Marvel's Ultimate Line
 

So I made a thread about watching all the "canon" Marvel movies and the Ultimate line of comics came up. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a line of comics launched by Marvel in 2000. It was a new line of comics that started with no background needed to jump on. It started with Spider-man and the X-men, later introducing the Avengers called The Ultimates in this universe and the Fantastic Four. It was great when it started. As this was the start of everything it was easy to get in on the ground floor. They built a solid foundation for things to come.

It has been steadily going on since then. Now my question is for those of you who have read it, what do you guys like and not like? It seems this line of Marvel comics has strong opinions on it.

I'll admit I read it steadily up tell Ultimatum. When Joseph Loeb took over some of the titles he just made it one big mess. He took some of the great set up and crapped all over it I felt. So I stopped reading. I was done. My comic shop guy convinced me to start reading again, give it another go. So I picked it up again and have to say it's actually great. These writers have taken the mess and made it into something great again.

So like I said I'd like to hear what you guys think of the Ultimate line of comics. What you think of the characters and the changes they've made to them. I'd like to have a conversation about these comics.

The new Ultimate Comics Spiderman is pretty dope. Been following that book since the Death of Spiderman arc and Miles is a worthy addition to the Spiderman lore. As for the other books, I have so many other books to catch up to so I havn't been able to dive in.

Haven't read the book, but I'm wondering, how does Miles get spider powers?

Yeah haven't started reading the new Spider-man series. I'm catching up on the post Ultimatum stuff.

My favorite series was/is the Ultimates. What they did with Thor was really awesome. I really dug what they did with him. Well tell Loeb screwed the pooch.

I've not read Ultimate Spider-Man mind you, so I can't speak for that one. And with a very few exceptions, I loathe Ultimate Comics and their let's all bee dark, broody and younger Wolverine wannabes.

The unnecessary slaughter in Ultimatum, leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, yet. The whole dead stays dead is a bit bull in recent stories with the new heroes taking up mantles that shouldn't be passed on mantles. Like Woverine, instead of resurrecting him they just pull a kid out of their arses and give him exact same powers, and natural metal claws, which just seems silly. it was stupid in the Mange and it's stupid there.

And the Fantastic Four are just, ugh...

So many characters are so vastly different in personality and attitude, and theres cannibalism and incest and all around douchebaggery from characters that seems pointless.

But I did enjoy the Hulk short story where he want to eat pancakes in a diner, and the gambit short story which is really heartfelt. The X-Men had a small promising starts and Ultimates 1 was interesting as a alternative story.

I personally think Ultimate comics have run it's course. Starting as a compressed summary of 40+ something years, it have mutated into it's own cluster of a beast

But that's the beauty of the Ultimate line and what makes it so much fun for me, that it isn't what came before. The fact that there isn't 40+ years of back story, that the characters don't have to be carbon copies of their 616 counterparts.

I'll use Thor as an example of what I'm talking about. In 616 it's never been questioned if he was a God. It was always just assumed he was. The stories were always fantastical and whimsy. But then when the Ultimate Universe happened Thor was introduced as a character that some thought was a God and others thought that he was crazy. There were serious questions between other heros on if they could trust him or if he as a loose canon. It added this extra layer of depth to him in the way that others acted around him. Then when it finally came out that yes in fact he was a God it put those who had doubted him in an awkward place, especially since Captain America had been one of those. Then when Thor sacrificed himself to save Captain America you saw that it didn't matter to Thor but that he wanted to watch out for the world.

The Miles Spider-Man stories are alright, but they arent lighting the world on fire and they never will. Bendis really wrote Peter out in an illogical rushed turd of a story and you have to be really forgiving to remotely look past it.

The Ultimate Universe's dynasty and relevancy have long since ended in my opinion. Loeb saw to that with Ultimatium and all the other books now are teeny-bop emo trauma porn, the likes of which stopped being interesting years ago.

Ultimatum did cause a lot of problems there is no denying that. I gave up on the Ultimate line for a while because of it. But my comic guy got me reading the titles again. It's great being friends with a comic shop guy.

I really want to read the new Spider-man stories. I haven't read Peter's death yet though. I've either heard people love it or hate it.

I for one hated it. it didnt make sense and it's basicly just a big brawl with no story and "shock value" moments. Bendis was clearly out of ideas by this point in the run (most of the post-Ultimatium era is likewise uninspired and dry) and just seemed to want Peter out of the way as quickly as possible.

For me, USM ended with that great Peter/MJ story in the third annual (the one where they pass on having sex) which was just before Ulitimatum started.

I have a similar relationship with my Comic Store Owner, but he cautioned me not to dip into USM after Ultimatium. Not saying ALL the Ultimate books were bad after it, but USM wasnt a highlight.

I'm actually considering going back to USM. I dropped it for no reason (maybe I wasn't making much money), but I really enjoyed it. Even tho I usually don't pay much attention to that sort of stuff, the whole death thing got me intrigued, so I'm willing to give it a new chance.

The only other Ultimate book I followed was The Ultimates, but I was done after Millar and Hitch left. It was great, tho.

It's all picking back up. The authors had an uphill battle fixing the mess Loeb made but they did it. The Ultimate Avengers title that Miller did was top notch. It was fun seeing him on a title again. There are three volumes of Ultimate Avengers and if you liked Millers Ultimates you'll dig these.