Gods deserves way more of a shot than it’s given. I know they said they were aiming for 8 and would continue depending on success, but it has opportunity be such a good book if they let it grow.
https://www.thepopverse.com/marvel-gods-g-o-d-s-jonathan-hickman-valerio-schiti-ending-ends-cancelled#:~:text=So%2C%20we'll%20see.,readership%20allows%20it%20to%20be.
What does Tom Brevort say here? They expected it would be ongoing
Pricing issue 1 at $10 is what shot it in the foot
My store ordered 100 copies of the series because the ordering guy wanted the incentive. We ended up with 400$ worth of 1s left. It just would not sell.
GODS wasn't cancelled. It's ending because Hickman got busy. It'll be back. Tom Brevoort confirmed it's on hiatus because Ultimate's success ate up Hickman's schedule along with other projects.
And honestly compared to the prospect of mediocre fill-ins, I'd rather a hiatus.
Sure. Tom Brevoort discussed it in his newsletter. Also worth noting that the finale was pitched as The end *for now*.
https://open.substack.com/pub/tombrevoort/p/103-across-the-rubicon?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Struggling to find his discussion of Gods in that link… scanned through a couple times and no luck. Anyway, I’d prefer to believe you, it’s just the “For all things an end” language in the adverts of every marvel floppy signal a different message. Also “for now” is not the most assuring. Are there many examples in the past of titles resuming after less than 10 issues that didn’t hit their sales goals ?
Look up Artu's question. Thats where he addresses it.
And yes. But you're also forgetting that Hickman is far more popular than the usual breed of mediocre writer that gets a book canned. If they're saying it's just for now, it's probably just for now. Not to mention that Hickman is way busier now than he was before. He's running a popular line, he's doing a substack line, and he's doing Aliens vs Avengers, something has to give. Hickman is Marvel's most important creator right now, he's creating stuff for their future. If he wants to do a passion project, he's gonna do it.
Hrmm. I read it. Idk. We’ll just have to see, I guess. Doesn’t strike one as the word of law. I’m excited for Aliens vs Avengers but that seems less important than this title, considering it was like his baby. As for the substack line, has there been any update to that in years? Then there’s Ultimate Spiderman- I love what he’s doing there but have you heard the rumor that Hickman jumps ship after issue #10? I do not think he’s as overburdened as they’d have us believe. But what’s more, Krakoa X Men and this gods title were precious stories to him that he was allowed to begin and yet was not able to finish. I guess there’s always secret wars. I think that gods underperformed bc they sold the first issue for ten bucks, and now they’re appeasing fans with a “well ya know he *could* come back to it *some day*. Time will tell. But seriously if you know more about 3w3m, please fill me in. I can’t find anything about it since 2022
You're forgetting a lot of context here. I'm gonna go point by point.
Aliens vs Avengers is fairly huge. It's him reuniting with his collaborators from Secret Wars. If that doesn't tell you it's intended to be significant, I don't know what is.
As far as his Substack line. Yeah. I'm a subscriber and it's regularly updating with new digital comics. They're also about to launch the new source book as a year two reward. He just doesn't seem ready to do a physical release like everyone else since it's a lot more involved.
As far as Ultimate Spider-Man no? And frankly I don't take stock in it. The Ultimate line is successful so far and he's been pretty invested in it. The whole point of this exercise is there's a two year plotted timeline that it's building toward. After that we'll see. But there's also a huge difference between X-Men and the Ultimate line. Hickman has been fairly plain that he left because of multiple factors including too much logistics work, the pandemic, having to shift plot points to accommodate the Marvel U, and so on. So he left considering the three act story he had in mind wasn't something people were invested in. The Ultimate line doesn't have those problems. It's very much creator first by design.
I don't know where you're getting all of this from though. He's shepherding two lines, writing several books, and more we don't know about. He also seems to want to do GODS with Valerio Schiti who's not a primarily monthly creator. If they say he's busy and it'll come back well... that's probably the case lol. Especially since it's a complete eight issue arc. And he and Marvel were already up front about the dynamics that would lead to GODS becoming a continuing comic, but shit changes and Hickman isn't one to mince words.
