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The Ultimates (Collected Editions) #5
The Ultimates 3: Who Killed the Scarlet Witch?
A year later, who are the Ultimates? After going through the tumultuous events of the past two volumes, the Ultimates find themselves operating out of Tony Stark's mansion in New York where, no longer working for S.H.I.E.L.D., they have to make it on their own. But a terrible secret is about to tear them apart and bring about a murder at the mansion! One of Earth's greatest heroes will die, and there'll be plenty of suspects! New Members! New Adventures! And New Secrets! All this, and Ultimate Venom, too!
Join Eisner winner and Emmy-nominated writer Jeph Loeb (TV's Heroes, Captain America: Fallen Son) and the superstar team of Joe Madureira and Christian Lichtner (Uncanny X-Men, Battle Chasers) as they take the Ultimates on their wildest ride yet!
Collecting: The Ultimates 3 1-5
Join Eisner winner and Emmy-nominated writer Jeph Loeb (TV's Heroes, Captain America: Fallen Son) and the superstar team of Joe Madureira and Christian Lichtner (Uncanny X-Men, Battle Chasers) as they take the Ultimates on their wildest ride yet!
Collecting: The Ultimates 3 1-5
120 pages, Paperback
First published December 5, 2007
10 people are currently reading
276 people want to read
About the author
Jeph Loeb
1,589 books1,379 followersJoseph "Jeph" Loeb III is an Emmy and WGA nominated American film and television writer, producer and award-winning comic book writer. Loeb was a Co-Executive Producer on the NBC hit show Heroes, and formerly a producer/writer on the TV series Smallville and Lost.
A four-time Eisner Award winner and five-time Wizard Fan Awards winner (see below), Loeb's comic book career includes work on many major characters, including Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Hulk, Captain America, Cable, Iron Man, Daredevil, Supergirl, the Avengers, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, much of which he has produced in collaboration with artist Tim Sale, who provides the comic art seen on Heroes.
A four-time Eisner Award winner and five-time Wizard Fan Awards winner (see below), Loeb's comic book career includes work on many major characters, including Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Hulk, Captain America, Cable, Iron Man, Daredevil, Supergirl, the Avengers, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, much of which he has produced in collaboration with artist Tim Sale, who provides the comic art seen on Heroes.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 120 reviews
August 28, 2022
Some cool changes have happened to the Ultimates with the addition of the Ultimate Black Panther, and Wasp taking over leadership. Cue an attack by Venom(!), an attempted suicide and then an assassination! The Ultimates are under attack from within and without? Not as good as Mark Millar's volumes but with Joe Madureira art and laying down the groundwork for Ultimatum by writer Jeph Loeb, quite a compelling read. 8 out of 12
2022 read; 2017 read; 2011 read
2022 read; 2017 read; 2011 read
December 29, 2011
No. Just...no.
What happened, Jeph? Were you actively trying to screw it up?
The plot is less than coherent, the characters are shells of their previous selves, and the Wanda/Pietro thing is just plain icky. I really can't think of anything in the book redeeming enough to make it worth reading.
My advice would be to stay away from this thing, and just pretend that
The Ultimates 2 was the end of it.
What happened, Jeph? Were you actively trying to screw it up?
The plot is less than coherent, the characters are shells of their previous selves, and the Wanda/Pietro thing is just plain icky. I really can't think of anything in the book redeeming enough to make it worth reading.
My advice would be to stay away from this thing, and just pretend that
The Ultimates 2 was the end of it.
December 11, 2017
Well, that totally sucked. Jeph Loeb completely screwing up everything that was cool about The Ultimates to begin with, getting pretty much every character wrong, and writing an incoherent, mess of a story. And I gotta say I hated Joe Madureira’s artwork for this book as well as the updated looks for the characters. Nothing was wrong with the Ultimates, so why the hell change them. I’m now going to forget I ever read this crap.
June 7, 2018
⭐️
Oh...what have you done??
That was terrible. The storyline was all over the place.
Disappointing 😔😔
And there was no element of surprise...the person who dies is on the darn title..
Oh...what have you done??
That was terrible. The storyline was all over the place.
Disappointing 😔😔
And there was no element of surprise...the person who dies is on the darn title..
June 2, 2021
This was awful, I heard it was bad but damn I didn’t expect it to be this terrible. The plot is uncomfortable, everything is done for shock factor. The dialogue is cringe levels of edginess. So much of it just doesn’t make any sense, the characters act ooc and stuff contradicts previously established lore in the ultimate universe. The art was nice but it’s not enough to save this train wreck of a story.
August 24, 2024
(Read in 2009, review from 2024)
Holy sh*t. I remember not liking this in high school but rereading it a few years later, it's somehow worse. Anything in Ultimate Marvel besides Ultimate Spider-Man never aged well but this in particular is horrendous. The story is a confusing muddled mess, the dialogue is atrocious, the depiction of women is even more atrocious, its got all the gross sex stuff (Garth Ennis is either nodding along or grossed out himself) and its just overall bad. It's actually worse than Ultimatum and is by far the worst thing Jeph Loeb has ever created.
Holy sh*t. I remember not liking this in high school but rereading it a few years later, it's somehow worse. Anything in Ultimate Marvel besides Ultimate Spider-Man never aged well but this in particular is horrendous. The story is a confusing muddled mess, the dialogue is atrocious, the depiction of women is even more atrocious, its got all the gross sex stuff (Garth Ennis is either nodding along or grossed out himself) and its just overall bad. It's actually worse than Ultimatum and is by far the worst thing Jeph Loeb has ever created.
December 12, 2015
You know, I read (and re-read many times) the reviews from other people on this site, trying to get a feel for this book and decide if I'd spend (or waste) my time reading it. Well, I took the plunge.
