Ultimate Power

Ultimate Power #1-9

by Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), Jeph Loeb, J. Michael Straczynski

In a desperate attempt to help his friend, Reed Richards, the leader of the science adventurers known as the Fantastic Four, has accidentally punched a hole into an adjacent universe. Now something has come through the gateway from a realm known as the Supremeverse: the team of astonishingly powerful superhumans called the Squadron Supreme! Their mission: to arrest young Reed for high crimes against their world! What happens when the Squadron collides with the heroes - and villains - of the Ultimate Universe? All-out action, drama, and spectacular eye-candy!

Collecting: Ultimate Power 1-9

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Fiction, Comic Book, Science Fiction

216 pages, Hardcover

First published March 19, 2008

About the author

A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.

Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.

Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.

Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.

Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.

Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.

He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

No one asked for this or really saw it coming, but what a concept - an Ultimates' universe crossover with J. Michael Straczynski's Squadron Supreme!. Add in Brian Michael Bendis writing the first third, J. Michael Straczynski writing the second third, and Jeph Loeb the final third, with the copy-art of Greg Land actually almost fitting this volume, what could go wrong?

Reed Richards looking to help Ben Grimm's condition sets off a chain of events that sees two worlds collide. This is volume is almost a Nick Fury masterclass, until Jeph Loeb's final third where the final books are all over the place continuity, story and character rationale wise. This book started off like a modern classic and ended up a great two thirds with a confusing ending. Absolutely worth reading though, for the first two thirds :) 8 out of 12.

2022 read; 2017 read; 2011 read

[Bookwraiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m going against the crowd and admitting I really enjoyed this one. First and foremost, this was a damn gorgeous book; Land delivering some of the most stunning visuals I’ve seen. Sure, it was cheesecake at times, but never too much. Second, this story featured the Ultimates and the Ultimate Fantastic Four tangling with the Squadron Supreme from Michael J. Straznyski’s Supreme Power. And, three, a few important events actually take place amid the cool fights. All of these things combining to make this one a great read for me personally.

To be fair, I understand why everyone doesn’t love Ultimate Power. It has a fairly standard plot for pitting our superhero teams against one another, which is a shame since a trio of great writers collaborated on it. The characterization and plot take a backseat to the action. There are so many characters going at it that none of them standout. And the appearance of certain guest stars is pretty pointless.

Overall, this was a fun book. Others might or might not enjoy it as much as I did.

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The quick synopsis -- a crossover between the Ultimate Marvel Universe and a version of the Supreme Power Universe.

The long-winded version: Ins the late 1960s, Marvel Comics created a team of villains, or perhaps a team of heros, from something like another universe. (Technically, they created villains, then retconned some heroes with the same names but from another universe, then further retconned the origin of the villains to be from another other universe and modeled after the only-once-retconned heroes. (See how bad plots snowball out of control?)
Our new heroes have a caped human crusading crime-fighter named Nighthawk, a hyper-powered alien name Hyperion, a color-zapping, gem-wielding Doctor Spectrum, a Power Princess from Utopia Island, and the very speedy Whizzer. They were invented, one may infer, to give the Marvel team of Avengers the opportunity to battle against DC Comics' Justice League, without really stealing or dealing with the true Justice League.

Now, an experiment by Reed Richards opens the universe of Squadron Supreme to invasion by terrible monsters, and we are treated to 9 issues of battles for and among these two worlds. And hot bodies in spandex (which I normally no longer applaud, but, you know, "what happens in an alternate universe, stays in an alternate universe", am I right?)

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gem.
The ending felt rushed.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume featured some of the most gorgeous art I've seen, but the story was a little cliche. The ultimate universe is invaded by a Squadron Supreme universe, and then vice versa. Things get really confusing when the "real" Squadron Supreme shows up. Overall I did enjoy the story. There was plenty of intrigue and some pretty cool moments, but things did a little confusing and "crowded." The art alone made this a must read, however.

If you like the Squadron Supreme and/or are a big fan of the Ultimate Marvel Universe, try this one out.

[Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

"You stupid fool of a human being! What the hell were you thinking?"--Exactly my thoughts on these. It also clearly sums up everything wrong with them as well.

