Comic Book Resources

Since it was so bad, and no one should spend money on it, can we get some context?

Sheesh, Dan, you’re picky. He’s just discovered that Doom, the big bad guy, is actually … a Doombot. Yes, I do believe Ben is speaking for the audience.

So, this should be a pretty good indicator of how the next Ultimates book will be, right? I mean, aside from the fact that it’s Loeb and Madureira.

Over-extended plots that recycle ideas from MU 616, then?

At least I know I won’t be missing anything with this one.

“Over-extended plots that recycle ideas from MU 616, then?”

Its an Ultimate book… so that goes without saying…

Oh, and what’s great is Ultimate Power is one more step closer to the inevitable crossover between Ultimate and the original Marvel Universe

Its an Ultimate book… so that goes without saying…

I guess that’s a fair point, but the last volume of Ultimates was not like anything I’d seen in a Marvel comic before.

Yet another book which takes about 3 minutes max to read, the plot has been advanced by only the tiniest, almost unnoticeable increment by the time the last page with it’s “to be continued at almost the same point as last issue was” comes zooming up offensively soon, the only possible reaction to which is an exasperated “THAT’S IT??!!??”
You want to flip back and check if maybe there are pages you accidentally skipped which contain the comic value you thought you paid for.

“Its”, dammit! Argh, I never do that, and it’s even a particular peeve of mine (somewhere behind then/than flipping)!
Frigging no editing function.

Whatever happened to Bendis? Why is he out of the series?

The whole Ultimate Power concept reeked of crappiness to me, but I thumbed through the first issue anyway… and that was enough for me.

I like a fair amount of the Ultimate stuff, though. Ultimate X-Men has turned to garbage in a hurry since Kirkman took over (I keep glancing at it to see any signs of life, cause I like Kirkman’s other stuff and hope he’ll turn it around, but so far… no), but Ultimate Spider-Man is consistently well done, and I’ve enjoyed the Ultimates (except for the end of the second set). It’s not great, but I find most of the books in the Ultimate universe to be entertaining, which is more than I can say for a lot of the 616 stuff lately.

Anderson: Ultimate Power was meant to be written by 3 writers (3 issues each). Bendis did the first 3 and then J.M.S., and now Loeb.

Whatever happened to Bendis? Why is he out of the series?

He only did the first three issues. JMS did the middle three and now Loeb is doing the last three. On the whole, it’s worked out about as well as you’d expect.

Maybe the progression of writers should have been in ascending level of talent.

Long term? Ultimate Powers is so bad I suspect that it is going to be quietly forgotten and ignored like the other red-headed stepchild of the Ultimate universe, Ultimate Adventures.

There is nothing to recommend this series. Yes, the ‘high concept’ of a crossover between the ultimate version of the squadron supreme and the Ultimate universe isn’t bad. However, the execution, the complete ignorance of any continuity from either title and lack of characterization, not to mention Land’s art, has doomed this series beyond redemption.

I know the Loeb issues are automatically the worst ones of the mini, but how were the non-Loeb issues?

i swear i remember some loeb superman comics being good. has anything else he ever wrote been good?

i like the squadron supreme universe, i like ultimate spidey, but this had worst comic series of the year written all over it. i have not even picked up an issue to look at it.

has there been any redeeming qualities to it at all.

it also has had some of the worst covers known to human history.

I can’t believe people still buy Ultimate minis.

I don’t think I’ve ever read one that doesn’t fit this same over-extended, anti-climactic profile.

Loeb wrote the awesome Long Halloween and Dark Victory, A Superman For All Seasons, and several really good Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween specials. I also enjoyed Daredevil Yellow but I never read any of his other Marvel stuff. I know all these happen to be with Tim Sale but the writing is not at all shabby on these.

Loeb’s work scripting on Fantastic Four in 2000/2001 is probably one of the worst runs ever to grace that book. Granted, Pacheco’s plots were pretty bad too, but he rendered them incomprehensible.

He also wrote Cable and X-Force. There were a lot bad x-books in the 90′s, but Loeb´s weren´t among them…

Pachecho and Loeb’s FF was a a marvel of story-telling coming after Claremont’s run. You’re forgetting everything is relative.

I think Loeb’s issues have been the best so far. There have been neat moments here and there, but except for a couple of parts, its been really shallow. Of course a book designed to be a slugfest IS going to be shallow, but Supreme Power has delivered on that. And hey, at least Loeb remembered the X-men are there, so there’s a plus.

I acutally went on the Marvel site and sent them hate-email over this issue. I NEVER send mail to the publishers – I don’t figure they’ll care – but I was just so ticked at this issue that I couldn’t NOT tell them off.

If Loeb is working with Tim Sale, then it’s great. If he’s not, God help the poor readers. I don’t know what it is, but he just cannot tell a solid story without Sale.

My 2 cents: His Challengers of the Unknown with Sale was awesome!

Loeb’s Challengers is very good!

I really liked Loeb’s Superman run, but disliked the McGuinness artwork. I wanted more realism.

Totally agree with Sterg; Loeb’s ‘Challengers of the Unknown’is a modern day classic! (It’s also in collaboration with Sale so maybe that’s the key!)

Allow me to express a lack of surprise over a poorly written Jeph Loeb comic. Has the man written anything good this decade?

Really, the only way to enjoy this series is to take a drink every time Greg Land blatantly traces porn.

Let’s see, ditto’s for comment #7, #8(though not so vehement), and #18, with Superman/Batman thrown in as another enjoyable Loeb title, strictly IMO. I liked the series so far, and didn’t even notice the writer change until now.

This issue could have been 1 page long, “It’s a doombot, stupid” in a word bubbloon, nestled in Power Princess’ bossom. It was pretty, but it was mostly 22 pages of “see what happens when Scarlett Witch uses her powers in conjunction with another chaos chick”, along with the doom thing. I hope this wraps up with more substance than this issue had.

Interesting all this hating on Ultimate Power and hardly a reference to Greg Land. It can’t be good when the writer is the worst part of a Land- drawn book.

I’m curious, though: what were the original Squadron doing in this issue? Were they robots too? Maybe I’ll hit Wikipedia….

I think it came from “see what happens when Scarlett Witch uses her powers in conjunction with another chaos chick”. I forget the name of the woman on the SS that can manipulate possibilities on the quantum scale, but basically, the two of them went after each other, and wackiness ensued. Doom might actually not have been a doombot before those two crossed powers. You never know. Again, maybe Loeb went all meta, and the sticking points we’re talking about are intentional…

“What were the original Squadron doing in this issue?”

Probably being mind comtrolled. That’s what they do best.

Random Comments:

Yeah I love the original Squadron… They were so utterly useless… it made them interesting…

Wow and now Scarlet Witch’s reality altering powers are the explanation for bad plotting in the Ultimate Universe as well?

And complaining about Greg Land’s art isn’t very informative… Loeb and Bendis’ have actually created good comics in the past… So it helps to warn people from staying away from this… (Though I refuse to by any Land book… as art IS half the story in a comic)

And, again, can we just have the 616 and Ultimate cross over and be done with it?

I really enjoyed Jeph Loeb’s writing on Cable. Yes I did. You cannot make me change my mind on this :p

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