In a rare display of restraint, Jeph “I ruined Ultimates” Loeb actually manages to squeeze a half-decent story out of this annual. It’s not without its flaws, and there’s an utter laundry list of questions you could ask about why, exactly, this tiny continuity gap needed filling at all, but at least it didn’t feel as though it was insulting me as a reader. A definite step up.

But lets not pretend that it’s actually good. For a start, the title of the book is way off-base. This is an Ultimate Black Panther annual in all but name - Cap’s role in the story is fairly minimal, and largely serves to explain how he managed to impersonate the Panther, but not really why - there are a few jumbled reasons, but no single motivating factor. The reworking of the Panther as a Weapon X “graduate” ties well into the general fabric of the Ultimate Universe, but it does make the character feel watered down compared to his Marvel Universe incarnation. At least the relationship established in this series gives the Panther and Cap a good base for future stories, but as a story itself, this series is left somewhat lacking.

There are two artists in this issue - Marko Djurdjevic illustrates the Panther’s solo “origin”, and while he’s one of Marvel’s Cover Artists du jour, it’s usually great to see his interior work. Here, though, it’s incredibly dark and moody to the point of being hard to read. There are some great panels, and the revelation that the Panther has Wolverine-style claws is only made bearable because he’s drawing it. Bizarrely, that doesn’t seem to have featured in Ultimates 3 at all, despite the fact that Stark is specifically shown putting adamantium claws into the gloves of the fake Panther costume for Cap. Ah well, never too late for a good idea, is it? Or, it seems, a bad one.

The second half of the issue - the story that actually features Captain America - is drawn by Rafa Sandoval, who makes a much better stab at storytelling with clear, Brandon Peterson-esque work. The reduction of Ultimates to a generic Avengers-style superhero title is complete under Loeb, but at least Sandoval gives us a good example of that kind of story to look at, even if reading it feels painful. A definite improvement over recent Ultimates fare, but after the depths plumbed with the previous series, it would’ve been hard to go anywhere but up.

Brian Michael Bendis gets it. He gets how to tell fresh, entertaining Spider-Man stories, of course - he’s been doing it consistently for eight years now. But he also gets what an annual should be - an entirely standalone story, rooted in the main title’s themes and overall continuity but without necessarily being sequential to the ongoing story; and it should also feel a bit special in some way, like it’s doing something important either story-wise or thematically. This was achieved in superb fashion with the first of the USM annuals - still one of the absolute best issues of the title - which set off the Peter/Kitty Pryde relationship, and although the second one disappointed a bit in comparison, this one feels like much more of a “sequel”, dealing as it does again with Peter’s love life.

It works because Mary Jane is more of a character than she is in any other version - hers and Peter’s relationship feels right because we’ve known since issue #1 that she’s really just as much of a geek as him (rather than the usual unattainable model). So a story about that relationship can genuinely sustain an issue like this - and while it might attract controversy for exploring ground that the title has previously mostly shied away from, it’s done in a way that doesn’t seem unreal or forced - and the closing pages are genuinely satisfying for those of us who’ve been with the book since the beginning (it’s somewhat reminiscent of the famous issue #13, in fact). Elsewhere, the “superhero” bit of the story is perhaps a bit more by-the-numbers, but it’s still a decent self-contained tale - and in Mysterio contains one of the best “Ultimizations” for a while, creating a sense of genuine, er, mystery while giving him a new look that still manages to invoke the original. I look forward to seeing more done with the character, anyway.

While LaFuente’s art doesn’t really match up quality-wise to Immonen, it’s well-suited to the Peter and Mary Jane scenes, reminiscent as it is of something like Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. He struggles a bit with the regular Spidey sequences (head proportions all wrong, for one thing), but it’s not really jarring, especially in the context of a one-off issue. All in all, while it’ll be pretty meaningless to any new reader (although it’s pretty accessible for someone wanting to jump onboard, demonstrating as it does some of the series’ best strengths, particularly in its dialogue), it’s just another example to us converts of why USM is one of Marvel’s most prized assets.

