This week, Luke and Devin are back as Jonathan Hickman starts to destroy the Ultimate Universe in a brand new way with the Ultimate Avengers and Ultimate Hawkeye, while Nick Spencer takes over the Ultimate X-men and does nothing all that revolutionary.
Comics Covered
- Ultimate Comics: Ultimates #1-6
- Ultimate Comics: Hawkeye #1-4
- Ultimate Comics: X-men #1-6
Check out the image gallery and show notes after the jump.
Ultimate Comics Ultimates #1-4 – The Republic is Burning
Writer – Jonathan Hickman, Art – Esad Ribic, Colors – Dean White, Letters – VC’s Clayton Cowles
Nick Fury gets the rundown of the world as Asgardians are causing problems in Europe including raiding a brewery which the EU plans to respond to by using their Super Soldiers, in the Southeast Asian Republic there’s rumors of unrest so Hawkeye is being sent in, in South America there is a blockade going on which Tony Stark was supposed to deal with but instead he was in Tokyo at a gala in honor of Shinobi Shaw with his new driver William, who he keeps calling Jarvis when he gets called to head out.
The new Captain Britain, Jamie Braddock gets in a fight with the Asgardians, in South America, Tony remote piloting his suit finds the ship is unmanned and Hawkeye calls in, setting up the events of the Hawkeye miniseries before losing contact.
Tony tries to stop the ship before finding a Stark Industries bomb on board that goes off and in Germany, the fight in Asgard spills out before they find the Dome, created by the Maker, and Fury is stunned as three major situations just went critical.
We find out that The Dome features a time dilated ultra utilitarian society led by Reed Richards, the Maker, where 1000 years have passed. Thor and the European Union Excalibur heroes fight with only Thor proving a match but he is overpowered and captured before being brought before the Maker. They track his energy flowing to Yggdrasil and Odin and set out to destroy Asgard with Jamie withdrawing the other captains except for France.
Meanwhile, the new Jarvis saves Tony and helps him get into his Iron Man suit. He gets in contact with Fury letting him know the explosion was nuclear but Germany is a bigger concern.
Thor takes his son Modi and hides him in the world defying Hela and handing him Mjolnir for protection until the world is safe before fighting alongside Loki, before he is overpowered and Iron Man saves him as Asgard is destroyed.
Two days later Tony provides Thor with an enhanced version of his armor and Mjolnir that he used before, telling him to hit back.
A week later, the City, what the Dome has become, has continued to grow, swallowing more of Europe, while Hawkeye has returned. Fury leads an all out SHIELD strike with the Ultimates including his ex-wife Monica Change and Spider Woman, Jessica Drew ending with a nuke that does nothing as ships drop. And Fury is forced to retreat by having Thor teleport them. Tony tries to comfort Thor who then teleports into the City by himself.
Inside he finds the artificial incubation chambers along with Jamie Braddock the last member of Excalibur but he’s stopped by the Maker. Tony considers going in but Fury stops him, telling him that he would die. Thor is overpowered by one of the Markers warriors known as the Knife, and reveals he is Reed Richards and the Earth belongs to him and his children, letting the pair live to pass on the message. And then Thor hears the voice of Odin telling him to stay strong because all of Asgard lives inside of him as he is Valhalla.
Thor delivers the Maker’s message and tells them the Maker is Reed Richards.
Ultimate Comics Hawkeye #1-4
Writer – Jonathan Hickman, Pencils – Rafa Sandoval, Inks – Jordi Tarragona, Colors – Brad Anderson, Letters – VC’s Clayton Cowles
Hawkeye lands in Bangkok which is now part of the Southeast Asian Republic since Tony’s brother gave a bunch of people the power and destabilized a lot of places – or not.
Clint checks in with Fury before they are attacked by group of terrorists.
We flash back to a month ago when some scientists unleashed a virus that would destroy the X-Gene that causes mutants, across the world with no major symptoms and they set up a system to distribute it as part of The Plan while also creating The Serum which introduces now powers creating The People who are essentially stronger mutants.
These stronger mutants are the ones attacking SHIELD and Hawkeye works to kill them. He catches Fury up with the situation where The People want to take over the country and Fury orders Clint to get the serum.
Clint captures the scientists from the SEAR soldiers and gets them back to their lab but finds they’re unable to recreate the Serum since their notes and samples were taken. Clint withdraws to a safehouse, abandoning the scientists and finds a worldwide message from the People announcing powers for everyone so Fury plans to send in Ultimate X – the mutants and Hulk team.
We get a flashback learning how Clint was an Olympic gold medalist but didn’t do training because he had super eyes and senses which is what Nick Fury got him out of prison for. Fury told Clint he trusted him and expunged his record, granting him the military rank of Captain.
Hawkeye, Firestar (Liz Allen), Karen Grant (Jean Grey), Guardian (Derek Morgan who has the wings), and Bruce Banner along with some soldiers head to Northern City before Hawkeye has Karen send the Hulk into the Southern City as a distraction.
