All-New Ultimates switched between its narrative threads abruptly.

[thanekos]

It was jarring, the way it'd go between scenes without taking down the first or setting up the second.

It was engaging, the way it'd make things feel like they were going on even when one wasn't seeing them go.

It got better in the later issues, once those it was being used with'd progressed in their stories.

Its occurrences in the last one were particularly neat. They came shortly after the issue's opening, with the Ultimates all in one place.

" What we have is a super-powered team of teenagers.. "





(The former cops do indeed call themselves Terror Inc.)



(That's Mister Jip, who isn't a dark magician like in 616. He owes his marvelously unsettling formulated flesh here to having inhaled too much of a nasty super-drug.

He's huge because Michel Fiffe wanted to do a Tetsuo-from-Akira thing.)

Bombshell thought about how her boyfriend " wasn't a very good [one] "..



.. and began an internal monologue set against everyone dealing with everything.

Things started with Crossbones (who'd taken his mask off in the last issue) being thwarted in trying to get his own back from Ecstacy (a drug kingpin, like in 616), who he thought'd cut him out of the deal that he'd been working with her on..



.. continued with the Crippler (who takes that name from this guy and his real one, Paul Dennis, from Paladin, another of Silver Sable's associates) establishing his skills by dealing with Sidewinder (whose ability to teleport's innate here) trying to deal with him..



.. progressed through the Bengal demonstrating his impulsiveness, Taskmaster (who'd gotten into this in his role as Roxxon's repo man, out to collect all the super-powered boys and girls that corporate evil's work'd empowered) showing off his skills in mid-escape, and Miles and Kitty breaking the two up..



.. and finished up with Diamondback (who'd come into this with Sidewinder- part of the gang she'd co-led with Crossbones- to get Spidey) progressing that much further in her dynamic with Bombshell.

Then Mister Jip made himself everyone's focus.

(If you're wondering, 'stache guy's Vernon Brooks, who hung out with the Punisher once in 616.

Oh yes, pagecount- 5 and 2/3rds of 20.)

Comments

[beyondthefringe]

This series seemed determined to squander as much potential as possible with its blatant use of recycled names from the 616 universe. I mean seriously, when you look at how many groups and characters it brought in and promptly wasted, it's like they were trying to win a bet.

[silverhammerman]

By squander do you mean that it made these characters unavailable for hypothetical future Ultimate writers?

Because if that's your meaning, I disagree. Sure it used a lot of names, but these were mostly C-lister niche characters who wouldn't have been in high demand even if Ultimate Marvel hadn't been dying a slow death at the time. Plus, it actually left virtually all of those characters alive and usable, unlike the usual Ultimate strategy of killing on anyone and everyone in order to give the laziest possible illusion of impact.

[randyripoff]

It may just be the way these scans are presented, but this looks like a jumbled, muddled mess;

[raspberryrain]

Really? It just looks like a fight scene with a lot more characters than usual.