It... could've been so much better (as all the 1-star and 2-star ratings confirm). Perhaps five issues was not enough to properly flesh out the story & the characters involved. Let me elaborate:
Jeph Loeb throws some ideas (bad ones & good ones) out there that are barely touched upon again in the book, if only by way of being mentioned, but remaining unexplored. Some of the stuff could've been left out, to give room to expand upon the points actually relevant to the story.
Here are a few examples:
Right from the FIRST PANEL of the story, we're thrust (pun intended) in the middle of the supposed sex scandal caused by the release of footage with Tony & Natasha having sex. Um, what exactly was the point of this? It has absolutely NO relevance (or impact) on the rest of the story.
SECOND PAGE: Thor gets thrown through the wall of the Ultimates' base by... VENOM? This was my first WTF moment when reading this book. I mean, Venom? This better be going somewhere. In the end it's just a reason to bring in Spider-Man into the story... even though, again, he ALSO serves no purpose by being included (other than for a brief tussle with Hawkeye, which also leads nowhere).
The inclusion of Black Panther is also pointless (and it's not even really him!).
Ka-Zar & Shanna also show up (naturally, as the story moves to the Savage Land), but they don't really do much. They could've played a more significant part and that would've been okay.
The Ultron angle was interesting. What disappointed me was the reveal that Ultron itself is also only a pawn of Doctor Doom, so all the previous motivations for its actions and its "revenge plot" get somehow negated. Did Doctor Doom really need to be included at all? And if "yes", why wait until the VERY LAST PAGE of the book to do so?
* * * * * * *
There ARE some things that worked in this story:
- Hawkeye is a darker character (following the death of his wife & kids) and sports a new costume.
- Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are not only siblings, but also lovers. No surprise there, in my opinion: Millar had sewn the seeds of this particular situation in the first "Ultimates" series.
- The Brotherhood of Mutants attacking the Ultimates in their own home was cool.
-The Ultron angle, as mentioned previously, was interesting. The book could've been better if more time had been given to this thread, and if the Doctor Doom involvement had been non-existent. By extension of the Ultron plot thread, the "Ultron Ultimates" and the throw-down with the real Ultimates was fun. I just don't understand the whole "turning-to-goo" thing. What's up with that?
With the "supposed" death of Quicksilver (and Magneto ending up with Thor's Hammer), Jeph Loeb got the stage ready for "Ultimatum". Which, I guess, was what "Ultimates 3" became: a prologue of sorts for the "main event". What is MOST disappointing to me is that the "Ultimates" franchise had been, up to that point, a gold standard in the comic book industry: Quality stories and quality art. The art wasn't the issue here. Sure, it was not Bryan Hitch, and Joe Madureira has a completely different style, but it's nice to get another artist's take on the characters. The actual story, though, could've been more polished, refined and streamlined to give the franchise its due.
Too bad, though...
It... could've been so much better (as all the 1-star and 2-star ratings confirm). Perhaps five issues was not enough to properly flesh out the story & the characters involved. Let me elaborate:
Jeph Loeb throws some ideas (bad ones & good ones) out there that are barely touched upon again in the book, if only by way of being mentioned, but remaining unexplored. Some of the stuff could've been left out, to give room to expand upon the points actually relevant to the story.
Here are a few examples:
Right from the FIRST PANEL of the story, we're thrust (pun intended) in the middle of the supposed sex scandal caused by the release of footage with Tony & Natasha having sex. Um, what exactly was the point of this? It has absolutely NO relevance (or impact) on the rest of the story.
SECOND PAGE: Thor gets thrown through the wall of the Ultimates' base by... VENOM? This was my first WTF moment when reading this book. I mean, Venom? This better be going somewhere. In the end it's just a reason to bring in Spider-Man into the story... even though, again, he ALSO serves no purpose by being included (other than for a brief tussle with Hawkeye, which also leads nowhere).
The inclusion of Black Panther is also pointless (and it's not even really him!).
Ka-Zar & Shanna also show up (naturally, as the story moves to the Savage Land), but they don't really do much. They could've played a more significant part and that would've been okay.
The Ultron angle was interesting. What disappointed me was the reveal that Ultron itself is also only a pawn of Doctor Doom, so all the previous motivations for its actions and its "revenge plot" get somehow negated. Did Doctor Doom really need to be included at all? And if "yes", why wait until the VERY LAST PAGE of the book to do so?
* * * * * * *
There ARE some things that worked in this story:
- Hawkeye is a darker character (following the death of his wife & kids) and sports a new costume.
- Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are not only siblings, but also lovers. No surprise there, in my opinion: Millar had sewn the seeds of this particular situation in the first "Ultimates" series.
- The Brotherhood of Mutants attacking the Ultimates in their own home was cool.
-The Ultron angle, as mentioned previously, was interesting. The book could've been better if more time had been given to this thread, and if the Doctor Doom involvement had been non-existent. By extension of the Ultron plot thread, the "Ultron Ultimates" and the throw-down with the real Ultimates was fun. I just don't understand the whole "turning-to-goo" thing. What's up with that?
With the "supposed" death of Quicksilver (and Magneto ending up with Thor's Hammer), Jeph Loeb got the stage ready for "Ultimatum". Which, I guess, was what "Ultimates 3" became: a prologue of sorts for the "main event". What is MOST disappointing to me is that the "Ultimates" franchise had been, up to that point, a gold standard in the comic book industry: Quality stories and quality art. The art wasn't the issue here. Sure, it was not Bryan Hitch, and Joe Madureira has a completely different style, but it's nice to get another artist's take on the characters. The actual story, though, could've been more polished, refined and streamlined to give the franchise its due.
Too bad, though...
January 6, 2022
Re-reading this for my new video and holy shit is this as awful as I remember.
