Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by atnow
Ultimate Galactus Trilogy by Warren Ellis
4.0
Years ago, I found myself at the GlenOak High School that also had the Stark County District Library attached to it. I was at a Speech and Debate Tournament and found myself out a bit earlier than I anticipated. I wandered over to the library, sat down, and found three trade paperbacks, Ultimate Nightmare, Ultimate Secret, and Ultimate Extinction, that formed the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy, which I am reviewing today.
The Ultimate Galactus Trilogy, like other titles in the Ultimate line of books (please see my ridiculous 17-page treatise on the Ultimates) sought to create variants of characters that had existed for decades. At the time these miniseries were published there 3 ongoing series, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four, and Ultimate Spider-Man, and the Ultimates limited series. While Ultimate Spider-Man is not featured in this series (a bit too friendly neighborhood for, you know, an extinction-level planet eater) the rest of the characters from the Ultimate series at the time make appearances. I’m not going to go into the differences between the Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four, as there is no real comparison in the MCU, and I’m not doing a deep dive into the 616. I am going to cover the Ultimate variants of Sam Wilson/Falcon/Captain America, Vision, Misty Knight, Captain Marvel, Silver Surfer, and Galactus.
Ultimate Sam Wilson. He is a pretty stark contrast from what we have in the MCU. Considering this was written about 15+ years ago, Sam Wilson was in a different place in the 616, and Iron Man was probably just some storyboards it’s not surprising that Sam Wilson is so vastly different. Ultimate Falcon used to work for Nick Fury and SHIELD but left as he preferred the adventuring lifestyle. He is great with languages and is savvy in the tech department. There is no Anthony Mackie in this character. Frankly, he’s just ok in this story. I much prefer the new Captain America we have on screen.
The Ultimate Vision is different than the Ship of Theseus loving Vision of the MCU. The Vision of the 616 is a convoluted mess that requires three cups of coffee, each with a shot of bourbon, to understand. The MCU Vision is all the best parts of Tony Stark, given focus through the Mind Stone, and is on the side of life. As messy as his introduction is into the MCU, I very much came to love Vision after his less than satisfying origins (basically the second he picks of Mjolnir in Avengers: Age of Ultron, I am on the Vision train). The Ultimate Vision is a machine intelligence sent to warn civilizations that Galactus is coming. It brings with it visions of what Galactus does to planets to give them time to time to prepare, and hopefully prepare a defense. Also, Ultimate Vision has the body of a woman. So that’s different. It's an interesting take and is different. Personally, Ultimate Vision is the Ultimate universe at its best, taking a concept, turning it on its head, but still having a real connection to the source material. Does it need to be a sexy robot lady in shape? No. Other than that, it’s a fun variant.
For the 10 viewers of the Luke Cage and Defenders Netflix show, and the one true fan, Misty Knight makes an appearance. It is fine. She’s an example of a bad Ultimate variant. She’s too similar to the 616 Misty Knight. If you loved her on the Netflix series, and need more Misty Knight, this is not satisfying.
Captain Marvel is such a mess and requires a quick 616 recap. In the 616, Captain Marvel is a Kree, named Mar-Vell, who goes by the Earth alias Walter Lawson while incognito. The Captain Marvel in our zeitgeist is Carol Danvers, who in her history has been Ms. Marvel, Binary, Warbird, and Captain Marvel. The MCU skipped the Walter Lawson Mar-Vell, gender-swapping them as a Kree scientist working with the Tesseract, and played by Annette Bening, as Wendy Lawson. Brie Larson plays Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers right from the jump, and to many now the original Mar-Vell is a concept from yesteryear. Why is all this explanation necessary? Because Ultimate Captain Marvel is Philip Lawson, an incognito Kree spy/scientist, sent to observe humanity as Galactus approaches to destroy them. This Mar-Vell, excuse me, Mahr Vehl, is certainly not what we are used to in a post-Captain Marvel (2019) world. Don’t worry though Carol Danvers makes an appearance as Mahr Vehl’s handler and girlfriend. Honestly, now it’s a bit lackluster compared to the MCU Captain Marvel we are used to. It wouldn’t be too much of an issue if Mahr Vehl was interesting, but he’s not. He’s also not disintegrating. He serves as an info dump of a character that could have been more. He just boils down to the classic “going native” trope, the natives being humanity.
