Don’t worry, the topic of this post is not refering to me. It’s refering to the immense disappointment and a sense of being cheated after I read about the comic series “Ultimatum”. You can read about it in the link below. I’m taking a break from my regular writing to rant about this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatum_(Ultimate_Marvel)
I honestly cannot believe someone (Jeph Loeb) who once wrote good Superman, Batman and Spider-man comics, wrote this story arc poorly. In fact, one of the reasons why I stopped reading the Ultimates was because he wrote it, making my previously-loved characters a shadow of their former selves.
Let me list the top things I do not like about this series:
1) Deaths
I do not mind the killing of characters, but it is the meaninglessness and the unrealistic way they died. I mean, Nightcrawler (a teleporter) and Wasp (a flyer) died from drowning in a tsunami! The entire European Defense Initiative gets blown up by multiple suicide bombers! Quicksilver, whose death was one of the reasons why Magneto attacked in the first place, was revealed to be alive in the end!
2) Out-of-character characters
Some characters were so uncharacteristics. For instance, Reed Richards, the smartest man alive had to be told by Professor X, Namor and Doctor Doom that Magneto was responsible before he finally believes it.
3) Lack of response
The heroes just take it and take it till issue 4! They don’t really do anything but suffer from Magneto’s attacks till very late in the story!
Here’s how I would have written it:
Issue #1
4.12pm: Reed Richards is about to propose to Sue Storm in the Baxter Building; Human Torch is arguing with his Dad in The Baxter Building; Beast, Angel, Nightcrawler and Dazzler are in the streets of New York; Iron Man and Captain America are talking in the Iron Man’s mansion; Thor and Valkyrie are sparing on the Mansion’s top level; Wasp, Giant Man and Hawkeye are arguing in the mansion basement; Spiderman (in his civilian identity, Peter Parker) and his friends are riding the train.
4.13pm: A tsunami hits New York. Beast drowns immediately as does Human Torch’s father. As for the Ultimates, Iron Man, Giant Man and Wasp evade drowning (via flight or size increment) but Captain America, Valkyrie and Hawkeye are swept away and are missing. Angel flies off with Dazzler’s unconscious body while Nightcrawler manages to teleport away barely. Peter Parker manages to save his friends, but feels guilty that most of his fellow passengers have drown in the flood. The Thing prevents a blue whale from wrecking the Baxter Building, while Human Torch managed to escape drowning, screaming for his father. Invisible Woman pushes back the tidal wave with her force field and the strain knocks her out.
Meanwhile in Latveria, Dr Doom found that all his citizens are frozen solid, and he cries for justice.
Charles Xavier, suffers a psychic feedback as millions die, and he mentally informs the heroes that this was Magneto’s doomsday plan.
Magneto, in his citadel in Genosha allows himself a smile as he intents to fulfill God’s will to rid the world of humans, with Thor’s hammer (he stole it during the events of Ultimates 3) beside him.
Issue #2
Carol Danvers, Director of SHIELD (American military force) is informed of multiple suicide attacks across the world, done by the Multiple Man, under Magneto’s orders. Iron Man, Giant Man and Wasp report to Triskelion (SHIELD’s headquarters) to find out how bad the situation is. Dr Doom joins them, stating that he is not foolish to go after Magneto alone. Thor searches for his lover, and finds Valkyrie’s body. Madly, he rushes to confront Magneto in Genosha.
Peter Parker is encouraged to keep saving people by his friends, and he suits up into Spider-man, ignoring the fact he revealed his identity to the public in doing so. He rescues person after person, while surprisingly, the Hulk appears to help him.
In London, the European Defense Initiative meets to discuss their response, when a horde of suicide bombs appear. In an instant, Captain Britain manages to hit them all away before the detonate, killing him, but saving the other Captains and his father.
At the X-mansion, Xavier refused to let his X-men join up with SHIELD to stop Magneto, unwilling to risk more of his students’ lives, although Angel shows up with Dazzler’s body. Wolverine, however, is allowed to go. As Xavier returns to his study, intending to to grab some documents pertaining to Magneto’s further plans, Mystique surprises him and snaps his neck, explaining that Magneto would not allow Xavier to foil his plans one more time.
