Comic Book Resources

Not impressed by the writing for Widow

I guess she took the red pill.

Ultimate Widow is a much different character from the normal one. Anyway its good to see Ultimates. It is one of my favorite comics ever.

Say what you like about the flaws of Millar’s writing, but he certainly can do big action scenes.

I love the way Hitch and Millar emphasized the less superhuman feats, like this scene, Cap’s escape from his hospital room, and his fight with Pym.

Catching the rifle was a bit much, though…

It’s a Millar comic. Check your brain at the door, and go “oooh!” “aaaah!”

Cause if you don’t, you’re an un-hip pansy boy or whatever.

Why doesn’t Hitch draw like this anymore? I haven’t seen any of his work since that series that wasn’t a rushed-looking, scratcgy mess, Does he ink humself?

Impressive? Sure. But I couldn’t help but think that I was reading the comic version of the Matrix here, particularly since the preceding pages had Hawkeye and Widow shooting up a building the same way Neo and Trinity did.

How much did the Ultimates borrow from film, anyway? The first issue seemed to borrow from Saving Private Ryan, and the scene with the “Skrull” spaceship in #10 or 11 screamed “Independence Day” at me.

That was really freaking cool. I said to myself “Oh, no way.” Right before that woman in the comic said the same thing.

Say what you like about the flaws of Millar’s writing, but he certainly can do big action scenes.

I agree for the most part, though I’d say these pages aren’t the best evidence for that. Here, Millar’s not doing much in the way of writing, let alone innovative choreography; he’s more just getting the hell out of his artist’s way. What dialogue and scenario there are in these pages is minimal and quite derivative of sources everyone in these comments has already mentioned.

On the Authority, he did an excellent job with action writing, though, and also on the later Liberators and earlier Thor stuff. But the Chitauri arc in general always struck me as rather weak tea.

This is a sequence without a standout panel, so I wouldn’t call it a cool “moment”.

Great moment. I hope we see some more ultimate books make it on the list, especially Ultimate Spidey!

I don’t care who’s responsible for this sequence, or what other sources it might be influenced by, because when I first read this issue I was blown away by the coolness of it. The moment is definitely when Widow catches the gun.

Man, I am not a fan of the whole “photo realistic” trend, and these pages are perfect examples. In the final panel of the first page, who is supposed to be the person shouting? Because everyone in that panel looks bored.

I like the sequence. It is fun.

Sure, it is a rather blatant “homage” of “The Matrix”, but that is fine. Millar is using the movie reference to set up his world. He is telling the reader that his series is taking place in a universe where super-people do the same type of stuff they did in that movie. This bit is a nice enough pay-off on that premise.

On the art, I really enjoyed Hitch on this series. Detailed art works better on team books than it does on solo titles for whatever reason. Maybe it is the lack of a single point-of-view character. Hitch took that idea to its logical extreme. The art look almost like a series of pictures. It works well in conjunction with Millar’s script. Everyone is so flawed that they are hard to connect with deeply anyway. Alienating detail in the art just reinforces the effect.

Meh-tastic…something I’d flip through and then wouldn’t buy.

Nice eye candy, but did that sequence really require 6 pages?

There’s no denying the impressiveness of Hitch’s drawing chops here, but I much preferred his previous work on Justice League and the Authority, when things were less heavily rendered but much clearer and cleaner. On Ultimates it often seemed like he was so caught up in detail and showing off his slick draftsmanship that just telling the story clearly and directly often took a hit. The whole “widescreen” comics thing was taken to sometimes absurd extremes on Ultimates.

The moment is definitely when Widow catches the gun.

Yep.

love how the ulitmate version of widow and hawkeye come off as rambo clones and also bicker like an old married couple. proving how the ulitmate universe is its own thing.

First time I read it, I was like, “This bitch is not about to jump the gap and grab that gun”

She DID. And it was awesome.

Gavin, you think everything is meh-tastic. Thanks again for your insight.

Good thing a random air current didn’t spin the rifle a few inches out of the Widow’s grasp. That would’ve been embarrassing.

Does the Ultimate Widow have super powers? That leap looked a bit ridiculous to me, but it’s hard to say for sure because there’s nothing in this sequence shown here that gives any clue how close together the buildings are. I hope it was made clear earlier in the story.
I don’t know. The sequence seems pretty dull and generic to me. If the story leading up to this part is interesting, then it is a good enough set of pages, but it’s not enough to be interesting on its own. I have a very strong prejudice against Ultimate books, so that might be ruining my chances for enjoying this.

Looks like a pretty standard adolescent fantasy moment to me. I’m glad I never bothered to buy Ultimates.

If I wanted to read “too-cool to be true” moments I would follow Wolverine. Which I don’t.

The moment for me is when the lady says “no way”, standing in for the reader. This sequence is magnificently choreographed, and in perfect step with what moviegoers liked in The Matrix, as mentioned previously.

The entire Ultimates run by Millar and Hitch read like a proposal for an Avengers movie, and definitely one I would have loved to see. It’s indulgent, yes, but I found more depth in it than in its thematic predecessor by Ellis and Hitch.

Mary Wagner, Black Widow doesn’t have superpowers, but Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are also in this scene ( but unseen) as is discussed later in the issue. I like to think Wanda’s powers made the impossible jump possible. Why else would you have the Scarlet Witch on your team if not to help your heroes pull off cool ass shit?

Ultimate Widow is stated several times to have some sort of ability-enhancing cybernetic implants.

Wow, do I ever hate the Ultimates. Here’s another good example of why.

If Black Widow was out of ammo, how did she shoot the two security guards?

“If Black Widow was out of ammo, how did she shoot the two security guards?”

I guess her statement was not to be taken literally, but meant to carry the urgency of her situation.

Makes her subsequent betrayal later on that much more profound…especially when she offs Hawkeye’s family