The Silver Surfer appeared in the best-forgotten Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer movie. He was motion captured by Doug Jones and voiced by Laurence Fishburne. Like his 616 counterparts, the Silver Surfer had “the power cosmic” and was the herald of Galactus, flying ahead to inform plants that they were soon to be destroyed. Naturally, over 60+ years the Silver Surfer’s remit has changed many times. Naturally, there are many complex stories in the 616 and a fairly bland story on screen some years ago. How does this complex character fare in the Ultimate Universe? Totally stripped down to one essential aspect, “herald of Galactus”. The Ultimate Silver Surfer is one of my most perplexing Ultimate variants. I appreciate that in this story the Silver Surfer is effectively an advanced agent of Galactus to sow discord and reduce resistance for the arrival. On the other hand, the Silver Surfer we read is essentially a cult leader, with little to no personality. To add to that, one is killed and a second one takes its place with the same blandness. The Ultimate Silver Surfer does exactly what the story needs it to do and disregards the complexities of its 616 origins and possibilities. I wish there was more, but I’m happy with what I got from it. Looking outside the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy, the Ultimate Fantastic Four series eventually met the Silver Searcher, who claims to have been the template for the Silver Surfers, and that character gets a lot more development.
Ok. The big daddy. Galactus. The devourer of worlds. The Antigod. Unlife. A bad dude with a lot of bad guy names. In the awful Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer, he was a nasty fart cloud moving through space. In the 616, for 60 years he has been a planet-sized man that appears as the same race as the race that he is about to consume. He is fueled by insatiable hunger and is only momentarily satiated by eating a planet. He tries to eat Earth every o couple of years or so and gets turned away. The Ultimate Universe wanted to do something different, so instead of a huge dude floating in space, they made Galactus a swarm intelligence of robots that were created in some unknown, eldritch time, and it simply goes from planet to planet, destroying all life, cracking the planet, consuming the energy from its core, and leaving an uninhabitable husk behind. Also, it's called Gah Lak Tus instead. I really love this iteration of Galactus. Due to decades of explanations, origins, retcons, reboots, Galactus is an over-explained character, instead of the hungering concept it should be. By taking it back to its roots, and putting an air of mystique on it, the faceless Gah Lak Tus swarm is a great way to reinvigorate a classic character with a new spin. Who made these machines? How were they created thousands or millions of years ago? Does it have a purpose other than hunger?
But Adam, you say, exasperated at the extensive armature analysis, what about the story? Well, it is broken down into 4 parts, which I will go over in turn.
First up, the Ultimate Nightmare. This 5 issue series features the Ultimates and the Ultimate X-Men responding to a worldwide mental and technological vision of horrors to come. The Ultimates are responding to a potential threat, while the Ultimate X-Men are the agents of Profession Xavier’s homo superior messiah complex. Ultimate Nightmare is the best of the entire trilogy in my opinion. It is a slow horror reveal as to what’s causing the psychic trauma, which is centered in the Tunguska region of Russia. I especially love that it considers the Tunguska Event from 1908 in the storytelling. The descent into an abandoned Soviet facility adds some great tension, and a tinge of body horror, to the story. Of course, in the fashion of all trilogy, a minor mystery is solved, leading to a grander and more dangerous mystery. The art is haunting, but I think the dark atmosphere covers up some shortcomings. On occasion, some of the character’s faces are a little muddy that in a sunny comic panel would be inexcusable.
The Ultimate Nightmare is followed up by the Ultimate Secret, this time focusing on the Ultimates and the Ultimate Fantastic Four. Some Kree shenanigans are occurring, and Nicky Fury gathers the Ultimates and the Fantastic Four to deal with it. Mahr Vehl is revealed, and eventually explains a lot of stuff about Gah Lak Tus. A lot of invader aliens get killed. It’s a rather rote story in my opinion. It makes sense why this was only 4 issues, while the other miniseries were 5 apiece. The art may be the best in this part of the trilogy, however, with only the occasional odd face in the background.
