Ultimate Invasion #3-4: Through the Looking Glass

[superboyprime]

"I think it's fair to say that both Bryan and I have already put in our time doing Ultimate books, so when Marvel laid this project in front of us, we both knew there needed to be a good reason to revisit the idea of 'Ultimate Comics' beyond telling a cool story or just getting to work together, which is something we've been trying to do for years. So with that in mind, it couldn't be replicating or revisiting what Bryan did in the original Ultimates — creating a streamlined, modernized version that would eventually become the spine of the MCU — and it certainly couldn't be what I did, which was a final chapter of a pre-existing universe." - Jonathan Hickman























Ultimate Invasion #4:

Comments

[gnarll]

I kind of felt this devolved into a bit of a mass. Time travel stories are always hard to do, and when you do parallell universes in addition, its got to be challenging.

Started out well, but we didn't really revisit the Ultimate Universe, instead we got another universe with characters that visually resembled the UU ones. About the millionth "a cabal controls everything" iteration.

[coldfury]

It's really weird. They're marketing this as a 'return' to the Ultimate Universe... even having the Maker making an offer to Miles to 'go home'. But it's not that, it's a universe parallel to the original Ultimate Universe, at least enough for the Maker's ends, that he has time traveled into a completely different thing.

And so this is a universe wrought of the Maker's meddling, compounded by the fact that the native Howard & Reed are also meddling, and we're going to end up with a 'new' Ultimate Universe. But if you're making a new universe, it feels lesser to reuse the same name. (See the new New Universe, lol)

So what we have here is something built off the scantest bit of remains of the Ultimate Universe, that functionally has nothing to do with the Ultimate Universe, re-using the name Ultimate Universe. Presumably to draw in old fans, who are going to be mostly turned off by the fact that this isn't a revisit to a setting they enjoyed.

So who is this for? Why is this being connected to the old ultimate universe?

Unless one of the new ongoings is *very* good, I feel like the entire project will fizzle within a year. It feels like Marvel has made a very uphill battle for themselves with this project.

[shakalooloo]

It's for people who want to see what sort of crazy Marvel setting Hickman can create from the ground up. A Krakoa-style reboot on a global scale.

[thehood]

Exactly and they did do some interesting changes.

[coldfury]

I mean, there's an appeal to that, for sure. But I would argue that by lashing it with the name of "Ultimate Universe" it has set itself up for failure, or at very least directly put itself into the path of direct competition with nostalgia.

It's a quandry, because it's seems to be a project wholly divested of the original conceit, except for the 'This is a different Universe starring characters based on the ones you love."

Except, which Universe is it basing this on? The 616? 1610? Which is it supposed to be a reflection of? Is this the Ultimate Ultimate Universe?

I have nothing against the project, or even the story, but I feel like they should have branded this better to ward off criticism. Ultimate Spider-Man was *very* popular, and when the new one comes out it's going to have to be, forgive the pun, amazing. Otherwise it will drown in a wave of angry criticism and comparison with the original.

[blues32]

It's based on 1610. You can tell by the speech font. I think this one is called Earth 6160.

[scorntx]

Any new Ultimate Spider-Man is going to draw comparison regardless of what it does or how good it is.
Kind of unavoidable.
What it's really going to have to watch out for is comparison to Amazing and Superior Spider-Man.

[jlbarnett]

maybe they'll undo the meddling at the end?

[blues32]

Excellent, excellent. Hope this wipes out the whole universe. And I hope Reed finishes the job. Who better than the man who resembles Doom to undo the Maker's plan?

[blueprintstyles]

I hope Zen Hulk stays, I'd love to see that explored. And hopefully, this Colossus will have a life that's completely fine and happy.

[scorntx]

So, one issue to wrap up the various plot threads and set up a new status quo.
Not convinced Hickman managed that.
But pacing often seems to be one of those things he trips up on.
What he feels is worth having the characters standing around telling one another about versus what might be a little more important...

The conflict of Howard not liking the system because it is horrible and needs tearing down just... doesn't entirely work.
Because, again, telling and showing.
We're told there's a system, and it's horrible, but we're not really told what that system is, or what it does. We just see it from the view of a rich white guy at the top, so it does come across just a little bit like him tearing everything down because he doesn't like it.
(Even if we, the readers, know the Maker instituted it via time travel and several petty murders.)
What's it like to be down in the regular NUU? What's life like for the average Mutant from New Jersey? The semi-broke guy from Queens?
How do these people get by? Do they get by?
So trying to tell us the system might fall apart without Reed to get these people cooperating falls a little flat.
"Nothing is the same anymore" doesn't work when you haven't seen what "the same" really was.

Maybe that's why there's the one-shot following, as an fifth instalment in a four part series.
And if it does explain some of that, then I'll take back some of my ranting.
... but I'm not overly optimistic.


Dunno what it is specifically, but Kang's look works pretty well.
Kudos on Sinclair's colouring.
(Though Kang not having a mouth is kind of weird...)

[blues32]

What is the Maker if not a "rich white guy"? Except instead of just monetary wealth, he has control over the course of history.

[full_metal_ox]

And rich white guy publishing executives have control over the narrative, so…

[arilou_skiff]

That honestly feels like a Hickman problem in general. He gestures at all these grand ideas but never bothers filling them in, so it's all very sketchy. (that and him just kinda writing characters in ways that I, the supreme arbiter of what is right, don't agree with, but that's a different issue) and needs other writers to fill it and make it "real".

[scorntx]

Well, in my opinion (which is of course objective fact forever an' ever an' always)... I agree.

[morallyambiguousscience]

Hilarious how Miles was on so many covers and only appeared in the first issue of this mess.

[superfangirl1]

Does Reed Richards Doctor Doom, curses himself. When something goes wrong?

I liked the idea behind the time loop and who Kang ended up being.

[lordultimus]

Man, elaborate conspiracies, man's hubris, time travel, year inside day outside fields... this whole thing is a Hickman plotline bingo card.

[morallyambiguousscience]

Don't forget a complete lack of female characters with any agency

[scorntx]

Hey, Liz Allan attended that scientific demonstration in issue 1, and by all indications entirely of her own free will!
That's... sort of like agency, right?

[deh_tommy]

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: it’s certainly cool, but it’s not really the Ultimate universe, is it? The only real correlation is the lowercase text boxes, which is just a Hickman-esque thing anyway with how Krakoa’s played out. And again, whatever happened with the Maker (or at least a Maker) getting back to the Ultimate universe back in Venom?

[blues32]

That's what I want to know. Is this the same universe, just the Maker went back in time to mess everything up? And why was he so damn happy when he saw the state of it back then?

[gnarll]

The Ultimate Universe when I last read it, at the end of Ultimates 2, was at the start of a global superhuman arms race. An arms race where the factors that made the US the global hegemon, economic and military power, didn't matter so much.

Instead we saw that alliances of nations willing to be far more ruthless in human experimentation and exploitation were able to surpass US tech.

We had also seen a very visible case of intrusion from a spiritual realm, in Åsgårds aid at the end of U2.

I'd really have enjoyed a "20 years later" revisit to that universe.

[blues32]

You missed a LOT if that was your last take on the Ultimate Universe...