The very first page of Ultimates 3 starts with leaked footage of Tony's sex tape. Because, what better way to start a superhero tale of the greatest team on earth, than to talk about the drunk tony start fucking and his tapes selling on dvd. If that's not bad enough we have totally out of wack character, Hawkeye acting enraged despite him trying to self heal after Ultimates 2 events in which he lost his family. Instead of on that path at the end of that, we have just a angsty version of Hawkeye no one can stand, cursing at everyone including his friends.
But we can't get to comfortable because soon Venom burst in demanding to speak to “her” but we don't learn who her is till much later. And the rest of the issue is extremely uneasy and uncomfortable as Janet explains to Steve after Steve and Quick Silver get into a argument over scarlet witches costume in which Janet explains that quick silver is in love with scarlet witch. His sister. Like Yikes. But it only gets worse as it goes on.
We have major character like Black Panther get beat by the likes of someone like venom. Janet just yelling at me. Thor has a horny god trying to fuck a 19 year old as much as he can. Which might be the most normal thing in this book and it still comes off as sleezy. You got Wolverine just showing up because he's wolverine. You have a cameo of Spider-Man which was a unnecessary 7 or 8 pages. And you have almost everyone MORE unlikeable in this ultimates even than you did in the prior ultimates, which despite being unlikeable, at least got shit done. In this they're fighting amongst themselves most of the time, and there isn't even a hulk to cause this.
Later on Quick silver goes to his father after his sister is shot and presumed dead. His father decides to strike the ultimates. This causes a new brotherhood to form. The fights make no sense, characters getting beat that shouldn't. There's few extremely uncomfortable scenes, one where Valkyrie almost gets raped by Pyro...like why? WHY Quick silver quick betrayal after getting shot in the knees by his father is all good with his pops. You have some odd choices here like showing the sex scene from wolverine's point of view which makes wolverine look really creepy watching brother and sister doing it. Like why?
I know I'm jumping around because this book is literally only 5 issues, but it is insanity, and it's godawful, and ruins a lot of characterization. Millar's runs were very tongue and cheek and he knew what he was going for, Loeb just made everyone a asshole, sleezy, sexist, and disgusting. Which I don't know why you would double down on bad traits but here we are.
The very first page of Ultimates 3 starts with leaked footage of Tony's sex tape. Because, what better way to start a superhero tale of the greatest team on earth, than to talk about the drunk tony start fucking and his tapes selling on dvd. If that's not bad enough we have totally out of wack character, Hawkeye acting enraged despite him trying to self heal after Ultimates 2 events in which he lost his family. Instead of on that path at the end of that, we have just a angsty version of Hawkeye no one can stand, cursing at everyone including his friends.
But we can't get to comfortable because soon Venom burst in demanding to speak to “her” but we don't learn who her is till much later. And the rest of the issue is extremely uneasy and uncomfortable as Janet explains to Steve after Steve and Quick Silver get into a argument over scarlet witches costume in which Janet explains that quick silver is in love with scarlet witch. His sister. Like Yikes. But it only gets worse as it goes on.
We have major character like Black Panther get beat by the likes of someone like venom. Janet just yelling at me. Thor has a horny god trying to fuck a 19 year old as much as he can. Which might be the most normal thing in this book and it still comes off as sleezy. You got Wolverine just showing up because he's wolverine. You have a cameo of Spider-Man which was a unnecessary 7 or 8 pages. And you have almost everyone MORE unlikeable in this ultimates even than you did in the prior ultimates, which despite being unlikeable, at least got shit done. In this they're fighting amongst themselves most of the time, and there isn't even a hulk to cause this.
Later on Quick silver goes to his father after his sister is shot and presumed dead. His father decides to strike the ultimates. This causes a new brotherhood to form. The fights make no sense, characters getting beat that shouldn't. There's few extremely uncomfortable scenes, one where Valkyrie almost gets raped by Pyro...like why? WHY Quick silver quick betrayal after getting shot in the knees by his father is all good with his pops. You have some odd choices here like showing the sex scene from wolverine's point of view which makes wolverine look really creepy watching brother and sister doing it. Like why?
I know I'm jumping around because this book is literally only 5 issues, but it is insanity, and it's godawful, and ruins a lot of characterization. Millar's runs were very tongue and cheek and he knew what he was going for, Loeb just made everyone a asshole, sleezy, sexist, and disgusting. Which I don't know why you would double down on bad traits but here we are.
July 26, 2018
Sure, I'm not a big fan of the Ultimates. A lot of the time, it seems like someone in the office was yelling, "Darker! Edgier! More f*cked up! NO, MORE! Turn EVERYONE into a huge asshole!" But at least the first two volumes had coherent storylines that were interesting enough to keep me reading. Loeb didn't even seem to really try. He seemed to think "fridge the women, throw in Ultron, and take a trip to the Savage Land," equaled a coherent plot. Fail.
July 18, 2016
Not bad. Not great. Started out pretty promising but kind of went off the rails when they went to the Savage Land.
July 1, 2019
Somehow, Loeb stepped in and made what was already a sexist universe even worse. I mean, I almost want to applaud?
This volume acts as though every volume before it doesn't exist. Cap and Jan are on the outs, Jan's back to conversing with Hank, Valkyrie and Thor are dating - no explanations here. They just are. Okay....
What made the previous books interesting was Thor's political beliefs, Tony's charm, Steve's old fashioned ideals and Fury's leadership. This book has absolutely none of that.
While I thought Jan and Betty's existence in this universe was pretty abysmal considering they're defined solely by their relationships with the men in their lives - it's become clear that Wanda and Valkyrie were in the same boat. Valkyrie was even worse because she's here to pursue known spousal abuser, Hank Pym, and here she's with Thor and then nearly gets sexually assaulted. Why? What the hell was going on when these comics were being plotted?
