Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Ultimate X #5 & Fear Itself: Black Widow #1

Next up on the review train is two more Marvel comic books I'm extremely interested in reading, but for two different reasons. Ultimate X has been a shockingly good series, but has been crippled by delays, so whenever a new issue comes out, I'm happy. Fear Itself: Black Widow could be VERY interesting depending on when during the Fear Itself event it takes place. If it takes place after the events of Fear Itself #3, it could be a must read. I doubt it will, but still...

Ultimate X Comics #5:

Summary: So wait, THIS was the last issue?! DAMMIT!!! *sigh* Okay, on with the review... This issue kicks off with Jimmy(that would be Wolverine's son) trying to buy some beer at a liquor store. After getting turned away for being underage, he heads outside where he is approached by a guy who says he'd buy Jimmy the booze, and wouldn't even take Jimmy's money, since he instead wanted Jimmy's life. It turns out the guy is Sabretooth(!), and that he wanted to off Jimmy before the kid grew up to be the kind of threat Wolverine was. Tooth beats the ever-loving hell out of Jimmy, but is prevented from delivering the deathblow by Quicksilver, who swoops in and drags Tooth away. Jean Grey ends up locating Jimmy and brings his battered body back to their hotel room. Since Jimmy's healing factor was working slowly to repair the multitude of damage done to Jimmy's body, Jean patches him up as best she can before heading out to recruit somebody else to join her cause... Bruce Banner! Banner has been working at a soup kitchen, and upon hearing from Jean doesn't want to help, since the Hulk was an uncontrollable monster. However, Jean tells Banner that she'd be able to help him keep Hulk in check, which would go a long way in Banner making amends for the Hulk's MANY crimes. Banner agrees to go with Jean, and later that day, the Hulk attacks Sabretooth in a bar, beating the hell out of him. After a while, Quicksilver and his group of mutants(including Mystique and the new Blob) arrive on the scene to confront Jean and her group. Realizing that they were WAY overpowered with the Hulk there, Quicksilver tells Jean that he never sanctioned Sabretooth's attack on Jimmy, and now that Tooth had been beaten for his actions, they were even. Not really looking for a fight, Jean allows Quicksilver to take Tooth and his team and leave. Jean heads back to the hotel with her team, and Jimmy wakes up, obviously shocked to see the Hulk standing there with the rest of the group. Jean tells them that the Hulk was in control of himself now, and then drops another bombshell, bringing Nick Fury into the room. Fury tells the group that he didn't approve of the way the government was dealing with the mutant situation, and that he was going to be providing Jean and her group with information to help them assist mutants in need. Jean tells the group that they didn't work for Fury or the anybody else, and that they'd do what they felt was the right thing to do for themselves and mutantkind. From there, the scene shifts to Quicksilver's base, where he tells his team that the US government and it's war on mutants had to be stopped, at which time he reveals HIS secret weapon, the Scarlet Witch!!

Thoughts: Yeah, so at the end of this issue we find out that this was the last issue of this “mini-series” even though it was originally promoted as a bi-monthly ongoing series... That REALLY sucks, because I REALLY like Jimmy, and was getting into the concept of this series. Oh well... It seems that in the coming months, Marvel is going to try to fix up their Ultimate Universe, with a new Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimates and Ultimate X-Men series. The Ultimate X-Men series is being written by Nick Spencer(which should be a good thing!), and SHOULD be picking up where this “mini-series” left off. I'll be honest, in many ways I see Jeph Loeb in the same light as I see Grant Morrison... He's very hit or miss, and tends to polarize comic fans. For me, I've always felt more positive than negative towards Loeb's work(he DID create Nate Grey!!!), but I also didn't read much of his Ultimate Universe works, like Ultimatum, which seems to be what pissed off a great many comic fans. With all that said though, THIS “mini-series” was Loeb at his best. I can honestly say I enjoyed practically every issue(not that there were a lot...), and I honestly hope we see another Ultimate X mini, or better yet, the characters in this “mini-series” show up as members of the new Ultimate X-Men comic. As for a score, I'm not sure it deserves it, but what the hell, it's my blog, and as such I'll give this issue a perfect score, the second one I've given out today!