I started reading these comix out of curiosity back in the day because people in my old class in school wouldn't shut up about them. I continued reading them thinking, "OK, this isn't good, but it's something to talk about in school." It's shocking that even all these years later the Ultimate Marvel imprint is still ongoing. The early issues are understandable and enjoyable, but these later issues including this series just lacks a connection to the audience. This series is a crossover that ties the Supreme Power universe into the Ultimate Marvel universe, which features the Supreme Power of Squadron Supreme against The Ultimates, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man. This idea, the Ultimate Idea, of The Ultimates, Fantastic Four, and the X-Men teaming up could have been executed better without the dimensional plot thread. Which is what is about to be explained below.

First things first, the title "Ultimate Power", is ultimately misleading: it barely focuses about "ultimate power" and is just about the Ultimates, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Spider-Man fighting against the Supreme Power and the Squadron Supreme, so this is an ultimately disappointing crossover with the Ultimates, the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man teaming up to fight against Supreme Power which feels like a long fight scene in all (and I do really mean ALL) the ishes. The Ultimates, the X-Men, Hulk and Spider-Man served no purpose about Mr. Fantastic using dimensional probes to find a cure for the Thing and the confrontation with the Supreme Power. In fact the characters here are all boring stereotypes that you could find in any comix, such as the team leader, his sidekicks, one shot villains, annoying villains and other unimportant and unnecessary characters.

Some ishes are all just a fight scene without explaining anything of what's happening, and those are starting to lose me. I hardly care to watch these fight scenes because I don't care what happens to these superfreaks that are affected. The individual characters and teams in their own issues made these fight scenes more exciting because they were there trying to survive and save the world with their special powers and not fail. Here, though, it's incredibly boring and repetitive.

It all starts when the Fantastic Four try to stop a group of female mercenaries called the Serpent Squad who are searching the Serpent Crown, and one of them, Princess Python punches The Thing/Ben Grimm who has his rock-like skin cracked down to the ground and is in critical condition; as a result, his friend, Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards starts finding a way to cure Ben by having S.H.I.E.L.D. to help him send advanced data retrieval probes into other dimensions, but, unfortunately, is later forgotten, so, as a result, these probes also accidentally ripped open with the Squadron Supreme, making the sub-plot about curing the Thing is unresolved. Additionally, the ending is disappointing, leaving the sub-plot about The Thing being cured is left unresolved by then until Ultimate Enemy and Ultimate Mystery comics.

The series wasted villains like Doctor Doom who is revealed to be a Doom Bot in the 8th ish and the Lex Luthor equivalent, Emil Burbank. Even the mainstream counterparts of the Supreme Power's Squadron Supreme, are sadly shoehorned into this comic and fight their versions along wit the X-Men, The Ultimates, and the Fantastic Four in a misunderstanding. Nick Fury, leader of S.H.I.E.L.D., has been flanderized at the WORST into a generic "mystery" character and main villain of the comic who works for Dr. Doom to create those transdimensional probes.

Greg Land's art, while passable, is nothing new but easy on the eyes, and it's all wasted with lack of backgrounds, reliance of tracing character's face with their wide open mouths, Thor being taller and more muscular than Spider-Man, having women to have hips sway with their legs split apart and even traced some locations like tracing the headquarters of the USS Enterprise E from Star Trek: The Next Generation (yes, really). Even so, his art was also been wasted with splash pages that feel like filler which should have been motion lines. To add insult and injury, his artwork has been clearly traced from other artworks for example:
-Supreme Power's introduction and their first fight scene is used by the Squadron Supreme.
-The Thing's open mouth looks like Pac-Man on every single ish.
-Invisible Woman looks kinda like Hannah Montana from the worst tv show ever in television history (of the same name); also, her open-arms are used from Emma Frost, and Storm.
-Hyperion's flight pose is used from Cannonball and Doctor Spectrum, and his open mouth and closed eyes while his head is up is used from Blur.
-Scarlet Witch's flight pose is used from Spider-Woman, Storm (which is used again in the first panel of the 4th ish), and Pixie, while her face is changed to Kate Beckinsdale (whom her face is used from the Wasp and Power Princess) to Jennifer Lopez, while her open mouth is used from a blonde woman from the Supreme Power universe, as well as Scarlet Witch's energy attack pose is used from Storm.
-Cyclops' optic blast attack is used from Namor's.
-Arcanna's open mouth is used from Invisible Woman.
-Plus what else doesn't help is that Spider-Man's face is used from a stock photo of his own live-action movie , making him look awful.

