Ultimate Power

The Ultimate Marvel universe is a pretty small place when all things are considered. There's the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Spider-Man and the Ultimates and they are all based in New York. There are a few other vigilantes floating around - Daredevil, Dr Strange, Moon Knight...but surprise, surprise, they all hang around New York as well. So it's something of a surprise to think that until know all those heroes haven't met up together at the same time. Oh, sure, most of them were there for Gah Lak Tus, but Spider-Man was noticeably absent. Ultimate Power sees that small place show it's constraints as the groups finally do come together, and yet strangely enough the universe itself is opened up as another dimension bursts into Earth-1610.

I decided to do a bit of background reading on the Squadron Supreme before they showed up in Ultimate Power, and was a little surprised to find that they had faced the Avengers earlier, although the Squadron that turns up in Ultimate Power are a parallel version of that. In fact, it seems that this Squadron is a bit of a spoof of the DC Justice League. Hyperion being Superman, Blur being Flash, Princess Power being Wonder Woman, etc. That said, though, Supreme Power is a comic aimed at adults and the Ultimate Universe is a more grown up version of the standard Marvel Universe, so if Supreme Power was ever going to cross over with anything, the ultimate universe would be it.

Brian Michael Bendis, who is essentially the architect of the Ultimate universe, writes the first three issues of this series and, aside from completely shagging Ultimate continuity (seriously, does Bendis even remotely keep track of what is happening in the X-Men?) he provides us with the set up for the story and essentially tells us what is happening from the Ultimate point of view. Which means that, when things go over to the Power universe, it's appropriate that J Michael Straczynski takes over as the architect of that dimension.

It must have been hard for both of these writers not to show their particular heroes as being just a little better than the other team, and certainly Straczynski is a little guilty of this - the Squadron Supreme seemingly able to easily hold their own against all the heroes of the Ultimate universe, which is just a little unbelievable. Bendis, on the other hand, shows the Squadron losing, but blames it on the dimensional jump, which is a little fairer.

As the story progresses - Reed Richards being accused of essentially destroying the Power universe, but in fact being manipulated unwittingly by both, and independent of each other, Emil Burbank and Nick Fury; Fury being in league with Dr Doom. It's something of a surprise to find that Doom is back, and is never really explained but perhaps that's just one of the conceits of comic books.

For the last three issues, Jeph Loeb takes over the writing task, and Loeb is perhaps best remembered for such wonderful things as DC's Hush in which he manages to bring virtually every villain who ever looked sideways at Batman into a battle with the Dark Knight. Given the amount of people in this comic (and bearing in mind that towards the end of the series there is not one, but two Squadron Supremes!) Loeb seems like a good choice to wrap this up, and Loeb does seem to treat them fairly. What is perhaps the best part about the whole comic is that Fury has a back up plan in his attack on the Power Universe, and that backup plan is to release the Hulk. I love the fact that in the Ultimate universe, the Hulk is the worst thing there. Never mind criminal masterminds like Doom and Magneto - once the unstoppable and cannabilistic Hulk is unleashed, everyone stops to take notice.

All in all the series is a great read. With so many characters, though, it's fairly obvious that some characters are going to suffer a little, but what actually happens is that most of the characters just fill up the background. From the Squadron, happily Hyperion, Power Princess and Doctor Spectrum all get stuff to do, while everyone else just fights. From the Ultimate universe, however, Spider-Man, Mr Fantastic, Shadowcat, Invisible Woman, the Thing, Captain America, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch all get parts to play, while everyone else just plays in teh background. It's almost inevitable that this will happen, however, so I suppose that you have to be aware going into the comic.
Greg Land's art, however, is really good, and I love his takes on the FF and Carol Danvers in particular. Land has a great way of drawing the women in the comic and they all end up looking stunning.

All in all, continuity aside, the comic ends up working really well and is an enjoyable read.

"B+"