Before I begin this review I think I should give a quick
history of the Ultimate Universe. Once Upon a Time there was a tree that grew
Golden Apples. Every month readers were treat to a brand new taste of juicy
Bendis Spider-Man and powerful Millar Ultimates Golden Apples. However as time
went on new writers came along and tried to replicate the success of the Golden
Apple tree, and managed to get some solid Silver and Bronze apples but nothing
quite close to the original.

After that a certain woodsman named Jeph Loeb came along and hacked away at all
the apple trees, burnt the stubs and poured salt into the soil and then tried
to start from scratch growing another apple tree.

This is what New Ultimates up until this point has been. Having said that
however this issue has been the best of the lot so far, clearly trying its best
to recapture the taste and feel of Millar’s earlier Ultimates work, and for the
most part succeeds.

Jeph Loeb seems to have finally found the voices of these characters instead of
making them sound like their 616 counterparts. He especially writes a strong
Tony Stark and Captain America
as well as doing a good job with supporting characters like Carol Danvers. The
book also works just by some simple references to Ultimates 2 and using that as
a springboard for his own ideas and it works really well in making the reader
believe this book can exist in the same universe as that story.

This issue is not without its flaws however. Jeph Loeb still hasn’t managed to
find any reason to make the reader invested in some of the lesser characters
like Black Panther, Zarda or Ka-Zar. Thats not too say the characters can’t be
interesting, but for the most part it feels like the characters sole job is to
jump into a panel, punch a random bad guy and then disappear. It feels very
much like space filling and the reader is very aware of it.

The other main issue with the book is Loki’s plan, or rather lack of plan.
There has been no particular reason for Loki attacking Earth. This was a
similar problem when Millar wrote the book but then he managed to give a
convincing reason for why this would happen. Here it feels that Loki just in
the neighbourhood with an army of trolls and demons and just decides to attack
the Ultimates.

However without a doubt the major flaw in this book is Frank Cho. Despite being
a very good artist with an eye for detail Cho’s style is too animated and
cartoony to be taken seriously, especially compared to Bryan Hitch’s hyper
realistic style from previous Ultimates. As well as having a serious tendancy
to draw every woman with the same face making it quite confusing. For instance
during the opening explanation of how Valkyrie got her powers I was thinking it
was the secret origin of Carol Danvers.

In conclusion if Ultimates 1 and 2 were intended to be a blockbuster superhero
movie in comic book form, then this book is a direct to video sequel, and while
its definitely not a golden apple it definitely is a shiny yellow pear.