Ultimates 3

Look, I see why the betrayal and death of the Black Widow could make you feel that way.

You're a man out of time, Steve!

Did they explain why suddenly all these characters are resembling their 616 counterparts?

You have a death wish, Clint! Stop endangering the team! Wait for backup!

Don't call me that! Clint Barton died with his family! Why do you think I wear a bullseye on my forehead?

Valkyrie out of nowhere!

Wow, it's pretty sad when you prefer the timeless writing of Mark Millar. I haven't flipped through this yet. Is the art any good?

I remember once upon a time Jeph Loeb was a good writer... Now it seems the Long Halloween and For All Seasons were just flukes.

Art solid (whatever your taste is, Joe Madureira is one hell of an artist), but not the right fit for the book; Loeb should stay out of the Ultimate Universe.
Its a miss all around, since its neither awesome as it was hyped, nor a guilty awful pleasure like the Lee/Miller All Star Batman.

It has some brilliant dialogue.
"Ow."
"Heh."
"Eat. This."
"Hot."
"Eww."
"Awesome."
"Yummmm"
Jeph should really go back to writing porn.

Damn, and I was really looking forward to this since they unveiled Joe Mad's sketchbook back in late '05. I know it seems crass, but since his son passed away Loeb has been absolute shit. As Mike said above, could it be that The Long Halloween was just a fluke?

Actually, i think Joe Quesada boasted that Madureira had 3 issues done already like, a year ago....so we're pretty much fucked.

As for Loeb, I think his descent began when he started writing for Batman with Jim Lee; seems the Batman/Lee is such an "awesome" combination, it pretty much fucks up the writer involved forever.

That, or Loeb and Miller have a secret pact/contest over who can write the most craptacular book.

I think its hilarious they cut volume 3 down to only 5 issues. Mad's inability to keep a schedule must have helped Jeph Loeb. Instead of decompressing a story into 13 issues that should have taken like 2, he'll only decompress to 5.

I love even more how Venom bears little resemblance to ULTIMATE Venom....even though this IS the Ultimate universe and no one bothers to explain how he got the white spider logo. I guess they assumed we all played the Ultimate Spider-Man game. I also like how Ultimate Sabretooth looks/acts NOTHING like Ultimate Sabretooth in the panels I've seen.

I knew Ultimate Hawkeye was a bit like Bullseye abilities wise, but damn Loeb, you didn't have to make it obvious.

How does he get the white spider in the game?

If i can remember it right, Peter Parker gets experimented on, transforms into Carnage, who is defeated and absorbed by Venom, which mutates him further, granting him the White Spider chest symbol and, i think, freeing him from the need to absorb people to survive.

I think it was something like that, since i own the game but havent played it since ages.

I used to think he was a GREAT writer when he did all those Batman books with Tim Sale.

But ever since he got on Superman with McKone/McKenna... ugh.

I haven't read this book, but I read a page online on some message board where they're making fun of how they confirmed Pietro and Wanda's incestuous relationship. Also, "They are brother and sister." Great, natural dialogue, yes. Let's still hammer on that "man out of time" nail, shall we? It's not like we had 2 volumes and 25 issues of characterization behind us that didn't cover that (and passed it, may I add), right?

Also, that whole "Tony Stark sex video" thing was so obviously an attempt to be "like Millar" that it came off as pathetic.

And if aside from the "Wasp isn't Asian anymore" and "Venom nothing like his Ultimate version" complaints, let's not forgot how Thor seems to suddenly have his 616 hammer and not the Ultimate one he's carried since he first appeared.

Just to clarify more, Peter Parker still had particles of the Venom suit from the last time he wore it and that's why getting near Venom made his Spider sense overload. The particles were trying to re-join the Venom suit. Eventually, Trask awakens the dormant particles and he becomes Carnage. Then Venom absorbs it, and now since the suit is whole, Eddie gains full control of the suit. The symbol shows up from Eddie's consciousness or something like that.


Haha..."They are brother and sister" classic.

I appreciate the forewarning of this thread. I enjoyed the first two series, but knew that Joe Mad wasn't the artist I wanted to see on another arc of Ultimates. I'll just keep my money this time around.

I reread the comic after reading the comments on this thread. You guys are right, the story sucks. It's basically nonsense. The sex tape does seem forced, and Venom seems awfully conspicuous.

My biggest observation of this book is that Joe Mad has certainly evolved from the height of his popularity. His style is more concise than ever, and does not seem to possess the awkwardness of some of his earlier work. My only complaint is the coloring. It's a bit distracting, and it seems to take away from the line drawings. By lamplight inside the house, the lines disappeared into the muddy coloring. I took the comic out into the sunlight and I could make out some of the actual linework. Joe Mad has definitely improved, it's a shame his work has been wasted on a (so far)mediocre story.

I had downloaded the issue, and didn't realize the pages were out of order until I was 4 pages into it. I am all for an I-have-no-idea-what-is-going-on type story (Lost), but this was a little ridiculous.

I guess Loeb may have just seemed good to me before because he was writing for stuff that I was fairly ambivalent about, like Daredevil and DC. Now that he is writing for what I used to consider one of my favorite comics, I am tragically underwhelmed.

'Any idea who the "she" was he was looking for is?'

How the fuck did a sentence like that get through editorial? And other than Tony having banged Black Widow, and Hawkeye's family being dead, there doesn't seem to be any real connection between this and the previous two volumes of the Ultimates. Everything about it is 616 with blood and sex.

This is probably why Marvel is shutting the Ultimate line down, since nobody except the Ultimate Spider-man and current Ultimate Fantastic Four guys seem to be able to keep the characters in the right universe.

Yeah, what the fuck was that?

