A review of Ultimates 3 #1 By Neil Shyminsky (neil) December 10, 2007 Rating: 0.7 / 10

Writer: Jeph Loeb
Penciller: Joe Madureira

I don't think I'm prone to hyperbole, so don't think I'm being rash when I say that this was the worst comic I've read all year. It's maybe even the worst I've read in the last few years.

For instance, it takes a particularly awful comic to activate my continuity-geekism. Off the top of my head: Thor's hammer uses the mainstream universe design, not the Ultimate universe one; Thor's dialect is similarly wrong; and the Wasp has changed races (!?). As well, the military-style uniforms have been abandoned for superhero costumes without explanation, which signals a far more troubling shift - Millar's Ultimates might have lacked a certain subtlety, but he aimed for verisimilitude that's we don't see in mainstream Marvel books, and his stories were driven by their political texts and subtexts. In failing to ground Ultimates 3 in this way, Loeb has somehow managed to entirely miss what made the Ultimates something other than alternate universe Avengers.

More examples of awfulness? Well, we're introduced to a villain (Venom) who lacks any character or motivation, and who spends most of his screen-time battling a new Ultimate (Black Panther) who isn't even given a line of dialogue with which to distinguish himself. Why is he even there? Don't know. Sensing that the story is just awful, I guess, the Wasp delivers a particularly painful recap of what's happened between Ultimates 2 and 3, which serves only to remind us why the 'Previously in...' pages that usually appear at the beginning of these books were such a good idea.

Madureira's art is, I suspect, quite spectacular - but it's hard to find under a ridiculously dense wash of digital-paint that muddies his lines. Why Marvel would want to obscure Madureira's strengths like this, I don't know - I can't think of anyone in their right mind who would try so hard to ruin the one thing this comic has going for it. But I don't know why they let such an unrepentant piece of crap like this go to print in the first place, either. If anyone recommends this thing to you, never ask them for reading advice again. In fact, you should probably stop talking to them altogether.

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