Score: 10 out of 10.And that ladies and gentlemen, is an ass-kicking.


Fear Itself: Black Widow #1:

Summary: After what happened in Washington DC(so this DOES take place after Fear Itself #3), Steve Rogers has sent the Black Widow out to Marseille, France to deal with some terrorists, as well as to get her away from the “loss” she suffered in Washington... Grr.... Anyway, BW and a French hero named Peregrine head to a church and discover that a mess of terrorists had taken over the church since it also housed a secret French Ministry of Defense room. The terrorists manage to discover the launch codes for France's nuclear arsenal, and before Black Widow can attack them, have sent the codes to whoever hired them. After a quick tussle, BW leaves a few of the terrorists alive and interrogates them, forcing one of them into giving up the location of their leader. Black Widow sneaks onto a ship, and gets blindsided by some more terrorists and captured. The terrorist leader taunts BW before shooting her in the head(!). With BW out of the way, the terrorist leader decides to launch France's nukes at London, since he wanted people to fear his organization, not the Serpent. After having heard all the terrorist's plans, the Black Widow speaks to the terrorists, telling them that they had actually captured a life model decoy, and not the real Black Widow, and that the LMD was filled with enough explosives to sink their ship. With that, BW pushes a button and detonates her LMD, sinking the boat, killing the terrorists and saving London. This issue ends with Peregrine telling BW that they had won a victory worth celebrating, while BW sees nothing more than a hollow victory.

Thoughts: Eh, this wasn't a bad comic at all. It was a good little one and done issue, that starred Black Widow. There's nothing wrong with that. It did hint at the events of Fear Itself #3, but didn't come right out and SAY that Bucky had died, even though reading between the lines made me even more sure that Marvel made the dumbest possible move and killed Bucky, all for the sake of that goddamn movie... Anyway, like I said, this was a good comic that wasn't REALLY connected to the main Fear Itself stuff. While that did annoy me a bit, it didn't hurt my enjoyment of this issue, which is all that really matters.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Hey, can the Bucky thing have been a LMD too? Please?

11 comments:

  1. hey man
    glad to see u geting in to the ultimate universe
    hey i think in july starts a 6 issue series (3 issues come out a month)
    Ultimate fallout
    witch is really goin to dewelve in to exactly where the entire marevl universe is right now and would be a perfect place to jump on before the 3 new ultimate series u mentioned come out
    out of those 3 i am definatly geting the new Ultimates book looks fantastic
    if u need any info about the ultimate universe to get better caught up just ask me ive gotten all the ultimte books sense ultimates 3 and ultimatum
    and i have the original 2 ultimates books of course

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  2. Don't worry Jimmy will be back in Ultimate Comics X-Men which will star Human Torch, Iceman, Kitty Pryde and Jimmy. Written by Nick Spencer and drawn by Paco Medina.

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  3. I'm actually really well versed in the Ultimate Universe, Movieartman, but thanks for the offer! I have the full Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate FF, Ultimates and Ultimate Team-Up runs, as well as most of the Ultimate Spidey run, along with a couple of minis. I stopped reading the Ultimate books, but kept collecting them, because I can't help myself! :P I even have the whole Ultimatium storyline, I just haven't been interested in reading it from everything I've heard about it. Glad to know you're a fan of the Ultimate Universe, I really don't know many people who have an interest in those comics.

    Ah, that's great to hear, Simon! Thanks for the info. I saw the solicit for the new series, and saw a Wolverine character right in the center, which had me hoping that it was indeed Jimmy. Good to know it is him, and the fact that it's written by Spencer is a plus in my book!

