Ultimate Origins #1

June 3, 2008

Quick Rating: Average
Title: Ultimate Origins Part One
Rating: T+

How is everything in the Ultimate Universe tied together?

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Butch Guice
Colors: Justin Ponsor
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Bill Rosemann
Cover Art: Gabriele Dell’otto & Dean White
Publisher: Marvel Comics

For a long time, we’ve been teased with the promise that “everything” in Marvel’s Ultimate Universe is connected. In the many years since that universe launched, though, it’s felt less and less relevant, and now that most of the books in that line are stagnating, it doesn’t seem to matter at all. I mention this simply because now, as Ultimate Origins launches, the general malaise the Ultimate Universe is experiencing makes this book feel just as pointless.

Beginning in World War II, we see how several of the characters who would become cornerstones of the Ultimate Universe were tied together and, ultimately, how their experiences would birth the origins of the likes of Captain America, SHIELD, and even mutantkind. There’s not really anything wrong with it, but it’s simply not exciting. There’s nothing here that gets me interested or excited in the Ultimate line again.

Butch Guice’s artwork helps, at least. He does a great action scene, especially the war scenes that open up the issue. And Gabriele Dell’otto’s cover isn’t bad either.

This book feels like a victim of bad timing. If it had been released years ago, when the Ultimate comics still had the heat, it may have been something interesting. As it stands, it feels like an attempt to reignite the Ultimate Universe. The problem is, this isn’t a book that works to reignite things. The creators should have put the excitement back in the rest of the line, then hit us with this series. Then it may have felt like it meant something.

Rating: 5/10