Every Wednesday we take turns to delve into our trusty longboxes, pluck out a dusty back issue, and give you our thoughts. We’ll also try and place it in the context of the time it was originally published.

From the title here, a casual reader might think they know what to expect. With Batman’s tangles with Predators having become a regular fixture of the franchise and many publishing companies searching for similar revenue streams, the stage seems set for a knockabout one-off crossover, pitting the then-fading Wildcats team up against Ridley Scott’s finest. Obviously, such a cash cow would be kept at arm’s distance from the core Wildstorm books…

What you don’t expect, however, is for most of the cast of one of Wildstorm’s core books to die off-panel. In structure, the story is a textbook disaster/horror movie, with the Wildcats team reforming to answer a distress call from the Skywatch Satellite, only to discover that the situation is far worse than they feared, and they’ll need to band together with the survivors to escape the nightmare. Writer Warren Ellis obviously had very different ideas to most of his contemporaries as to the point of such a crossover, seeing his guest stars as being a sufficiently big gun for him to blow away much of the baggage which was still cluttering his work on the ongoing Stormwatch series. Although by this point he had been writing Stormwatch for a considerable period of time, Ellis’s dissatisfaction with the book as he inherited it still shines through, and he takes considerable pleasure in bumping off many of the weaker characters he had previously been forced to play with. Staying true to his licence, there’s distinct horror tone to much of the story, with the Wildcats having to flight against Aliens spawned inside members of the Stormwatch team.

Only one member of the team is allowed to retain his dignity, with Winter sacrificing himself at the conclusion of the story to save the Earth from infestation. To add insult to injury, the story concluded in the next issue of Stormwatch with the (Ellis-created) survivors of the team going off to form The Authority, a group with very similar aims to an outfit that was ranged against Stormwatch only a few issues earlier. There isn’t a great deal of plot here, but the writer’s knowledge of the Skywatch setup is put to good use as the Wildcats conduct a surprisingly logical analysis of their situation. Chris Sprouse makes a reasonable fist of the art duties, although his style lacks the detail need to convey the book’s sometimes gruesome content.

It’s not high art, but there’s a certain satisfaction in watching such a comprehensive assassination.

After bringing to a close the Red Skull’s rather confused plan to seize control of the US, both Captain America and his book are in a slightly reflective mood. With an eighteen-month origin story behind him, it might be expected that Bucky would be energetically throwing himself into his new role. However, Ed Brubaker shows a keen understanding of the character he has rebuilt, treading a fine line. While never allowing the tone to slip into self-hating angst, he continually reminds the reader of the new Cap’s darker origins.

Picking up over a month after the Skull’s downfall, the story immediately makes clear that Barnes hasn’t had trouble occupying himself. After his actions have been so painstakingly documented over the previous year, it’s undeniably odd to see him running free in fleetingly referred-to adventures. The issue has a surprisingly consistant tone of calm anticipation, particularly when its fractured content is considered. The writer cuts seamlessly between a World War II flashback, the new Cap’s home life and the sort of old school super-villainary that is becoming increasingly rare in the Marvel universe. Luke Ross deserves much credit for his sharply defined work here, doing a superlative job of binding these elements together. Although benefiting from Frank D’Armata’s colouring to aid the book’s consistant identity, his art is vastly supiror to any of the title’s fill-in pencillers, standing on an equal footing with the departing Steve Epting’s work. By the end of the issue, however, it becomes obvious that the flashbacks to occupied China are directly relevant to the main plot. It’s curious to see the book’s normal juggling of elements being applied to a single story strand, and adds to the suspicion that this story will be a fleeting holiday from the ongoing epic which has constituted Brubaker’s run on the book to date.

