Ultimate Power #1

Many superhero fans and comic readers what would happen if the Avengers met the Justice League? Well, Ultimate Power answers that question perfectly by giving you a story where Marvel's deconstruction of the Justice League the Squadron Supreme meats the Ultimates, the Ultimate versions of the Avengers, alongside the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Ultimate Power is a massive crossover event that took the combined work of J. Michael Straczynski, Jeph Loeb, and Brian Michael Bendis to create. Ultimate Power gets its name from Marvel's Ultimate Comics runs and Marvel/Max Supreme Power runs. Well, they managed to succeed in their mission by creating a great story with the best cast of characters a fanboy could dream of with fantastic artwork.

Story

Ultimate Power to those of us who are familiar with the Squadron Supreme remembers when they fought the Avengers in the '70s, well now they're fighting the Ultimates in the 2000s. Ultimate Power begins with the Fantastic Four stopping the Serpent Squad from breaking into Project PEGASUS. In that fight, a piece of Thing comes off and Mr. Fantastic tries to figure out what's wrong. This leads Mr. Fantastic to discover the Multiverse. When the Ultimate Squadron Supreme's world is destroyed by "Reed Richards" the Squadron Supreme goes after Reed and takes him prisoner so the Ultimates, X-men, and the rest of the Fantastic Four have to save him and find out who really destroyed the Squadron Supreme's world. The Squadron Supreme wants Mr. Fantastic to repair the damage he's done. While the Ultimates and Squadron Supreme fight, the Original Squadron Supreme is drawn into this battle and they fight their Ultimate Counterparts. Then all of a sudden Doctor Doom comes in and interrupts the battle. The Hulk is Unleashed into combat and attacks all 3 factions. Which unites all the heroes as they fight a common enemy. I liked how this takes 2 of the greatest evil masterminds in Marvel, Dr. Doom, and Emile Burbank, and teams them up to carry out villainy. This also feels very nostalgic because the Squadron Supreme fought the Avengers in the 1970s and the two teams came around to team up to fight common enemies, it was felt like a modernized take on an old dynamic. I also like the presence of the original Squadron Supreme, it added to the nostalgic feel of the narrative. Though I wish the original Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four also joined the conflict in addition to the original Squadron Supreme. It would've been cool to see the Astonishing X-Men fight the Ultimate X-Men, the Avengers fight the Ultimates, and the original Fantastic Four fight the Ultimate Fantastic Four in addition to the two Squadron Supremes fighting. I can understand why the writers chose to exclude the Avengers and the main X-Men and Fantastic Four because they may have felt it would convolute the story. However, the original Squadron Supreme's presence on served as fan service, they didn't make the story more convoluted. So adding the original Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four would do likewise. This is just me being a nitpicky fanboy, but still, I would have to see that in the story. Regardless the story was phenomenal.

