Is reading Ultimatum required before reading...

[Admiral James Kirk]

...the Ultimate Spider-Man: Ultimatum TPB? Will I be totally lost without reading it? Reason I'm asking is because of all the negative reviews for the Ultimatum collection. I don't normally give a damn about reviews because most fanboy expectations are through the roof but...

...I bought Batman R.I.P. after ignoring the reviews and my ass is still stinging from that choice. Don't want to do anything that stupid ever again.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

It's not really required but you should read it...

It's pretty bad actually.

 

[Trent Roman]

I read comic books for the pure pleasure of it--I switch off all my critical faculties and just enjoy the pretty pictures and nonsensical plots. Apart from the occasional thread here, I don't participate in any broader community; I know about a book when it shows up in bookstores, and that's about the extent of my involvement with the genre. I think I'm about as far away from a fanboy as one can be and still be a semi-regular reader. So please keep that in mind when I say that Ultimatum is utter and complete shit, a mindless, purposeless orgy of death and destruction which I cannot even begin to fathom the motivations for. The best thing they could do is pretend it never happened; comic books are often criticized for retcons and resets, but getting rid of Ultimatum would be the best possible use that tendency of the genre could be put to.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

Thanks, Trent.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

I read comic books for the pure pleasure of it--I switch off all my critical faculties and just enjoy the pretty pictures and nonsensical plots. Apart from the occasional thread here, I don't participate in any broader community; I know about a book when it shows up in bookstores, and that's about the extent of my involvement with the genre. I think I'm about as far away from a fanboy as one can be and still be a semi-regular reader. So please keep that in mind when I say that Ultimatum is utter and complete shit, a mindless, purposeless orgy of death and destruction which I cannot even begin to fathom the motivations for. The best thing they could do is pretend it never happened; comic books are often criticized for retcons and resets, but getting rid of Ultimatum would be the best possible use that tendency of the genre could be put to.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

You're being too kind...

 

[Hermiod]

I read comic books for the pure pleasure of it--I switch off all my critical faculties and just enjoy the pretty pictures and nonsensical plots. Apart from the occasional thread here, I don't participate in any broader community; I know about a book when it shows up in bookstores, and that's about the extent of my involvement with the genre. I think I'm about as far away from a fanboy as one can be and still be a semi-regular reader. So please keep that in mind when I say that Ultimatum is utter and complete shit, a mindless, purposeless orgy of death and destruction which I cannot even begin to fathom the motivations for. The best thing they could do is pretend it never happened; comic books are often criticized for retcons and resets, but getting rid of Ultimatum would be the best possible use that tendency of the genre could be put to.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

Plus frakking one.

It's god damned awful. I mean I thought Ultimates 3 was bad, but this takes the cake.

 

[captcalhoun]

if you want to make sense of USM: Ultimatum, yes, you're going to have to read Ultimatum. AND Requiem. and the Ultimatum X/4 book.

the story weaves between all of them, much to my annoyance.

and yes, it's shit. the art's good. but the story's shit.

and seriously, that's how they want to differentiate between 616 and Ultimate, by killing half the cast? damn...

 

[Mr Light]

I am also not very picky about my comic books, but Ultimatum was just ****ing ridiculous. They killed off 30-50 major characters! What's the point?!

 

[coolghoul]

if you want to make sense of USM: Ultimatum, yes, you're going to have to read Ultimatum. AND Requiem. and the Ultimatum X/4 book.

the story weaves between all of them, much to my annoyance.

and yes, it's shit. the art's good. but the story's shit.

and seriously, that's how they want to differentiate between 616 and Ultimate, by killing half the cast? damn...

I haven't as yet read Ultimatum (only Prelude to Ultimatum or something similiar which had a great story in the second half of the collection about Hulk and Zarda - I was completely unprepared for that stuff! ). No clue what was going on in the first half tho'.

So, if you haven't checked out Prelude to Ultimatum, I seriously recommend it.

Edit - I thought they did do a reset of the entire universe due to "Ultimatum" and therefore the Ultimate universe morphed into Ultimate Comics Universe - Hence new spidey in that universe is titled "Ultimate Comics: Spider-man" instead of "Ultimate Spider-Man". Sorry, if my impression is wrong.

 

[Mr Light]

Nope, same continuity, same universe, same characters (what little ones survived).

 

[Trent Roman]

While we're on the subject, has there ever been an explanation from whatever comic book Powers That Be for why Ultimatum came about and was perceived as a good idea at the time, or a response to the negativity with which is was received (acknowledgement or even apology)? For that matter, why did they mass cancel the Ultimate books? Were they not selling well?

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

if you want to make sense of USM: Ultimatum, yes, you're going to have to read Ultimatum. AND Requiem. and the Ultimatum X/4 book.

the story weaves between all of them, much to my annoyance.

Really? Damn.


The only Ultimate Universe title I actually read is USM. Is it absolutely neccessary to read Ultimatum? None of the setup for Ultimatum is already in USM? I've heard that Spidey isn't even a major player in the storyline and he mostly does rescue work while the heavy hitters are out fighting Magneto. Doesn't seem like I absolutely must get Ultimatum if that is the case. Of course if that's not the case I'd be grateful if you'd explain that to me.

I'm just trying to avoid reading any more shitty comics. Like I mentioned Batman R.I.P. was the worst buy of my comics reading life and I have no desire to put myself through something like that again.

 

[captcalhoun]

Spidey's storyline weaves back and forth between Ultimatum and USM: Ultimatum. you could try just reading his pages i suppose.

has there ever been an explanation from whatever comic book Powers That Be for why Ultimatum came about and was perceived as a good idea at the time

the feeling was that 616 had become too similar to Ultimate because they were doing storylines similar to Ultimate (don't ask me what they're on about, i've not read a new 616 comic since the mid 1990s.) It was therefore decided that they needed to separate the two and to do so, they opted for this apocalyptic tale that Loeb concocted.

For that matter, why did they mass cancel the Ultimate books? Were they not selling well?

because of the decision to relaunch the titles as 'Ultimate Comics: X' where X = the characters therein. EG Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man, Ultimate Comics: Avengers, Ultimate Comics: Iron Man: Armour Wars etc.

i dunno what they're on about, but then again, as i said, the only 616 stuff I've read since I quit X-Force and X-Men at the end of the 'Generation Next' crossover is old issues of Wonder Man, the trade of Daredevil: Born Again and the first ~6 issues of Generation X and various issues of X books i bought to plug gaps in my collection of X-Men and X-Force and the attendant crossovers such as 'X-Cutioner's Song', 'Fatal Attractions' and 'Generation Next'.

 

[MNM]

Plus frakking one.

It's god damned awful. I mean I thought Ultimates 3 was bad, but this takes the cake.

Meh, I loved both Ultimatum and Ultimates 3, I found both enjoyable and fun to read.