Barbelith Underground > Comic Books

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.

The Ultimates #8