Ultiwhatum?

I'm not a big fan of a lot of the stuff that goes on in the Ultimate U. Sure I'm not as dead-set against the very idea of the Ultimate line as I once was but something about it has just never set right with me. I think, finally, Ultimatum has summed up my feelings on the Ultimate line as a whole. I'm going to bullet point this sucker because I'm feeling kind of lazy. Here it goes...

What I Can't Stand About the Ultimate Universe

• The lack of originality.
• The senseless deaths.
• The unlikable characters.
• The sense I get that every deviation from the original creation or story is meant to be perceived as ground breaking, "modern", or "hip".

There is more than that but those are things that leaped out at me as I was reading Ultimatum 1 and 2. Having let the cat out of the bag as to my feelings about the Ultimate line I have to admit to following, and enjoying certain titles. I think Ultimate Spiderman is a good title. I like Ultimate Fantastic Four as well. Which is frustrating for me because I'd rather just be able to hate the entire line out right and demean it to no end but it does have some high quality titles. I even enjoyed Ultimates 1 and the second half of 2.

Ultimatum meanwhile, is equally frustrating. On one hand I feel like Jeph Loeb is actually turning in some decent work here. Some of the character bits have been good, the action is well scripted (or maybe that's just Finch) and the story, though completely lacking anything resembling originality, is moving along at a good clip. Plus, David Finch is probably my favorite young artist out there. I just love his stuff.

It was just announced that after Ultimatum the line will be undergoing a complete overhaul. I'm holding my breath that maybe we'll get a line-wide restructuring that mirrors what Bendis has been doing on Ultimate Spidey since the beginning. Turning in entertaining, fun stories that restructure an existing character's mythology. Though not perfect I really respect the story telling that Bendis is doing on Spidey. He gets it. Now lets see if anyone else will.