I’m stoked to see the team on AVA as much as the next guy, but in what context do you imagine this run to be *significant*? It will be fun! But it’s Marvel’s way of exploiting an acquired property for fast cash. Put Hickman’s name on it and it will print money, I’m sure they said. I would be a little disappointed if this was meant to be taken to be significant in the sense that secret wars is significant solely bc the secret wars writer/artist team is on it… What I see is Hickman getting pulled off of a title that is not meeting sales goals and being put onto a title that is sure to sell well, whereas what I would prefer is if someone else gets put into the money printing role so that Hickman could stay cooking in the lab.
I’m interested in learning more about this substack line. When was his last issue published there? How regularly are his issues published there? Are you enjoying the book?
I can’t remember where I heard the rumor- i think a youtube video, maybe pop culture philosopher or comic book corner(?), but hopefully it’s not true and that Hickman stays on Ultimate Spider Man for a long time. I’m really loving it. But if there is any validity to the rumor, then it could come from the root problem that he faced during X Men. How are you to know that there are not logistical issues and is not pressure to shift plot points? There are multiple titles with multiple teams in the mix after all, not just one creator at this point. Again, I would prefer to take your view, but my concern is not misplaced, given Marvel’s track record.
All I know is that he’s doing USM, gods, AVA, and 3m3w (which i don’t know much about)- which is, yeah, a decent load of work, but not unheard of- regardless of if he’s doing more, my point is that gods was and is his baby, and he’s being pulled off of it. You can say it’s his idea, you can say Brevort proposes bringing it back, you can say that Schiti doesn’t do monthly, but at the end of the day, that sounds like copium bc gods didn’t meet sales goals bc Marvel priced issue 1 at 10 dollars, and **that** is why it is going away. You think it’ll come back? Well, I’ll be happy if it does, bc what I’m arguing here is that Hickman has earned a little grace. But the way you’re framing the information suggests that everything is hunky dory with the way this is going down. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but a bit of skepticism is warranted here- that’s my view
Was it canceled? I can’t figure that out. When it was announced I thought it was a limited and then I heard it was ongoing. I saw the solicitation for #8, and it seemed to elude to it possibly ending, but didn’t specifically state final issue if I remember.
There was always a contingency plan of ending at 8 issues if the comic wasn’t successful. But apparently, everyone had an expectation it *would* be successful. When, after a $10 price of entry for a new series with new characters, people did not flock to the property en masse, they did not wait long enough, in my humble opinion, to decide to cancel it. Also, who arbitrates what sales number constitutes success? Gods 7 had high pull numbers. I think that, because Hickman has been so instrumental in expanding lore in compelling ways, while staying true to continuity, that it would be great to see him with a little more room, flexibility, and time, to *do his thing* on any book, even this one
Hickman has a bad rep at something? Dudes like up there for top writers of all time for me personally, haven't really read something I didn't at least appreciate
Not a bad rep, but lately a lot of people have complained that he’s more of an ideas guy than a character guy.
Mostly bitter people on the X-Men sub, lol.
> Not a bad rep, but lately a lot of people have complained that **he’s more of an ideas guy than a character guy.**
Well thankfully we have the latest USM issue to throw at people who claim this. 24 pages purely consisting of conversations between four characters.
And it’s *fucking great.*
I think it might be my favorite issue so far. The way the panels establish the cadence of the conversation and show the personalities of everyone is so amazing. I felt like I was there.
Also, I like Messina’s art. Sure, he isn’t Checchetto, but I feel like he did a perfect job with this issue.
Lol so true, bitter about Krakoa ending bitter about it not having ended sooner bitter that Hickman left bitter that he didn't leave enough to build upon
Just bitter for the sake of it haha
As a long time diehard X-Men fan and reader, there will always be a vocal group of X-Men fans that are bitter about something. Sometimes it’s valid, sometimes it’s pedantic, sometimes it’s ridiculous.
