The Ultimates: Reconstruction 20-24

Perhaps the most underrated series of Marvel is The Ultimates universe.  This is the alternate universe that killed off the Hulk, made Reed Richards a bad guy and discovered that mutants were created in a lab in Canada.

With such great and twisty plot reveals like that one would be excited to dive into the Ultimates and peer at the Marvel Universe that no one really knows.

In the Reconstruction era, America has been devastated and only President Captain America can put the pieces back together to help the nation unite.  It was just discovered that Nick Fury is an undercover agent for Hydra and the governor of Florida is assembling a dooms day weapon.

Marvel has one rule for the Ultimates Universe and it has been followed quite strictly.  The universe has to appear adult, realistic and dark.  It is written like a Norman Rockwell painting.

I was excited to dive into my first Ultimates story arc and get sucked into the world of the "Other Marvel."  This is a world where men acted like men and teenage drama was replaced with super hero adults dealing with real world problems.

What I got instead was a pretty bread and butter story.  The struggle between Hawkeye and Fury was boring and did not lead to any excitement.  The unleashing of the evil Florida Governor led to some other hit and miss stories.  They introduced Power Man, Vision, Tigra, Black Knight and Quake into the universe, giving a potential spin off series with the West Coast Ultimates, but that side story got unresolved.  The Writer, Sam Humphries, felt like his story was missing something exciting and instead of adding a 5 headed demon, he kept it low tech.  Even the resolution of the world altering problem seemed corny and out of place--something even the Ghostbusters wouldn't stoop to.

The Penciling in issue #20 is by far the most budget art for any of the characters.  Captain America looked like he was laminated and his head was too lopsided for his mask.  The art gradually increased over the series and the inclusion of new villains made it interesting, but ultimately this universe had a dry run with uninspiration.

The whole thing tasted like oatmeal, with seldom brown sugar moments.

Luckily, Ultimates: Disassembled brings back Reed Richards as the main villain.

Upside: This universe's Tigra looks less like a prostitute