The entire storyline in this volume is the Ultimates and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants trying to find out who killed Scarlet Witch. In the end, we find out it was all because a man wanted here but couldn't have her - so he killed her. And men wonder why women want more female writers.
This isn't a recommend at all. There's nothing redeeming in this whatsoever. In fact, I actively recommend that everyone stay far, far away from it. Good god.
This volume acts as though every volume before it doesn't exist. Cap and Jan are on the outs, Jan's back to conversing with Hank, Valkyrie and Thor are dating - no explanations here. They just are. Okay....
What made the previous books interesting was Thor's political beliefs, Tony's charm, Steve's old fashioned ideals and Fury's leadership. This book has absolutely none of that.
While I thought Jan and Betty's existence in this universe was pretty abysmal considering they're defined solely by their relationships with the men in their lives - it's become clear that Wanda and Valkyrie were in the same boat. Valkyrie was even worse because she's here to pursue known spousal abuser, Hank Pym, and here she's with Thor and then nearly gets sexually assaulted. Why? What the hell was going on when these comics were being plotted?
The entire storyline in this volume is the Ultimates and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants trying to find out who killed Scarlet Witch. In the end, we find out it was all because a man wanted here but couldn't have her - so he killed her. And men wonder why women want more female writers.
This isn't a recommend at all. There's nothing redeeming in this whatsoever. In fact, I actively recommend that everyone stay far, far away from it. Good god.
February 27, 2022
I’ll save the rant for Ultimatum, but this was just as bad. A prelude for the awful we were about to witness.
June 8, 2017
The mysterious public murder of the Scarlet Witch leads to an investigation into her death and the sudden reclamation of her body by her father, Magneto. The Ultimates take it upon themselves to attempt to discover whodunit while simultaneously starting a mini-war with Magneto in the Savage Land.
Other reviewers were rough on this one. While it's far from one of Jeph Loeb's best, it's also not the weird train wreck that Ultimatum seemed to become. The characters were certainly not the grim, cynical, interesting projections of their regular Marvel counterparts that Mark Millar crafted in Ultimates 1 and 2. I also found the whole assault on Magneto lacking in purpose. Why do that? To get Scarlet Witch's body back? I suspect it was just to have a "cool" large scale fight in there somewhere. I also wasn't a big fan of Joe Madureira's designs for everyone, particularly Captain America, who apparently received freakishly large trapezius muscles from the super-soldier serum.
All that said, it was still compelling enough to see the resolution of the mystery, which was a nice surprise that plays off of well known stories from the regular Marvel Universe, as in Ultimates 1 and 2.
Other reviewers were rough on this one. While it's far from one of Jeph Loeb's best, it's also not the weird train wreck that Ultimatum seemed to become. The characters were certainly not the grim, cynical, interesting projections of their regular Marvel counterparts that Mark Millar crafted in Ultimates 1 and 2. I also found the whole assault on Magneto lacking in purpose. Why do that? To get Scarlet Witch's body back? I suspect it was just to have a "cool" large scale fight in there somewhere. I also wasn't a big fan of Joe Madureira's designs for everyone, particularly Captain America, who apparently received freakishly large trapezius muscles from the super-soldier serum.
All that said, it was still compelling enough to see the resolution of the mystery, which was a nice surprise that plays off of well known stories from the regular Marvel Universe, as in Ultimates 1 and 2.
January 20, 2017
Ultron leaks Stark and Natasha's sex tape online, since he(it) is jealous over Wanda romancing Pietro. More or less, trusting my memory.
I didn't make that up.
I didn't make that up.
December 19, 2024
"It was...is...and will always be...DOOM who pulls the strings."
September 15, 2022
the worst marvel comic i have ever read im speechless
Want to read
January 12, 2024Here for the Wanda/Pietro twincest. Will probably regret it later.
January 21, 2011
"Ultimates 3" is yet another example of bad story/good artwork. Joe Madureira's work is exceptional; the action scenes are beautifully illustrated and the colour palate is vibrant. Jeph Loeb seems to have lost some steam, the story gives the word "convoluted" new meaning. Battles just occur randomly between characters and apparently Marvel characters like having sex: first there's Tony Stark and Black Widow on a DVD, then there's Wolverine and the Witch of Wundagore and finally there's Scarlett Witch and her own brother, Quicksilver whilst Wolverine watches from the bushes voyeur-style. The story struggles to pick up and when it finally does you are astounded by what Jeph Loeb has tried to pull off. To add insult to injury he even adds the horrible epilogue twist at the end where you find out that the characters we're all pawns in someone else's game.
June 7, 2024
the plot was absolutely everywhere and he still managed to shove incest into it…also any comic that over sexualises female characters gives me the ick
December 29, 2021
The Ultimates 3: Who Killed the Scarlet Witch
By Jeph Loeb (Writer), Joe Madureira (Penciller)
Published by Marvel, 2008
Synopsis: A year later, who are the Ultimates? After going through the tumultuous events of the past two volumes, the Ultimates find themselves operating out of Tony Stark's mansion in New York where, no longer working for S.H.I.E.L.D., they have to make it on their own. But a terrible secret is about to tear them apart and bring about a murder at the mansion! One of Earth's greatest heroes will die, and there'll be plenty of suspects! New Members! New Adventures! And New Secrets! All this, and Ultimate Venom, too!
Review: What to say about this book, Loeb has failed in writing a coherent story while trying to write a mystery. Its a who done it where the who is a nobody only introduced in the last couple issues. Madureira's art is nice but doesn't fit the tone of overly aggressive edge. He draws a lot of weird faces too. We get the dumb stuff with Black Panther and Hawkeye is a suicidal douche. Wasp is the leader for some damn reason and Valkyrie has a relationship with Thor and has powers. This book is just a whole lot of why and why.