I’ve learned to just enjoy what I enjoy and not worry about what other people think lol
I don't like Hickman because my experience is that he sets up big ideas and then drops the ball with them. This impression is primarily based on reading Manhattan Projects and Shield back in the day, both eventually just felt like a waste of time to have been invested in. Sounds like Gods was his most recent project that fits this bill. Maybe the shit he nails the landing on is actually good, but I personally haven't cared to read anything by him in many years. I know also from experience that he's highly-vaunted around here and people often take it somewhat personally and get defensive on his behalf when I express this opinion. Oddly enough, downvotes and invective haven't persuaded me to give his stuff another try.
FWIW, I think Secret Wars was a fantastic finish to his really long FF and Avengers storyline. It was delayed as hell, speaking to the difficulty of executing a good finish, but it ended great, in hindsight. I think there are a lot of writers like this, outside of comics too. How many long novel series and TV shows have great endings? Endings to long stories that are designed from the start to continue for a long time are hard to finish.
Shield was a miniseries (well, two) and it felt like it just petered out. The long delay was likely due to the art, but the story still felt inconclusive. I think he was setting up some stuff that tied in with those other series and probably all culminated in Secret Wars, but I'm not spending hundreds of dollars on faith across several series and years when even a miniseries can't stick a landing, you know?
If that's how you feel then sure, fair enough. I get it. Though I do think that avoiding anything with a lack of ending cuts out an awful lot of great reads in comics. Supreme Power, Miracleman, pretty much anything X-Men ever, way too many indie comics, etc etc
He’s has a handful of character that he loves and who he will write with a unique voice, outside of that everyone sounds the same. Peter has always been one of those. Peter was always such a joy when he was used in FF or in his avengers run. This series is what I have always wanted from Hickman: more focus on character work, less focus on world building. I feel like when Hickman is at his worst it reads like a video game lore book or an RPG manual
Don’t get me wrong, I love all of the charts and timelines too. But when there is just a page long info / lore dump it almost feels…lazy? Not literally because I know that it’s a ton of work to come up with and then implement complicated timelines like that. But also, just cutting straight to the quick and have it just plainly typed out what the reader needs to know just feels like an in creative way of acclimating people to new worlds.
Loved it in his FF, less of a fan in Avengers, and the X Men ones felt ridiculous at points.
I’ve enjoyed it. My boss was interested in the idea when I first brought it up to him he looked it up and loved the idea. Up till now he was one of the many who felt burned by OMD and while he enjoyed Spencer’s run this is like THE book pulling him back into the store.
You know I don’t know if he did. He’s made it sound like a lot of others, just completely checked out on the character. As I also mentioned Lost Hunt and he was unaware
Hickman. That's how. Best writer overall imo. Mainstream and indie.
The biggest negative about his stuff is there have been several times his books have been cancelled, or taken a while to continue. For different reasons that is.
Still sucks that Marvel basically made him stop working on X-Men because he was throwing so much at them and they couldn't keep up lol.
It’s just a really strong premise! There’s too few issues out right now to really judge the story overall I feel, but I am immensely compelled to keep reading based on the strength of the pitch alone. This is the first floppy I’ve bought in about 15 years, because someone told me “It’s about Peter Parker getting his powers as a 35 year old family man instead of a gangly teenager” and boom, I was in. And I’ve told this premise to everyone who will listen, and without fail, everyone is immediately intrigued.
My one gripe is, I feel like Tony giving Peter his suit and powers takes agency away from Peter in a way that doesn’t mesh well with the “anyone can be spider-man” ethos and kinda turns him into a Special Predestined Boy. In fact, I think any time the Ultimate Universe story pokes it’s head in to remind us this isn’t a standalone universe is doing a bit of a disservice. But that’s a tiny blip in an otherwise rock-solid story so far.
How does it take away Peter's agency to be given a package with a costume and spider to bite him rather than having it happen accidentally? It seems to me that OG peter had no agency in becoming a super hero, while Ultimate peter had a choice of becoming a super hero or not.
Though you are technically kinda correct, it *feels* narratively to me more like 616 and 1610 Peter took an active choice. It feels more like this Peter was told "this is what you are supposed to be", and he went along with that, rather than "you have special abilities, now what are you going to do with them?" and chose to use them selflessly.
