Ultimate X (Loeb/Adams)

I didnt hate this as much as I did Ultimates 3 #1.
Also, Jimmy didnt pop his claws untill he knew he was wolverines son, so the theory of him being mimic/darwin isnt completely out of the window.
 
I'm going to have to hop on the "this didn't suck" bandwagon. I kinda wish he hadn't used Kitty, because I prefer her in the Spidey corner of the ultimate universe right now, and it would seem there might be better options... But anyways, yeah. It was pretty good. The better side of mediocre. It's all set up and I'm not sure where the story is going, but I'm interested...

I definitely think this was better than Ultimate Enemy #1. And I never thought i'd favorably compare a Loeb book to a Bendis book.

Loeb's real **** is clear from the get-go, Everyone knew from the very first page of Ultimates 3 how terrible it was going to be. This didn't have that... It wasn't a great issue, but it wasn't one of the worst things I read this week at all. I still didn't buy it, but I'll definitely be reading the rest of this series, since this is probably the most coherent I've seen Loeb's writing since Hush (which, like this, I would categorize as mediocre to good).

It's probably just a fluke, and we'll see it all fall to ****. And the New Ultimates preview looks as terrible as any of his other Ultimate work... But i'll definitely be checking out issue #2.
 
Wha--

YOU PEOPLE ARE TURNING THE UNIVERSE UPSIDE DOWN
 
Ultimate Houde said:
I don't understand.

NOTHING HAPPENED.
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It's Loeb we're talking about. Writing a story in a universe we know and love and have some emotional investment in.
No characters were retconned, changed, mutilated, killed or eaten. No, nothing happened, but that also means no one died for comedic effect or bad shock value!
Which is what we were expecting.
Also, I know not everyone agrees with me on this, but I love the art.

Next issue: A gory splash page of Kitty getting eaten by the alligator. It serves no purpose to the plot whatsoever and creates a problem with her appearances in USM. Loeb retcons her powers to not work on mondays to explain her death.
 
I doubt next issue would include Jimmy and Kitty at all. Each issue shoud be focused on one of the five characters we saw on that cover, with no big involvement from the other characters.
 
This has been part of Loeb's evil plan all along.

He cranks out absolute crap for a couple of years, seriously working harder than he ever has before, because no one could write anything that bad without putting serious effort into it. Now he has set the bar SO LOW that he can just sort of coast by with stuff that would have been considered terrible before, but is seen as "the good side of mediocre" in light of Ultimates 3, Ultimatum, and Rulk.
 
Ultimate Houde said:
I don't understand.

NOTHING HAPPENED.

We knew he was Wolvie's kid from the cover alone. Nothing in this story was new knowledge to us.
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But isn't the problem with Ultimates 3 and Ultimatum that he loaded them with SO MUCH happening that there was never a pause for him to actually focus on doing any character work whatsoever, so things that might have actually felt like defining character moments, or tragic deaths, just got washed away with the fact that waaaaaaay too much was ****ing happening on a given page. His failure to pay attention to character, within his stories, and furthermore, failure to carry the believability of characters from Ultimates 2 and Ultimate X-Men into that final story is probably the biggest problem with his work in the Ultimate Universe thusfar. I hated the plot of Ultimatum entirely, but hey, there were cool ideas in Ultimates 3 that just completely failed to work because the characterization was so ****ty.

This was pure character exploration, not a plot piece. It's a character study, and I think I actually have a really good hold on why I should care about Jimmy Hudson, but even moreso, I care about his father, whose narration really held the story together. My big concern is whether he'll be able to keep the quality up without his father's voice... But hell, I actually wouldn't mind to see him become a new sort of Xavier. He IS the Ultimate version of The Guardian, so its not that far out of the question, and we still need to learn more about his old relationship with Wolverine.
 
robje said:
I didnt hate this as much as I did Ultimates 3 #1.
Also, Jimmy didnt pop his claws untill he knew he was wolverines son, so the theory of him being mimic/darwin isnt completely out of the window.
Click to expand...

Dr.Strangefate said:
I'm going to have to hop on the "this didn't suck" bandwagon. I kinda wish he hadn't used Kitty, because I prefer her in the Spidey corner of the ultimate universe right now, and it would seem there might be better options... But anyways, yeah. It was pretty good. The better side of mediocre. It's all set up and I'm not sure where the story is going, but I'm interested...

I definitely think this was better than Ultimate Enemy #1. And I never thought i'd favorably compare a Loeb book to a Bendis book.

Loeb's real **** is clear from the get-go, Everyone knew from the very first page of Ultimates 3 how terrible it was going to be. This didn't have that... It wasn't a great issue, but it wasn't one of the worst things I read this week at all. I still didn't buy it, but I'll definitely be reading the rest of this series, since this is probably the most coherent I've seen Loeb's writing since Hush (which, like this, I would categorize as mediocre to good).

It's probably just a fluke, and we'll see it all fall to ****. And the New Ultimates preview looks as terrible as any of his other Ultimate work... But i'll definitely be checking out issue #2.
Click to expand...

Dr.Strangefate said:
I was as shocked and upset at kind of liking a Jeph Loeb comic as you all are.
Click to expand...

Mattimeo84 said:
i'm also on the "this didn't suck as much as i wanted it too" bandwagon...i'm sorry for being such a failure
Click to expand...

Yeah. Me too.

I don't expect much from here on out. But this wasn't typical Loeb-bad.

As far as nothing happening...eh? It was the first issue. Not a huge deal.
 
You guys are all dead to me for being tricked into reading it.
 
The more i think about it, the more it makes sense... The narration is what really ties the issue together, and it's strong narration. The dialogue is pretty weak, and Kitty doesn't really seem like herself at all... But the father/son stuff is really good. Which makes sense... I've always kind of tied Jeph Loeb's loss of talent to his son passing away, as his work before that is markedly better than what came after. This is the first time he's been writing about a father's loving relationship with his son since then, and its the first time it has actually seemed real.

If the next issue is another one-shot that introduces another character and their circumstances, then we're going to see the real test of whether Loeb can do a comic book that doesn't completely suck. If he keeps this about Officer James Hudson, and his son, who slowly find other mutants and build a new team, then it actually has a chance of staying decent.
 
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