Anyone else an Ultimate Comics fan??

[johnnyjam2233]

So.......I used to run a cigar shop in Chicago on the corner of State and Rush. Transformers Dark of the Moon showed a GLORIOUS battle on this very corner, but from 1997 to 1999, I was the manager of a cigar shop just one retail store shop in from the middle of State and Rush, on the street of Maple and running a Cigar shop where we had Dominican Republicans crafting hand made cigars one stair case up from the street. Around the corner was a Borders Books and Music store. Once a week, I would take $20 or so and go to the Borders and head to their comic book trade session and purchase a novel. This was before the day of the internet. Comic book fanboys got their news mainly from Wizard Magazine. I was reading about a guy named Grant Morrison and his run on the JLA. I didn't buy DC books at the time. In fact, I only bought X-Men books, but because I was taking $20 a week, I was buying **** I never would usually buy. I started buying JLA written by Grant Morrison. At that time, I was also watching Batman The Animated series, and Superman The Animated series. It was my introduction to Superman villains. I already knew Batmans, because I had been watching Batman BTAS, for a few years. Anyways, I fell in love with Grant Morrisons JLA run that had lasted a few years. Anyway, according to Wizard, Morrison was leaving DC to come to Marvel's hottest selling title, The Uncanny X-Men. I was so excited. Anyway. Morrison went on to write what is considered one the best X-Men runs ever. I myself, and I am one of a select few, HATED IT!!!!! This all happend before the 911 attacks. This fact plays into what I'm about to state. I walked into my local comic shop and bitched and complained to the store owner how I had nothing to read. I hated what Morrison was doing on Uncanny X-Men. The store owner asked me what I felt about Spider-Man. I told him I started out collecting all the Spider-man books, but stopped once Bagley got the art gig after Eric Larsen on Amazing. He told me about a new cat named Brian Bendis that was writing Ultimate Spider-man, but Bagley was the artist. I told him I knew Bendis from Daredevil and liked him, and I was okay with Bagley as an artist. He mentioned Ultimate X-Men and gave me a copy of a book that collected the first 3 issues of Ult. X-Men for free, and that the next day I would be back to buy the other 2 copies that were out. I did just this. I read the free book he gave me, came back to the store and bought issue 4 and 5. I was impressed with the modernization of them. How Magneto was sending videos to the American government just like Bin Laden was doing. Magneto was no longer the "I want to rule the world" bad guy we all knew from the 616 comics. He was now a terrorist. Now just the Brotherhood of Mutants, not the Evil Brotherhood of Mutants. They bombed Parliament. They were written as if the X-Men had first come out that year. Now issues 6 comes out, and George Bush attacks Magneto at the behest of Charles Xavier warning him, and saying how Magneto should not be threatened because he was the most deadly being on the planet, and all this happening right after 911 and Oliver North warning about Bin laden.
Then the Ultimates comes out, and it's modernized. The Ultimate books were craazy dead on. Bendis was writing a great Spider-Man run that lasted a couple hundred issues, but Millar left both the Ultimates and X-Men but came back with Greg Land to do a ten issue run of Ultimate Fantastic Four that I think is very under rated. Namor is in one of the archs, and his powerset is almost that of Superman's. No one remembers this run. I'm just wondering if anyone else read them, and what they thought.

[Somecrazyaussie]

I was just entering my teens when Ultimate Spider-man came out. I bought whatever Spider-man comics I could find at local newsagents here in Australia. But Ultimate got me into comic buying on a regular basis and I followed it avidly. Then the other Ultimate titles came out and I got those as well.

I had no problems following 616 stuff. But the main draw for me with the Ultimate line was the fact it was a totally different landscape. It was a world where anything could, and often did, happen. Ultimate Spider-man was the most consistent title and is still my personal favourite. I didn't really get into Ultimate X-Men until the Weapon X storyline (the second arc). I loved Ultimate Fantastic Four until it went off the rails around the 25 - 30 issue mark.

But Ultimates? Man, that first series was awesome. The second series I have mixed feelings about. As for the third? Well, less said about it the better.

[Personamanx]

I was a huge fan of the Ultimate universe. Not all of it was great during its Fifteen year run, but the high points are still some of the best superhero comics of the 2000s. I'm content with it having ended, for the most part but I really wish they had a better send off rather than as a confusing tie-in to Secret Wars.

[Immortal Weapon]

I loved the Ultimate universe pre ultimatum. I actually preferred over the 616 books.

[Somecrazyaussie]

I was a huge fan of the Ultimate universe. Not all of it was great during its Fifteen year run, but the high points are still some of the best superhero comics of the 2000s. I'm content with it having ended, for the most part but I really wish they had a better send off rather than as a confusing tie-in to Secret Wars.

The Ultimate books pretty much died with Ultimatum. It really should have ended then and there. Everything that came after (Miles excluded) was just a shadow of the lines former glory. Actually, it wasn't even that.

[Personamanx]

The Ultimate books pretty much died with Ultimatum. It really should have ended then and there. Everything that came after (Miles excluded) was just a shadow of the lines former glory. Actually, it wasn't even that.

I wouldn't agree. Ultimatum wasn't great, but the line survived well enough. Didn't care for what Loeb or Millar did naturally, but Spider-Man never wavered much in quality. We agree that Miles was a bright spot, but I would also say that the post DOSM X-Men series was the best book they've had in the Ultimate Universe.

[Magnito]

Ultimate X-Men was amazing until Kirkman took over. Then it went downhill, fast. Shame to, I usually like his work. But his UXM was horrendous.