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Underground > Comic Books >

Ultimates #13

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13:29 / 01.04.04

So this finally came out and it's just....eeehh. There are a few pages where either Hitch was out to lunch or he was clearly inked by someone else (or the regular inker was rushing).

It's ok. All the Millarisms you'd expect. Thus endeth Vol. I. Apparently he wants to focus more on character work in Vol. II and have shorter story arcs, like in the first 5 issues of Ultimates.

15:17 / 01.04.04

Weird. Does that mean they've been holding the 2nd trade so it could include #13? That would explain why they haven't released it over the many months since #12, whereas the first trade shipped something like 2 weeks after #6.

What the hell is up with this title? The first 6 issues looked pretty damn good. Now it never ships and the story is kinda goofy all of a sudden.

Kind of disappointing.

16:17 / 01.04.04

//What the hell is up with this title? The first 6 issues looked pretty damn good. Now it never ships and the story is kinda goofy all of a sudden.//

hm... maybe Morrison gave more ideas away than for Thor only...

A beautiful tunnel of ghosts

16:47 / 01.04.04

I beg your pardon?

Matthew Fluxington

18:43 / 01.04.04

Yeah, of course they wouldn't publish a paperback version without the final chapter! Why would that be weird?

19:45 / 01.04.04

Well, it made me laugh. The Hulk made me laugh.

I think the constant exposure to Fraely's classic-ultimate humour ("Have you read THE PUNISHER yet? It's FUCKING AMAZING!!! CLASSIC!!! The Punisher meets Daredevil and Spiderman and Wolverine...classic....who've all teamed up against him, but The Punisher beats Spiderman by....Classic...Amazing......Amazing comics....") keeps my laughing organs primed to enjoy the most awful shit. I just imagine him reading it and I crease up. It's kind of meta.....and I'm not just some shallow shit.

Anyway: GOOD ACTION ALL ROUND.

Do see Betty Ross's "I like to fuck huge cannibals" line for further evidence of Millar's misanthropy.

20:21 / 01.04.04

Yeah, it was pretty funny how Betty was turned on by Bruce going apeshit as Hulkie.

What's up with Cap and Wasps' faces on the 3rd to last page? Someone screwed up a little there. It doesn't look like the nice Hitch stuff we've come to know and love.

Millar is setting up the Black Widow/Tony Stark romance he said we'd see more of in Vol. 2...

...and he addresses the question of "Is Thor really a god or just delusional with powers?" Sort of.

Matthew Fluxington

21:12 / 01.04.04

I liked it. The story took a bit to get started, but this issue was all "good stuff." It's a fun comic to read while going home on the train, and that's exactly what I did.

22:31 / 01.04.04

Bad boy thrills.

I had expected suggestions of misogyny here, what with the aforementioned 'my man beats me up/eats peoples heads, but I kinda like it' style espoused by the two female leads. But still. They're all shitbags.

I think I'll smoke a [Pat] Rafter and think on this summore.

05:05 / 02.04.04

Really good issue. The 40 pages count almost makes it worth the ridiculous wait. There were a couple points where Millar was trying just a bit too hard (we really didn't need anotehr installment of the Wanda and Pietro joke.. and anyone else find that Hitch draws them a bit creepily intimate) and teh Betty Ross sngle still is coming off a bit weird but other than that a bang up job. I had no problem with any of Hitch's art, fantastic job as always and some truly great moments. Hulk was great and it sets him up nicely as the Ultimate's weapon of last resort. Cap pointing him at things was great especially the pannel where he sents him after the ships with Fury trying not to fall over laughing in the helicoper beside him.

The Natural Way

08:47 / 02.04.04

Oh, there's deffo misogyny there, but it's embedded in a sea of general misanthropy.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

12:49 / 02.04.04

we really didn't need anotehr installment of the Wanda and Pietro joke.. and anyone else find that Hitch draws them a bit creepily intimate

I think that's completely the point opf their presence. Less their having something to do with Magneto, they'll just be claiming responsibility for something they may or may not have done or, you know, posing.

13:15 / 02.04.04

Oh defintely, plus a lot of over compensation on Pietro's part over never being good enough for his father. As to the other thing, the closeness has been there but Hitch show's it up most dramatically.