Trilogy? Then why did I say there are 4 parts? Well, across the Ultimate line of books at the time, several features a little mini-story featuring, and fleshing out the Ultimate Vision. The art is wildly different than the rest of the trilogy and is a welcome change. It dives into the creation and purpose of Vision and is perfectly placed between the Ultimate Secret and the Ultimate Extinction.
After the final gasp that was the Ultimate Vision story, we get the plunge into the aforementioned Ultimate Extinction. The Ultimate gather the Fantastic Four as well as members of the X-Men to fight the encroaching Gah Lak Tus swarm. We also have a plotline introducing Misty Knight in an almost totally superfluous role. She exists in this story only to give context to things other people can punch. What, exactly, can Captain America do against a 10,000mile-long swarm of anti-life? Not much, but he sure can punch a silver dude. How do we introduce the silver dude? Misty Knight is the answer. It's really bad storytelling to include this character in this manner. Other than that, the preparations to defeat Gah Lak Tus are fun to read, and the anguish that Reed Richards feels is palpable and believable. He is essentially forced to recreate the Manhattan Project to the millionth degree. The art is the most inconsistent in Ultimate Extinction. Some curious choices in faces and a very distracting method were used in dark scenes, where instead of shadows on a character’s face or object, parallel lines are used. That parallel line technique was not present in Ultimate Secret, and if it was used in Ultimate Nightmare, it was sparingly enough not to be noticed.
So, what is the overall verdict? This is a fun book, all said and done. Some Ultimate versions of characters could have used a bit more deviation while others were really bold and I really enjoyed. The Ultimate Nightmare portion is an easy 5/5. The tension and setting just work so well. The Ultimate Secret looks beautiful, but the story is really just an action piece and an info dump. It’s a 3/5. Ultimate Extinction, works despite its odd choice to throw Misty Knight in the mix in a book about an eldritch cosmic devouring horror. It’s a 4/5. The Vision side-story is so quick, but I guess it’s a 5/5.
Overall, I immensely enjoyed revisiting this story with an older, more critical eye. It’s a fun read, though many of the characters are different in some major ways from their MCU counterparts and will probably be different than potential future MCU characters. This is a 4/5.
The Ultimate Galactus Trilogy, like other titles in the Ultimate line of books (please see my ridiculous 17-page treatise on the Ultimates) sought to create variants of characters that had existed for decades. At the time these miniseries were published there 3 ongoing series, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four, and Ultimate Spider-Man, and the Ultimates limited series. While Ultimate Spider-Man is not featured in this series (a bit too friendly neighborhood for, you know, an extinction-level planet eater) the rest of the characters from the Ultimate series at the time make appearances. I’m not going to go into the differences between the Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four, as there is no real comparison in the MCU, and I’m not doing a deep dive into the 616. I am going to cover the Ultimate variants of Sam Wilson/Falcon/Captain America, Vision, Misty Knight, Captain Marvel, Silver Surfer, and Galactus.
Ultimate Sam Wilson. He is a pretty stark contrast from what we have in the MCU. Considering this was written about 15+ years ago, Sam Wilson was in a different place in the 616, and Iron Man was probably just some storyboards it’s not surprising that Sam Wilson is so vastly different. Ultimate Falcon used to work for Nick Fury and SHIELD but left as he preferred the adventuring lifestyle. He is great with languages and is savvy in the tech department. There is no Anthony Mackie in this character. Frankly, he’s just ok in this story. I much prefer the new Captain America we have on screen.
The Ultimate Vision is different than the Ship of Theseus loving Vision of the MCU. The Vision of the 616 is a convoluted mess that requires three cups of coffee, each with a shot of bourbon, to understand. The MCU Vision is all the best parts of Tony Stark, given focus through the Mind Stone, and is on the side of life. As messy as his introduction is into the MCU, I very much came to love Vision after his less than satisfying origins (basically the second he picks of Mjolnir in Avengers: Age of Ultron, I am on the Vision train). The Ultimate Vision is a machine intelligence sent to warn civilizations that Galactus is coming. It brings with it visions of what Galactus does to planets to give them time to time to prepare, and hopefully prepare a defense. Also, Ultimate Vision has the body of a woman. So that’s different. It's an interesting take and is different. Personally, Ultimate Vision is the Ultimate universe at its best, taking a concept, turning it on its head, but still having a real connection to the source material. Does it need to be a sexy robot lady in shape? No. Other than that, it’s a fun variant.