Star Rating = 0 stars out of 5
Loeb's failure on his stellar career, just awful. Not even a single good point.
By Jeph Loeb (Writer), Joe Madureira (Penciller)
Published by Marvel, 2008
Synopsis: A year later, who are the Ultimates? After going through the tumultuous events of the past two volumes, the Ultimates find themselves operating out of Tony Stark's mansion in New York where, no longer working for S.H.I.E.L.D., they have to make it on their own. But a terrible secret is about to tear them apart and bring about a murder at the mansion! One of Earth's greatest heroes will die, and there'll be plenty of suspects! New Members! New Adventures! And New Secrets! All this, and Ultimate Venom, too!
Review: What to say about this book, Loeb has failed in writing a coherent story while trying to write a mystery. Its a who done it where the who is a nobody only introduced in the last couple issues. Madureira's art is nice but doesn't fit the tone of overly aggressive edge. He draws a lot of weird faces too. We get the dumb stuff with Black Panther and Hawkeye is a suicidal douche. Wasp is the leader for some damn reason and Valkyrie has a relationship with Thor and has powers. This book is just a whole lot of why and why.
Star Rating = 0 stars out of 5
Loeb's failure on his stellar career, just awful. Not even a single good point.
June 5, 2023
This could have potentially been a good story over 12 issues but this felt terribly rushed. Art was great
December 8, 2025
What happened here because this was so ass
August 16, 2023
How to continue two of the most successful installments in the ‘Ultimate Universe’ that already re-invented the classic stories involving the ‘Avengers’ in which they fought ‘the Hulk’, ‘the Skrulls’, and basically, ‘Loki’, the God of Mischief himself? One could argue that the most logical path would be utilizing a big name in the ‘Earth’s Mightiest’ rogues gallery. Now, since Thanos has already been used in the ‘Ultimate Fantastic Four’ title, and there was an entire mega-event consisting of three arcs around this version of “Galactus”, a logical decision would be to use Ultron, since it was teased in the previous series, and Hank is essentially a “bad guy” of the sorts.
And, who’d know, that’s exactly what Jeph Loeb did in this third part of the ‘Ultimates’ series.
And boy, did he continue this…
To be fair, the first thing that dragged my attention to this sequel was precisely how much I liked the first two series. I really thought that Millar would be back after re-imagining the image of the ‘Avengers’, and I genuinely was excited to go back to that gritty part of the ‘Ultimate Universe’. Besides, Joe Madureira, the artist responsible for a good chunk of the ‘X-Men’ in the 90s- including the fan-favorite ‘Age of Apocalypse’-, as well as the creator of the ‘Battle Chasers’ franchise was meant to be the lead artist, so no one can blame me for an actual excitement towards this.
And then I finally read it.
Now, before trashing Loeb’s story in here, I must specify how much of a good writer he has proven to be; stuff like ‘The Long Halloween’, ‘Dark Victory’, and ‘Hush’ are some of the top notch titles related to ‘Batman’, but I guess people acknowledge him the most thanks to his constant teaming with artist Tim Sale, and in the Marvel side of things, the dynamic duo had deliver us jewels such as ‘Spider-man: Blue’, ‘Daredevil: Yellow’, ‘Hulk: Grey’, and the most recent addition, ‘Captain America: White’. So, no wonder why he would’ve been selected to participate in the already familiar ‘Ultimate Universe’ with another installment in the ‘Ultimates’ section. And, man, to introduce a newer, fresher, and modern version of ‘Ultron’ here? I’m sold. The possibilities were endless, but thing is, the worst direction the story could’ve follow, it did. Even the title is essentially a spoiler of where things would go from the very first issue.
‘Who Killed Scarlet Witch?’ is basically the concept under which this unravels; after the colossal fight in which ‘The Ultimates’, ‘the X-men’, ‘the Fantastic Four’, and even ‘Spider-man’ participated against not only the ‘Liberators’, but also against the magical-forces of Loki, now there seems to be a quiet before the storm. ‘The Ultimates’ have given up their allegiance with the United States Government, and Nick Fury’s S.H.I.E.L.D. Now they are an independent force, financed by Tony Stark himself, and led (for reasons I still don’t get) by Wasp. The new line-up consists of: ‘Iron Man’, ‘Wasp’, ‘Captain America’, ‘Scarlet Witch’, ‘Quicksilver’, ‘Hawkeye’, ‘Thor’, ‘Valkyrie’ (wait, what? The 19-year-old that Hank Pym screwed with in ‘Ultimates 2’?), and finally ‘Black Panther’ (where did he come from? When was he introduced in the ‘Ultimate Universe’?)
There are plenty of gaps and plot-holes in this 5-issue mini-series, but not only that. Loeb seems to have a strange rhythm in his way of telling the story. It is either too rushed, and at times, feels deviating into strange directions that waste newly introduced characters, and forces others to stick around the longest just to provide a final confrontation in the final issue. And the tone given is just… I mean I know I basically praised Millar for how meanspirited and darkly humorous his narrative was in the first two series, but Millar has been doing it so for so long. I don’t think Loeb has any idea how to handle those themes. We are talking about the guy who came up with some of the most wholesome stories after delivering stuff such as ‘Superman: For All Seasons’, and the ‘Color’ saga for Marvel. Here? It just seems like a personal competition on seeing who’s the meanest of the writers. Who could be the grittiest, and wildest treating their characters like crap. Man, at least Millar had an objective, and a constant theme of overcoming the adversities using a character’s qualities, virtues, and kind of an acceptance of their respective flaws. Loeb, he’s just… well, he really is trying to be controversial in this. I mean, the first panel is a screening of a sex-tape of Tony and Natasha, and the whole team is watching it in the Mansion’s living room. Like, what’s with the whole deal of these characters behaving like that? The only one I kind of justify behaving the way he does is Hawkeye, after what happened with his family, but the story never allows him to grow, or even try to overcome that situation of loss and mourning.
