Luke and Devin hit the 50th episode of the UltiversalQ project with stunning secrets! Also Ultimate Iron Man has the most inessential story, Kang forms the Dark Ultimates, and Miles quits being Spider-Man until corporations gotta be destroyed again!
Comics Covered
- Ultimate Comics: Iron Man #1-4
- Ultimate Comics: Ultimates #25-30
- Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #23-28
Check out the notes and image gallery after the jump!
Ultimate Comics Iron Man #1 – #4
Writer – Nathan Edmondson, Art – Matteo Buffagni, Colors – Andy Troy, Letters – VC’s Joe Caramagna
Iron Man stops a runaway train in Canada.
In the past, Tony wanted to make a company with his girlfriend Josie but she had concerns about his dad who then shows up and forces him to come to a business meeting. When he gets back, he gets asked to change the name of the company JT Technologies so she leaves him. 6 months later she mysteriously dies and Tony throws himself into nanotech.
Tony comes to a stockholders meeting and someone is offered a lot of money to plug in a flash drive while Tony announces a plan that will release his technology destroying Stark Industries. The virus hacks into the archives and Tony tries to track it and a voice calling itself the Mandarin sets Tony’s armor to self-destruct.
Tony and his father took a meeting in China and Tony didn’t like having to do business the Chinese way. His dad died after, leaving him a coin, a visit from Nick Fury, and also apparently leaving nothing to his brother who gets no mention in this at all.
He gets away thanks to Jarvis but Carol Danvers shows up because he was attacked by someone who also attacked SHIELD and it is connected to South Pacific Financial, a mysterious company, so he flies off to Hong Kong to their headquarters. Inside he finds a symbol similar to one on a coin his father gave him but he is attacked by Drones and the virus again and has to escape.
He wakes up with a concussion and is in trouble for damages he caused in China and decides to keep digging and reach out to Jim Rhodes who is test piloting a jet when a series of drones are activated. Tony’s suit is hacked and they show the symbol tied to the company but he makes it out again. Carol warns him not to become a machine. Tony realizes SHIELD was looking into the Mandarin for his father and finds links between the visits and money and ends up finding a mysterious island. He goes, is attacked by a nano swarm and breaks into the building where his suit is deactivated and he meets the Mandarin Children, two women who need his DNA to control all of his wealth.
They hack into the satellite and plan to use the assets to reinvigorate the company after they use the drones to kill everyone and have control because they helped to build everything.
Luckily Rhodey comes in to start shooting and brings in backup. Tony goes after The Mandarins using the coin he got and they explain they want to control all economies. Also Rhodey gets a War Machine suit. Unsurprisingly they also murdered Josey hoping to get everyone in line to run the company. Tony escapes in the chaos with one of the women being murdered by their body guard who then kills himself, the other one going further down into the building and Tony escaping with Rhodey.
In the end Tony realizes he will need to get help fighting the Mandarin and elsewhere someone else is told to take care of business.
Ultimate Comics: Ultimates #25 – #30 – Disassembled
Writer – Josh Fialkov, Penciller – Carmine Di Giandomenico, Inks – Lorenzo Ruggiero, Colors – Jim Charalampidis, Wil Quintana, Letters – VC’s Clayton Cowles
Bruce Banner is removed from the prison where he’s been drugged to not turn into the Hulk and he explodes out with Sue Storm barely having time to protect Thor, President America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Monica Chang and herself and Hulk now has the Infinity Gauntlets. Hulk starts beating the heck out of them until Anthony sends in the Iron Patriot Hulkbuster which melts Hulk before he reconstitutes himself and makes copies. Reed Richards then shows up, similarly freed by the mysterious figure who offers to help him fit the universe with the Infinity Gems – which Pietro took and now in the present, gives to Reed, meaning they only need 2 more. President America goes to distract Reed so Thor can teleport everyone else out and we see the mysterious leader is Kang the Conqueror.
With the Gloves they enforce world peace, remove patents and copyrights to make all information public, destroy global banking, release a modified Sentient Seed across the globe, unveil zero emission tech and that’s in the first day. Reed meanwhile has locked out Tony and Anthony from the Iron Man suit, Monica Chang is stuck without SHIELD, Sue and Hawkeye are trying to do recon and Thor flies off to fight.
Sue meanwhile brought in Ben to help her fight and she turns off the computer displays while Hawkeye went in to save President America but he gets captured by Kang.
Thor is meanwhile drinking when Bruce finds him and the two get into a fight.
Tony meanwhile realizes he needs to get the power gem when his head starts bleeding because Pietro found the last Gem – in Tony’s brain and captures him and starts extracting the gem – which was the tumor that Tony called Anthony.
Meanwhile Ben and Sue believe they killed Reed, unaware that he can make copies and he sends Pietro after them.
Reed explains the Gems are a way that the universe fights to stop their own destruction – if they can get them in time. In a universe Reed found, someone tried to prevent the destruction, failed to do it in time – but became the Watcher. Since the gems are only made in cataclysmic events so he started creating more of the events to make the gems and with help from Kang, he will save the world.
Kang meanwhile comes to check on her prisoners and shows them they are in the Negative Zone.
And Nick Fury wakes up Monica who he rescued because he has his new Howling Commandos – Cassie Lang – Stature, Sam Wilson – the Falcon, Danny Ketch – the Ghost, Frank Castle the Punisher, Abigail Brand the Alien (now with Green Hair), Emil Blonsky the Abomination, Dum Dum Duggan and Hercules.