"Hey Hank I'm talkin' to you. GASP UR DED"

I've been hearing rumors about this for awhile - anyone know when this is supposed to happen and why? Ultimate Spidey is probably the only floppy book I pick up with any regularity (I'm all about the collections now, yo).

Venom is very upset about that tape..

I wonder how they explain the fact that Hawkeye turned to guns instead of his bow. Maybe it was a natural reaction of not being able to save his family. kinda like another gun totting Marvel anti-hero.

I read the first issue ,and gave up.
Between this and Marvel killing the DVD ROM complete run of a comic series,I think that Marvel and DC are in a competition to see who can put out the worst product.

Oh god that line killed me. So horrible. I think Loeb's basically an editor now so they probably just do as he says, not the other way around.

Not entirely. He used guns several times in the first Ultimates series, and probably in the second (which I'm about to re-read, so I'll check). I think the bow was just to keep him Hawkeye, but yeah you're right in that now with Jeph Loeb's oafish mitts on him subtlety is thrown to the wind and the character wears a target on his forehead and uses guns to reflect his totally extreme reaction to his family's death.

This series is dreadful so far. I'd like the art much more if A) It weren't for the Ultimates B) It weren't in service of such an awful story (Well, so far, but we all know it's not going to get any better) and C) The colouring weren't so fucking murky.

Marvel really stopped doing those? Any reason given why? I'd guess they weren't selling so well, but if that's not the case then what the fuck gives? Also, how do either of these things reflect on DC? What made you give up on them? Infinite Crisis? 52? World War III? Countdown? Amazons Attack? Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul? Sinestro Corps War?

Presumably so as not to compete with their new online non-downloadable comics.


Oh, Christ, stop... any one of those (Sinestro excepted) is enough to give a person a headache. Taken all in a row like that...

A comic that had high expectations but turns out to suck balls. Holy Dark Knight Strikes Back, Batman!

Funny. He does seem to be trying to write worse that Frank Miller.

"SUCK IT!"

Joe Mad's art makes my taint hurt.

Joe Mad is maybe the most overrated comic artist over the last thirty years. Jeph Loeb is just fucking insane. I honestly can't reconcile the fact that the guy who is writing this garbage (or the shit that was Ultimate Power, or his shitty Wolverine run, or anything else he's touched in the last few years) is the same guy that wrote "Batman: The Long Halloween". I don't know if his son dying fucked him up really badly or what, but I used to not hate him. Now I think he's unreadable.

Maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist, but there have been rumors they want to axe the Ultimate Universe as all the titles are selling pretty poorly relative to where they were in their heyday. The only one that was still a top 10 title?

Ultimates.

So what do you do with that one book? Hire a creative team to rape it in the ass until everyone drops it, I guess.

That's probably a pretty ridiculous theory, but I'm at a loss for explaining this unfathomable shit.

And Loeb's writing makes my taint burst in to flame.

I should probably get this taint-issue checked out by my physician...

Man, Loeb's Wolverine is indeed terrible. This issue, Deadpool shows up and it's at least pretty fun...oh wait...am I talking about Wolverine or Wolverine:Origins...I dunno.

Anyways, what bugs me the most is Loeb's over reliance on thought boxes. I do not need to read lame ass comments like "I'm gonna get yah!" "Well you're no match for my claws!" and shit in Wolverine's head.

I agree with Joe Mad being overrated. Humberto Ramos is overrated too.

If Captain America had in fact sucked it when Sabertooth demanded that he suck it then this would be the greatest comic book ever made.

I'm going to give them another 10 issues before I drop the book.

I'm exactly what's wrong with today's comic book fan.

Isn't the upcoming Ultimate Universe Event supposed to close the book on the universe? Maybe Cow Puncher is right....

What's happening in this series? I thumbed through #1 and couldn't discern any semblance of an idea behind it.

It only runs for five issues.

Yeah, Ultimatum is supposed to close the "first chapter" of the Ultimate universe. It's being written by Loeb....run now.

Only five? Was it originally supposed to be twelve and they changed it because of Mad's inability to get a comic out monthly, or was it always five?

*shrug* I thought it was always five.

But yeah probably because Joe Mad's inability to get a comic out monthly and also to avoid delays like they had with Ultimates 2.

A fan of the first two Ultimates series, I picked the first issue of Vol. 3 up. it smacked of mid-90s Marvel ... all it is missing is a holo cover and some collectible trading cards inserted. It's easily the worst comic I've read in more than a decade. A dangerous combination of soulless writing and incomprehensible art.

That's a trade pull quote right there!

Well shit. I just this week finished Ultimates 2 and was looking forward to this.

I nixed picking up the first issue but followed the hate on the boards... yesterday I flipped through #2.

WOW, is the art bad. Actually, the COLORING is bad. Not even bad, just plain awful. Muddy as hell, dark, etc. The printers must hate this shit.

And Cap's dialogue is cringeworthy. Loeb, dude, you're not Millar, STOP TRYING TO BE.

Oh, and Wolverine showing up at the end? Yeah, I'm 100% convinced of whoever's theory it was that I read that said Loeb just mashes together a bunch of ideas and characters that'll push up sales without making any sense whatsoever.

What a horrible comic book. I really hope Marvel gets a clue and kickdrops Loeb off onto the Marvel Adventures line and away the fuck from the 616 (or Ult. Universe, even).

ETA:

Yeah, that's why they came up with the concept of Ultimates 4 with McGuinness on art ($10 bucks that'll never happen).

Also, I love that Sabretooth is back and alive and seems to be a completely different character than what he's been in the Ult. Universe since he first appeared.

Stop at Ultimates 2.

But it has cliff hangers!