For the 10 viewers of the Luke Cage and Defenders Netflix show, and the one true fan, Misty Knight makes an appearance. It is fine. She’s an example of a bad Ultimate variant. She’s too similar to the 616 Misty Knight. If you loved her on the Netflix series, and need more Misty Knight, this is not satisfying.
Captain Marvel is such a mess and requires a quick 616 recap. In the 616, Captain Marvel is a Kree, named Mar-Vell, who goes by the Earth alias Walter Lawson while incognito. The Captain Marvel in our zeitgeist is Carol Danvers, who in her history has been Ms. Marvel, Binary, Warbird, and Captain Marvel. The MCU skipped the Walter Lawson Mar-Vell, gender-swapping them as a Kree scientist working with the Tesseract, and played by Annette Bening, as Wendy Lawson. Brie Larson plays Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers right from the jump, and to many now the original Mar-Vell is a concept from yesteryear. Why is all this explanation necessary? Because Ultimate Captain Marvel is Philip Lawson, an incognito Kree spy/scientist, sent to observe humanity as Galactus approaches to destroy them. This Mar-Vell, excuse me, Mahr Vehl, is certainly not what we are used to in a post-Captain Marvel (2019) world. Don’t worry though Carol Danvers makes an appearance as Mahr Vehl’s handler and girlfriend. Honestly, now it’s a bit lackluster compared to the MCU Captain Marvel we are used to. It wouldn’t be too much of an issue if Mahr Vehl was interesting, but he’s not. He’s also not disintegrating. He serves as an info dump of a character that could have been more. He just boils down to the classic “going native” trope, the natives being humanity.
The Silver Surfer appeared in the best-forgotten Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer movie. He was motion captured by Doug Jones and voiced by Laurence Fishburne. Like his 616 counterparts, the Silver Surfer had “the power cosmic” and was the herald of Galactus, flying ahead to inform plants that they were soon to be destroyed. Naturally, over 60+ years the Silver Surfer’s remit has changed many times. Naturally, there are many complex stories in the 616 and a fairly bland story on screen some years ago. How does this complex character fare in the Ultimate Universe? Totally stripped down to one essential aspect, “herald of Galactus”. The Ultimate Silver Surfer is one of my most perplexing Ultimate variants. I appreciate that in this story the Silver Surfer is effectively an advanced agent of Galactus to sow discord and reduce resistance for the arrival. On the other hand, the Silver Surfer we read is essentially a cult leader, with little to no personality. To add to that, one is killed and a second one takes its place with the same blandness. The Ultimate Silver Surfer does exactly what the story needs it to do and disregards the complexities of its 616 origins and possibilities. I wish there was more, but I’m happy with what I got from it. Looking outside the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy, the Ultimate Fantastic Four series eventually met the Silver Searcher, who claims to have been the template for the Silver Surfers, and that character gets a lot more development.
Ok. The big daddy. Galactus. The devourer of worlds. The Antigod. Unlife. A bad dude with a lot of bad guy names. In the awful Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer, he was a nasty fart cloud moving through space. In the 616, for 60 years he has been a planet-sized man that appears as the same race as the race that he is about to consume. He is fueled by insatiable hunger and is only momentarily satiated by eating a planet. He tries to eat Earth every o couple of years or so and gets turned away. The Ultimate Universe wanted to do something different, so instead of a huge dude floating in space, they made Galactus a swarm intelligence of robots that were created in some unknown, eldritch time, and it simply goes from planet to planet, destroying all life, cracking the planet, consuming the energy from its core, and leaving an uninhabitable husk behind. Also, it's called Gah Lak Tus instead. I really love this iteration of Galactus. Due to decades of explanations, origins, retcons, reboots, Galactus is an over-explained character, instead of the hungering concept it should be. By taking it back to its roots, and putting an air of mystique on it, the faceless Gah Lak Tus swarm is a great way to reinvigorate a classic character with a new spin. Who made these machines? How were they created thousands or millions of years ago? Does it have a purpose other than hunger?
