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The Ultimates #8

 
  

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Sharkgrin
21:37 / 17.01.03
The series is typical Marvel pap with a good dose of Millar for an R-rated point of view. I like he way he doles out just enough action to make it worth the while.

I never had a doubt that the moment I picked up an Avengers comic written by Millar that:

1 - Every low-powered character would be a Minighter-rip off

2 - The destruction to skyline and population would make even Godzilla queasy and ...

3- It would not be full of Disinformation or Morrisson-esque references.

I would not pick Anthrax covers the Clash and expect to hear something comparable to any other artists than Anthrax or the Clash.

By the way, name-calling (in any form) is kinda' childish. In the 1940's USA, angry fascists with agendas of cultural conformity used to call everyone 'Commies' if they don't toe the political line. I guess in this comics forum it's accussing someone of "working for Wizard".

Either your against with us or against us = Like 'good' comics or work for Wizard = Confrom to my way of thinking or be ostracized.
 
 
The Falcon
07:13 / 18.01.03
Well, I've also been accused of being Bill Jemas. And having a Maxim mentality. And being a homophobe. And a thug.

These are all very clever!

Flux, you know fine well what I'm talking about. But continue to nitpick, you sad little man.

And, Bio K9, remember how you weren't going to post on any threads started by me, or reply to me? I'd appreciate it if you returned to that resolution.

You're both going on 'ignore' now. I can no longer be bothered.
 
 
The Natural Way
07:52 / 20.01.03
Ah, but case, Widow's mainly flirting with Pietro.

I love that guys snooty, imperious tone. And incest: "the prerogative of Royalty and divinity". Remember how Mag's taught his kids to view themselves - they ain't gonna get over it overnight.
 
 
yawn - thing's buddy
10:22 / 20.01.03
I spent a while just staring at this cover. Mainly because I found the Scarlet Witch’s back to be very sexy. The whole pose, the ‘nice girl’ hairdo, the fit of her trousers round her waist….I was hypnotised. Then I thought; ‘What kind of message does this cover transmit? Is this the sort of cover that would grab your attention? Make you want to read the comic? Would it entice?

I asked my girlfriend. She thought it was familiar but atypical. She reads comics but she’s not a comic reader. She reads stuff I give here and occasionally buys fanatagraphics fayre. She said the pose the two figures were in, was unusual. That the silver, grey and red were quite odd too. The stiffness of the cover compared to the internal pages was noticeable too. All in all, a slightly disorientating package, which looks familiar but feels unusual.

I genuinely like this issue. It seemed right – pace wise and the story flow. (apart from the cliffhanger with Glassonion rightly pointed out was a duplicate of last issue’s) I like the colour palette used on the page – beautiful got the stone colour of New York’s buildings right two. More colour theory: The first batch of heroes (Hulk, Thor, Iron man, Wasp and Giant and Cap) were in Technicolor: now we’ve got the monochrome set – cooler, darker, more assured – they know exactly what they’re paid to do and execute their commands with incredible proficiency. The characterisation of Hawkeye and Black Widow was ace: I’ve never met these characters before but I want to know more (or rather see more of their incredible teamwork). Simple details, like Hawkeye’s haircut really make this book exceptional for me. It’s the relentless detail in the art and the big budget sensibilities of the script and special effects which keep this title worthwhile; The ‘Nazi’s as Aliens’ strand to the story compounds this context and as far as I’m concerned fits very nicely. Surely all you doubters knew the Nazi’s had something on their side when you saw their ultra-fortress back in issue 1?

As for the matrix remix: so what? Or rather here’s why: don’t you just love having big budget action on this scale all mapped out for you in stasis: so you can marvel over and over again at the precision of the art, script direction, and the actual scenes depicted.

Exhilarating.

No question.

Fury’s hilarious. I love the way he’s the manager of this dodgy squad. And I love the way that he’s Samuel L. Jackson. I can hear Fury’s voice and expand his physical repertoire because of this real world link. Genius.

