from back in January because issue #4 is almost the exact same thing. By now you know the drill with this book, it's heinous and doesn't stop being heinous even if you try to turn your brain off. Some might've taken last issue's sudden obsession with convoluted backstory as a signal that the dumb action portion of this monstrosity was through, but rest assured, #4 is back to the same nonsense that sunk the first half of this abortive project.
If you've read up through issue #3, you're already familiar with the plot of this one because the storyline is moved incrementally at best. Considering we're now 80% of the way through and we're still more or less where the first issue of it left us, that's not really a great sign. The Ultimates continue to fight the Brotherhood gratuitously, and say stock lines like "Come with me if you want to live" while doing so.
Joe Mad's artwork is kind of nice if you like that sort of thing, but I find that most of the time it approaches absurdity too often for comfort (made exponentially worse with the likes of Shanna now running around in addition to Valkyrie and, really, anyone with breasts). But by now none of this can come as a shock to anyone. It's business as usual for Ultimates 3, and I doubt anyone expected the book to up its game this far along. In fact, I wouldn't even bat an eyelash if it weren't for the tiny little nugget of development that Loeb unleashes towards the end of this issue.
In short, this issue reveals a "secret" conspiracy element that basically has the potential to explain why this book has sucked so bad for four issues straight. Doing a basic truth reversal like this one works if orchestrated the right way (see: Xorn into Magneto, for instance), but Ultimates 3 demonstrates how to do it wrong and piss people off at the same time. Not only can a case be made for a thinly-veiled Secret Invasion rip but, in essence, we've waded through four issues of the worst book Marvel puts on the stands because of a trumped-up conspiracy that only rears its head in the home stretch. That's evident of terrible plotting, complete lack of forethought, and total abandonment of skill. This scripting inanity, coupled with the earlier (and still present) offenses of juvenile frat house comedy, the utter misunderstanding of the fundamentals of these characters, and how basic superhero fight dialogue is meant to operate, and Ultimates 3 is about as amateur an affair as you're likely to find from the Big Two.
There are two kinds of bad comics: the kind that must've sounded like a good idea when it was pitched but somehow faltered, and then the kind that is, was, and always will be so fundamentally flawed at its core that whoever green-lighted it had to have been kidding. Four-fifths of the way through, I'm reasonably certain I know which camp Ultimates 3 falls into.
Review Score: 2.3 Terrible
(I have the issue I didn't think it was that bad)
I'm tempted to cut and paste my original review of Ultimates 3 #2 from back in January because issue #4 is almost the exact same thing. By now you know the drill with this book, it's heinous and doesn't stop being heinous even if you try to turn your brain off. Some might've taken last issue's sudden obsession with convoluted backstory as a signal that the dumb action portion of this monstrosity was through, but rest assured, #4 is back to the same nonsense that sunk the first half of this abortive project.
If you've read up through issue #3, you're already familiar with the plot of this one because the storyline is moved incrementally at best. Considering we're now 80% of the way through and we're still more or less where the first issue of it left us, that's not really a great sign. The Ultimates continue to fight the Brotherhood gratuitously, and say stock lines like "Come with me if you want to live" while doing so.
Joe Mad's artwork is kind of nice if you like that sort of thing, but I find that most of the time it approaches absurdity too often for comfort (made exponentially worse with the likes of Shanna now running around in addition to Valkyrie and, really, anyone with breasts). But by now none of this can come as a shock to anyone. It's business as usual for Ultimates 3, and I doubt anyone expected the book to up its game this far along. In fact, I wouldn't even bat an eyelash if it weren't for the tiny little nugget of development that Loeb unleashes towards the end of this issue.
In short, this issue reveals a "secret" conspiracy element that basically has the potential to explain why this book has sucked so bad for four issues straight. Doing a basic truth reversal like this one works if orchestrated the right way (see: Xorn into Magneto, for instance), but Ultimates 3 demonstrates how to do it wrong and piss people off at the same time. Not only can a case be made for a thinly-veiled Secret Invasion rip but, in essence, we've waded through four issues of the worst book Marvel puts on the stands because of a trumped-up conspiracy that only rears its head in the home stretch. That's evident of terrible plotting, complete lack of forethought, and total abandonment of skill. This scripting inanity, coupled with the earlier (and still present) offenses of juvenile frat house comedy, the utter misunderstanding of the fundamentals of these characters, and how basic superhero fight dialogue is meant to operate, and Ultimates 3 is about as amateur an affair as you're likely to find from the Big Two.
There are two kinds of bad comics: the kind that must've sounded like a good idea when it was pitched but somehow faltered, and then the kind that is, was, and always will be so fundamentally flawed at its core that whoever green-lighted it had to have been kidding. Four-fifths of the way through, I'm reasonably certain I know which camp Ultimates 3 falls into.
Review Score: 2.3 Terrible
(I have the issue I didn't think it was that bad)