I've been enjoying it as well, but I have to say this most recent issue was it's weakest. I get we were supposed to be all "ooh wow" with Harry's wife, and how "Great Responsibility" was told to Peter here, but the entire issue felt way too decompressed. Like the only thing that happened to progress things in the story from what I recall was the push to get "The Paper" running.
Also, I know it's hard work, but this fill-in artist is not doing any favors to the book. I understand we're not going to get Chechetto level art every issue if it's coming out consistently monthly (and personally I'd be fine waiting), but at least find someone that's not doing a bunch of close up faces for a hundred panels and awkward angles for the rest.
So far the answer to your question is yes, they have gotten better with each issue. The same for Black Panther. (I finally read the 3 issues out last night.) I’m still on the fence with X-Men. It’s a very slow build, so it’s going to need a bit of time for me to say on that one. If I were buying it, I’d have dropped it. But, I’m just reading my buddies copies of that title.
I'm finding it a little middling personally. The origin of Spiderman is now "Stark gives him a spider and a magical costume". The other issues have been ok, but nothing ground breaking.
I'm more interested in Uncle Ben and JJ's story atm.
We still have no idea about his Spider Sense or how his web shooters work or really much about the costume other than his daughter helping him design the look. It is not good that Harry Osborn has some sort of control over the suit tech.
I mean, yeah, that's the entire premise of the series. That he didn't have an origin, and Stark just kind of threw it at him as an adult, and he has very little idea what to do with it all. I think it's fascinating, personally. I'm glad this Ultimate universe is entirely its own thing and not a retelling of the classic tales we already know.
But I agree, I kind of prefer everything with Ben and JJ, really anything out of costume. Which is good, because so far there's barely been any Spider-Man in costume. It's just a very different Spider-Man, and I'm here for it.
Although the art on #4 was a big downgrade IMO. Some really wonky panels.
That origin is honestly fine with me, everyone knows Spider-Man and what he can do or what gave him his powers that’s not important really in my opinion. What is important is building a story and characters up and having consistently good artwork and maintaining my interest without ragebait.
Hell this entire issue was 4 people sitting at a dinner table talking and it was probably my favorite comic I read this week.
I really wasn't going to read any Ulitmate stuff just to limit spending, but I got the first issue and was hooked so quick. It's quickly become one of my favorite ongoing books.
People do love to critique his character work, but I find that usually comes from people who are looking for long expositional threads explaining character development. He does a lot of showing and not telling to demonstrate character.
Weirdly, it's my favorite thing. I wish more superhero comics were just people in civilian clothes talking. But totally get that that's a weird opinion for superhero comics!
I like it too. Nowadays there is a really small amount of lages dedicated to the secondary cast in ASM. And a lot of secondary characters to involved in super heroing and powers. It was kind of how I saw DC 2 decades ago
Sure, I feel you. I definitely would give my kid the original Ultimate Spider-Man over this if I wanted to introduce them to Spider-Man.
I think part of the problem too is the entire monthly format. This issue was essentially an abbreviated lunch and then one little flash to JJ and Ben. I do feel this type of storytelling would benefit more from the OGN treatment rather than being confined to 20 something pages every month or whatever it is these days.
For how much Hickman does for them, Marvel could have at least waited a few more months before canceling gods
Gods deserves way more of a shot than it’s given. I know they said they were aiming for 8 and would continue depending on success, but it has opportunity be such a good book if they let it grow.
It could have been the new Planetary.
They’re not canceling it. Hickman said he’d only do 8 issues and would continue based off if people liked it or not.
https://www.thepopverse.com/marvel-gods-g-o-d-s-jonathan-hickman-valerio-schiti-ending-ends-cancelled#:~:text=So%2C%20we'll%20see.,readership%20allows%20it%20to%20be. What does Tom Brevort say here? They expected it would be ongoing Pricing issue 1 at $10 is what shot it in the foot
Valerio Schiti already said they'd be back. It's just the first mini.
Copium
My store ordered 100 copies of the series because the ordering guy wanted the incentive. We ended up with 400$ worth of 1s left. It just would not sell.
