USM, incidentally, was another decent issue. I’d have reviewed it here, but for lack of space this week. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised how the change in artist has given it a bit more pep – Immonen hasn’t been amazing, but I do like that it’s given Bendis a chance to subtly let the characters age a bit. And what’s impressed me most has been, despite how short-lived the (potentially brilliant) Peter/Kitty relationship was, she’s been successfully integrated into the supporting cast even now. As I mentioned above, it really is the only thing keeping the Ultimate universe alive to me now (I haven’t gone NEAR Ultimate Power – my understanding was that it was an irrelevant crossover, and I’m deeply disenchanted with the amount of weight it seems to be having in terms of the UU as a whole) – and I also think it’s probably the only Spidey title worth bothering with, too.

Deciding to ignore almost everything that’s happened over the last two volumes and making the characters near-unrecognisable without any explanation whatsoever? No. Dropped. My copy shall be doing some good, though – by getting recycled.

And to think, I had managed to convince myself not to pick this up… until I actually got to the shop and bought it on impulse. And I forgot to pick up the USM issue I was actually after…

It amuses me that almost no review I’ve read has seen fit to even mention Hank’s suicide attempt. No wonder he’s depressed.

Ultimates 3, however, can’t stand on its own merits, because it doesn’t have any.

Ahahaha. Too true.

Even though I do like Mad’s artwork (flawed he is, but I can forgive it all) the colouring has totally ruined it, and they’d better sort it out in future issues because this series isn’t going to survive on plot alone.

It’s train-wreck comics. You have to wonder if after reading the script for the first one the editors said “Actually, Jeph, why don’t we cut this series down to 5 issues…”