The writing is not good at all, and considering it was not on par to other comics related to their mainstream versions. The pacing is very slow and fast, and the tone itself is inconsistent as well. The dialogue is incredibly messy, like the Hulk saying "You look like dinner!" In addition, there are some errors, in particular in grammar and continuity, like The Thing saying "I Hates Robots", and could have said "hate" instead of "hates", that could have make sense; and Hyperion blaming Reed for destroying his earth, but it's changed where he blames him for putting his world in danger. Also, some of the jokes aren't even funny like Spider-Man trying to spell Mjolnir, which really grounded my nerves up.

To conclude, this series became an absolute ultimate disaster and I appreciate that people have long forgotten about it. The first Ultimates was amazing, the second was okay, the third was dull even though it tried a little bit harder than the others under the Ultimate Marvel imprint, but this one is incredibly abysmal. It's basically another Ultimate Marvel publication trying to do nothing but make money. The earlier issues are awesome, but not here. Here, ultimate power fails on every level. It suffers from the same plot as every other later comic book series under the Ultimate Marvel imprint, with hardly tolerable characters, horrid dialog, uninteresting action scenes...I can go on and on, but I really don't want to waste my time. Just read something else...

[Adam Stone · Rating 1 out of 5]

Greg Land on art is a good way to get me to hate a book. But I enjoy much of Bendis's work on the Ultimate titles, Straczynski's Supreme Power, and Jeph Loeb's name on a book isn't an immediate deal killer.

Unfortunately, the porn tracer isn't even the major problem with this book. It's terrible, but predictably terrible given his particular style. The problem is that a two or three issue story idea is stretched to nine issues, and each writer appear to be emulating Bendis's style, which even Bendis fails at in this volume. The dialog is too riffy and clumsy, the turns are to silly to be shocking, and the ending falls flat. Even a nearly clever conceit: The Scarlet Witch changes reality causing an alternate timeline Squadron Supreme (aka, the original Marvel 616 lineup) to briefly appear, doesn't go anywhere interesting.

Not a single character from either the Ultimate Universe or Supreme Power behaves the way they have in previous stories. In particular, Ultimate Thor suddenly talks like Silver Age Thor for no reason other than to have other characters remark on the weird way he talks. Nick Fury goes from "doing whatever it takes to get the job done" to "fuck everyone, I'm just going to throw a bunch of terrible ideas at a wall that is sure to infuriate every other character because why not?"

This was the first Every Ultimate Character In One Book Crossover, and it's both a failure, and it's not a necessary story beat for the Ultimate Universe at large. Unless you're a completist, or you get off reading books where every female character constantly has Fake Orgasm Face, even when they're just standing in the background, there is no need to waste your time on this book.

[Emmett Spain · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast-paced event full of epic fights and double splash pages, this was a lot of fun to read. The trio of Bendis, Straczynski, and Loeb each brought the action and intrigue, whilst Greg Land made the fights feel epic (but points deducted for his weird depiction of women that feels like some kind of cross between sports magazine covers and pornography—he got better with this much later in his career, but here? Yeesh.)

[Chris Greensmith · Rating 3 out of 5]

"You may think you're stronger than me -- and MAYBE you are -- but I got somethin' you ain't never gonna have. Heart."

[Shane Stanis · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Ultimate Year #16

Surprisingly cohesive for a story with 3 writers, but boy I’m ready for Land to retire from the Ultimate Universe.

Read for a whole lotta punching, and a nice Ben arc hiding underneath the mess.

[Jake Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t… not enjoy this. But kind of confused on what the appeal of Ultimate X-men of the early ‘00s was supposed to be ?

Also OG ultimate Spider-Man kind of… didn’t really make sense here.

[Raja99 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why I read this book: I liked Brian Michael Bendis's work in Ultimate Spider-Man and the Supreme Power universe. I was a little leery about combining the two, but...well, read on.

(I actually read this in the form of loose issues rather than the bound-together book.)

I had trouble reading this issue by issue, but I thoroughly enjoyed it as a complete stack. The story works a lot better without a month (or more) between installments.

It starts out very grim and gritty (despite the very pretty pinup artwork) but ends up pretty goofy. I have nothing against the goofy.