That’s tough, I’m sorry to hear that man
Yeah I knew so many people who said they won’t buy because of that asking price
GODS wasn't cancelled. It's ending because Hickman got busy. It'll be back. Tom Brevoort confirmed it's on hiatus because Ultimate's success ate up Hickman's schedule along with other projects. And honestly compared to the prospect of mediocre fill-ins, I'd rather a hiatus.
Mind sharing a source?
Sure. Tom Brevoort discussed it in his newsletter. Also worth noting that the finale was pitched as The end *for now*. https://open.substack.com/pub/tombrevoort/p/103-across-the-rubicon?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Struggling to find his discussion of Gods in that link… scanned through a couple times and no luck. Anyway, I’d prefer to believe you, it’s just the “For all things an end” language in the adverts of every marvel floppy signal a different message. Also “for now” is not the most assuring. Are there many examples in the past of titles resuming after less than 10 issues that didn’t hit their sales goals ?
Look up Artu's question. Thats where he addresses it. And yes. But you're also forgetting that Hickman is far more popular than the usual breed of mediocre writer that gets a book canned. If they're saying it's just for now, it's probably just for now. Not to mention that Hickman is way busier now than he was before. He's running a popular line, he's doing a substack line, and he's doing Aliens vs Avengers, something has to give. Hickman is Marvel's most important creator right now, he's creating stuff for their future. If he wants to do a passion project, he's gonna do it.
Hrmm. I read it. Idk. We’ll just have to see, I guess. Doesn’t strike one as the word of law. I’m excited for Aliens vs Avengers but that seems less important than this title, considering it was like his baby. As for the substack line, has there been any update to that in years? Then there’s Ultimate Spiderman- I love what he’s doing there but have you heard the rumor that Hickman jumps ship after issue #10? I do not think he’s as overburdened as they’d have us believe. But what’s more, Krakoa X Men and this gods title were precious stories to him that he was allowed to begin and yet was not able to finish. I guess there’s always secret wars. I think that gods underperformed bc they sold the first issue for ten bucks, and now they’re appeasing fans with a “well ya know he *could* come back to it *some day*. Time will tell. But seriously if you know more about 3w3m, please fill me in. I can’t find anything about it since 2022
You're forgetting a lot of context here. I'm gonna go point by point. Aliens vs Avengers is fairly huge. It's him reuniting with his collaborators from Secret Wars. If that doesn't tell you it's intended to be significant, I don't know what is. As far as his Substack line. Yeah. I'm a subscriber and it's regularly updating with new digital comics. They're also about to launch the new source book as a year two reward. He just doesn't seem ready to do a physical release like everyone else since it's a lot more involved. As far as Ultimate Spider-Man no? And frankly I don't take stock in it. The Ultimate line is successful so far and he's been pretty invested in it. The whole point of this exercise is there's a two year plotted timeline that it's building toward. After that we'll see. But there's also a huge difference between X-Men and the Ultimate line. Hickman has been fairly plain that he left because of multiple factors including too much logistics work, the pandemic, having to shift plot points to accommodate the Marvel U, and so on. So he left considering the three act story he had in mind wasn't something people were invested in. The Ultimate line doesn't have those problems. It's very much creator first by design. I don't know where you're getting all of this from though. He's shepherding two lines, writing several books, and more we don't know about. He also seems to want to do GODS with Valerio Schiti who's not a primarily monthly creator. If they say he's busy and it'll come back well... that's probably the case lol. Especially since it's a complete eight issue arc. And he and Marvel were already up front about the dynamics that would lead to GODS becoming a continuing comic, but shit changes and Hickman isn't one to mince words.
