This issue of the Ultimates is a complete re-imagining of Xorn, the Celetrials, and the Eternals.
The Good
First and foremost, Esad Ribic's art on this book is out-of-this-world. I love his character designs, especially Xorn and Zorn who I know are pretty much the same design with different colors, but man, they look cool as hell.
What impressed me more was Ribic's landscapes. On page three, there's a great splash page featuring the two cities and the carrier making it's approach, and I love the design of the whole page. I love the contrast of these two ancient looking cities and this giant 21st century floating ship made of metal in front of these old stone buildings.
Visually, there's so much cool stuff happening in this issue, and there is so much to look at that you'll look through the issue again and again. The final page is super-awesome as Hulk goes crazy and starts destroying anything he can. I've always loved the ultimate version of Hulk and it's nice to see him in this series especially when his job is to smash things.
Hickman presents a lot of cool ideas in this issue and it feels like the ancient ways are battling the futuristic ways. I like the giant head as the city and as a controlling unit for everything as well. I could seriously talk for days about all the cool aspects of this book.
The Bad
You'll learn very quickly to not miss an issue of this series because you will be completely, and utterly lost with the story. There's so much happening and because it's Hickman writing, it will have a high concept story and world, and you really need to be following closely to keep on track with this book.
I'll admit it. I got a lost a couple times because of this. I do feel a tad overwhelmed with everything being presented to me, but I feel that reading this in trade will work out a lot better.
The Verdict
No matter how lost I may get with the book, I still love it because everything about it feels so fresh and new. What won me over the most was Ribic's designs of the characters and world these characters are in. There's great contrast, visually, between many elements in the books, and it's just really cool to see on the page. I loved the final page of this issue, and I love all these cool futuristic elements Hickman throws into his work. Sadly, I got lost while reading this, and sometimes, all the ideas presented to the reader can be overwhelming, but overall, this is amazing story and I highly recommend you pick it up.