Mr Fantastic, vengeful over his girlfriend’s coma, rushes off to confront Namor, believing him to be in leagues with Magneto. After being informed of Franklin Storm’s demise by General Ross, Human Torch and the Thing decide to search for the Mole Man to treat the Invisible Woman.
Thor attacks Magneto’s citadel, prompting the mass murderer to engage the god. “Finally, a challenge!” Magneto cries as he faces Thor.
Issue #3
Rogue, discovering Xavier’s corpse informs the X-men of the situation. They are split on whether to confront Magneto till Nightcrawler appears with Beast’s body. Enraged, the X-men decide to join Wolverine. However, Rogue is not allowed to join them as Jean does not rust her. Refusing to comply, Cyclops tells her that someone has to lead lest they all should fall. Rogue and Nightcrawler stay, while the rest. Meanwhile Dazzler awakens, groaning for Angel.
After being convinced that Namor is not involved, Mr Fantastic rushes to the Triskelion to meet with SHIELD. Meanwhile, SHIELD is under attack by the clones of the Multiple Men. Despite the remaining Ultimates’ and SHIELD’s best efforts, they manage to wreck Iron Man’s armour and come close to killing him till Mr Fantastic wraps up all the bombers and gets blown away. Dr Doom, nearly retreating, is humbled by Reed’s sacrifice and promises to turn over a new leaf.
Upon seeing the huge explosion, Hawkeye and Captain America, stop their search for survivors and report to the SHIELD. Hawkeye kills Blob for feasting on the corspes along the way, although Captain America tries to stop him. They are informed by Carol Danvers what had happened. The X-men arrive and inform that them of Xavier’s demise. Carol tells them they need to grab Nick Fury from their alternate universe to find out the rest of Magneto’s plan. However, only Mr Fantastic knew how to get there. Dr Doom volunteers to help.
Meanwhile, in the streets, Hulk and Spider-man sees that Dr Strange’s house has been breached, releasing evil spirits. One of them, Nightmare, has possessed Dr Strange and it is engaging Daredevil, Moon Knight, Black Cat and Iron Fist. While Hulk and Spider-man aid the heroes, Nightmare appears to be winning until Hulk smashes Dr Strange’s body. As Iron Fist thanks the Hulk for the assist, Hulk suddenly crushes Iron Fist, killing him! Hulk has been possessed by Dormmamu.
Thor summons lighting to strike the Multiple Men who try to halt him, and Magneto watches, unimpressed. Thor’s tossed hammer is neutralised by Magneto’s magnetic powers. The hammer is disintegrated and Magneto used the stolen hammer to pummel Thor. Thor curses loudly, and Magento is annoyed by his resillence, till he recalls Thor’s belt gave him his powers. He removes the belt magnetically and kills Thor. Magneto then wears Thor’s belt, gaining the thunder god’s powers.
Meanwhile, Rick Jones, empowered by the mechanical Watchers, sees everything. He is informed that this world is ending by the watches, and they brought him aside to conserved a member of the human race. He wants to act, by he is told that his job was like theirs– only to watch.
Issue #4
Already in Genosha, Wolveine managed to defeat a scores of the Brotherhood mutants before killing Madrox Prime to stop the Multiple Men clones from spawning. Noticing his clones gone, Magneto smiles and readies himself for a battle.
Carol Danvers sends a team of Dr Doom, Zarda, Falcon and Wasp to retrieve Nick Fury in the Supremeverse, while the rest of the X-men and the Ultimates rushes off to face and stop Magneto. Captain Mar Vehl joins their effort.
