The Ultimates #10

[laughing_tree]

I think the best way to show respect to what Mark and Bryan (and Andrew, Chris and Paul) did is to be true to the spirit of it. To me that means fresh storytelling and channeling the anxieties and energies of the time. It means letting the world in a little bit. So that’s what we’re doing. Where that Ultimates was channeling post-9/11 paranoia, this one is addressed to that nagging sense that everything’s gone wrong somehow, that things were supposed to be better than this. -- Deniz Camp

Comments

[blueprintstyles]

I wonder how Namor will be brought back? Will he become a Ghost Rider with a an undead giant seahorse instead of a motorcycle?

[icon_uk]

Well, now you've said that, I REALLY want to see it!

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Especially if it's on fire.

While underwater.

[cainofdreaming]

Seahorse? I'm starting to think other people aren't as hyped about Shark Rider as I am.

[blues32]

...is that Bucky under that helmet? Oooh, or maybe it's Peggy!

[scorntx]

It's (apparently) Bucky. Jim's analysis gets a 97% match on the voice.

Whether Peggy existed at all in this universe is as yet unclear.

[blues32]

Wouldn't be the first world where Bucky is the Red Skull (or equivalent)).

[huntleyhaverstock]

The explicitly antifascist turn by Marvel Comics over the past decade or so has been quiet but fascinating to see. Uncanny Avengers, Al Ewing's USAvengers, Straczynski's initial Cap run, the recent Thunderbolts, this ... story after story about the evils of fascism and the importance of f***ing up its s***.

[deh_tommy]

And Nick Spencer and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ runs on Captain America.

[cainofdreaming]

Though they've also tried to avoid calling a duck a duck, like during Secret Empire.

[starwolf_oakley]

HYDRA's deal kind of... varies. There's a Daredevil story, "Tree of Knowledge," where they are techno-anarchists.

[cainofdreaming]

System Crash was used by Hydra rather than part of them, weren't they?

[scorntx]

Usually they're fascists / totalitarians. Sometimes they're just generic terrorists.
Brian Bendis is utterly convinced they and Viper specifically are anarcho-communists for some reason.

[scorntx]

I was kind of hoping, foolish naïf that I am, that one of the few upshots of the Maker rewriting history to his own like might have been fewer Nazis.
Guess not.
"So here we are. Fighting Nazis with laser guns."


So. Bucky. Clone? Brainwashed? Brainwashed clone?
When you're dealing with a Captain America character, both are quite possible.
Actually, with Captain America, brainwashing's practically a given.

Is it Toro? Did Jim forget him, or is it some other evil knockoff? Or Jim also being controlled by someone?
(The fact he says there are photos from the 50s, before Reed showed up and started doing things, raises even more questions.
But presumably if Toro existed, Steve might've mentioned him, so... guess not? I don't know.)

I am: On fire with questions without answers.
Aren't we all?
The Ultimates. So many questions.
... still, at least it answers some of them, unlike other Ultimate titles.

So we're near a full set on the Illuminati:
Reed tortured and imprisoned.
Dr. Strange MIA.
Black Bolt dead.
Namor dead.
Iron Man left alone.
The only one left out is Charles.
(Depending on whether you count the suspiciously untouched T'Challa.)


(Meanwhile, somewhere, Garth Ennis might well be crushing cups in anger.
"You don't understand Punisher!")

[shakalooloo]

I guess having a few Nazis around is like flypaper for superheroes.

[thanekos]

I can't fault tying Frank Castle (and also John Walker) to the Red Skull, not just because the two of them're characters whose traits go with what the Skull likes to sell like peanut butter and jelly - but because years of stories've kept those characters locked into those traits, not changing or acquiring nuance on grounds of " What would be the point, then? "

You keep doing that, it's no surprise an alternate universe would link them to the Red Skull.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Oh, neat. After reading Jim talk about having to erase so much, I was hoping they'd give the poor guy an upgrade.

Glad to see they did!