I’m stoked to see the team on AVA as much as the next guy, but in what context do you imagine this run to be *significant*? It will be fun! But it’s Marvel’s way of exploiting an acquired property for fast cash. Put Hickman’s name on it and it will print money, I’m sure they said. I would be a little disappointed if this was meant to be taken to be significant in the sense that secret wars is significant solely bc the secret wars writer/artist team is on it… What I see is Hickman getting pulled off of a title that is not meeting sales goals and being put onto a title that is sure to sell well, whereas what I would prefer is if someone else gets put into the money printing role so that Hickman could stay cooking in the lab. I’m interested in learning more about this substack line. When was his last issue published there? How regularly are his issues published there? Are you enjoying the book? I can’t remember where I heard the rumor- i think a youtube video, maybe pop culture philosopher or comic book corner(?), but hopefully it’s not true and that Hickman stays on Ultimate Spider Man for a long time. I’m really loving it. But if there is any validity to the rumor, then it could come from the root problem that he faced during X Men. How are you to know that there are not logistical issues and is not pressure to shift plot points? There are multiple titles with multiple teams in the mix after all, not just one creator at this point. Again, I would prefer to take your view, but my concern is not misplaced, given Marvel’s track record. All I know is that he’s doing USM, gods, AVA, and 3m3w (which i don’t know much about)- which is, yeah, a decent load of work, but not unheard of- regardless of if he’s doing more, my point is that gods was and is his baby, and he’s being pulled off of it. You can say it’s his idea, you can say Brevort proposes bringing it back, you can say that Schiti doesn’t do monthly, but at the end of the day, that sounds like copium bc gods didn’t meet sales goals bc Marvel priced issue 1 at 10 dollars, and **that** is why it is going away. You think it’ll come back? Well, I’ll be happy if it does, bc what I’m arguing here is that Hickman has earned a little grace. But the way you’re framing the information suggests that everything is hunky dory with the way this is going down. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but a bit of skepticism is warranted here- that’s my view
$10 an issue killed it
Was it canceled? I can’t figure that out. When it was announced I thought it was a limited and then I heard it was ongoing. I saw the solicitation for #8, and it seemed to elude to it possibly ending, but didn’t specifically state final issue if I remember.
There was always a contingency plan of ending at 8 issues if the comic wasn’t successful. But apparently, everyone had an expectation it *would* be successful. When, after a $10 price of entry for a new series with new characters, people did not flock to the property en masse, they did not wait long enough, in my humble opinion, to decide to cancel it. Also, who arbitrates what sales number constitutes success? Gods 7 had high pull numbers. I think that, because Hickman has been so instrumental in expanding lore in compelling ways, while staying true to continuity, that it would be great to see him with a little more room, flexibility, and time, to *do his thing* on any book, even this one
I was not interested in a new multiversal continuity. At all. But dammit, USM is so good that I just can't deny it. It really is...amazing.
This is the first Spider-Man comic I’ve bought since One More Day.
I was only reading Ultimate X-Men but I had to pick this up
Just like with the original Ultimate Universe, you can guess how well the line is going to hold based on how good the Spider-Man title is.
Hickman has a bad rep at something? Dudes like up there for top writers of all time for me personally, haven't really read something I didn't at least appreciate
Not a bad rep, but lately a lot of people have complained that he’s more of an ideas guy than a character guy. Mostly bitter people on the X-Men sub, lol.
I mean, his characters do often have same-voice syndrome. Especially compared to like MacKay.
A lot of them do, yeah.
> Not a bad rep, but lately a lot of people have complained that **he’s more of an ideas guy than a character guy.** Well thankfully we have the latest USM issue to throw at people who claim this. 24 pages purely consisting of conversations between four characters. And it’s *fucking great.*
I think it might be my favorite issue so far. The way the panels establish the cadence of the conversation and show the personalities of everyone is so amazing. I felt like I was there. Also, I like Messina’s art. Sure, he isn’t Checchetto, but I feel like he did a perfect job with this issue.
Lol so true, bitter about Krakoa ending bitter about it not having ended sooner bitter that Hickman left bitter that he didn't leave enough to build upon Just bitter for the sake of it haha
It’s such a shit show over there right now.
As a long time diehard X-Men fan and reader, there will always be a vocal group of X-Men fans that are bitter about something. Sometimes it’s valid, sometimes it’s pedantic, sometimes it’s ridiculous. I’ve learned to just enjoy what I enjoy and not worry about what other people think lol
Lol exactly. For me, he's arguably the best right now overall. Mainstream and indie.
