Ultimatum # 5 - The Ugly Truth

God is DEAD!!!
Okay, so we've finally reached this point. How long has it been now since we started this event? 8 months? And we're finally through Ultimatum , this may have been the best issue. And I'm not holding back, there is too much to pick apart not to have spoilers
We start with Wolverine basically promising to not hold back and that he's going to kill Magneto for all the harm he's done. Jean really doesn't feel this is the way to get the job done (which is why the good guys never win) and Scott tells her it will have to be this time. There is a very quick fight, basically because you just tossed a man with metal-laced bones at the man who can control magnetic poles. Magneto proves he's a man and simply uses his powers to cause Cyclops and Iron Man to blast Wolverine to death (I give Magneto a pair of brass balls for that). There is a second of mourning and the husk of a body stabs Magneto only to get ripped apart and everyone stands over his body.
I'd like to take this second to point out that while I'm sure Wolverine will be back and that I still like the guts to kill this character, I'm still a sure he'll regenerate!!!
We get some quick stuff with The Hulk and Colossus tearing through the engine room only to be confronted by Mystique and a detonator. Lucky for the blue-skinned beauty, Sabretooth shows up with the hang glider... which seemed random but he saved her ass from getting eat'n by The Hulk and pounded by Colossus.
Flashback to Magneto, who just kind of slumped away from the heroes, he pulls Wolverine's claw out of his chest and turns to face Nick Fury. I don't want to go into great detail about their conversation, but it climaxes as Jean comes in and transfers Fury's knowledge of mutant history to Erik, who turns into a baby and begins to question why he did what he did. He asks for forgiveness and Cyclops(finally mans up) blows his head off, "There's no one left to forgive you. And no one ever will."
The party flies off of Magneto's sinking fortress, and we watch the severed hand of Wolverine slowly fade away and clinch a fist. OH COME ON! YOU CAN'T HAVE A UNIVERSE WITHOUT WOLVERINE!!?!!?!!?
Move ahead 8 days later and Cyclops is in Washington D.C. trying to have a speech about Mutant Rights and the possible government involvement. Then he's assassinated. It reminded me a lot of Steve Rogers, but you know, without the time traveling bullet, or whatever it was.Oh yeah and it a headshot.....BLAM!!!!!!!
Then a scene with The Thing and Dr. Doom, The Thing squishes Dr. Doom's head(thats what i'm talking bout ....since Reed doesnt have the balls someone on that team had to step up!!!). Thus killing a leader of Mutants and Leader of Latavia.......two villains in one issue.
The the last two pages, well   Quicksilver and (I believe) Scarlet Witch's death was all part of some grand plan. Now Scarlet and Quicksilver are bout to take daddys place as Leaders(I believe).But I guess we have to wait and see.
The art's fantastic and the writing is better than before. But I still feel like killing handfuls of characters each issue took away from the "important" deaths (Charles) I Loved this event and I thought so many other stories could have been told like this and been as awesome but no they weren't such as HULK 600 all that waitting to find out who the Red Hulk is and they didnt even say . Rulk 600 SUCKED ASS big time!!!!!
Thats my reveiw,my opinon,YOU DONT HAVE TO AGREE WITH ME BUT I KNOW MORE THAN YOU SO THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Shout out to Vision,Dragon,Amo,Heroes,Geeky,A,MidTown comic shop!!!!

Okay, so we've finally reached this point. How long has it been now since we started this event? 8 months? And we're finally through Ultimatum and sadly, this may have been the best issue. And I'm not holding back, there is too much to pick apart not to have spoilers.

We had to wait what about 3 years (well maybe not that long) for this to be done.  And it ended so lame.I mean the art all along was great and the plot started very nicly but.... It made me feel like all they wanted to do was kill everyone for no good reason. I am so sorry i got into this series.

Let me be frank. This was bad. Really, really, really bad.
 
I've never seen Loeb write this terribly, and this is from someone who's been reading his Hulk issues. How a great writer like him could write such entertaining stories in DC, but produce such utter garbage in the Marvel Universe is a puzzle to me, but a puzzle no less confusing than Ultimatum.
 
I will admit, I liked the pace and flow of the first issue. Everything else from that point was a cascade of escalating filth leading up to this glorious example of bad writing. Very little made sense.
 
It's like Loeb doesn't even know how to write a proper action sequence anymore. The characters during the fight scenes were moronic equivalents of their true selves, with only Wolverine acting remotely like himself. you're fighting Magneto, and everyone else just stands there, gaping stupidly, while Wolverine fights the guy. Nobody helps. 
 
Magneto somehow controls not only Tony's repulsor emitters, but also forces Scott to blast Wolverine, an admirable tactic that made only half-sense. Even if his magnetic powers could manipulate Stark's suit, and his electrical control (repeat after me kids, magnetism and electricity are related) was able to activate the repulsors, how is it that Scott couldn't shut his stupid eyes? And again, note, Jean just stands there. No TK to counter Magneto, no force fields to defend Logan, nothing. Storm gapes. Only thing missing was the drool.
 
In another scene, Mystique goes up against Hulk and Colossus with a flamethrower. Where did her brain go? But it;s okay in the end, because the heroes are just as inept. Hulk threatens to eat the blue lady, and then does NOTHING while Colossus chases her. Sabertooth manages to save her, and they somehow escape both the Hulk and Colossus (both of whom I assume stopped chasing her coz, y'know, Loeb thought it was a good idea). And the two escape on a hang-glider. Wow. Only award-winning writers like Loeb can make stuff like this, I assure you.
 
The ending and epilogue were equally inexplicable. Fury shows up, Magneto doesn't kill him. Or anybody else. Is he too weak from the injuries Wolverine gave him? No, apparently not, because he still has enough strength to fix the Earth's magnetic poles. All because the revalation that mutants were engineered gave him a crisis of conscience.
 
And we also see Namor, a prisoner of Doom in Latveria. Ben Grimm arrives, and proceeds to crush Doom's skull. Where. Did. That. Come. From?! Doom is suddenly too helpless to deal with a now-murderous Thing? Did I miss something somewhere? As I recall, Ultimate Doom is made of METAL. Metal so dense and strong that Sue can't pierce it with her force fields. And I seem to recall Ultimate Doom also being versed in Atlantean sorcery. And being so powerful that an alien parasite chose Doom over Thor as a host. 
 
I can only hope that guy wasn;t really Doom but one of his brainwashed lackeys. 
 
But who cares right? It's not like there's not much to hope for after Loeb wiped his shoes on the stepping mat that used to be the Ultimate Unvierse. So long, fare NOT-so-well.