Ultimatum #5 (OF 5)

Crap.  Crap.  Crap.  Crap.  Crap.

Thank the gods that's over.  Not a single death throughout that entire miserable book felt earned or had any genuine impact besides making me cringe at the unnecessary grotesquery and the blatant disregard for the characters and the years' worth of investing in them we had done as readers.  (Note: the Ultimatum-related deaths in the non-Loeb Ultimate titles were handled respectfully and made an actual impact.  Madrox, Daredevil, these were great moments given due weight by their writers.)  Strange gets squeezed till his head pops?  Blob eats Wasp?  Angel's wings are ripped off and his head smashed open?  Does Loeb have no tricks left in his bag besides the gross-out at this point?  Stephen King once wrote that the best thing a horror writer can do is terrify; if they can't manage it, they try to at least horrify; if they fail at that, they aim for the gross-out.  And while I was horrified throughout Ultimatum, it was not in the good way.  When Hank sprayed Wasp with bug spray and sucked her into a vaccuum filled with ants in Ultimates 1, that was horrifying in the best possible way.  At the SDCC Marvel panel last week, Jeph Loeb referenced that moment as if to say it was influential on his run in the Ultimate Universe, which kind of proves how completely he didn't get anything about the UU or the characters.  That moment wasn't there to just squig the reader out; it was there to deeply appall you on a human level and establish the basis in reality the series could achieve and most of all develop the characters.  Ultimatum just moved from one "ugh" moment to the next with a minimum of focus on any personal effect the events might have on the characters. 

And Ben Grimm killing Doom?  That made no sense on a character level and was also way too easy and lame as a scene.  It was just wrong.

For frak's sake, Loeb, these people are heroes.  This is not how they should be seen or treated. 

Here's hoping for a Loeb-less UU in the future.