Ultimate Doom 1

The most annoying thing about this is that it is not genuinely the start of a four-part mini-series. Well, it is, but it isn’t the start of a story: it’s a continuation of Ultimate Mystery. This is turning into an infuriating habit in the Ultimate line – I am guessing that it’s easier to hook readers into a trilogy of four-parters than a twelve-parter, say (I have no idea if this is a trilogy – nor even if this is just part two, or if there was something before Ultimate Mystery). If you are for some reason attracted to this without knowing all this, without having read the first part, it starts with a confrontation between Susan Storm and an evil Reed Richards, and then a highly superpowered Rick Jones butts in. Spider-Woman has been captured by Roxxon, apparently led by Dr Octopus. Ben Grimm is no longer the Thing, but seems to have some new superpowers. It’s completely incomprehensible. Perhaps it is supposed to be – Reed certainly yells “You don’t understand!” and the like repeatedly. This doesn’t make it a more acceptable read, but we all know that Bendis, more than probably anyone else, writes for collections, so perhaps read as a whole it will work better.

If you’re hooked by the cover, you might be displeased by the insides too: it shows Nick Fury in an exoskeleton fighting robots/monsters. The interior has very little Nick Fury, no exoskeleton, and while there are robots/monsters (I’m having to guess at what they are, but I guess they look like cyborg monsters or some such) inside, they are never in the same part of the country as Fury, let alone the same room. I am mystified by this – I am not demanding literal representations of the interior on every cover, but it is bizarre departing quite so far from a strong cover image like Sue and Reed battling to the death in favour of a generic scene.

Anyway, ignoring all of that, let’s talk about the contents. The art does not help the sense of confusion – badly composed and framed panels, grotesquely exaggerated body language, to the extent that Sue’s hair seems to be trying to tell us how she feels. His ludicrously overwrought style works better in the big action moments, though he’s not much use at stringing actions together.

There aren’t a lot of quiet moments in this, and none of them are character scenes, which is where I like Bendis best. It seems like a big story, but I’ve no idea if it’s a good one – with no idea why Reed is now evil, nor what he is planning, nor if there is anything larger behind his actions, it’s impossible to judge, but Reed certainly makes for a major threat.

I don’t know – I suspect my advice would be to leave it until it’s finished and collected, and see if people tell you it’s good as a whole.