But it is too late as Reed kills Tony Stark and the other Ultimates are knocked out with Thor being tossed into prison with President America and Hawkeye.
In West Africa, a group of terrorists attack the farm and Hulk brutally attacks and has them murdered.
Meanwhile Tony Stark’s techno-ghost destroys the Herbietrons mainframe and vanishes into the system while the Howling Commandos start their charge and Iron Man breaks into the Negative Zone Prison.
That’s when Reed reveals his trump card – he captured the Human Torch who explodes in a massive blast to release the last stone from where it melted into the planet.
Meanwhile Tony has fully created a mechanized Iron Man suit and takes out Reed’s Hulkbuster.
Meanwhile Quicksilver who retrieved the last stone, figured out that Kang really wants to kill all of the mutants to fix the world and she kills him.
Reed is meanwhile filing to stop Stark who is insulting his intelligence which distracted him so Ben and Sue could escape and the rest of the Howling Commandos appear – unfortunately followed by Kang who is actually Sue Storm from the future.
She explains that she needed Reed’s help so she showed him the future but things in the present fall into chaos as the dead Quicksilver appears along with the Hulk and everyone fights for the final stone. Tony converts his body into a new Mjolnir for Thor, knocking the electricity out before the Commandos work to destroy the Herbietron factory. Tony is able to assemble the stones but Kang realizes she was too late and moves to go further back in time and warns Sue the world will die if she stays with Ben instead of Reed. Reed meanwhile saw the future that lies ahead and is horrified.
In the aftermath, Monica sends Fury and the Commandos to head to Europe and Sue meets with Reed because Galactus is coming.
Ultimate Comics: All-New Spider-Man #23-28 – Spider-Man No More
Writer – Brian Michael Bendis, Art – David Marquez, Colors – Justin Ponsor, Paul Mounts, Letters – VC’s Cory Petit
One year after Miles’ mom died, and presumably after the Ultimates stuff settled but also nobody cared about continuity, Miles is having a rough time. His non-girlfriend Katie Bishop is trying to comfort him and Ganke isn’t a help because of Lego issues. Miles is debating telling her that he was Spider-Man and Ganke is against it partially because he wants Miles to be Spider-Man again.
Jessica Drew meanwhile has been trying to get him to come back and he meets her and she presents him with the costume but he runs away only to find it waiting for him when he gets home but instead he goes with his dad to get Chinese food.
Jefferson is expecting a big settlement from the police but they get distracted when Gwen Stacy sees Miles working there. Miles goes to talk to her but ultimately pushes her away and Miles decides to leave moments before the building is destroyed by Bombshell fighting with Cloak and Dagger.
Via flashback we find out that Cloak and Dagger were two teens – Ty Johnson and Tandy Bowen who had a chance meeting, started dating and on their way to prom, got into a car accident and were stolen by Roxxon’s brain trust of Layla Miller, the second Nathaniel Essex, Samuel Sterns and Arnim Zola the 3rd who activated Dark Matter in them, granting them superpowers – with Ty having darkness powers and Tandy having light powers that they used to escape.
In the present Miles refuses to suit up and so Gwen slaps him but he runs off with his dad.
Meanwhile Cloak and Dagger failed to capture Bombshell, who they wanted to get information about Roxxon from.
The next day Gwen is upset about what happened and tells Aunt May, Miles is distracted and Katie thinks it’s because Ganke isn’t talking to Miles and she, like Jefferson, thought that Ganke was in love with Miles, and he can’t explain it. But it turns out Ganke is mad because Gwen texted him about Miles running away.
Miles gets home to find Spider-Woman waiting in his room and she tells him that because he didn’t throw out the costume, she could tell him about her origin as a clone of Peter Parker. She also explains what she knows about Cloak and Dagger and how because SHIELD has ties to Roxxon they are in danger and she needs his help, so he suits back up.
In another flashback we find out that Bombshell’s mom was an inmate who was offered early release if she submitted to testing. In it she gained explosive powers but everyone involved was unaware that she was pregnant at the time so she ran.
Meanwhile in the present, Spider-Man and Spider-Woman track Bombshell down to offer to help her, while Roxxon struggles to deal with the news about Cloak and Dagger which angers the head of Roxxon, especially since they are tracking down other targets, so Mr. Roxxon has hired in Anthony Masters aka Taskmaster, who quickly finds the Spiders and Bombshell.
Taskmaster uses tech to paralyze everyone but Spider-Man is able to venom blast him enough so he can escape and swing back but Taskmaster is able to take all of their hits and copy their powers. As the fight escalates, Cloak and Dagger see it and he gains their powers as well but Cloak absorbs him and knocks him out before he can hit them as police helicopters arrive.
Roxxon hears the news about Taskmaster as the building goes on alert, moments before the team arrives and Roxxon knows about everyone and their secrets including Miles, taunting him with secrets about his father. Miles then defenestrates Roxxon with a web attached. Roxxon tries to taunt Miles explaining that he caused Miles to exist but Miles isn’t worried and when the NYPD comes, Spider-Woman uses SHIELD access to send them away.
That’s when the Science Team appears and Layla Miller has a weapon to incapacitate the others, but Miles takes it and the rest of the team is easily dispatched as SHIELD forces arrive and Roxxon is arrested.
Miles returns to school and apologizes to Ganke and declares that he is Spider-Man, debates what to do with his father, and Monica Chang suggests that Spider-Woman’s new team may have a future.
Ultimate Comics: Iron Man #1-4
Ultimate Comics: Ultimates #25-30 – Disassembled
Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #23-28 – Spider-Man No More