Aside from leaving Bucky with the Black Widow to talk to, Brubaker strips away the book’s previous regular cast, leaving an apparently simplistic solo format at the start of this three part arc. While this may stem from a desire to minimise the Secret Invasion spoilers implicit in the book’s setting, the writer is more than happy to play up to the expectations of this cliché, with Cap’s musings and personal life interrupted by an enormously enjoyable one-off appearance from Batroc. This extended cameo is a perfect metaphor for the book’s direction- still packing a significant punch, but now with a touch of light-hearted panache.

As I think I’ve mentioned before, I’m not hugely impressed with this recent habit of taking chapters of an ongoing story out and putting them into one-off “Specials”. I find it throws off the momentum and sequencing of a title, even if it falls as a bridge between two arcs proper – as New Krypton Special does. You’re left wondering whether it’s an essential part of the story that’s been pulled out to emphasise its importance, or whether (as in the case of last week’s Jimmy Olsen one-shot) it’s there more to add colour and background for the more dedicated reader.

In this case, I’d have assumed before reading it that it was going to be the former – when in fact, it’s more about the latter. Nothing happens that you’d miss if you just went on to the next issues of Superman and Action Comics, it’s more about establishing the tone (and certain character beats) of the story to come. As it happens, it’s not a bad read. It’s fairly padded out, which only strengthens the argument that it should have been kept to the main titles – a number of scenes have no real reason to drag on the way they do, and thus feel suspiciously like page-filler (the dialogue-free opening of Jonathan Kent’s funeral also feels like it’s copping out of working on bringing out genuine emotion, instead falling back on the time-honoured device of silence).

The sequence that works best, however, is the middle section of the issue – Clark’s conversation with Zor-El and Alura in Kandor itself. It’s the mixture of Clark’s joy at having fellow Kryptonians around, and the increasingly ominous tone as we realise that their presence really isn’t going to turn out to be a good thing for Earth – aptly demonstrated by one Kandorian’s killing of a blue whale.

(Incidentally, while I previously complained about the apparent lack of relevance in killing off Jonathan, I’m starting to see the point of it as this story kicks into gear – killing him has put his very existence, and more notably his influence on Clark, into the spotlight, and we’re presumably going to see the difference between an all-powerful Kryptonian that was raised by the Kents, and ones that weren’t. Let’s hope that we get a more convincing range of Kryptonian characters than a simple one-note “non-understanding alien” take across the board, though.)

The other moment that leaps out comes right at the issue’s close, when the identity of the previously-unnamed “General” is revealed. I have to say that it says a lot about this character’s prior lack of relevance that he can have appeared on-panel unrecognised by simple virtue of not naming him (the reader could be forgiven, in fact, for wondering if Thunderbolt Ross hadn’t crossed universes) – and even the earlier conversation between the Lane sisters didn’t have me twig, although it was probably supposed to. What really strikes me about the closing scene, though, is the way Luthor is used. It would seem that, after a hazy few years where his status has never quite been clear, the final shackles of the Byrne-era “corporate criminal” have been cast off, and he really is back to being an habitually-jailed scientific genius. Not before time, to be honest – Morrison’s All-Star version (clearly an influence here, down to the orange prison suit) showed that it’s an interpretation that can still work, and indeed arguably works better than any other.

It’s a good-looking comic, too, by virtue of the fact that the Superman stable currently has by far its strongest set of artists since the days when Jurgens, Grummett, Bogdanove and Guice were the four main pencillers. It’s a shame, though, that while Pete Woods and Renato Guedes offer no small measure of consistency in their styles, it’s not matched by Gary Frank – whose work is excellent, but stands out as markedly different from the other two, and so gives the funeral sequence an even stronger impression of being something that should have been in the pages of Action, but simply didn’t fit.

Against my expectations, this really isn’t an essential chapter in the ongoing story, and so – especially at the price – I’d hesitate to recommend it unreservedly to anyone looking to get onboard with the new story. But for the current Superman reader there’s a good amount of colour established, and it does the job in a tidy and professional way.

This week: news and capsule reviews, including Amazing Spider-Man #574, Angel: After the Fall #13, Daredevil #112, Thunderbolts #125 and X-Factor #36.

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