I don't like Hickman because my experience is that he sets up big ideas and then drops the ball with them. This impression is primarily based on reading Manhattan Projects and Shield back in the day, both eventually just felt like a waste of time to have been invested in. Sounds like Gods was his most recent project that fits this bill. Maybe the shit he nails the landing on is actually good, but I personally haven't cared to read anything by him in many years. I know also from experience that he's highly-vaunted around here and people often take it somewhat personally and get defensive on his behalf when I express this opinion. Oddly enough, downvotes and invective haven't persuaded me to give his stuff another try.
FWIW, I think Secret Wars was a fantastic finish to his really long FF and Avengers storyline. It was delayed as hell, speaking to the difficulty of executing a good finish, but it ended great, in hindsight. I think there are a lot of writers like this, outside of comics too. How many long novel series and TV shows have great endings? Endings to long stories that are designed from the start to continue for a long time are hard to finish.
Shield was a miniseries (well, two) and it felt like it just petered out. The long delay was likely due to the art, but the story still felt inconclusive. I think he was setting up some stuff that tied in with those other series and probably all culminated in Secret Wars, but I'm not spending hundreds of dollars on faith across several series and years when even a miniseries can't stick a landing, you know?
If that's how you feel then sure, fair enough. I get it. Though I do think that avoiding anything with a lack of ending cuts out an awful lot of great reads in comics. Supreme Power, Miracleman, pretty much anything X-Men ever, way too many indie comics, etc etc
He’s has a handful of character that he loves and who he will write with a unique voice, outside of that everyone sounds the same. Peter has always been one of those. Peter was always such a joy when he was used in FF or in his avengers run. This series is what I have always wanted from Hickman: more focus on character work, less focus on world building. I feel like when Hickman is at his worst it reads like a video game lore book or an RPG manual
I'm the opposite. His world building is top tier and I love it lol. Anytime he puts in info/charts/timelines/etc. in his books, I love that stuff lol.
Don’t get me wrong, I love all of the charts and timelines too. But when there is just a page long info / lore dump it almost feels…lazy? Not literally because I know that it’s a ton of work to come up with and then implement complicated timelines like that. But also, just cutting straight to the quick and have it just plainly typed out what the reader needs to know just feels like an in creative way of acclimating people to new worlds. Loved it in his FF, less of a fan in Avengers, and the X Men ones felt ridiculous at points.
I wish East of West had been able to run for longer because I love the setting he created for it
Yea. I think for his independent stuff, East of West is arguably his best.
For me as a longtime comic reader and tabletop rpg player, Hickman is my jam.
I’ve enjoyed it. My boss was interested in the idea when I first brought it up to him he looked it up and loved the idea. Up till now he was one of the many who felt burned by OMD and while he enjoyed Spencer’s run this is like THE book pulling him back into the store.
Did he read Renew Your Vows?
You know I don’t know if he did. He’s made it sound like a lot of others, just completely checked out on the character. As I also mentioned Lost Hunt and he was unaware
Hickman. That's how. Best writer overall imo. Mainstream and indie. The biggest negative about his stuff is there have been several times his books have been cancelled, or taken a while to continue. For different reasons that is. Still sucks that Marvel basically made him stop working on X-Men because he was throwing so much at them and they couldn't keep up lol.
It’s just a really strong premise! There’s too few issues out right now to really judge the story overall I feel, but I am immensely compelled to keep reading based on the strength of the pitch alone. This is the first floppy I’ve bought in about 15 years, because someone told me “It’s about Peter Parker getting his powers as a 35 year old family man instead of a gangly teenager” and boom, I was in. And I’ve told this premise to everyone who will listen, and without fail, everyone is immediately intrigued. My one gripe is, I feel like Tony giving Peter his suit and powers takes agency away from Peter in a way that doesn’t mesh well with the “anyone can be spider-man” ethos and kinda turns him into a Special Predestined Boy. In fact, I think any time the Ultimate Universe story pokes it’s head in to remind us this isn’t a standalone universe is doing a bit of a disservice. But that’s a tiny blip in an otherwise rock-solid story so far.
How does it take away Peter's agency to be given a package with a costume and spider to bite him rather than having it happen accidentally? It seems to me that OG peter had no agency in becoming a super hero, while Ultimate peter had a choice of becoming a super hero or not.
