It’s the end of the line for Deniz Camp and Juan Frigeri’s The Ultimates, as She-Hulk confronts the Incredible Hulk, and the Beat has a review for the conclusion of one of Marvel’s best series. Plus, a Rapid Rundown featuring Doomquest.
The Ultimates #24
Writer: Deniz Camp
Artist: Juan Frigeri
Colorist: Federico Blee
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
Cover Artist: Dike Ruan
It would be inaccurate to call The Ultimates #24 a bad comic book. It is, in fact, an excellent comic book, as almost every issue of the Deniz Camp written series has been. Here at the end, he’s joined by the series primary art team of Juan Frigeri and Federico Blee to say farewell. In isolation, this is a fantastic story that works on multiple levels. It’s a thrilling action story, a tale of justice and revenge. It’s an allegory about colonialism and community. It wraps up dangling plot threads and characters that have run through the course of the series. But when you consider that this is the final issue of the best Marvel Comic of the decade it is somehow unsatisfying.
This series biggest issue has always been the push and pull between its epic, occasionally cosmic, scope and smaller character-focused vignettes. This issue falls in the latter, giving our first major focus on Ultimate She-Hulk since her debut. We’ve gotten hints of the trauma she suffered in light of her near-death beating at the hands of Banner-Hulk, and the mixed feelings she’s had over following Iron Lad on a global crusade instead of staying to protect her island. With the Ultimates’ headquarters destroyed and the fate of the world in question with the Maker’s return, she decides to return to her gamma-irradiated home and protect the indigenous people. When the Hulk is cast out of K’un Lun and stripped of his Iron Fist power, he is left to take out his impotent rage on She-Hulk and her people. His arrogant entitlement is no match for She-Hulk’s righteous fury. Newly in touch with her home, she taps into the island’s latent gamma radiation to become the living embodiment of their shared trauma and pain in a satisfying, gruesome rematch.
There’s a finality here to She-Hulk’s journey that cements her as one of Camp and Frigeri’s most compelling and memorable contributions in their Marvel tenure. But with that comes the lingering sadness of the loss of this Ultimate line. On the one hand I can understand the appeal of having a collection of self contained series to break into the book market as perennial sellers but on the other hand, we are letting go of a line of comics headlined by Jonathan Hickman, Chris Condon, and Deniz Camp!
Even having come to terms with its conclusion, this issue is a strange place to end the series. Sure, most of the major stars of this series are caught up in the fireworks and tragedies going on in Ultimate Endgame, which is essentially a direct continuation of Camp’s work on this book. That leaves the pool of potential stories fairly limited and the nature of the shared storytelling means that Ultimates cannot touch on whatever the final status quo is going to be after Endgame. But to end a compelling, universe-spanning title so rich with inventive ideas on a single character’s journey feels anticlimactic. Perhaps when it’s all collected in a hardcover Endgame collection it won’t matter.
Taking the larger context out of the equation, I can’t praise Camp enough for his ability to handle the challenge set out both by the structure imposed on him by the monthly time jumps and by his own ambition to switch narrative focus and scale from issue to issue. Ultimates has always been filled to bursting with creative concepts and new takes on Marvel lore. That’s no different here, where we finally get to see Iron Fist confront Hulk. The standoff acts is a classic David vs. Goliath story but also a visual depiction of strength of body vs strength of spirit. And while Ultimates can be a brutal book, Camp always injects a sense of fun, evident here in the silly captions for Hulk’s various attacks. VC’s Travis Lanham does excellent work on the lettering with fun, massive clamoring SFX and dynamic and expressive word balloons.
I’d be remiss not to single out Juan Frigeri in this final issue. I’ve been occasionally hard on the artist for his style and sometimes stilted figures. But he has grown immensely as an artist and storyteller, and I can think of no one more suited to depict She-Hulk unleashed here. There is a rawness to his sketchy linework that is incredibly effective in visualizing the force of the Hulk combat. The motion and thickness of the outlines adds life to the characters and sense of depth and motion, elevated by the whispy hatching in moments of speed or extreme emotion.
This may not be the satisfying conclusion The Ultimates deserves as a sprawling narrative, but it is still the best book Marvel’s put out this month.
VERDICT: Buy
THE RAPID RUNDOWN
- Doomquest #1
- After the heaviness of The Ultimates, it’s a delight to sit down and read Ryan North and Francesco Mobili’s self-contained Dr. Doom adventure. There’s something about North’s take on the Fantastic Four that is so comforting, even when the stakes are high or the focus is on the villain. His mix of humor and heart, the ability to turn a phrase, and his empowering of the artists to get creative with characters’ and their powers, all make for unique and entertaining stories. North centers Doom’s epic quest for glory in his petty jealousy, making this epic tale rooted in the trivial. It’s gloriously stupid in the way that Dr. Doom can be. And the art? Francesco Mobili is a revelation. The painterly brushwork, the detail, the sprawling layouts that look like royal portraiture. Frank D’Armata’s colors bring them to greater life with rich rendering and depth. It’s a stunning book to look at, and it’s a joy to read, unencumbered by continuity or events. I daresay it’s a must-read. What a joy to discover it’s a miniseries and not a one-shot.
- Marvel Voices: Wiccan and Hulkling: Raid of Ultron
- I’ve read a lot of these Marvel Voices specials over the years, and usually they’re collections of standalone stories by marginalized creators. They’re nice but forgettable, and frankly often a reminder of the groups that Marvel and DC don’t usually hire. And by nature of the anthology format, they’re usually filled with stories of varying quality. This book goes for something different, telling a single story that spins off into smaller parts. It’s a big, fun, low-stakes party as Wiccan and Hulking and their strange and fractured family come together for a house warming that is rudely interrupted by Ultron. It features various members of the family breaking off to handle the villain. Each of these writers (Wyatt Kennedy, Zoe Tunnell, Tegan Quin, and Josh Trujillo) make a case for being regular Marvel contributors, weaving in character histories and spinning them into entertaining family dysfunction. The art is excellent too, with superstar Luciano Vecchio headlining a talent group including Stephen Byrne, Rachael Stott, and Bradley Clayton. It’s a nice reminder that superhero comics can be about the characters and their personal lives.
