Ultimate Power 1 of 9
by: BigBack 1 year, 11 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 16 hours, 6 minutes ago
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$2.99
Brian Michael Bendis
Greg Land
Marvel Comics
Ultimate Power is the latest in the line of Ultimate books published by Marvel Comics. For those of you who have been in comic hibernation since 2000, the Ultimate line of comics is a new fresh take on Marvel comic characters.
A character rebirth, if you will, without the restrictions of existing continuity and history. So far, the likes of Spiderman, X-Men, Daredevil, Avengers (called the Ultimates), and the Fantastic Four have been ‘ Ultimatized ‘ .
Speaking of Ultimate Fantastic Four, Ultimate Power #1 starts off with our favorite foursome battling a sinister group of serpent ladies called the Serpent Squad. Right from page one, Land hits us with simply gorgeous comic ladies. Hey, how can you argue with serpent -scaly spandex? The art in the book which includes inking by Matt Ryan and coloring by Justin Ponsor is a wonderful blend of dynamic comic action, smoothly rendered panels and wonderfully artistically developed characters.
While the art stood out in this book, the writing was just as amazing. Bendis actually shocked me in more than one place in the comic, scaring my poor wife as I yelled “COME ON!” at the top of my lungs after one scene in particular involving the Thing. From Johnny’s brashness to Sue’s beauty, intelligence and power; from the Things disfigured pain to Reeds guilt for putting him there, it’s all of what you love about the Fantastic Four, only better. In particular, the relationship between Reed and the Thing is written wonderfully. Bendis actually makes Reed Richards feel human and not like some robotic brainiac whose only outlet is science. But… you say! This is Ultimate Power, not Ultimate Fantastic Four. Read on true believers.
Ultimate Power is a nine part mini series crossing over the Ultimate universe with J. Michael Straczynski’s Squadron Supreme/ Supreme Power universe. When Supreme Power first came out I was a huge fan. (It has since be renamed to Squadron Supreme and I am still a huge fan) so the advent of reading this series was naturally exciting for me. My only complaint about issue one is that we don’t really get a sense or flavor of the Power part of Ultimate Power till the end. However, having said that, this series is a long one and I believe the creative team will deliver by the end.
Great review. I’ve been a big fan of the “Ultimate” books since their debut so I’ll definitely have to pick this one up.
I read this book last night and have to agree with you about how Bendis writes Reed. He does a really good job of humanizing him. I don’t know anything about the Supreme Power Univ. so I am very interested.