Ultimates & Ultimate X-Men Handbook revelations.... SPOILERS

[Stuart]

No Vision? And looks like Power Man is Luke Cage.

Limited space, and much of what we knew of the Vision was going to be repeated in the Gah Lak Tus entry (at the time this Handbook was written, there was no Ultimate Vision series). If sales are good enough, another Ultimates book might be commissioned, at which point we'd be looking at covering Vision, Hammerhead, Silver Sable, Moonknight, the team attacking the U.S., etc, as well as expanding on other entries.

 

[TheManWithoutFear]

If sales are good enough, another Ultimates book might be commissioned, at which point we'd be looking at covering Vision, Hammerhead, Silver Sable, Moonknight, the team attacking the U.S., etc, as well as expanding on other entries.

Sweet Christmas! :twisted: I'll go buy 5 copies now then.

 

[ProjectX2]

How many of these Ultimate handbooks would need to be released for Marvel to release a trade of them?

 

[Stuart]

Great job Stuart - I've picked up a few of the Files/Handbook type books and the Ultimate issues ar by far the best.

Thanks, though I think the other Handbooks are pretty good too.

I was a little disappointed that Widow's info was based on the armor - I thought it would be a lot more interesting to know what her enhancements had done.

We covered her own abilities minus armor in the text, but the power chart could only cover one set of stats, and her armored stats are the most current ones. Minus the armor, I'd put her at Strength 3 (possibly low-end of 4's scale, but not into the "several tons" range), speed 2 (actually, above normal somewhat, but again way below 700 mph, so we'd have to put her at 2 rather than 3), durability 3, energy projection 1; intelligence and fighting skills would be the same.

 

[cmdrjanjalani]

Pros:
- Very nice details on all the characters profiled. A lot of them would have just been subject to interpretation if readers analyzed it, but since this is official and Stuart and his gang are in the inside, it's great that some interpretations are true, some were false and others I didn't even know about until I re-read the issue carefully again.

- Good choice for art for most of the characters, and nice cover from Bagley.

Cons:
- I understand that there are space issues, but they're still complaints. Lack of coverage for some characters that had enough panel time like Deathstrike, Juggernaut, Mojo, Arcade, Havok, Northstar, Polaris, etc. I know they showed up in the team profiles, but that would like being content on seeing all the X-Men featured only in the X-Men team profile. They would have at least a small panel like Betty Ross had.

 

[TheManWithoutFear]

Whose HHVX or whoever in the brotherhood?

 

[ProjectX2]

Whose HHVX or whoever in the brotherhood?

The virus the Brotherhood used to deactivate the missles in Pakistan.

 

[Freeway420]

Hawkeye briefly reminisces about old times with Fury at one point, when they were all that made up SHIELD and there job was taking on the communists/Soviets (can't remember the exact quote). Since Fury is his old friend, it seems highly unlikely this is a cover story or false info. Fury being godfather to one of Hawkeye's kids makes it even less likely to be bad info. Hawkeye was thus active as an intelligence agent back in the 1980s, more than 15 years ago. While the sliding timescale will eventually negate the 1980s part, the 15 years ago bit will remain correct.

So: There's falsified backstories for anybody related to SHIELD ready for public consumption (assumedly SHIELD has them for Fury, the X-Men, every Ultimate except maybe Cap, the FF, etc)...but there's little-to-no point in having those backstories held up within the group, since lying about stuff like that to each other wouldn't make much sense.

Good work on the handbook, by the way.

 

[Stuart]

Pros:
- Very nice details on all the characters profiled. A lot of them would have just been subject to interpretation if readers analyzed it, but since this is official and Stuart and his gang are in the inside, it's great that some interpretations are true, some were false and others I didn't even know about until I re-read the issue carefully again.

- Good choice for art for most of the characters, and nice cover from Bagley.

Cons:
- I understand that there are space issues, but they're still complaints. Lack of coverage for some characters that had enough panel time like Deathstrike, Juggernaut, Mojo, Arcade, Havok, Northstar, Polaris, etc. I know they showed up in the team profiles, but that would like being content on seeing all the X-Men featured only in the X-Men team profile. They would have at least a small panel like Betty Ross had.