But Adam, you say, exasperated at the extensive armature analysis, what about the story? Well, it is broken down into 4 parts, which I will go over in turn.
First up, the Ultimate Nightmare. This 5 issue series features the Ultimates and the Ultimate X-Men responding to a worldwide mental and technological vision of horrors to come. The Ultimates are responding to a potential threat, while the Ultimate X-Men are the agents of Profession Xavier’s homo superior messiah complex. Ultimate Nightmare is the best of the entire trilogy in my opinion. It is a slow horror reveal as to what’s causing the psychic trauma, which is centered in the Tunguska region of Russia. I especially love that it considers the Tunguska Event from 1908 in the storytelling. The descent into an abandoned Soviet facility adds some great tension, and a tinge of body horror, to the story. Of course, in the fashion of all trilogy, a minor mystery is solved, leading to a grander and more dangerous mystery. The art is haunting, but I think the dark atmosphere covers up some shortcomings. On occasion, some of the character’s faces are a little muddy that in a sunny comic panel would be inexcusable.
The Ultimate Nightmare is followed up by the Ultimate Secret, this time focusing on the Ultimates and the Ultimate Fantastic Four. Some Kree shenanigans are occurring, and Nicky Fury gathers the Ultimates and the Fantastic Four to deal with it. Mahr Vehl is revealed, and eventually explains a lot of stuff about Gah Lak Tus. A lot of invader aliens get killed. It’s a rather rote story in my opinion. It makes sense why this was only 4 issues, while the other miniseries were 5 apiece. The art may be the best in this part of the trilogy, however, with only the occasional odd face in the background.
Trilogy? Then why did I say there are 4 parts? Well, across the Ultimate line of books at the time, several features a little mini-story featuring, and fleshing out the Ultimate Vision. The art is wildly different than the rest of the trilogy and is a welcome change. It dives into the creation and purpose of Vision and is perfectly placed between the Ultimate Secret and the Ultimate Extinction.
After the final gasp that was the Ultimate Vision story, we get the plunge into the aforementioned Ultimate Extinction. The Ultimate gather the Fantastic Four as well as members of the X-Men to fight the encroaching Gah Lak Tus swarm. We also have a plotline introducing Misty Knight in an almost totally superfluous role. She exists in this story only to give context to things other people can punch. What, exactly, can Captain America do against a 10,000mile-long swarm of anti-life? Not much, but he sure can punch a silver dude. How do we introduce the silver dude? Misty Knight is the answer. It's really bad storytelling to include this character in this manner. Other than that, the preparations to defeat Gah Lak Tus are fun to read, and the anguish that Reed Richards feels is palpable and believable. He is essentially forced to recreate the Manhattan Project to the millionth degree. The art is the most inconsistent in Ultimate Extinction. Some curious choices in faces and a very distracting method were used in dark scenes, where instead of shadows on a character’s face or object, parallel lines are used. That parallel line technique was not present in Ultimate Secret, and if it was used in Ultimate Nightmare, it was sparingly enough not to be noticed.
So, what is the overall verdict? This is a fun book, all said and done. Some Ultimate versions of characters could have used a bit more deviation while others were really bold and I really enjoyed. The Ultimate Nightmare portion is an easy 5/5. The tension and setting just work so well. The Ultimate Secret looks beautiful, but the story is really just an action piece and an info dump. It’s a 3/5. Ultimate Extinction, works despite its odd choice to throw Misty Knight in the mix in a book about an eldritch cosmic devouring horror. It’s a 4/5. The Vision side-story is so quick, but I guess it’s a 5/5.
Overall, I immensely enjoyed revisiting this story with an older, more critical eye. It’s a fun read, though many of the characters are different in some major ways from their MCU counterparts and will probably be different than potential future MCU characters. This is a 4/5.