I did not realize that this was going to be a collaboration, much less a three-way collaboration. There are nine issues: Bendis writes the first three, J. Michael Straczynski (yes, the Babylon 5 creator) does the middle three, and Jeph Loeb finishes things off. The collaboration is far from seamless; neither Bendis nor Loeb seems to have much of a handle on the Supreme Power characters, whereas JMS, who has been their primary writer, completely nails them. (Yes, JMS can write like JMS.) Again, I have nothing against this; the book reads a bit like serial collaborations of yore, with one author planting bombs that the next author has to defuse.

I should also say that I thoroughly enjoyed Greg Land's artwork, though it occasionally resembles like lightly rotoscoped pinups (or centerfolds). Unless you're a brilliant storyteller like Sakai or Schulz, I guess I prefer shiny and pretty to dark, gritty, and "loose".

Overall: Fun to read, and something I ultimately (pun intended) can't take too seriously. It's nice to see a touch of humor (not JMS's strong point, to my tastes) applied to Supreme Power.

(Finished roughly 2008-09-28 23:30EDT.)

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

A shockingly mediocre book given the quality of two out of three writers working on it.

This is primarily an Ultimates book, since it's focused on their Reed Richards (and his pathway to becoming the Maker) and their Nick Fury. Unfortunately, it includes way too many Ultimates characters for any of them to get any actual characterization.

As a Supreme Power book, this is a step down. We get to see the Squad continuing to work for the government, and Emil Burbank gets some surprisingly nice attention, but other than that you wouldn't know who's who (and some of the character like Zarda even come across as incorrectly characterized). And there's no mention of JMS' annoyingly dropped plotlines from the actual comic.

And finally we get the original Squadron Supreme, and their appearance is utterly meaningless. They're just characterized as clones of Supreme Power, to the point where you don't even know if this is the real Squad or not.

Beyond that, the book is lots and lots of fighting. There's some joy from seeing the Ultimates and the two Squads together, but it's not enough.

[Damián Vives · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bendis, Straczynski y Loeb cruzan de manera efectiva y cargada de acción el universo Ultimate y el de Supreme Power. La saga de nueve episodios se divide en tres actos de tres capitulos cada uno. El primero, ambientado en el universo Ultimate, está a cargo de Bendis -el principal hacedor de esta continuidad- y se centra en la distópica cruzada de Reed Richards por curar la mutación sufrida por su amigo Ben Grimm, The Thing. En su investigación, Reed desata el caos en un universo paralelo, del que emergen sus titanes -El escuadrón supremo- buscando venganza. El segundo acto, a cargo del creador de Babylon 5, centra su acción en el oscuro universo del Escuadrón y narra una espiral de conspiraciones, para desembocar en un tercer acto a pura acción a cargo del veterano Loeb. El apartado gráfico está a cargo del magistral Greg Land.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt like I rushed through this series because I was so not enjoying it. There were a few quips from Spider Man that I enjoyed, but this was largely disappointing. It combined the machismo of the Ultimates with the space-ridiculousness of the FF, and I wasn't here for it.

[Scotty Cameron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many superhero fans and comic readers what would happen if the Avengers met the Justice League? Well, Ultimate Power answers that question perfectly by giving you a story where Marvel's deconstruction of the Justice League the Squadron Supreme meats the Ultimates, the Ultimate versions of the Avengers, alongside the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Ultimate Power is a massive crossover event that took the combined work of J. Michael Straczynski, Jeph Loeb, and Brian Michael Bendis to create. Ultimate Power gets its name from Marvel's Ultimate Comics runs and Marvel/Max Supreme Power runs. Well, they managed to succeed in their mission by creating a great story with the best cast of characters a fanboy could dream of with fantastic artwork.

