Ultimate FF #2
The story begins a couple of pages before the section glimpsed in the preview. The team have received a distress signal from Lemuria, an "underwater country club for the filthy rich", and all life signs have disappeared after an energy surge. Tony is miffed that he didn't know about it, being filthy rich; Coulson tells him it was built by the Kratos Club. (Presumably that means something to people who have kept up with the Ultverse better than me.) Victor tells Tony and Sam to stop their incessant yammering, and Sue notes, "now I'm agreeing with Victor Van Damme."
Then we hit the section from the preview pages. They encounter a life sign that turns out to be Ultimate Namor, and he immediately assumes Doom is behind whatever's going on. He references watching Doom die, which Doom dismisses as "More of your lies, 'Prince'?" Sue stops the two of them fighting, since Namor flinging Iron Man around has breached the underwater tunnel and there's water coming in. (Doom and Namor bicker about it, Doom saying he's bested Namor again, Namor insisting it was "the woman" who actually bested them, Doom saying better a woman than a fishman.) Thanks to the collapse of the tunnels they lose the submarine they came in and are cut off from contact with Coulson above water.
Namor wants vengeance on the people who trapped him here; Sue goes off with him while the others stay behind to take a look around and try to hack the computers. Namor wonders how Doom can have survived after "what your Rock-Man did to him." (Ben Grimm killed "Doom" by crushing his head at the end of Ultimatum. Because Ultimatum was a terrible OOC gore-fest like that.) It's obvious that Sue doesn't know anything about this, and before Namor can explain he senses something and goes haring off.
Meanwhile, hacking buddies Doom and Tony are having a little chat while they work. Doom wants to know what Namor meant about watching him die. Tony says "I know that you walked into that portal to save the planet, and then you came back and tried to kill everybody." Doom states that it was clearly some kind of impostor, and why would anybody want to destroy the planet when they could rule it instead? Tony picks up some flickering life signs, leading them to suspect the missing people might be alive but trapped between dimensions.
Elsewhere, Sue and Namor are a little busy, since they've just been ambushed by angry Atlanteans, who view Namor as a betrayer and want to "kill the freak Namor and his dirty land-bride". Namor says they can say what they like about him but shouldn't be dissing "this beautiful creature". Sue: "Aw. Really nice. Also, run. Run. Run." Of course, Namor doesn't take that advice and wants to get fighty instead. Sue wishes she was on a team that had more women and less testosterone. She holds the Atlanteans off with a forcefield and sends Namor to gather the others so they can fight.
The others show up, and realise that the Atlanteans (supposedly extinct in the Ultimate Universe) must have come through from the other dimension. They debate whether to help:
Tony: "I don't know whether we should. I mean, Namor's bad news, right?"
Sam: "Tony, we can't just let them-"
Doom: "Yes we can."
Tony decides he doesn't want to be on Doom's side and jumps in. He hits the Atlanteans with a blast which conspicuously fails to work. (Doom: "My conjecture is that in their world, Namor is freak because he doesn't have super-strength.") The Atlanteans are getting the upper hand, but then they all stop and bow down to a new arrival: their queen, Namora. She orders her guards to bring her "half-wit ex-husband" and the others, but she wants to deal with Sue herself. We end there, with Sue extremely pissed that everybody keeps thinking Namor's her boyfriend.
Next time, according to the tag line: "Battle for New Atlantis - Also More People Who Think They're Sue's Boyfriend."
Overall I'm really liking this! The interactions between the characters are fun, and I like both Doom's dialogue and the fact that the writer is reintroducing him to the Ultimate Universe exactly the way I would have done it; he seems to have a very good grasp of Doom's history in this particular universe.
The art is still letting the side down, though it gets better towards the end of this issue; some panels look good, but the characters' faces in particular are rough and inconsistent, and facial expressions are the most important part of comic art for me. However, according to somebody at CBR the book's supposed to be getting a different artist for issue #4, so I look forward to that and I hope it'll be someone who suits the book better.
This series continues to be a very promising start, and I'm definitely eager for more.
Then we hit the section from the preview pages. They encounter a life sign that turns out to be Ultimate Namor, and he immediately assumes Doom is behind whatever's going on. He references watching Doom die, which Doom dismisses as "More of your lies, 'Prince'?" Sue stops the two of them fighting, since Namor flinging Iron Man around has breached the underwater tunnel and there's water coming in. (Doom and Namor bicker about it, Doom saying he's bested Namor again, Namor insisting it was "the woman" who actually bested them, Doom saying better a woman than a fishman.) Thanks to the collapse of the tunnels they lose the submarine they came in and are cut off from contact with Coulson above water.
Namor wants vengeance on the people who trapped him here; Sue goes off with him while the others stay behind to take a look around and try to hack the computers. Namor wonders how Doom can have survived after "what your Rock-Man did to him." (Ben Grimm killed "Doom" by crushing his head at the end of Ultimatum. Because Ultimatum was a terrible OOC gore-fest like that.) It's obvious that Sue doesn't know anything about this, and before Namor can explain he senses something and goes haring off.
Meanwhile, hacking buddies Doom and Tony are having a little chat while they work. Doom wants to know what Namor meant about watching him die. Tony says "I know that you walked into that portal to save the planet, and then you came back and tried to kill everybody." Doom states that it was clearly some kind of impostor, and why would anybody want to destroy the planet when they could rule it instead? Tony picks up some flickering life signs, leading them to suspect the missing people might be alive but trapped between dimensions.
Elsewhere, Sue and Namor are a little busy, since they've just been ambushed by angry Atlanteans, who view Namor as a betrayer and want to "kill the freak Namor and his dirty land-bride". Namor says they can say what they like about him but shouldn't be dissing "this beautiful creature". Sue: "Aw. Really nice. Also, run. Run. Run." Of course, Namor doesn't take that advice and wants to get fighty instead. Sue wishes she was on a team that had more women and less testosterone. She holds the Atlanteans off with a forcefield and sends Namor to gather the others so they can fight.
The others show up, and realise that the Atlanteans (supposedly extinct in the Ultimate Universe) must have come through from the other dimension. They debate whether to help:
Tony: "I don't know whether we should. I mean, Namor's bad news, right?"
Sam: "Tony, we can't just let them-"
Doom: "Yes we can."
Tony decides he doesn't want to be on Doom's side and jumps in. He hits the Atlanteans with a blast which conspicuously fails to work. (Doom: "My conjecture is that in their world, Namor is freak because he doesn't have super-strength.") The Atlanteans are getting the upper hand, but then they all stop and bow down to a new arrival: their queen, Namora. She orders her guards to bring her "half-wit ex-husband" and the others, but she wants to deal with Sue herself. We end there, with Sue extremely pissed that everybody keeps thinking Namor's her boyfriend.
Next time, according to the tag line: "Battle for New Atlantis - Also More People Who Think They're Sue's Boyfriend."
Overall I'm really liking this! The interactions between the characters are fun, and I like both Doom's dialogue and the fact that the writer is reintroducing him to the Ultimate Universe exactly the way I would have done it; he seems to have a very good grasp of Doom's history in this particular universe.
The art is still letting the side down, though it gets better towards the end of this issue; some panels look good, but the characters' faces in particular are rough and inconsistent, and facial expressions are the most important part of comic art for me. However, according to somebody at CBR the book's supposed to be getting a different artist for issue #4, so I look forward to that and I hope it'll be someone who suits the book better.
This series continues to be a very promising start, and I'm definitely eager for more.