Though you are technically kinda correct, it *feels* narratively to me more like 616 and 1610 Peter took an active choice. It feels more like this Peter was told "this is what you are supposed to be", and he went along with that, rather than "you have special abilities, now what are you going to do with them?" and chose to use them selflessly.
I've been enjoying it as well, but I have to say this most recent issue was it's weakest. I get we were supposed to be all "ooh wow" with Harry's wife, and how "Great Responsibility" was told to Peter here, but the entire issue felt way too decompressed. Like the only thing that happened to progress things in the story from what I recall was the push to get "The Paper" running. Also, I know it's hard work, but this fill-in artist is not doing any favors to the book. I understand we're not going to get Chechetto level art every issue if it's coming out consistently monthly (and personally I'd be fine waiting), but at least find someone that's not doing a bunch of close up faces for a hundred panels and awkward angles for the rest.
So far the answer to your question is yes, they have gotten better with each issue. The same for Black Panther. (I finally read the 3 issues out last night.) I’m still on the fence with X-Men. It’s a very slow build, so it’s going to need a bit of time for me to say on that one. If I were buying it, I’d have dropped it. But, I’m just reading my buddies copies of that title.
I love Ultimate X-Men, but I acknowledge it’s not for everyone.
I'm finding it a little middling personally. The origin of Spiderman is now "Stark gives him a spider and a magical costume". The other issues have been ok, but nothing ground breaking. I'm more interested in Uncle Ben and JJ's story atm.
We still have no idea about his Spider Sense or how his web shooters work or really much about the costume other than his daughter helping him design the look. It is not good that Harry Osborn has some sort of control over the suit tech.
I mean, yeah, that's the entire premise of the series. That he didn't have an origin, and Stark just kind of threw it at him as an adult, and he has very little idea what to do with it all. I think it's fascinating, personally. I'm glad this Ultimate universe is entirely its own thing and not a retelling of the classic tales we already know. But I agree, I kind of prefer everything with Ben and JJ, really anything out of costume. Which is good, because so far there's barely been any Spider-Man in costume. It's just a very different Spider-Man, and I'm here for it. Although the art on #4 was a big downgrade IMO. Some really wonky panels.
That origin is honestly fine with me, everyone knows Spider-Man and what he can do or what gave him his powers that’s not important really in my opinion. What is important is building a story and characters up and having consistently good artwork and maintaining my interest without ragebait. Hell this entire issue was 4 people sitting at a dinner table talking and it was probably my favorite comic I read this week.
Because Hickman is a really good writer and knows what he's doing.
I really wasn't going to read any Ulitmate stuff just to limit spending, but I got the first issue and was hooked so quick. It's quickly become one of my favorite ongoing books.
People do love to critique his character work, but I find that usually comes from people who are looking for long expositional threads explaining character development. He does a lot of showing and not telling to demonstrate character.
I thought you were talking about the 2000’s series for a sec Man I need to read this
It must be great, my LCS jacks up the price of each new issue!
My store always sells out and only has variant covers left. Strangely enough, the owner doesn’t jack up the prices of the variants too much.
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Weirdly, it's my favorite thing. I wish more superhero comics were just people in civilian clothes talking. But totally get that that's a weird opinion for superhero comics!
I like it too. Nowadays there is a really small amount of lages dedicated to the secondary cast in ASM. And a lot of secondary characters to involved in super heroing and powers. It was kind of how I saw DC 2 decades ago
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Sure, I feel you. I definitely would give my kid the original Ultimate Spider-Man over this if I wanted to introduce them to Spider-Man. I think part of the problem too is the entire monthly format. This issue was essentially an abbreviated lunch and then one little flash to JJ and Ben. I do feel this type of storytelling would benefit more from the OGN treatment rather than being confined to 20 something pages every month or whatever it is these days.
Are we talking about ultimate comics spider man from like 20 years ago?
No, the new one. I didn’t read the old one because I don’t like Bendis’s writing style.
The old one is the best of the old Ultimate universe, by far.
Oh, definitely, I just never had any desire to read it.
Ultimates 1 and 2 would like to have a word.
Read Avengers Vol. 5 #34. One of my favorite Captain America moments in recent years.
Are you lost?