14:27 / 02.04.04

>> but I kinda like it' style espoused by the two female leads. But still. They're all shitbags.

LOL! This is true, and this is exactly the tone Millar is going for.

Also, Millar has said in interviews that his Wanda and Pietro are totally incestuous, saying something like they have the first "post-human relationship" in comics or some shit like that. But it's never been said anywhere near blatantly in the script thus far, as I recall. Just Hitch drawing them that way, and I think one character said they creeped him out at some point...

15:11 / 02.04.04

Laughed lots. Good fighting. Enjoyed it.
However, Hulk's declaration of heterosexuality wasn't at all funny. Just another juvenile millarquote.

Rather disturbed by Spalliance's apologetic approval, although think he's bang on the money when it comes to Miss Ross getting all hot and bothered.

16:01 / 02.04.04

The art was nice, Great color.

The story was feh... the looong wait made it mostly forgetable. What was the point of the alien invasion?

to make them official superheros . . .

The Ultimate Hulk was OKay... I kind of liked the "logic" behind his aggression and his relationship to the ultimates. The "Hulk Straight!" line was a let down... That joke worked the first time with The Nazi guy but repeating it was lame.

I however enjoyed the retread of the Pietro/Wanda joke... worked like Bookends.

The happy ending was too syrupy...

I'm glad it's over...

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

17:32 / 02.04.04

See, the happy ending creeped me out. Something about Fury walking through the White House, and being in the Oval Office - it just creeped me. Something insidious about him in that last scene.

Matthew Fluxington

17:37 / 02.04.04

I'm not really into the Wanda/Pietro thing, but I agree that having them pop up again at the end was good for keeping the story compositionally sound. Otherwise, what was the point of them ever popping up in the first place?

18:03 / 02.04.04

True. There did need to be an explanation as to where they've been but it should have been a bit better. Hopefully they'll be a bit better integrated into the main cast in volume 2 and you know actually get some characterization. Pietro has a fair bit of potential that was just touched upon back in UXM and Wanda's pretty much just generic female 257 right now aside from the creepy implied icestuousness and have a brief infatuation with Cyclops.

18:24 / 02.04.04

>> However, Hulk's declaration of heterosexuality wasn't at all funny. Just another juvenile millarquote.

I agree. This struck me as stupid, weird, and just sort of "off." Also unnecessary. "Hulk not a sissy!! Hulk strongest one there is!!", etc. would have done the job just fine.

I also shared some of Mr. Tricks' feeling of 'eeh...so what?' Like I said, all your cheap Millarisms are there in hefty supply...but Millarisms don't excite me. Good writing does.

18:43 / 02.04.04

Honestly, all the characters turn my stomach. I think that’s why I've liked this title. Reading this issue I remembered what a total DC-boy I always was as a kid, and now that I’m a grown-up I seem to enjoy nothing more than comics which portray Hulk and Captain America and Nick Fury as vile scumsucking smug Republican deviants. I think I enjoyed Millar’s Authority issues for exactly the same reasons, just a whole bunch of deep-seated feelings towards the characters that means I like to see them treated this way. So, Ultimates always makes me laugh, or at least cackle with hateful glee. I’m not sure as to whether I’ll bother with Volume 2, though, I don’t think it’s particularly healthy reading for me in the long term.

19:34 / 02.04.04

I still maintain, contra to my previous post, that Thor and Tony are good guys.

Matthew Fluxington

20:48 / 02.04.04

I enjoy the comic (and the Authority) for the same reasons Bed Head states, though as a kid I love the X-Men and hated the Avengers, and love the Giffen Justice League but could not ever enjoy the Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman JLA. It's all about showing the JLA and the Avengers for what they really are, or would be, that is.

09:31 / 03.04.04

On "Hulk straight", it's not that I think Millar is verging on homophobia. TBH, Hulk's declaration seemed to fit with where he's taking the character: an analogue for thuggish males.

Have to agree, Fluxy, there is something perverse about enjoying the Ultimates - they are a truly disgusting bunch. Not sure that Millar can write agreeable human beings, however.