Story
Ultimate Power to those of us who are familiar with the Squadron Supreme remembers when they fought the Avengers in the '70s, well now they're fighting the Ultimates in the 2000s. Ultimate Power begins with the Fantastic Four stopping the Serpent Squad from breaking into Project PEGASUS. In that fight, a piece of Thing comes off and Mr. Fantastic tries to figure out what's wrong. This leads Mr. Fantastic to discover the Multiverse. When the Ultimate Squadron Supreme's world is destroyed by "Reed Richards" the Squadron Supreme goes after Reed and takes him prisoner so the Ultimates, X-men, and the rest of the Fantastic Four have to save him and find out who really destroyed the Squadron Supreme's world. The Squadron Supreme wants Mr. Fantastic to repair the damage he's done. While the Ultimates and Squadron Supreme fight, the Original Squadron Supreme is drawn into this battle and they fight their Ultimate Counterparts. Then all of a sudden Doctor Doom comes in and interrupts the battle. The Hulk is Unleashed into combat and attacks all 3 factions. Which unites all the heroes as they fight a common enemy. I liked how this takes 2 of the greatest evil masterminds in Marvel, Dr. Doom, and Emile Burbank, and teams them up to carry out villainy. This also feels very nostalgic because the Squadron Supreme fought the Avengers in the 1970s and the two teams came around to team up to fight common enemies, it was felt like a modernized take on an old dynamic. I also like the presence of the original Squadron Supreme, it added to the nostalgic feel of the narrative. Though I wish the original Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four also joined the conflict in addition to the original Squadron Supreme. It would've been cool to see the Astonishing X-Men fight the Ultimate X-Men, the Avengers fight the Ultimates, and the original Fantastic Four fight the Ultimate Fantastic Four in addition to the two Squadron Supremes fighting. I can understand why the writers chose to exclude the Avengers and the main X-Men and Fantastic Four because they may have felt it would convolute the story. However, the original Squadron Supreme's presence on served as fan service, they didn't make the story more convoluted. So adding the original Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four would do likewise. This is just me being a nitpicky fanboy, but still, I would have to see that in the story. Regardless the story was phenomenal.

Characters
The characters in the story were very likable and it helped strengthen the narrative. The Fantastic Four was Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thin. The X-Men you had Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Jean Grey, Rogue, and Kitty Pryde. The Ultimates are basically just the Ultimate Avengers just given a different team name. They are Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Hawkeye, Spider-man, Hulk, Ant-Man, and the Wasp. The Squadron Supreme is Marvel's Justice League of America you have Hyperion (Superman), Nighthawk (Batman), Power Princess (Wonder Woman), Doctor Spectrum (Green Lantern), Whizzer/Blur (Flash), Arcana (Zatana), Shape (Plastic Man), Nuke (Firestorm), Skymax (Martian Manhunter), Amphibian (Aquaman), Lady Lark (Black Canary), and Tom Thumb (the Atom). The Justice League is my favorite superhero team, so it was nice to see Marvel's deconstruction of the team done justice. Now given that the character roster was so large not everyone got a fair share of time in the narrative, luckily their characters were fleshed out in the Ultimates, Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Ulitmate X-Men, Supreme Power, and Squadron Supreme runs prior to Ultimate Power so there aren't any underdeveloped characters in this story. The central characters in the story are Mr. Fantastic, Spider-man, Captain America, Hyperion, Nick Fury, Invisible Woman, Power Princess, and the Thing everyone else serves as secondary characters. Mr. Fantastic is depicted as the young genius who discovers the multiverse. He is curious to know what exists in these parallel earth, he very much has the curiosity of a scientist. This is actually true to Mr. Fantastic's character because the original Mr. Fantastic also discovered the Marvel Multiverse. When he learns that one of his probes destroys the Ultimate Squadron Supreme's homeworld he feels guilty about the damage caused by his probe and willingly hands himself over to the Squadron Supreme. Mr. Fantastic also discovers that Emil Burbank destroyed the Squadron Supreme's world, and tries to inform all the heroes. Spider-Man is the wise-cracking and genius high school student who is drawn into this by mistake. He's in a relationship with Kitty Pryde. It is Spider-Man who creates a way for the Ultimates, X-Men and remaining Fantastic Four members to get to the Squadron's universe. He does this through his knowledge of Norse Mythology and tells Thor to make a portal to the alternate universe. Spider-Man also discovers that Nick Fury and Dr. Doom framed Mr. Fantastic for sending the probe. Captain America is suspicious of Nick Fury and he assumes that Fury is hiding something. Cap also demonstrated his ability to lead, by commanding 3 different teams of superheroes to save Mr. Fantastic. He also tells Spider-Man to investigate Fury. Hyperion is much like Captain America in the sense that he is a strong leader and his leadership skills are on par with Cap's. On top of being a strong leader, Hyperion is also depicted as being the caring protector of his world and he sees the destruction of his world as a failure on his behalf. Nick Fury is depicted as being secretive and untrustworthy in character. He sees his duty as that to take drastic actions to protect his people at all costs, even that of others. Fury forged his partnership with Dr. Doom to scare Mr. Fantastic out of exploring alternate earths. His concerns are related to all of Mr. Fantastic's previous discoveries and the destruction that followed. Invisible Woman is Mr. Fantastic's fiance and she cares about Mr. Fantastic's well being more than anything. She tries to stop Mr. Fantastic from surrendering himself to the Squadron. Power Princess has a similar romantic dynamic with Hyperion to that of Invisible Woman with Mr. Fantastic. She serves to help a grieving Hyperion from feeling complete guilt over the destruction of his world and tries to calm him down. Power Princess is also warrior-like in the heat of battle and is a relentless opponent. The Thing just wants to have a normal life and hates being a permanent rock monster. He does enjoy being strong when it's necessary, but hate that his rock form is his only form. Thing's presence adds to Mr. Fantastic character for the whole reason, Mr. Fantastic discovered the Marvel Multiverse was to find a cure for the Thing. The rest of the heroes acts as you'd expect them to act. Thor is a buffoon, Wolverine's a jerk, and Nighthawk is a detective and vigilante. The Hulk is more out of control and brutal than his mainstream counterpart. The original Squadron Supreme does serve as a contrast to their Ultimate counterparts. The mainstream Squadron Supreme acts more like the Justice League and the have a more uplifting tone to them. The Ultimate versions are darker and have a more militaristic tone to them. This is the contrast that the mainstream Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four were included in the story. Again, I'm being nitpicky. The villains are also well established. Dr. Doom is the villainous mastermind who wants to ruin Mr. Fantastic's life. He also sends a robot duplicate to fight the heroes, so he doesn't get apprehended. Emil Burbank is Hyperion's archnemesis who looked for a way to bring about Hyperion's greatest failure. Emil Burbank is Marvel's answer to Lex Luthor given that Hyperion is Marvel's Superman. Ultimately, this makes Burbank a cunning villain who relies on his intellect instead of physical strength. In fact, Burbank sees himself as an underappreciated genius who is jealous of the world's fascination with Hyperion, much like Luthor and Superman. This shows how well J. Michael Straczynski, Jeph Loeb, and Brian Michael Bendis know the characters they are dealing with.

