Cool cover. Interior work from the new artist is strong. The script is decent. I’m fine with self-contained stories in my comics, in fact I wish we got more of them, but this one seemed strangely unaligned with current continuity which is odd given that it’s by the regular writing team. Spawn is extremely cruel in this issue and we’re not given an adequate explanation to justify his actions. Perhaps I’ll feel differently if we’re given more info next issue, but my initial reaction is that I like Al a little bit less after this sadistic display.

Brett Booth kills it on the art as usual. This book is light on backgrounds but the characters look amazing and the colours by Robert Nugent fill the empty space beautifully. This issue is bloody slugfest from cover to cover and I quite enjoyed it. Though, as much as I hate to criticize Todd, I wish he wasn’t so verbose. He has a tendency to explain everything I’m seeing in narrative boxes and it really isn’t necessary.

This is my first time reviewing the Ultimates though I’ve been reading since the beginning. I like this series and it’s always near the top of my reading stack but I feel like I’m always waiting for it to really “get good”. We’re introduced to a new character/concept almost every issue but then those characters never get developed. I feel like I know nothing about any member of this team. This issues introduces Shang Chi and Iron Fist. Neither is developed and probably won’t be. The first half of the book is all back story/exposition but it focuses on Shang Chi’s ancient lineage rather than the character I’m probably supposed to care about. The fight in the second half is okay but these Ultimates don’t act as heroically as I’d like them too. Guest artist was decent but not really my cup of tea.