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Hello there! Padawan J here, the resident Star Wars expert from the ODPH! And this week I’m going to be reviewing the 8th issue of The Ultimates from Deniz Camp & Marvel!
The Ultimates are in a very precarious position right now, because they’re preparing for The Maker to return. They’re also trying to survive and even make it to that fight. They’ve been put on the defensive especially after the events in issue #6 where we saw Iron Lad killed. So things can’t possibly get any more complicated right? If you said no, you must be new to this series! So without further ado, let’s jump into it!
The Ultimates #8 creative team is Deniz Camp (writer), Juan Frigeri (artist), Federico Blee (color artist), VC’s Travis Lanham (letterer), Dike Ruan & Neeraj Menon (cover artists). The issue is very good one and provides a very interesting twist to the story being woven in the series. Things are still in a bit of a lull overall when it comes to The Maker, but he’s still 10 months away from returning.
The story this month features She-Hulk, Doom, Wasp, Captain America, America Chavez, Giant Man & The Human Torch traveling through time. Once they reach their destination, they’re quickly ambushed by the Guardians of the Galaxy from the 61st century! And this is NOT the same team you’ve seen before!
This team features Star-Lord the “Master of the Solar System. Lord of the Twelve Houses and the land beyond the sun” according to Doom, and he got a SERIOUS power upgrade. Then there’s the Ultimate Nullifier who “shot Mephisto through the back of his heart.” Then you have the “ultimate good boy” in Cosmo Starstalker. Finally there’s Captain Marvel who looks more like Nebula than she does Carol Danvers.
There here to find America Chavez because they know her personally, and they’ve fought together. Captain Marvel details some of their track record together and it’s rather impressive without knowing full details. And why have they come? Well to save her from this “broken past” of course.
Things very quickly dissolve into a fight between the two teams and it’s a pretty even matched one at that. I’m sure there have been other versions of the Guardians taking on the Avengers (or whatever name they’re going by) but I haven’t read those stories yet. So I really enjoyed seeing this fight take place.
From here to the end the issue plays out as a bit of a set up for down the road, because I feel like this isn’t the last time we’ll see these Guardians. We do learn that every member of the Ultimates is having the same bad dream, and it’s pretty gruesome.
And we also get a little bit more backstory about the Guardians. I won’t go into full detail about it though, because I want you to read it for yourself. It’s an interesting story, especially the bit about Galactus (didn’t see that one coming).
FINAL POINT: Deniz Camp pens a very interesting story in this issue that is going to be setting up for a big payoff down the road. He introduces one of the more unique and compelling Guardians of the Galaxy teams in recent memory. And it’s a team that I wouldn’t mind seeing get their own series. It doesn’t have to be a full run it can be a mini-series, but I would LOVE to explore these characters more!
If you’ve been reading all of the Ultimate books from Marvel since it’s re-envisioning this is definitely one you’re going to want to pick this book up. It’s absolutely going to be coming back into play down the road, and hopefully they get their own book in a future issue.
SCORE: 9.0 out of 10
Thanks for checking out my review on Nerd Initiative. For more of my content, check out ODPHpodcast.com, follow me on Twitter, and check out more of my reviews here on Nerd Initiative: https://nerdinitiative.com/author/padawanj/!