Meaningless Awards of the Week- 3/28/07
So for the third week in a row, there’s not really much to write about concerning this week’s comics. But I don’t want to go that long without handing out some Meaningless Awards, so I guess I got to come up with something. Let’s see…
Double Modifier of the Week
2) New Fantastic (Fantastic Four #544)
1) Ultimate Fantastic (Ultimate Fantastic Four #40)
Okay, my apologies. I’ve got to be able to come up with something better than that…
Glowing Lady Parts of the Week
1. Star Sapphire
Eeeeewwwwww. Was that really necessary, DC? Okay, something actually worth mentioning…
Disappointment of the Week
4) 24: Nightfall #5
3) Ultimate X-Men #80
2) Wonder Woman #6
1) Ultimate Fantastic Four #40
Man, half of my books were disappointments this week? No wonder I can’t come up with anything to write. 24: Nightfall was just a bad mini-series, and pretty much solidifies the notion that IDW is the worst publisher I still buy comics from (that comic being the spectacular Fallen Angel). Ultimate X-Men was Robert Kirkman at his soap-opera-iest (that’s a word, right?), which works really well in The Walking Dead but not so much here. Wonder Woman #6 was an underwhelming start for the much-hyped Jodi Picoult, which JCVD has already done an amazing job discussing.
Ultimate Fantastic Four was the real disappointment, though. I’ve really been enjoying Mike Carey’s run on X-Men, but for some reason I’ve never really got into his UFF. I was really hoping this would be the issue where I could say, “Man, that was worth the wait.” But I just can’t. Something about the book just doesn’t appeal to me, and I’m on the verge of dropping it all together. Not even Scott Kolins and Mark Brooks, two artists whose work I generally enjoy quite a bit, could help out the issue. I can’t figure out why I don’t enjoy a book written by a writer I enjoy and drawn by two artists I enjoy. It just doesn’t add up. Yet every month I buy the next issue in the seemingly nonexistent chance that I’ll really, really like it.
Maybe the Ultimate FF are just boring. The regular FF wouldn’t be nearly as interesting if they didn’t have 40+ years of history, so why would their Ultimate versions be interesting with less than four?
I liked Millar’s run on UFF. It was Ultimate stuff at its best. I gave it up after Carey started, though, and I like him too in general.
I’ve already given up on the Ultimate titles, for the most part. UXM stopped holding my interest, and I thought UFF’s “God War” was just abysmal. I keep up if I happen to notice a new issue at Border’s or something, but in the end I figured they just weren’t worth my cash anymore.
-M
I kinda like UXM, just ‘cuz of that whole Ultimate Cable is actually Ultimate Wolverine from the future shit. That was neat. Drink up. Her’es to ya.
So Fin Fang, did the regular FF not get interesting for you until they had 40 years of history behind them?
The only Ultimate book I still read is Ultimates, and I say I “still read it” assuming that it will eventually have another issue. But then when Joe Madureira takes over the art, I will be done with all of them. Well, until Ultimate Hulk vs Wolverine comes out again. That book is even slower than ASSBAR.
“I kinda like UXM, just ‘cuz of that whole Ultimate Cable is actually Ultimate Wolverine from the future shit. That was neat. Drink up. Her’es to ya.”
I thought that was a cool twist, but the rest of the arc just didn’t do it for me, honestly. But at that point I had already kind of checked out, so that may have had something to do with it.
-M
Well, that’s impossible to answer, Jim. Since I’ve been reading FF for about 10 years, I don’t know what they’re like without at least 35 years of history.
You’ve never read any of the early issues?