Spider-man, Black Cat, Moon Knight and Daredevil battle the Hulk in vain. They appear to be losing when Blade appears, and jabs a dagger into the back of the Hulk. The dagger snaps, as the Hulk’s skin is unpierced, and knocks Blade aside. Blade explains that his soul dagger is able to exorcise Dormmanu, but it must penertrate the skin of the victim. Black Cat gets a brainwave and casts the dagger into the Hulk’s eye, citing her luck powers. The Hulk is depossessed, but all is not well– he is anger by the blade in his eye, and smashes the ground revealing a gas pipe line. An explosion follows.
In the Supremeverse, Nick Fury hears the Falcon’s account and realises if they kill Magneto, the whole world is doomed. As they bring him back, he quickly explained that Magneto was working on a machine to reverse the world’s poles and only he can put it back.
Meanwhile, as Cyclops discusses a strategy in the X-jet on how to engage Magneto, Angel ignores orders and rushes into battle. The X-men quickly follow suit to aid Angel, but Angel is pounced on and killed with Sabretooth biting on his neck. Hawkeye prevents Sabretooth from attacking Colossus and Toad by firing an arrow into his eye. They rushed into the citadel, with Captain America leading the charge. He tosses his shield at Magneto, but Magneto alters the flight path and slits Giant Man’s throat with it. As the heroes pour in, Magneto collapse a building on them. Toad escapes and leaps towards Magneto and is vaporised with a suddenly bolt of lighting as the daylight reveals Magneto with Thor’s hammer and belt.
Daredevil, Moonknight and Spiderman survives the blast, as Spider-man managed to web the two away. Daredevil realises that Spider-man is dying from internal injuries, and they managed to formally introduce themselves to each other as they remove their masks. Spider-man praises Matthew Murdock for defending Bruce Banner during his trial and states his admiration for Matthew as a lawyer. Spider-man tells Matthew not to let his aunt know that he fell, and dies.
Rick Jones argue with the Watchers to be allowed to act, and do good. The Watchers disagree, stating all good and evil are meaningless and relative.
Issue #5
With Magneto controlling the flying debris and the weather, the heroes are hopelessly outclassed. Magneto strikes Iron Man (with his non-magnetic suit) with lightning and impales Storm with a metal pike, killing her as she attempts to subdue the weather. Captain Mar Vehl is swatted away by Thor’s hammer, but it was just a distraction– Wolverine was tossed by Colossus to slice apart the belt.
As the belt falls off, Magneto removes Wolverine’s adamantium skeleton and strikes him with a last bolt of lightning to burn off every last living cell in his body. As the skeleton drops to the ground, Jean gasps as she realised the sturdy Wolverine is no more. Captain America orders defensive positions as the team avoids debris after debris.
In an act of self-sacrifice, Psylocke leaps to the sky, ignoring the cuts from the iron pikes and removes Magneto’s helmet. Magneto strikes her with the hammer, and she falls to the ground dead. Jean takes control of Magneto’s mind before he could put his helmet back. As Hawkeye moves for the killshot, Fury appears telling them to halt, explaining they needed Magento to realign the earth’s poles. Magneto reveals that his machine runs on his brainwaves, and that no controlled mind can operate it. Via Jean’s telepathy, Fury revealed that mutants were an accident, a result of genetic tampering rather than natural selection.
To this, Magneto crushes his machine and uses Thor hammer to kill himself, stating that humanity should perish for their lies. Fury comments that the earth is screwed.
Meanwhile, Rick Jones convinces the Watchers that absolute good exists and they allow him to act, and he uses his cosmic energy to rebuilt the machine and realign the poles. The heroes are shocked by the sudden appearance and disappearance of Rick Jones. When questioned by Rick jones, the usually emotionless Watchers commented their involvement felt ‘good’.
During a press conference, Cyclops acknowledges Magneto’s crimes, and supports a Mutant Registration act. He is killed by a mysterious sniper (Quicksilver). It is revealed that Magneto was not acting alone afterall.
Aftermath:
1) The Fantastic four are now led by the repentant Dr Doom.
2) Daredevil takes up the mantle of Spider-man, to keep the false hopes that Peter Parker is still alive.
3) The X-men restart their mansion with Jean as headmaster
4) The Ultimates reform their team
5) SHIELD approves of a black-ops team.