The Good
The most interesting part of this book is the new team line-up of Spider-Man, Cloak, Dagger, Kitty Pryde, Bombshell, and Spider-Woman/Black Widow. It takes the old idea of the Ultimates fighting gigantic forces that could destroy the world and brings it down to a street-level team.
Writer Michel Fiffe does a fine job at having these characters try to find their new place in the world. The original Ultimates are disbanded, and S.H.I.E.L.D. is no more, but someone has to step up to fight for justice. They're not entirely sure what to do or how this is going to work and that, by far, is the best and coolest part of this introductory issue.
The Bad
While this book does do a decent job of setting up a new team, the issue as a whole misses its mark. This is supposed to be a brand new series, but it really isn't too new reader friendly. Fiffe tries to make new readers feel at ease with smaller scenes explaining what is going on and what has happened, but what the reader is left with is a ton of story recap that is overwhelming to not only new readers, but to long-time ULTIMATES fans.
Amilcar Pinna's are is a bit clunky. Right off the bat, the biggest complaint is that some characters just don't look like their counterparts from other books. Obviously, different styles mean characters won't look identical, but you wouldn't know Ganke and Kitty Pryde were Ganke and Kitty Pryde if it wasn't spelled out for you. Faces, at certain angles, look extremely awkward because the eye spacing is odd. It also seems that a majority of the time female characters are engaged in conversation their heads are tilted down and their hair is covering a small portion of their face. Everyone must talk with their chin pinned against their neck.
There's also a few smaller problematic things that are a bit off. Spider-Woman changes her name to Black Widow here, and while the cover of the next issue leads the reader to believe that we'll find out why. In this issue, it comes out of no where.
The Verdict
I had high expectations for this issue, but overall, it was a let down. The concept for the new book is fantastic, but the execution was a let down. The issue is not new reader friendly and not incredibly interesting to boot. The art is a bit clunky and characters are unrecognizable. This is a series I really want to be successful, but this first issue was a bit of a mess. Overall, I do not recommend this issue.
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