Artwork
Greg Land's artwork made Ultimate Power a blast to read. In fact, the artwork made me look at panels than I normally would because of how spectacular the art was. Each character looks their best. This where it is the most obvious that the Squadron Supreme was a deconstruction of the Justice League. The original Squadron Supreme bears a very strong resemblance to the Justice League and their looks alone can tell which member they're based on. The Ultimate Versions are a bit harder to tell, but not that much harder. The originals have capes and costume designs that resemble the Justice League's costumes. The original Amphibian is a man with blonde hair, the Ultimate Amphibian is a female with blue scaly skin. This also another area where it would be nice to have included the Avengers, Astonishing X-Men, and original Fantastic Four was to compare and contrast their looks. Anyone familiar with these characters and renditions knows what they look like so I won't make this review longer by describing how everyone looks. I'll elaborate on character looks in other reviews of graphic novels featuring these characters. I will say I liked the look of the Ultimate Dr. Doom in this graphic novel. Typically the Ultimate Dr. Doom has a straight green cloth all over his body that's ripped up and he has legs like a horse. Here he has the look of the standard Dr. Doom, but with fur shoulder pads that create the impression of royalty. A nice change in design. The point being everyone looked great thanks to Greg Land.

In the end, I had a blast reading Ultimate Power, it is a graphic novel that had me on the edge of my seat. J. Michael Straczynski, Jeph Loeb, and Brian Michael Bendis made a compelling graphic novel with an amazing cast of characters all while combined with Greg Lands' spectacular artwork. This is a must-read for Avengers/Ultimates, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Squadron Supreme, and Justice League fans.

[Ramón Nogueras Pérez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Igual que en el anterior me flipaban las historias callejeras, también me flipa cuando se les va la olla a nivel cósmico.

En apariencia, todo empieza con un experimento de Reed Richards para tratar de devolver a la Cosa a su aspecto humano. Envía sondas sin permiso a diferentes realidades, para tratar de encontrar una solución. Pero por lo visto su experimento sale regular y un grupo de héroes llamado el Escuadrón Supremo (que es la No Liga de la Justicia) vienen al edificio Baxter a pedir cuentas a los 4F por la que han liado en su realidad.