The Natural Way

16:35 / 03.04.04

It turns out that vol 2, inspite of the overall goodness of it being monthly, won't be out till the end of the year, and that's a bit irritating. According to Millar, it's going to be slower and explore the relationships between the characters a little bit more (no fights until issue 4, action fans!). It'll be set after all the various Ulti-crossovers have taken place and arrive complete with character redesigns and new special outfits. Oh, and it'll focus mainly on Tony and Thor.

And whoever said Millar decided to drop Tony's tumour was dead wrong.

Last time I visit Millarworld for the forseeable future....

Urrgh...dirty.....must bathe.....

12:33 / 04.04.04

makes me feel grimmer than the unfunnies this.

to be read from the backseat of your hummer in iraq, trying not to think of the roadside bomb that could be around the corner. don't worry, the planes'll save us.
all you need to be righteous is to be angrier, uglier and more uptight about yr sexuality than the 'other' guys. oh, and chicks love the guy who're nastier than the other guy. cos ant-man's a right evil bastard innit? fucking mentlers.

still, satire should make you squirm, especially when there's as much to be angry about as today.

millar's greatest moment was making hitler human, his worst was in wanted t'other week when the nice-guy genius turned out to be a kiddyfiddler too. what? oh, i'm rambling a bit now, sorry.

back in reality, i heard a rumour that the next six ishs are more or less in the can, and will be regular bimonthly from now on. distributors levy fines for lateness apparently.

Haus of Mystery

16:20 / 04.04.04

BI-MONTHLY! Be still my beating heart.

Fer fuck's sake...

16:32 / 04.04.04

The rumour's wrong. The comic's going to be monthly, but it won't re-emerge until the end of the year! So sayeth Millar, anyway.

Talking of the redesigns, Tony was grouching about how many times his current armour's conked on him, does this mean that next time we Iron Man he'll wearing new future-togs?

17:21 / 04.04.04

monthly, yeah alright.
yep
yes
yah
yick
yooch
yum

15:57 / 05.04.04

I wondered if the Pietro/Wanda pose was a bit too intimate myself. I thought it was just me.

Repeating that "DO YOU THINK THE A ON MY HEAD STANDS FOR FRANCE" line was just pathetic because it was the best moment in the whole series.

Millar's in form. I have to see if the second issue of Chosen is out yet. The first issue is the best thing I've read by Millar.

16:47 / 05.04.04

I know, it really bothered me that he re-visited the France line, which was funny the first time but not the second. It ruins the joke if you refer back to it again - it seems like he's saying "Aren't I a clever writer?" And I don't buy that the line is used to show how much Fury looks up to Cap, that's done in many other ways in the same scene or overall in the series.

16:48 / 05.04.04

oh, and CHOSEN #2 is not out yet. Who knows when it's coming.

19:33 / 05.04.04

fun action issue, not much else. guess the HULK STRAIGHT! line was the ultimate version for HULK SMASH! in the end [wasn't he supposed to have gotten a tatoo or something?].

some faces are fucked up by the end, yes. liked the Tony/Thor dynamic in these later issues. wonder how Thor and his mythology will be dealt with in vol. 2.

the 'French' line was only funny to Millar and probably Chuck Dixon/pro-Bush readers alike. given this is the guy who wrote that very smart AUTHORITY year 2, looks like the joke was written for an intended audience, which is always a mistake. even for a republican WW2 fighter like Cap to deliver it.

it seems to me Millar is great scripter [he's got a great rythm sense], but unfortunately lacking Morrison's idea-a-minute-brain for most of the time. here they can be mistaken for cheap shots. and smart Hollywood-tongue is not good dialogue. maybe he needs to listen to more music than Queen. those have been my main complaints with WANTED as well.

I generally like his stories when he's co-plotting them with someone [UFF not being an example], or just scripting someone else's plot. well, they say his SWAMP THING solo run is very good, though.

anyway, this ULTIMATES has been a very fun. a shame it'll take this long for volume 2.

Haus of Mystery

19:51 / 05.04.04

I felt the reason for the exchange between Fury and Cap was perhaps to undermine some of the racism of the statement, like he's back-peddling a bit. I may be wrong, as i've only read it once.

17:50 / 06.04.04

fun action issue, not much else

Us action fans really are a lonely lot.

I fucking love well executed fighty justice. Unashamedly.

That's not to say I always love Mark Millar, however.

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