ULTIMATES 3

Used to love the Ultimates.
Used to Live for each new issue...used to

It's a beautifully drawn book but, it's not the Ultimates. It's something else. Can this be the proverbial nail in the coffin for the Ultimate Universe????

"D+"? Kurt, you're being far, far too generous.

This book was pure unadulterated crap from front to back. I seriously have to wonder who the editorial genius was who thought it a good idea to replace Millar/Hitch with any combination including Joe Mad.

The tone and voice of U1 & 2 has been completely tossed out the window for this over-the-top cliche in every way approach. It's awful from every perspective; I didn't know Loeb could write that badly, Joe Mad is COMPLETELY the wrong choice to follow Hitch, and the colors are an exercise in excess.

I didn't expect someone to fill every inch of the shoes left by Millar and Hitch. But I did expect some kind of continuity in tone and voice. Best example of a smooth handoff that maintains tone and voice in my mind would be Daredevil: Bendis/Maleev to Brubaker/Lark was as smooth and effortless a transition that kept me "in the zone" as one could pull off.

This Ultimates 3 is garbage. Pure garbage. And that's just a dadgum shame.

Gaddammit! Why god, why?!

Crap. It's sitting in my pile right now.

I guess there is one aspect that needs to be reminded....Jeph Loeb obviously doesn't want to do the same thing that Mark Millar did and Mark Millar was so happy when he knew that Jeph wasn't copying what they did, it seemed a good idea at the time (from Wizard Magasine).

The idea that JL wants to go into a new dierction makes sense, I'm sure we don't want a copy paste of what was done before because let's be honest, some of ''us'' would be the first one to call JL a phony for copying MM's work.

This approach of the new Ultimates does bring a new look into it and unfortunatly, the one thing that appears to be missing is the link itself with what was offered before. The dialogue is very short and the action is taking over the development of the story and that is the weakness of the series so far.

I do hope this gets better but...seems a bit of a letdown with this new version but time will tell, maybe things will get better.

I think your mistaken Jedibanner,
Obviously no one wants to copy someone else's work,but that does not mean they need to re-launch or change the direction of the characters to avoid this so-called copying. Take for example Mr. Millars run on The Authority when he took it over from Ellis. He did not copy Ellis’s work, nor did he change the characters, or story. He took the characters on his journey. It’s totally possible to take over a book without making the changes Loeb has made. The changes being the characters and their actions, attitudes, ect...
HOWEVER I don’t think Loebs writing is the issue with this um ...issue. I like Loebs writing, although I think he’s using a device he’s been using in a side project of his, Heroes. The device of Here’s where they are now, I’ll tell you how they got here later. ( I can deal with it, but he can only pull it offf 1 more time)
My problem with this arc is the drastic change in the art. And it’s not the manga style, it’s the lack of storytelling. You simply can’t go from the artwork we were all lucky enough to see in Ultimates 1&2, to 20 pages of splash pages. Sure it’s kinda cool looking , but it’s not right for this book. It’s good for covers, trading cards, but not this book. His art is just in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Well,

I'd say I don't fully agree with you on the art thing. I guess I'm saying that, if you took someone that had the same type of art as Bryan Hitch, it would become the same type of book it was before and from the way they are treating the Ultimates right now, it's obvious they want to bring something new into the book.

Joe Medeueria is good, his art is nice to watch (forget the realism of a human body with him that's true) but, I guss I'm more glad to just see different then what we have and I'm already not expecting nothing as good as MM and BH but just something completelly different.

I do hope we will get more details and information later, this being the only issue out for now is hard to judge at this point.

Don't get me wrong. I like Joe Mad's art, BUT he's not a great storyteller. I don't need a Bryan Hitch clone, but I need solid storytelling, not 90's era splash pages.

Why has no one brought up the fact that Loeb seems to be thinking he's writing a Marvel 616 book? Why is Thor speaking with a Shakespearan speech pattern (and brandishing a 616-universe hammer), and why is the Scarlet Witch in her regular universe costume? Someone told him this is the Ultimates, not the Avengers, right?