Reed se somete a juicio mientras que el resto del grupo dicen que al carajo, y reúnen a Spiderman, los X-Men, los Ultimates y SHIELD para ir detrás de Richards y rescatarlo. Momento en el que descubren que en realidad toda esta movida la ha orquestado Nick Furia aliado nada menos que con el doctor Muerte para garantizar la seguridad de nuestra realidad, lo cual es de ser gilipollas de carrito porque ya ves, pactar con Muerte. Al final se descubre al verdadero culpable y ambos universos hacen las paces, no sin antes hacer destrozos enormes a ambos lados. Ah, y le decimos adiós a Nick Furia, por ahora, que va al trullo por traidor.

El segundo arco se centra en la Visión (el heraldo de Gah Lak Tus) y Falcon, poco después de que Gah Lak Tus sea derrotado, cuando descubren que un científico loco (el amo de IMA, en realidad) ha capturado uno de los módulos del Devorador y pretende implantárselo para ser más tocho, lo cual es una idea de mierda. Hay una batalla terrible a bordo de una estación espacial secreta que acaban estrellando, y evitan que el módulo haga reventar la tierra por los pelos. Por supuesto, el cyborg de IMA se escapa.

La verdad, aprecio enormemente que no se cortan un pelo. En lo que llevamos de serie varias personas claves en el MCU han palmado o desaparecido sin que les tiemble la mano a los autores, y la típica inmunidad de guión es menos inmunidad que otras veces. Por otra parte, el concepto de la Visión es muchísimo más interesante como Heraldo de Gah Lak Tus que como hijo aburrido de Ultrón, y la idea de poder usar el lenguaje como arma es tremenda. Más de eso. De hecho, me han dado la idea para la partida de Fading Suns.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I put off reading Ultimate Power for the longest time because of all the negative reviews here. This despite the fact that I absolutely love both the Ultimate Universe and the Supreme Power titles. Anyway, when I ran across a used copy of the Ultimate Power paperback collection I decided to give it a shot.

The story is pretty basic. The Fantastic Four's Reed Richards, in a quest to cure his teammate the Thing, sends probes through the N-Zone into other dimensions (you'd think he'd have learned his lesson after that whole zombie thing). One probe reached the Supreme Power Universe, wreaking unimaginable havoc. The Squadron Supreme tracks Reed down to make him pay, at which point they, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Ultimates and the X-Men proceed to pound the living crap out of each other for nine consecutive issues.

The plot is pretty basic, but Bendis, Straczynski and Loeb throw in a few surprises, and the dialogue (at least on Bendis's issues) is pretty sharp. With this many characters, there really isn't any kind of character development, and it does get hard to tell who's who after a while. I'm not sure why they decided to have Thor adopt the old school "thee and thou" dialect, or why the lettering style changed so dramatically towards the end of the book, but those are minor complaints.

Greg Land's artwork is the highlight of the book. I don't care if he traces, or that his female characters look too similar. The guy is an amazing artist, and his pages are just too stunning to complain about.

Despite the negative reaction of most fans, I actually enjoyed Ultimate Power quite a bit. I totally understand how people could be disappointed with it. It doesn't live up to the standard set by the Ultimates or Supreme Power, but it's still an entertaining, gorgeously illustrated superhero slug-fest.

[Nathan Guetteville · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'ai trouvé ce crossover de l'univers Ultimate assez divertissant avec un pitch qui fait envie : Reed Richards est recherché par le Squadron Supreme du Supremeverse, réalité alternative du Multivers Marvel, accusé d'avoir accidentellement détruit ce monde en essayant de chercher un remède à la condition de Ben Grimm.

Du côté dessin, j'ai été agréablement surpris : pour du Greg Land, il y a un peu moins de visages dérangeants que d'habitude (sa prestation sur Ultimate Fantastic Four était douloureuse...) et l'action est bien retranscrite.

Et il y'en a, de l'action ! Les super-héros de l'univers Ultimate (X-Men, 4 Fantastiques, Ultimates et Spider-Man) sont tous là pour se mettre sur la tronche avec le Squadron Supreme, les super-héros inspirés par la Justice League de DC, mais qui se cache dans l'ombre de Nick Fury ?

J'avoue que l'intrigue m'a fait quelques noeuds au cerveau, si bien que je ne suis pas vraiment en mesure de dire avec certitude quel a été le rôle de certains personnages dans la catastrophe qui a touché le Supremeverse.