Also, if you thought Wanda, and Pietro’s relationship was odd and uncomfortable, here, Loeb delivers the full “romanticized” incestuous traits. I mean, I understand that Quicksilver needed that “overprotective” attitude towards Wanda so the events in the mini-series could make sense (I guess), but the “romance” between siblings just doesn’t do it. God, even the rest of the characters seem okay with it, and Cap, as well as Hawkeye, are the only one’s kind of rising their eyebrow about it. Wasp is like “Steve, you grumpy boomer, you don’t get it? They love each other”. I mean, I might not be liberal, nor do I agree with plenty of things the newer generations preach or believe in, but I give it to them, incest isn’t really “a thing” nowadays, not even 15 years after this comic book published.
Anyway, the big “highlight” (according to the great cover made by Madureira) is that Spidey, as well as Wolverine, are teaming up with the ‘Ultimates’ against ‘the Brotherhood of Mutants’. Well, I haven’t felt that teased and betrayed in a while. For starters, Spidey appears only as a guest for issue 2, to have a little showdown against Hawkeye because the team needs to find out why Venom attacked them, and Wolverine later shows up and, to be fair, he participates more throughout the rest of the issues, but his “big contribution” is to give us some context on who’s the mother of Wanda, and Pietro. It’s all for the sake of connecting him to Magneto in a more “antagonistic” way.
Now, without revealing too much regarding ‘Black Panther’, let’s say that in reality it was one of the original members of ‘The Ultimates’ disguised as him because the plot indicates that the team has been replaced by robotic doppelgangers, lead by “Ultron” disguised as Hank Pym. Now, if you have read anything with Ultron as the main antagonist in any Marvel Comic, you might get the idea behind the “sentient AI” that wants to destroy humankind because, well, that’s our only hope for improvement. Here, the basic idea is that Ultron fell in love with Wanda… and that’s it, it wants Magneto to fight the heroes just for the hell of it, while replacing them with androids. But how this all connects to the machine being in love with the ‘Scarlet Witch’? Well, yes. To be fair, it is revealed that a big baddie is “behind the curtains”, but if anyone reading the entire ‘Ultimate Universe’ gets to this point, he or she would realize it doesn’t make sense that this specific bad guy is manufacturing all these events.
So yeah, it all comes down to a passionate crime. I mean, how weak should the ‘Scarlet Witch’ be in order to be killed by a bullet that was “made for her”? I mean, Loeb never even bothers explaining HOW it was meant for her. What did the bullet have? How was she unable to use her “probability
powers to either stop it, or simply kept herself from dying? I mean, we’re talking about one of the most powerful mutants in the world (at least on Earth-616), and in the Ultimate Universe she gets to be killed by a “bullet made for her”? That’s simply lazy writing, wherever you’d like to see it.
This comic was kind of a tease; Spidey is there for like, 3 panels, Black Panther is an undercover original member of the team, Scarlet Witch gets killed by a butler robot, the ‘Ultimates’ are replaced- somehow- by robotic twins, Wolverine is there to move the plot forward, Magneto finally looses it, Thor is now screwing a 19-year-old blonde who suddenly now has the Valkyrie powers like, literally out of nowhere, Hawkeye is an emo assassin, Wasp keeps ruining things and for some reason she’s the leader of the group, Tony is drunk all the time, suddenly Hank Pym is allowed to be around, and Cap apparently knew about the robots but choose to warn no one. Anyway, there is no absolute evil, and I do actually have something good to say about this title: the art is nice. I wasn’t lying when I said I was excited to check on Joe Madureira’s style in a ‘Ultimates’ book, and at least, in the art department, he delivers. This might be his best work after ‘Battle Chasers’, and while plenty of people criticize his earliest works in the 90s, I do find that he evolved as an artist, even though he still maintains that cartoony “manga-like” style on his characters, and Christian Lichtner’s colors are by far the missing key-element to improve Madureira’s pencils. It’s just a shame that these excelling visuals are wasted with such bland and lazy writing because there are some memorable panels to admire in here.
If you pay attention to the superior part of these covers, you might’ve noticed a warning saying, “March on Ultimatum”, well, that only suggests that this is only a sort of “prologue” for the actual event that’ll shake the whole ‘Ultimate Universe’, and boy, do I have something to say about that one…
And, who’d know, that’s exactly what Jeph Loeb did in this third part of the ‘Ultimates’ series.
And boy, did he continue this…
To be fair, the first thing that dragged my attention to this sequel was precisely how much I liked the first two series. I really thought that Millar would be back after re-imagining the image of the ‘Avengers’, and I genuinely was excited to go back to that gritty part of the ‘Ultimate Universe’. Besides, Joe Madureira, the artist responsible for a good chunk of the ‘X-Men’ in the 90s- including the fan-favorite ‘Age of Apocalypse’-, as well as the creator of the ‘Battle Chasers’ franchise was meant to be the lead artist, so no one can blame me for an actual excitement towards this.
And then I finally read it.
Now, before trashing Loeb’s story in here, I must specify how much of a good writer he has proven to be; stuff like ‘The Long Halloween’, ‘Dark Victory’, and ‘Hush’ are some of the top notch titles related to ‘Batman’, but I guess people acknowledge him the most thanks to his constant teaming with artist Tim Sale, and in the Marvel side of things, the dynamic duo had deliver us jewels such as ‘Spider-man: Blue’, ‘Daredevil: Yellow’, ‘Hulk: Grey’, and the most recent addition, ‘Captain America: White’. So, no wonder why he would’ve been selected to participate in the already familiar ‘Ultimate Universe’ with another installment in the ‘Ultimates’ section. And, man, to introduce a newer, fresher, and modern version of ‘Ultron’ here? I’m sold. The possibilities were endless, but thing is, the worst direction the story could’ve follow, it did. Even the title is essentially a spoiler of where things would go from the very first issue.
