Comic Review – “Ultimate Six”

Although this story will be collecting in a single
Ultimate Six trade paperback (solicited for
this coming week, but not on the preliminary
shipping list
,) it also includes an issue of
Ultimate Spider-Man.

General Information

Title: Ultimate Six

Author: Brian Michael Bendis

Illustrator(s): Trevor Hairsine, Danny Miki, Matt
Bagley, Art Thibert,
and Joe Quesada

Original Publication Date: The individual issues were
published
between last fall and this May, but the trade
paperback collecting
them all isn’t out until June 2.

ISBN: 0-7851-1312-6

Cover Price: $17.99 US

Buy from: Amazon.com
or Amazon.ca

Past comic reviews can be found here.

Premise

S.H.E.I.L.D. has several of Spider-Man’s previous
enemies in custody
in the same facility. The inevitable break-out and
team-up happens,
with the formation of the Ultimate Sinister Six,
although they don’t
actually give themselves a label.

The trade paperback will collect Ultimate
Spider-Man #46
,
which is something of a prologue to this, as well as
all seven issues
of the Ultimate Six miniseries. The story
takes place
between the Cats and Kings and
Hollywood story
arcs.

High Point

“Did you have to go back in time to get him?”

Low Point

Osborn’s “my boy” speeches. They were so deliberate
in not using a
name that the “big reveal” wasn’t all that big.

The Scores

I didn’t see a lot of original material
here. Take some of
the mainstream continuity, mix in the first story arc
of Ultimate
X-Men
, and you get this. The only aspect that
was new was the
actual roster of the group. I give it 4 out of 6.

The artwork includes the Bagley and Thibert
team on the
Ultimate Spider-Man issue, with Joe Quesada
on another
prologue in the first issue of Ultimate Six,
and Trevor
Hairsine pencils with Danny Miki inks on the
majority. I’m not a big
fan of the Hairsine art. Some panels look great, but
at times he
chooses some very close-up panels on faces, keeping
the hair out of
the picture, which sometimes makes it hard to
distinguish between
Norman Osborn, Flint Marko, and Electro. I give it 4
out of 6.

The story is decent. It has some
interesting implications in
terms of the people who now know Peter’s identity, as
well as the
impact of the last issue on the character who
appeared out of nowhere,
but that’s really all there was here that was new.
The story itself
wasn’t that interesting, even though it will have an
impact on the
future. Bendis is best with character work and
personal stories.
This cast is just too large for him to really shine.
I give it 4 out
of 6.



The characterization had its moments,
particularly with
Osborn, Octavius, May, and Fury, but that’s all they
were. We don’t
get the kind of deep, psychological view we’ve had of
these characters
when they appear in Ultimate Spider-Man. I
give it 4 out of
6.

The emotional response was entirely related
to wanting to see
the fallout of this story instead of reading the rest
of this story
for its own sake. That’s not a good thing. I give
it 3 out of 6.

The flow was impeded in cases because I was
trying to figure
out which character was talking. I give it 4 out of
6.

Overall, it’s not going to make you a fan of
Ultimate
Spider-Man
or The Ultimates if you
aren’t one already.
It’s going to have an impact, but the story here
doesn’t stand on its
own. I expected more from Bendis. This reads more
like an excuse to
have a cross-over between the titles than anything
else. I give it 3
out of 6.

In total, Ultimate Six receives 26 out of
42.