Un event qui ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard, mais qui se lit bien au final, surtout pour les amateurs de baston.

[Christian · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Squadron Supreme are Marvel's version of DC that they like to pull out when they want to do a DC/Marvel crossover. They were rebooted as Supreme Power with J. Michael Straczynski around the same time as Ultimate Marvel was being written, and they are notably a blindspot for me. JMS is one of my favourite writers, but I've never gotten around to reading it. I thought about it as project, but I'm already reading all of ultimate marvel it would seem (and possibly all of hickman in preparation for ultimate end, depending on how ambitious I'm feeling), so adding Squadron Supreme to that felt like too much... and it's not on Marvel Unlimited.

This is pretty boring, though. Maybe it wouldn't be if I knew the characters, but overall, it's just a lot of punching. It also switches writers every 3 issues, which is jarring.

And Greg Land sucks.

What matters most, though, is that I joked a while ago that Fury was gone because he was being tried for war crimes... and I was right.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was never much of a fan of Marvel"s Ultimate line (a couple of runs of Millar's work, and little of Hickman's). So why read this? I am a fan of JMS (sorry I cannot spell his last name from memory) work, and I did read and enjoy most of his Supreme Power run. As the Ultimate line pretty much retold a lot of previously told Marvel Comics stories why not do an Avengers (aka Ultimates) versus Supreme Power (aka Squadron Supreme) story?

Look three writers probably made this more of a jumbled mess than I will admit, but about 2/3rds of the way through they hit a big fanboy button for me, and this became...

A Marvel riff on those old annual JSA/JLA team-up stories, so if liked those, you'll likely go for this.

[AviChaim Snyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't realize this was primarily a Fantastic Four story with cameos from the other Ultimate heroes but I'm here for it. This story was gripping and as an avid comic reader, sometimes it is quite easy to tell what will happen next within the story but the twists here got me and only has me wanting more answers and more issues. Great, fun story and the art for the Ultimate Universe is on point as usual. This is Bendis on his game here, definitely recommend this book. Don't be mistaken, there are holes in this story and plot points that need further clarification but still we need more stories like this in modern Marvel. Grade: B+

[Garrett Ballendine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I officially understand why everyone hates Greg Lands art.

This is hands down the worst Trade in the Ultimate universe so far.
-Disgusting porn traced art that doesn't match the dialog.
-Is there a woman on screen? She's got the sexualization cranked up to 11 even just standing still and probably giving an orgasm face.
-Characters abandoning the entirety of their characterisation thus far to act completely different. Hippie Thor is suddenly taking Shakespeare lessons.
-Plot makes no sense and Ultimate Fury's never been this stupid.

[Marloges · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm honestly a bit conflicted because I really enjoyed the actual set-up and fights of this and while the faces certainly look goofy, the artwork itself was really good. What kinda killed it for me however was simply how mediocre the actual story was. Fury acts out of character with his naivety and there are some asspull story moments that really didn't need to be there. I just wish the whole thing was a bit more coherent... But I guess that's what happens if three authors work on the same story. Definitely worth a read though I'd say.

[Noah · Rating 3 out of 5]

The whole "Countdown to Ultimate Human" was much greater than Ultimate Human itself. I like that I never quite know what to expect, but it gets exhausting. Part of me can't believe that Reed could make so many mistakes, but then I remember that he's 18. I don't know, this just didn't flow in a narrative way, but there were plenty of visual spectacles to distract you from that.

[Zachary King · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is all over the highway, and the most consistent thing is Greg Land’s icky art. It doesn’t quite live up to JMS’s Supreme Power run or any of the Ultimate Universe... it’s stuck in between the two, and its ending teases a number of plot lines that ended up not going anywhere.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

The setup isn't my cup of tea. The climax seemed like it was really going places, but then it's kind of a let down.

There are a lot of heel turns here and ultimately too many villains. It's not clear whose master plan it is. Is it anyone's?

[Kris Ritchie · Rating 2 out of 5]

As I am going back and adding volumes I read this year, this one was just not that memorable.

[Frans Kempe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reed gets a visit from another dimension when the Squadron Supreme accuse him of destroying their world.

[Shawn Ingle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pacing could have been so much better. A solid, steady start, then backloaded with information.