‘Who Killed Scarlet Witch?’ is basically the concept under which this unravels; after the colossal fight in which ‘The Ultimates’, ‘the X-men’, ‘the Fantastic Four’, and even ‘Spider-man’ participated against not only the ‘Liberators’, but also against the magical-forces of Loki, now there seems to be a quiet before the storm. ‘The Ultimates’ have given up their allegiance with the United States Government, and Nick Fury’s S.H.I.E.L.D. Now they are an independent force, financed by Tony Stark himself, and led (for reasons I still don’t get) by Wasp. The new line-up consists of: ‘Iron Man’, ‘Wasp’, ‘Captain America’, ‘Scarlet Witch’, ‘Quicksilver’, ‘Hawkeye’, ‘Thor’, ‘Valkyrie’ (wait, what? The 19-year-old that Hank Pym screwed with in ‘Ultimates 2’?), and finally ‘Black Panther’ (where did he come from? When was he introduced in the ‘Ultimate Universe’?)
There are plenty of gaps and plot-holes in this 5-issue mini-series, but not only that. Loeb seems to have a strange rhythm in his way of telling the story. It is either too rushed, and at times, feels deviating into strange directions that waste newly introduced characters, and forces others to stick around the longest just to provide a final confrontation in the final issue. And the tone given is just… I mean I know I basically praised Millar for how meanspirited and darkly humorous his narrative was in the first two series, but Millar has been doing it so for so long. I don’t think Loeb has any idea how to handle those themes. We are talking about the guy who came up with some of the most wholesome stories after delivering stuff such as ‘Superman: For All Seasons’, and the ‘Color’ saga for Marvel. Here? It just seems like a personal competition on seeing who’s the meanest of the writers. Who could be the grittiest, and wildest treating their characters like crap. Man, at least Millar had an objective, and a constant theme of overcoming the adversities using a character’s qualities, virtues, and kind of an acceptance of their respective flaws. Loeb, he’s just… well, he really is trying to be controversial in this. I mean, the first panel is a screening of a sex-tape of Tony and Natasha, and the whole team is watching it in the Mansion’s living room. Like, what’s with the whole deal of these characters behaving like that? The only one I kind of justify behaving the way he does is Hawkeye, after what happened with his family, but the story never allows him to grow, or even try to overcome that situation of loss and mourning.
Also, if you thought Wanda, and Pietro’s relationship was odd and uncomfortable, here, Loeb delivers the full “romanticized” incestuous traits. I mean, I understand that Quicksilver needed that “overprotective” attitude towards Wanda so the events in the mini-series could make sense (I guess), but the “romance” between siblings just doesn’t do it. God, even the rest of the characters seem okay with it, and Cap, as well as Hawkeye, are the only one’s kind of rising their eyebrow about it. Wasp is like “Steve, you grumpy boomer, you don’t get it? They love each other”. I mean, I might not be liberal, nor do I agree with plenty of things the newer generations preach or believe in, but I give it to them, incest isn’t really “a thing” nowadays, not even 15 years after this comic book published.
Anyway, the big “highlight” (according to the great cover made by Madureira) is that Spidey, as well as Wolverine, are teaming up with the ‘Ultimates’ against ‘the Brotherhood of Mutants’. Well, I haven’t felt that teased and betrayed in a while. For starters, Spidey appears only as a guest for issue 2, to have a little showdown against Hawkeye because the team needs to find out why Venom attacked them, and Wolverine later shows up and, to be fair, he participates more throughout the rest of the issues, but his “big contribution” is to give us some context on who’s the mother of Wanda, and Pietro. It’s all for the sake of connecting him to Magneto in a more “antagonistic” way.
Now, without revealing too much regarding ‘Black Panther’, let’s say that in reality it was one of the original members of ‘The Ultimates’ disguised as him because the plot indicates that the team has been replaced by robotic doppelgangers, lead by “Ultron” disguised as Hank Pym. Now, if you have read anything with Ultron as the main antagonist in any Marvel Comic, you might get the idea behind the “sentient AI” that wants to destroy humankind because, well, that’s our only hope for improvement. Here, the basic idea is that Ultron fell in love with Wanda… and that’s it, it wants Magneto to fight the heroes just for the hell of it, while replacing them with androids. But how this all connects to the machine being in love with the ‘Scarlet Witch’? Well, yes. To be fair, it is revealed that a big baddie is “behind the curtains”, but if anyone reading the entire ‘Ultimate Universe’ gets to this point, he or she would realize it doesn’t make sense that this specific bad guy is manufacturing all these events.
So yeah, it all comes down to a passionate crime. I mean, how weak should the ‘Scarlet Witch’ be in order to be killed by a bullet that was “made for her”? I mean, Loeb never even bothers explaining HOW it was meant for her. What did the bullet have? How was she unable to use her “probability
powers to either stop it, or simply kept herself from dying? I mean, we’re talking about one of the most powerful mutants in the world (at least on Earth-616), and in the Ultimate Universe she gets to be killed by a “bullet made for her”? That’s simply lazy writing, wherever you’d like to see it.