As they go in, Hulk gets caught in an arena where he is defeated, while Hawkeye’s team looks for the Serum which the People call the Source and finds someone willing to take them to it.
We find out that the government made a lot of testing and when two brothers got the serum the became the Xorn brothers who founded the twin cities of Tian – the Celestial City for the Celestials who believed in enlightenment and the Eternal City of the Eternals who had strong beliefs. Hawkeye’s teams went to the Celestial City where Kuan-Yin, now Xorn, was ready to give them the serum but warned the Hulk was in danger because of his brother Zorn whose side wanted to wield the powers. Xorn and Hawkeye group come in to help and Zorn wants them to die but Xorn wants to expand and welcome them, moments before the Oracle of Change who messaged the world earlier invites everyone to come to the Twin Cities for freedom. Karen Grant and the rest of the mutants want to stay but Hulk is banished and ends up at a temple. Hawkeye meanwhile is given a sample by Xorn who warns him it will have a cost and he delivers it to Nick Fury, as expected.
Ultimate Comics X-men #1-6
Writer – Nick Spencer, Pencils – Paco Medina, Carlo Barberi Inks – Juan Vlasco, Colors – Marte Gracia, David Curiel, Rex Lokus, Letters – VC’s Joe Sabino
Valerie Cooper, Special Liaison on Superhuman and Mutant Affairs to the President holds a press conference that the United States government created mutants in a lab in Canada which spread like a virus. The news which came out earlier has led to massive riots. Jimmy Hudson, Wolverine’s shitty son, decides to leave the rest of the X-team behind. Meanwhile other mutants have been put in concentration camps or worse situations and the free mutants are being tracked down.
The President is upset with Fury when Pietro bursts into their meeting.
Meanwhile Kitty, Johnny, and Bobby in the Morlock Tunnels hear about the attacks and Kitty tells them to not help people until Bobby finds a picture of Rogue being attacked so they go to save her.
At first the 3 X-men try to fight the Nimrod robots after Rogue but when that fails, Kitty helps them all escape with her. Rogue explains she’s listening to God who told her to come.
Meanwhile Reverend Stryker who is now a cyborg is rounding up mutants and mutant sympathizers and he believes he is also following God’s plan.
As the X-men are returning they meet up with ultimate Maggott who saved Jimmy when they were both captured by Stryker, When Jimmy wakes up he wants to save them, meanwhile Stryker’s men kill all of the cops and national guardsmen in New York City.
We also find out that Stryker has been hallucinating his father who claims to be from God.
Pietro meanwhile takes advantage of the White House situation where Nick Fury left to offer up Cerebro.
The X-men are at odds with what to do and get into a fight about Spider-Man and Kitty not being there. When Kitty goes to check on Maggott he mentions Rogue was working with Stryker who is currently leading the rest of the team.
Stryker who bussed in his mutant captives reveals he can heal mutations but if they don’t repent he still will kill them.
Rogue promised to bring the team to him and then he would heal her mutation which is why she brought people and turned on the team before Kitty shows up. Meanwhile the President okayed the use of Cerebro while Valerie is looking into Stryker. Quicksilver sends an army of sentinels as Kitty kills Stryker. Valerie finds out Stryker was a mutant whose father had him take drugs to suppress his power but he stopped when his family died so his power – which was controlling machines kicks in and with his last breath Stryker takes over the fleet to kill all mutants.
The Sentinels attack and the mutants and X-men get protected when Kitty hides them for a moment and they head into the Morlock tunnels. That’s when the Oracle appears inviting them to come out to Tian and Rogue knew this was going to happen because she’s been getting messages not from god, but from Xavier.
Ultimate Comics Ultimates #5-6 – The World
Writer – Jonathan Hickman, Art – Brandon Peterson, Esad Ribic, Colors – Dean White, Jose Villarrubia, Jim Charalampidis, Edgar Delgado, John Rauch, Letters – VC’s Clayton Cowles
While Fury meets with the President without a clear next step, Tony Stark heads to the Kratos Club because they murdered thousands of people using his tech. When he confronts them they are nonplussed because they made a lot of money where they own 9% of the world. Jessica Drew is meanwhile notified about the new Spider-Man, Barton is brought to testify about the Serum, Tian, and the defection of the X-team who are now called The Runaways. Thor is haunted by the ghosts of the dead Asgardians and is unsure of what to tell Jane.
Fury sends in Sam Wilson to explore the City in stealth but The Maker finds him and tells him he is free to study it because then the Earth will see The City is the only way to avoid extinction.
Fury himself goes to New Mexico to try and bring Captain America back. Unfortunately while he understands the threat, Captain America is unwilling to help.
Captain Britain, Jamie Braddock, mourns the condition his brother Brian, the first Captain Britain is in and is angry at his dad.
When Fury turns, he and Hawkeye decide attacking Tian will be the closest to get them what they need, before he goes to say check in on Monica and their son.
Ultimate Comics Ultimates #1-4 – The Republic Is Burning
Ultimate Comics Hawkeye #1-4
Ultimate Comics X-men #1-6 – Stryker Returns
Ultimate Comics Ultimates #5-6 – The World