Ultimate Power #8

Story Details

We are immediately in the middle of battle between the three factions. Storm points out that she doesn't know who the good guys are. Iron Man is fighting Doom, who says he has claimed this Earth for himself.

Thor feels something is wrong and Doctor Spectrum suggests they team up to find out who should be made accountable.

The Thing helps Iron Man by walloping Doom ... and ripping off his arm. It is just a Doom-bot.

The respective Supreme Squadrons keep repeating what each other is saying as they take each other on.

Up on the Triskelion, Fury releases Hulk ... with Spider-Man swinging on to the back of him.

Spidey watch: On the last three pages, hitching a ride to ground on the back of the Hulk.

General Comments

My first annoyance is simply that I don't know who all the people are. Yes, of course that is a lot of my fault but, in all seriousness, this is asking us to not only understand the characters from three separate factions – but three separate universes. One of which hasn't even been used in any meaningful way in a Marvel comic for 15 years.

The initial premise of the Ultimate Universe was promote a kind of back-to- basics approach with a tightish continuity and smaller set of characters. In other words, you don't need to read 20 years' worth of comics to understand what is going on. So, given that, how does that go alongside this Ultimate crossover?

Secondly, again, nothing happens! It's 20-odd pages of fighting. Sure, it looks good – but how many times could that be said in the eight issues so far? At the end of issue seven, Fury unveiled the Hulk to introduce into battle. At the end of this issue, he sends him into battle.

There is now just one issue to go and it can't come quick enough. Nine issues, one year and lots and lots of padding.

Overall Rating

If you skipped issue eight and just went on to issue nine, I'm not convinced you'd actually be out of the loop at all.