Ultimatum #1

 This was supposed to be the biggest story that ever happened to the Ultimate universe and it was but only in the actions it had on the universe not by story. You may wonder what I mean but I will explain my statement throughout this review. 
Let’s start with a summary of what happens:  
 The story starts off with a typical day in the lives of the Ultimates, Fantastic Four, Spider-man and his friends, some members of the X-men and Bruce Banner. This all changes when the Ultimatum wave hits. Spidey suits up, Bruce transforms into the Hulk, the Ultimates get separated and Beast, Dazzler, and Nightcrawler drown. Sue storm pushes the water out of New York but goes into a coma in the process this causes Reed to go after Namor. The heroes are then shown by Charles Xavier that Magneto has caused this and is waiting for them. Spidey tries to lift a car of a man and is helped by the Hulk. Iron man takes an unconscious Cap to the Traskilean for medical attention. Reed is taken in by Doctor Doom and Zarda whom need his help in getting Nick Fury to come back to their universe. Hawkeye helps Hank search for Jan and finds her being eaten by the Blob. Thor goes to Valhalla to fight for Valkyrie's soul and is help by a now dead Captain America. Magneto then confronts Professor X and snaps his neck after Charles says that he would be regarded as a man like Hitler and Pol Pot. Mystique taunts Magneto about his plans and we also find out that he is sending suicide bomber multiple men a group of which attack the Traskilean. Hank bights blobs head of and take Jan's body to the Traskilean where he sacrifices himself to stop the multiple men. Thor makes a deal with Hela to set Valkyrie free in exchange for his soul and when herself and Cap wake up they gather what’s left of the Ultimates and go to gather the rest of the heroes to fight Magneto. Kitty Pride tells Wolverine that Spider-man might be dead but before leaving he gives her a box and tells her to open it if he doesn't make it back we then get a flash back of the Hulk smashing an orb that releases Dormamu who kills Doctor Strange and is then confronted by the Thing and Sue Storm who want him to release the Human Torch. Reed convinces Nick Fury to come back but only if Doom reveals his part in Ultimatum.  The ultimates and the X-men finds the Hulk and they go to fight Magneto. Angel rushes in and is killed by Sabourtooth  and Magneto gets his arm cut off by Valkyrie and is attacked by Cap  but he quickly takes them out before being meet by the other heroes. Magneto kills Wolverine and retreats to his throne room where Nick Fury with the help of Jean Grey shows him the true reason behind the creation of mutants. Magneto then puts the earth back on its proper axis and asks for forgiveness but is instead killed by Cyclopes. 8 Days later Cyclopes goes to a press conference where he is shot in the head and Doctor Doom is killed by the Thing because of the part he played in Ultimatum. Cyclopes shooter is revelled to be Quicksilver who is carrying on his father’s dream. 

I have mixed feelings about this story because on one hand it ended what we knew as Ultimate Marvel and leaves the pieces to be picked up and created into what we now know as Ultimate Comics but on the other hand the story seemed very rushed as if it was only written just to set things up for Ultimate Comics and not to give any proper heart to the death of all of the heroes as well as the end of a comic book era         

•   The main problem I had with this story was that Loeb does not handle the events in this story on an emotional level, sure we do get a reaction from some of the heroes but only for a short while as event seem to become forgotten very quickly and even unnoticed by some of them throughout the story. He still hasn't gotten the characters right as he still writes Thor and Iron man as their 616 selves and writes Spider-man as someone who doesn't seem to take any of the events seriously  making him out to be more cocky than the way Bendis writes him in the Ultimate Spider-man tie in. The last thing I would like to criticize is that the dialog in this story was very bad at times as a lot of  it seemed rushed, cliche and even unrelevent to an event taking place.

However what I have mentioned is not the case for the last issue and a half which Loeb seems to get right to the best of his ability and Finches art is good and gets better throughout the story 
I give this 3.5 stars out of 5 as I feel that the writing was very rushed at the beginning and the dialog at the beginning is also not very well thought out however the last issue and a half makes up for most but not all of the story as well as one or two pointless deaths and the art which started of okay but however does improve as the story goes along 
Final verdict: Borrow it