The Ultimates #12

Writer: Al Ewing
Art: Christian Ward
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Publisher: Marvel

Well, it's the final issue of The Ultimates. The series is getting relaunched next month as Ultimates 2 with a new art team and from what we've seen, the art is really questionable. I loved the first arc of The Ultimates and I genuinely expected this to become one of Marvel's flagship titles but just 6 months later, the book has undergone 2 radical transformations, so I'm just hoping the sequel will at least be good.

This issue gave me a ton of mixed feelings. On one hand, I didn't know Christian Ward, one of my favorite artists, had done the art in this issue. His work always elevates the books he is in and I was delighted to pick up this book and see his name on the cover. But on the other hand, Ewing's story is such a non-starter for this issue, as it has been for most of the latter half of The Ultimates. The biggest plot development, T'Challa denouncing The Ultimates, happens off-panel and the rest of the issue tries to recap and make sense of something which happened in another story, which is what this title has been doing since the Civil War II tie-in started.

Of all the numerous Civil War II tie-ins, The Ultimates was the one book that felt like it had to do the heavy lifting for Civil War II's story. In spite of the event in general being a trainwreck, a lot of books took the premise of it and did very interesting stuff. Ewing did a lot to fill in the gaps in the CWII miniseries on The Ultimates to the detriment of his own book. The first arc of this book was fantastic, dealing with Marvel's meta-textual problems disguised as cosmic intrigue and it all culminated in one of the best Big 2 issues I've read, The Ultimates #6, also drawn by Ward. It's always odd to me when serialized comics manage to be great at doing one thing and then they decide to take an entirely different direction, which is what Civil War II meant to this book. And this issue is still not playing to its strengths. Ward's art works so much better when it deals with more abstract stuff, which is what made The Ultimates #6 one of the best comics of the year, but most of the issue is grounded on Earth. We see characters introduced in this book, which Ewing has been hinting at for a few months now but they are such an afterthought.

This issue is bloated, rushing to tie a lot of loose ends together. Christian Ward's art is still very good but after that wonderful first arc, The Ultimates has been one of the most underwhelming comics of the year.