This comic was kind of a tease; Spidey is there for like, 3 panels, Black Panther is an undercover original member of the team, Scarlet Witch gets killed by a butler robot, the ‘Ultimates’ are replaced- somehow- by robotic twins, Wolverine is there to move the plot forward, Magneto finally looses it, Thor is now screwing a 19-year-old blonde who suddenly now has the Valkyrie powers like, literally out of nowhere, Hawkeye is an emo assassin, Wasp keeps ruining things and for some reason she’s the leader of the group, Tony is drunk all the time, suddenly Hank Pym is allowed to be around, and Cap apparently knew about the robots but choose to warn no one. Anyway, there is no absolute evil, and I do actually have something good to say about this title: the art is nice. I wasn’t lying when I said I was excited to check on Joe Madureira’s style in a ‘Ultimates’ book, and at least, in the art department, he delivers. This might be his best work after ‘Battle Chasers’, and while plenty of people criticize his earliest works in the 90s, I do find that he evolved as an artist, even though he still maintains that cartoony “manga-like” style on his characters, and Christian Lichtner’s colors are by far the missing key-element to improve Madureira’s pencils. It’s just a shame that these excelling visuals are wasted with such bland and lazy writing because there are some memorable panels to admire in here.
If you pay attention to the superior part of these covers, you might’ve noticed a warning saying, “March on Ultimatum”, well, that only suggests that this is only a sort of “prologue” for the actual event that’ll shake the whole ‘Ultimate Universe’, and boy, do I have something to say about that one…
November 6, 2025
I remember reading this as it came out, and thinking it was one of the worst comics I'd ever read. The plotting is nonsensical. The dialogue is offensive and atrocious. There is almost nothing good about this book.
But reading it so close with that other Ultimate books, it's not Much Worse. It's just a drab imitation of Millar's take on The Ultimates. Loeb didn't make the characters wooden, nor did he take a masterful story and ruin it. He read the first two Ultimates books and got the wrong message. Millar's over-the-top problematic superhero stuff was never actually good. It was just different. But by the time Ultimates 3 came out, there were a lot of offensive superhero books out there. The trick was not to out-offend but to find a new angle for these characters. Loeb just wasn't up to the task.
The first three issues, dealing solely with the death of The Scarlet Witch and catching us up to speed on The Ultimates cast is a three-star problematic story. But once Wolverine shows up and drags them to The Savage Land, forget it. The pacing is hideous, the plot makes no sense, the action scenes are all over the place. And The Ultron angle is just so so so so so so so so so many narration boxes to explain what's going on. It's So Boring.
So while I no longer think this is One Of The Worst Comics I've Ever Read, it is still pretty terrible, and don't recommend anyone ever read it.
But reading it so close with that other Ultimate books, it's not Much Worse. It's just a drab imitation of Millar's take on The Ultimates. Loeb didn't make the characters wooden, nor did he take a masterful story and ruin it. He read the first two Ultimates books and got the wrong message. Millar's over-the-top problematic superhero stuff was never actually good. It was just different. But by the time Ultimates 3 came out, there were a lot of offensive superhero books out there. The trick was not to out-offend but to find a new angle for these characters. Loeb just wasn't up to the task.
The first three issues, dealing solely with the death of The Scarlet Witch and catching us up to speed on The Ultimates cast is a three-star problematic story. But once Wolverine shows up and drags them to The Savage Land, forget it. The pacing is hideous, the plot makes no sense, the action scenes are all over the place. And The Ultron angle is just so so so so so so so so so many narration boxes to explain what's going on. It's So Boring.
So while I no longer think this is One Of The Worst Comics I've Ever Read, it is still pretty terrible, and don't recommend anyone ever read it.
February 19, 2014
The reason why this GN has a very low overall rating 2.31 is that unless you are an utter comic book nerd(fortunately I am)and followed the ultimate universe comics in order it doesn't make mush sense. As I have the finale of Ultimatum looms promisingly in the distance.
June 11, 2012
Hopefully, a review to follow...
August 13, 2013
Poor Scarlet Witch. She gets no love in any universe
April 26, 2021
this does not deserve 1 star. 0/10
September 2, 2023
certainly not as purely bad as its reputation among nerds suggests...but i would argue there is a valid, if unarticulated, reason for its infamy: it maintains the sensationalist, edgy streak of the Millar run but ditches all of the political bite and worse than this, begins to try and fit its amoral characters into the ill-fitting roles of their 616 universe counterparts
similarly to the prior two parts, one can look at the treatment of Thor here and understand all they really need to know: he's talking like his 616 version for seemingly no reason, he's ditched his previous persona as an enemy of power and empire, and he's now dating the 19 year old loser wannabe that Hank Pym was banging in the last run...extending a bit on that last point, there's seemingly no awareness of how gross this is, none of the prior signifiers that this is a pathetic turn for the character
so we have like, the hallmarks of a shallow understanding of deconstruction: sex tapes and incest...but none of the truly biting elements or smart framing that truly made it work...instead there's an intensity of cascading plot elements that tries to replace what's been left behind and honestly falls on its face, it's entertaining in the moment due to a pure need to see what comes next, but no lasting impact...shame, there's the skeleton of something fun and inciteful here!
similarly to the prior two parts, one can look at the treatment of Thor here and understand all they really need to know: he's talking like his 616 version for seemingly no reason, he's ditched his previous persona as an enemy of power and empire, and he's now dating the 19 year old loser wannabe that Hank Pym was banging in the last run...extending a bit on that last point, there's seemingly no awareness of how gross this is, none of the prior signifiers that this is a pathetic turn for the character
so we have like, the hallmarks of a shallow understanding of deconstruction: sex tapes and incest...but none of the truly biting elements or smart framing that truly made it work...instead there's an intensity of cascading plot elements that tries to replace what's been left behind and honestly falls on its face, it's entertaining in the moment due to a pure need to see what comes next, but no lasting impact...shame, there's the skeleton of something fun and inciteful here!
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