We're #1!

ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS #1: Well, not that you'd know that was the title by looking AT the title, which, can I say? drives me bucking fonkers. Indicia really should match title, sigh.

(And, they're not really "Avengers", either -- that word doesn't appear to be uttered within the comic whatsoever, but whatever!)

For action and sardonic wit, this picks up smoothly from Millar's last ULTIMATES run, though I'd've been happier if it appeared that either Millar or Bendis even READ "Ultimatum", because Millar has it here as "New York flooded", which is a smidge different than "millions dead as New York is decimated by a tsunami", but, again, whatever...

As a retailer, I'm dismayed that both this and UCSM #1 shipped the same week (And in one of the single biggest ship weeks of the year, at that) -- and first week sales seem to match that dismay. Both are well under the sell-through for U3 #5, or USM #133 in their first week, which leads me to perhaps rashly conclude that this reboot has chased away more of the audience than it has drawn in.

Either way, I thought this first issue was perfectly OK

ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #1: I have to say that I find the notion that within six months New York City is COMPLETELY RESTORED to be far more "comic booky" than if, say, Wolverine had already returned from the (what appeared to be pretty final) Dead. I mean, fuck, here we are EIGHT YEARS after 9/11, and we still don't have anything at Ground Zero, and that was TWO buildings. Between that and the "Hey, maybe Spidey is dead, too? HA! PSYCHE!" bullshit, my interest in this comic has nearly completely cratered.

USM used to be one of the "top read" comics in my weekly pile -- I'd want to get to it ASAP, but now I'm not sure if I really care to read another page.

Part of this, I think, stems from the dissonance of "Oh, look, Peter's a loser, he's working at BK", then a few pages later he's being praised by the police (what? Peter never read the Bugle?) and making out with a hot chick. I don't know, this feels like a moment that passed, and the fact that this is a relaunched #1, instead of being #134 only increases that feeling for me.

I could barely muster a half-hearted, EH, sorry.

ADVENTURE COMICS #1 (or #504, depending): Hurm, I dunno -- I don't find Conner to be that compelling of a character in the first place, though I guess that maybe that last panel reveal might go somewhere halfway interesting. But I kind of doubt it. The art was pretty, however. A mild OK for the lead story.

I disliked the back-up, though -- I'm of the camp that says that the Legion isn't even remotely interesting out of their future milieu; and this Starman story line really needed to end about a year ago. And the "coming up in.." section that Geoff used so well previously falls utterly flat here -- none of those six "pre-hangers" particularly interest me. I'm going to go with AWFUL for the back half. Averaging out as an EH on the issue.

THE MARVELS PROJECT #1: Brubaker and Epting are a great team, who know how to make great comics, but this whole thing felt a bit weightless to me. I guess it is noce to have some of the back story of the 1940s Marvel U fleshed out, but I can't say convincingly that I actually cared about any of the revelations. Strongly OK, but nothing more than that...

What did YOU think?

-B