Characters

The characters in the story were very likable and it helped strengthen the narrative. The Fantastic Four was Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thin. The X-Men you had Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Jean Grey, Rogue, and Kitty Pryde. The Ultimates are basically just the Ultimate Avengers just given a different team name. They are Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Hawkeye, Spider-man, Hulk, Ant-Man, and the Wasp. The Squadron Supreme is Marvel's Justice League of America you have Hyperion (Superman), Nighthawk (Batman), Power Princess (Wonder Woman), Doctor Spectrum (Green Lantern), Whizzer/Blur (Flash), Arcana (Zatana), Shape (Plastic Man), Nuke (Firestorm), Skymax (Martian Manhunter), Amphibian (Aquaman), Lady Lark (Black Canary), and Tom Thumb (the Atom). The Justice League is my favorite superhero team, so it was nice to see Marvel's deconstruction of the team done justice. Now given that the character roster was so large not everyone got a fair share of time in the narrative, luckily their characters were fleshed out in the Ultimates, Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Ulitmate X-Men, Supreme Power, and Squadron Supreme runs prior to Ultimate Power so there aren't any underdeveloped characters in this story. The central characters in the story are Mr. Fantastic, Spider-man, Captain America, Hyperion, Nick Fury, Invisible Woman, Power Princess, and the Thing everyone else serves as secondary characters. Mr. Fantastic is depicted as the young genius who discovers the multiverse. He is curious to know what exists in these parallel earth, he very much has the curiosity of a scientist. This is actually true to Mr. Fantastic's character because the original Mr. Fantastic also discovered the Marvel Multiverse. When he learns that one of his probes destroys the Ultimate Squadron Supreme's homeworld he feels guilty about the damage caused by his probe and willingly hands himself over to the Squadron Supreme. Mr. Fantastic also discovers that Emil Burbank destroyed the Squadron Supreme's world, and tries to inform all the heroes. Spider-Man is the wise-cracking and genius high school student who is drawn into this by mistake. He's in a relationship with Kitty Pryde. It is Spider-Man who creates a way for the Ultimates, X-Men and remaining Fantastic Four members to get to the Squadron's universe. He does this through his knowledge of Norse Mythology and tells Thor to make a portal to the alternate universe. Spider-Man also discovers that Nick Fury and Dr. Doom framed Mr. Fantastic for sending the probe. Captain America is suspicious of Nick Fury and he assumes that Fury is hiding something. Cap also demonstrated his ability to lead, by commanding 3 different teams of superheroes to save Mr. Fantastic. He also tells Spider-Man to investigate Fury. Hyperion is much like Captain America in the sense that he is a strong leader and his leadership skills are on par with Cap's. On top of being a strong leader, Hyperion is also depicted as being the caring protector of his world and he sees the destruction of his world as a failure on his behalf. Nick Fury is depicted as being secretive and untrustworthy in character. He sees his duty as that to take drastic actions to protect his people at all costs, even that of others. Fury forged his partnership with Dr. Doom to scare Mr. Fantastic out of exploring alternate earths. His concerns are related to all of Mr. Fantastic's previous discoveries and the destruction that followed. Invisible Woman is Mr. Fantastic's fiance and she cares about Mr. Fantastic's well being more than anything. She tries to stop Mr. Fantastic from surrendering himself to the Squadron. Power Princess has a similar romantic dynamic with Hyperion to that of Invisible Woman with Mr. Fantastic. She serves to help a grieving Hyperion from feeling complete guilt over the destruction of his world and tries to calm him down. Power Princess is also warrior-like in the heat of battle and is a relentless opponent. The Thing just wants to have a normal life and hates being a permanent rock monster. He does enjoy being strong when it's necessary, but hate that his rock form is his only form. Thing's presence adds to Mr. Fantastic character for the whole reason, Mr. Fantastic discovered the Marvel Multiverse was to find a cure for the Thing. The rest of the heroes acts as you'd expect them to act. Thor is a buffoon, Wolverine's a jerk, and Nighthawk is a detective and vigilante. The Hulk is more out of control and brutal than his mainstream counterpart. The original Squadron Supreme does serve as a contrast to their Ultimate counterparts. The mainstream Squadron Supreme acts more like the Justice League and the have a more uplifting tone to them. The Ultimate versions are darker and have a more militaristic tone to them. This is the contrast that the mainstream Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four were included in the story. Again, I'm being nitpicky. The villains are also well established. Dr. Doom is the villainous mastermind who wants to ruin Mr. Fantastic's life. He also sends a robot duplicate to fight the heroes, so he doesn't get apprehended. Emil Burbank is Hyperion's archnemesis who looked for a way to bring about Hyperion's greatest failure. Emil Burbank is Marvel's answer to Lex Luthor given that Hyperion is Marvel's Superman. Ultimately, this makes Burbank a cunning villain who relies on his intellect instead of physical strength. In fact, Burbank sees himself as an underappreciated genius who is jealous of the world's fascination with Hyperion, much like Luthor and Superman. This shows how well J. Michael Straczynski, Jeph Loeb, and Brian Michael Bendis know the characters they are dealing with.

Artwork

Greg Land's artwork made Ultimate Power a blast to read. In fact, the artwork made me look at panels than I normally would because of how spectacular the art was. Each character looks their best. This where it is the most obvious that the Squadron Supreme was a deconstruction of the Justice League. The original Squadron Supreme bears a very strong resemblance to the Justice League and their looks alone can tell which member they're based on. The Ultimate Versions are a bit harder to tell, but not that much harder. The originals have capes and costume designs that resemble the Justice League's costumes. The original Amphibian is a man with blonde hair, the Ultimate Amphibian is a female with blue scaly skin. This also another area where it would be nice to have included the Avengers, Astonishing X-Men, and original Fantastic Four was to compare and contrast their looks. Anyone familiar with these characters and renditions knows what they look like so I won't make this review longer by describing how everyone looks. I'll elaborate on character looks in other reviews of graphic novels featuring these characters. I will say I liked the look of the Ultimate Dr. Doom in this graphic novel. Typically the Ultimate Dr. Doom has a straight green cloth all over his body that's ripped up and he has legs like a horse. Here he has the look of the standard Dr. Doom, but with fur shoulder pads that create the impression of royalty. A nice change in design. The point being everyone looked great thanks to Greg Land.

In the end, I had a blast reading Ultimate Power, it is a graphic novel that had me on the edge of my seat. J. Michael Straczynski, Jeph Loeb, and Brian Michael Bendis made a compelling graphic novel with an amazing cast of characters all while combined with Greg Lands' spectacular artwork. This is a must-read for Avengers/Ultimates, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Squadron Supreme, and Justice League fans.