The action scenes in this comic should be analysed in greater detail. They should no longer be relegated intellectually. The Ultimates depicts the most coherent action scenes in comics today, and perhaps among the best executed in any medium. I was ‘there’ in the office block with the Skrulls and HawkEye this issue. Really. The chaos and destruction fantastically rendered by the art, panel arrangements and scripting should be commended. It’s a mean skill to be able to co-ordinate such fictional event and depicted with such verve..
I’d actually like to do some kind of serious study of how these action scenes are processed by the reader and how a carefully executed setpiece could be considered in terms of information theory and coding;

Basically these scenes are so rich with information, I’m interested in how we process them sequentially. The great thing about The Ultimates is that you don’t whizz through the action scenes either. You really are reading the panels.

It’d be a shame to limit such rich story telling devices to superhero comics.

Come to think of it, one of the best action comics I’ve read is ‘I Die at Midnight’ by Kyle Baker. Terrible dialogue but the action scenes……..Wow.

And for those unfamiliar:

it’s not a superhero title.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
11:03 / 20.01.03
Face it, kids. You are not grown-up enough to disagree about things ina meaningful or productive way. Just ignore each other. It's for the best. The "ignore" button is just underneath the poster name. It will make the comics forum much less compulsive, but also less lossy.

On "The Ultimates": the big action scene that took up - what? - half the book or just over reminded me of a far more action-packed version of the Warren Ellis Transmetropolitan technique of slowing things down enormously in order to cram in lots of besutiful pictures. Saved to a very great extent by something actually happening, at least to an extent. The balletic quality of the two special agents, compared to the more brutal physical expressions of the assault troopers is done very well. Hitch is already coming up against one of the problems of Hawkeye - he's completely shit. Green Arrow problem, basically - either he goes all Zen Archer or you assume he can fire a bow at about the same speed as a minigun fires bullets and make everyone around him look like St. Sebastian. What exactly makes these people the "Shadow Team", anyway? That they wear leather?

(Speaking of which, I rather liked the sheer shamelessness of the Matrix rip-off, down to the outfits. However, one interesting thing is that we don't see Hawkeye actually *aiming*, which I quite like - he's always either got the bow at rest with arrow nocked, or he has just released the bowstring. It's actually the opposite of the Matrix lobby scene, where the act of firing is extended through repetition into a single prolonged shooting act. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch also seem to be ripping the incesty version of Aurora and Northstar, while we're on homage, although the cover with SW humping Quicksilver's leg is a bit of a step forward. I wonder if we're going to get a soapy storyline on this one? I doubt that Millar or Marvel have the guts or the grace.)

The script really is nothing new, although I am amused by the idea that Grant Morrison did Robert-Anton-Wilson-with-pictures and Mark Millar is doing David-Icke-With-Pictures...it's almost too perfect. Must have been planned. But at the moment the USP here is indubitably the art - the "Midnighter rip-off" comment is highly germaine - the Ultimates is basically a retread of the early Authority, but with the freedom to give its characters personal development beyong some comments in the fight scenes and a panel or two at the beginning and end of each comic. It's a very persuasive combination, if an unchallenging one. Hitch as usual has terrfic attention to detail, although I was somewhat disappointed that Hawkeye doesn't appear to have a hypertrophic right arm.

Incidentally, has anyone noticed something odd about the inking or (more likely, I suspect) its reproduction during the SHIELD briefing scene?
 
 
The Natural Way
11:22 / 20.01.03
Yeah, I thought it was OBVIOUS right from the get go that the Nazi's had a little extra(terrestrial) help - or at least something along those lines.
 
 
Sebastian
12:22 / 20.01.03
I looked through all of my Ultimates issues this morning, and I guess I do like it enough to keep up with it in spite of really hating a lot of it. [...] I suppose if I had less free time to kill with things like this, I wouldn't bother,


Flux, your reading habit of "time to kill" seems to have superceeded your expectations and sense of wonder, in this medium at least. Read and re-read Yawn's and Haus' posts above. Try to get their "eye". There's a whole outstanding comic book there in your hands.
 
 
yawn - thing's buddy
12:38 / 20.01.03
Yeah, flux.....

'Agree with me'
 
 
Yotsuba & Benjamin!
16:59 / 20.01.03
That really is one of things I love about this place. The analytical drive approximated to an innate sense of wonder. For the most part. I find myself nodding more often then not.
 
  

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