Ultimate Comics: New Ultimates #3

[history79]

8 pages of 24

Comments

[cyberghostface]

So how did Loki go from Cilian Murphy to this big buff guy?

[bj_l]

Frank Cho and Jeph Loeb?

I'm serious, I don't think it's explained.

[mastermahan]

At least you can handwave Loki turning into an orc by saying it's shapeshifting. Can't explain away white Jan like that.

[gnarll]

Valkyrie getting powers was the only thing about this series that was right.

[mastermahan]

Pretty much. A superhero wannabe getting actual powers is an interesting idea, and Loeb portrays Valkyrie more humanely than Millar did. Too bad it's surrounded by, well, everything else.

[gnarll]

Well to be honest, when the chips were down she was one of the most heroic characters Millar wrote in the Ultimate Universe. In the story that the newspaper headline references, she was risking her life to save Nighthawk, with no powers whatsoever. It was kind of interesting because she had come across as a vapid and vacuous bimbo up until then, but when her friends were in lethal danger, she showed an unexpectedly heroic core. Which was not all that common in the Ultimate Universe.

It kind of fit with Millars writing of the Ultimates, where power exposed worse traits among people, and the only one who could handle the power of a God did in fact turn out to be a god.

[gnarll]

The reason it stuck with me, I think is because she trades on her looks, she owns her own sexuality and it is almost mandatory in comics that such a woman would be shown as selfish or cowardly when people are endagered. Whereas she went the other way.

[lordultimus]

Why does a major metropolitan newspaper like the Daily Bugle have a trashy tabloid headline like "Butt-er Luck Next Time"?

[super_fly]

The same paper that runs the headline "Spider-Man: Deadly Menace?" on a daily basis?

[alicemacher]

Huh huh, this iz gud comic cos gurl superheroes iz fake superheroes, just liek geek gurlz iz fake geeks, huh huh.[/heavysarcasm]

[broblawsky]

Ultimate Valkyrie (and the rest of the Ultimate Defenders) were always all fakes. This is a more sympathetic portrayal than what Millar gave her.

[bruinsfan]

Also, somehow that butt shot in the Defenders meeting managed to be less exploitative with Frank Cho drawing it than the original by Bryan Hitch. Did not see that coming.

[alicemacher]

...I'm afraid to ask what could be less sympathetic than her portrayal as a stupid, pathologically lying wannabe who flounces in front of her male counterparts in a dental-floss costume, and gets run through with a sword because she finally met someone she couldn't con.

All that's missing from this "How not to write women superheroes" bingo card is rape.

[kamino_neko]

Except for her death, that's all from her earlier appearances. Like the other Defenders, she wasn't exactly dripping in redeeming characteristics...at least she displays the rudiments of empathy in this story.

[alicemacher]

Ah, I didn't know that's what she (and her male colleagues) were like in mainstream continuity. Knowing that doesn't exactly make this a good story in my eyes, but at least I no longer see it as some sort of reactionarily misogynistic commentary on women superheroes. (I'm afraid Cho's recent "playing up to the MRA crowd" sketches, and Loeb's sometimes... creepy writing of Supergirl, caused me to prejudge here.)

[kamino_neko]

For clarity's sake, in the mainstream continuity, they're all cool (except Son of Satan, who is, as you can guess from the name, a fairly complicated character).

But this wasn't their first appearance in the Ultimate continuity, and most of the issues you list came up in their first appearance in Ultimates 2. (I think it was 2...I remember giving up on 3 pretty early.)

[beyondthefringe]

Oh god, I knew there were reasons I never picked up this series.

Such a bad iteration of Loki.

And while I'm sure that Sexy Pregnant Hela is -someone's- fetish... and I'm not judging, mind you, but okay, I'm judging a little.

[cyberghostface]

It's baffling to me that Marvel gave Loeb free reign to tear apart the Ultimate Universe. First he did 'Ultimates 3' which was reviled from the first issue on and then they allowed him to publish the equivalent of superhero torture porn (Bendis himself called it that at a signing from what I heard) that caused irreversible damage to the line.

[coldfury]

I honestly don't know where Jeph Loeb's pull in the industry comes from. Batman/Superman was okay, and had some neat storytelling ideas, but I don't think it's as good as the hype for it was.

I'm not familiar enough with his work to really judge, but everything I read in the Ultimates line was just the worst thing I'd ever read. Like you said, I dropped Vol 3 of Ultimates after the first issue, it was just so bad. And then Ultimatum was worse. I wonder if he was going through a dark phase after his son's very public death, or... what...

No matter, I just know that this book was definitely not for me.

[scorntx]

Think his pull comes from the mid-to-late 90s, early 00s. (Loeb was one of the people who gave us Onslaught, after all...)

His Ultimate Universe stuff is... well, it's bad. (except Ultimate X, which is just sort of "ehhh", and Ultimatum, which is its own category).

But really, aside from Ultimatum, most of it is just sort of typical Loeb writing, which is basically a kid smashing toys together.
Nonsensical plot? Pointless "twists"? Characters acting like idiots? "Edginess"? The occasional mystery thrown in for the sake of a mystery plot? Disregard for continuity?
All there in a lot of his other works.

[cyberghostface]

I thought Long Halloween/Dark Victory were pretty good. Not masterpieces but enjoyable, maybe style over substance but there’s still more substance than something like Hush which was basically just an excuse for Jim Lee to do whatever.

[matrix_dragon]

He had a few hits early on, and that was enough to ensure he sold well once the quality started to flicker. And then, well, his son died. The quality of his work in what followed, a lot of people gave him a pass for a long time, myself included, because he'd been through a lot and was still recovering, and maybe this next series would be the one where he gets his groove back.

He never got his groove back, but now he has a lot of friends in important places.

[mizerous]

Stupid, sexy, goth, preggers Hela.

[mastermahan]

I'm tempted to google that, but I know it would be a mistake.

[mizerous]

*Rorschach voice* Do it...DO ITTTT!!!!

[gnarll]

Fun fact: Gunnar Golmen was at the time Ultimates 1 and 2 was published a researcher for Norways water authorities. (unless that was just his cover:) He vaguely resembled a much older Ultimate Loki, although he must have been in his early 60s at the time. (or pretending not to be immortal).

Oh, the Ultimate Universe

[captainbellman]