I don't expect people to be content with many of the characters who didn't make the cut for individual profiles instead being part of group profiles; however, someone had to go, so those with the least info or who could be covered as part of teams were the most vulnerable. Like I said above, the Ultimate Universe is expanding rapidly enough that there's already probably enough characters to do another Handbook; whether or not that will happen will be down to sales. As for giving them half page profiles, yes, we could have done that, but at the expense of cutting down other full pagers down to make space. I felt it better to give fewer characters the space they needed to be covered more thoroughly than to cover more characters but less well. It's a problem we had early on in the themed Handbook run; people would get upset that we missed out their favourite Avenger from the Avengers 04 Handbook, because they felt a themed book should cover everyone who fitted that theme. Without having hundreds of pages per Handbook, that just isn't possible for large groups like the X-Men or Avengers, or for subjects as broad as the Ultimate Universe. To the Handbook writers, the books have always been part of a whole series (and, just for the record, we consider the new, forthcoming A-Z a continuation of the themed series, not a replacement). The Ultimate Universe needs a third Ultimate book, sooner or later, and so long as that Universe keeps expanding, eventually, sales willing, a fourth, fifth, etc.

 

[MoS]

So: There's falsified backstories for anybody related to SHIELD ready for public consumption (assumedly SHIELD has them for Fury, the X-Men, every Ultimate except maybe Cap, the FF, etc)...but there's little-to-no point in having those backstories held up within the group, since lying about stuff like that to each other wouldn't make much sense.

Although cover stories for Ultimates members - Hawkeye and the Black Widow specifically - were mentioned in issues (that they existed, not what they actually WERE), Hawkeye's "real" name seemed to be public knowledge. The TV broadcast from his house mentions his name without explanation, as though it's something the TV viewer would know. Also, a high-profile person showing up to a Presidential Awards dinner with the wife and kids pretty much blows any cover story. Sort of funny, because there aren't actually a lot of characters in the Ultimate Universe who need a secret ID and a mask - and one of the few that DOES doesn't have one.

I could fanwank it with a really improbable explanation, but I think I'll just shrug and say "ehhhhh."

 

[Stuart]

So: There's falsified backstories for anybody related to SHIELD ready for public consumption (assumedly SHIELD has them for Fury, the X-Men, every Ultimate except maybe Cap, the FF, etc)...but there's little-to-no point in having those backstories held up within the group, since lying about stuff like that to each other wouldn't make much sense.

Pretty much. We know for sure falsified backgrounds were prepared on Black Widow and Hawkeye, to cover up their black ops past. It seems likely the same was done to make former terrorists Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch more palatable to the public. Fury shares a past with Hawkeye, so if they had to cover up some of his past, it would make sense they did the same for Fury, once he moved into the public eye (presumably around the time he took over SHIELD). And that fits nicely with some of the glib, apparently contradictory comments Fury has dropped around the likes of Peter Parker. I'd expect most of the Ultimates backgrounds to have been at least tweaked (no mention of Jan being a mutant, probably cut some of the details of Pym's confidential super-soldier work, etc); stuff we've actually seen in proper flashbacks is okay, stuff we've been told verbally is likely true for the most part, depending on who said it and to whom (fabrication would be kept to a minimum, to avoid unnecessary work and lessen the chances of the fabrications being seen through).

Good work on the handbook, by the way.

Thanks.

Oh, and there's one major error in the Handbook, which I'm more than a little unhappy about. Somehow, somewhere along the line, one of the writers didn't get credited (doubly annoying, as it was his first Handbook writing credit). So here, for the record, I'd like to let people know Wale Ekunsumi should also have been among the writers credited at the front of the book.

 

[Ice]

Well than, give Wale Ekunsumi a huge thanks from everyone here at UC, as well as the other writers.

 

[DIrishB]

Well than, give Wale Ekunsumi a huge thanks from everyone here at UC, as well as the other writers.

I second that!

 

[jonesy]

Really want more Ultimate Handbooks even if its all the titles in one book. Somehow the book didn't make it to my comic book store and bought it on e-bay but still waiting.:cry:

 

[jonesy]

Got home from work tonight and my Ultimate/Ultimate X-Men book was waiting for me. Just looked thru it briefly but like what I see so far. Really want to see more Ultimate Handbooks.