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  4. have u checked out
    Ultimate Enemy, Mystery and Doom
    3 recent trilogy makeing series
    very good stuff
    they do some kickass bizzare and perminate stuff to the ultimate FF
    and bring back the ultimate Captain marvel (from ultimate Secret) who is awesome
    and ultimatum is really not that bad just TOO many people die in it
    but over all its fine and the art is amazing

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  5. hey one question didnt the age of apocalypse Jean grey have that tatoo around her eye?
    cus in a new preview and that last page of uncanny x-force she dosent
    just curious

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  6. I actually haven't checked out any of those three minis, Movieartman. They must have come out when I was more or less stopped reading Ultimate Universe stuff. Do you think it would be worth it picking up those minis? I mean I'm always looking for new stuff to read, so I'd be willing to see if I could find 'em cheap somewhere if you give them a positive few words/an idea of what they're about. Yeah, that's the main complaint I've heard about Ultimatium, that there was WAAAAAAY too many deaths, and that the story was kind of flimsy. That's why I haven't bothered to give it a read yet, it just sounds like such a downer kind of series...

    Yeah, I'm almost positive Jean did have some weird markings around her eye(the left one?) during the original AOA storyline, but I don't remember if the markings were still there during that awful AOA mini... Either she lost them when she came back for the AOA mini, or maybe the artist just forgot they were there! But yeah, I could swear she had some kind of eye markings.

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  7. yeah i would almost definatly pic em up theyr 4 issues each and lead directly into each other
    good art good story now i cant garuntee ur gonna like it i cant cus by the end of it they do some drastic irversible things to chracters but hey it is the ultimate universe and thats they point stuff u cant do in the main verse u can do here and if u accept that and like the changes its kickass
    story wise ok its starts simple someone is systimaticly destroying key (milliary and researchal) facilitys around the world including the baxter building
    Note: (small Ultimatum Spoilers) Doctor doom is dead and reed and susan are broken up
    the ff, spiderman and sheild are caught in the middle
    one peice of advce do not filp thru the later books cus any spoilers SPOIL big time the suprises
    its a damn good set of series
    together there probley the best of the post ultimatium seriess
    others include
    Ultimate Comics New Ultimates
    (jeff leob and frank cho)
    it brings back ultimate loki from ultimates 2 and is kickass
    Ultimate Avengers (intruduces the Ultimate red skull)
    Ultimate Avengers 2 (intrudeces the Ultimate ghost Rider KICKASS)
    Ultimate Avengers 3 (ultimate blade STAY AWAY FROM THIS SERIES HORRIBLE)

    then in ultimate spiderman there is the death of spiderman (not really a spoiler its in evrey issues title leading up to it)
    and ties in to that is Ultimate avengers vs new ultimates witch is damn good
    hope this helps some

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  8. I was REAAAAAALLLY hoping this issue of Black Widow would get a 9 lol. I miss reading her comic I just needed that one shot to be a quick fix of my addiction to Black Widow. But as you said it doesn't sound like a bad read. If I see it at the shop when I go next week maybe I'll pick it up.

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  9. Thanks a lot for all the info, Movieartman. I've added all three of those mini to my cart at the online comic shop I usually order from, and if I don't see 'em at my local comic shop, I'll place an order for them. I actually have Ultimate Avengers 1, 2, and 3, but haven't read any of them yet! I have so many back issues laying around that I haven't read yet it's crazy! Yeah, Marvel went out of their way to spoil the Ultimate Spidey issue themselves, I didn;t buy the issue, but I did read what happened, and I'm kicking myself for not getting the Ultimate Avengers vs New Ultimates mini... Thatw as something I ALMOST picked up but didn't... I'll have to look around for that too I see!

    FI: BW wasn't THAT bad, Lisha, but it def wasn't as good as the BW series. And it avoids most of the FI stuff, which annoyed me, but would probably be good for you since you're not reading FI anyway!

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  10. Lol, ahh I got you. A 7 isn't baaad but deep down in my heart I wanted the comic to blow you away so I could be excited to read it lol.

    I'll still probably pick it up because it IS Black Widow.

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  11. Yeah the way I score a comic is that a 6 1/2, 7 is perfectly average. So a 7 1/2 is slightly better than average. So yeah, It wasn't bad, it just wasn't the amazing BW we got used to during that series.

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