Moment of truth time. It’s been a little difficult writing this review, because there’s so little and so much to say about the so-called grand finale of the new Ultimate Marvel Universe. Every moment, every single series has been leading up to this much awaited triumph. But what does the ultimate execution actually look like? Well, sad to say, you can thank Marvel editorial for once again ensuring that the end of a universe goes out the with the most resounding “that’s it?” that could possibly be imagined.
Like it’s previous issues, Ultimate Endgame #5 does the unthinkable – it somehow makes the end of the much beloved ultimate universe boring and contrived, which isn’t entirely its fault with hands its been dealt. From issue #1, we’ve gotten a shocking turn of diminishing returns with each subsequent issues, and his last issue is no different as it races for an unearned finale by piling on more plot conveniences and lazy contrivances than you can shake a cosmic cube at. But even amidst the mess and the predictability, there’s still tiny glimmers of heart even within this apocalypse.
A Clash of Convenience
The big finale issue ends with the Maker ready to take over the entire world. The heroes are on the back foot, with Captain America and Spider-Man both dead. And even with the timely arrival of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Tony and the rest of the Ultimate still find themselves on the backfoot as the Maker coils around reality and spreads him malicious influence across time and space (somehow).
But fear not! For this is the final issue, and that means EVERYTHING is convenient. Somehow, someway, Wolverine shows up to even the odds (oh hey, I forgot he was even supposed to be in this series) and the rest of the Ultimate across the globe rally in their own way against the Maker’s influence. But who’s the one who takes him down? Why it’s Doom Richards of course, using the power of his former fantastic family and a whole lot of plot armour to finally put a stop to the Maker’s reign. An Ultimate sacrifice if you will that’s genuinely heartfelt, but hey, at least this event ends the Ultimate universe on high but boringly predictable note.
Not the Ending We Deserved
***SPOILERS from this point on. YOU. HAVE. BEEN. WARNED***
I’ve said most of what I’ve had to say about Deniz Camp’s writing in this series already in previous issues’ reviews. After having so carefully crafted the Ultimates in their own books with such a grand sprawling mythology to go along with them, it was always going to be jarring to see Camp struggle to maintain a semblance of coherence on this event book. It’s not his strong suit, and the added meddling of being pushed to wrap this up as fast as possible certainly didn’t help matters, and it shows. More than any of the previous issues, issue #5 here highlights just how much of Camp’s writing was wasted when he’s boxed into a corner.
After all this time of having the Maker get his way, becoming more and more omnicidal and all empowered, even with the power of the Immortus Engine now allowing him to spread his influence across all of time and reality, the sheer level of cosmic dread that this book started out with has simply petered out by the time this issue comes in. While the Maker attempts to be a big, scary tree that’s raging against the world, that feeling of true fear never resonates like it did in the first issue and its related reveals. And since the Maker himself ends up dispatched so easily, and strangely conveniently by Doom-Richards, any greater sense of poetic justice that could’ve been given to the great finale kind of falls flat, taking the Maker’s big final gambit down with it. It’s a disappointingly lukewarm finale for one of Marvel’s biggest bads, but perfectly indicative of just how scattered this vision of the ultimate universe turned out to be in the end.
And speaking of Doom-Richards, this issue in particular is the culmination of his story, mixed bag as it is. It’s hard to reconcile the masterful stakes Camp set up for the character back in his own Ultimates run, creating a generationally heartbreaking story of Reed Richards, who takes on the mantle of Doom because of the Maker’s machinations. And now, here at the end of this entire escapade, all the great character writing kind of went out the window in favor of a shallow resolution where “Doom Meets Maker” tries way too hard to convince readers that it’s a more meaningful final clash than it is. Yes, there’s a great segment of the “fantastic four” coming to his aid in the margins, being presented beautifully as empty character silhouettes in the pages that come to Reed’s aid. It’s a gorgeous moment, a segment of really great writing that is simply dragged down by all the lackluster events happening before and after it. What could have been a spectacularly poignant finale for both these characters instead only somewhat achieves that resonance, because Doom manages to defeat the Maker (nobody doubted that would happen) and ultimately sacrifices his life in the process, but the way it was achieved was flat. We’re told there’s a battle of wills, that brute force is not an option even as Doom uses the powers of his lost fantastic family to fight back, but in the end, it’s the power of “we need to get this done right now” that really wins the fight. And that’s never a great way to go about things, no matter how much of a heartfelt ending you try to tack onto the end with Doom finally being reunited with the Fantastic Four after his death. It’s a great moment, one that’s realized far better visually than how that moment’s lead-up is written, but it just feels so criminally unearned for a character who deserved a far more worthy send-off than this.
And what about the other cast of characters? Well, they’re there. Captain America is still dead, but hey! Spidey’s back thanks to Doom doing Doom things with the Immortus Engine to bring him back. So not even that death stuck around, because why would it? Tony spends more time going back and forth with future Kang to really contribute anything of meaning, like he somewhat did in earlier issues, except for a few small tokens of wisdom about futures being unwritten. Of course, since Marvel decided even now that *gasp* they aren’t going to end the Ultimate Universe after all, but merely shelve every book tied to it for the time being, what does that even mean for this entire event at all? What was the point even? The heroes rally back against the Maker’s world-ending threat in the most cliched way possible, with no real stakes. No challenges. No lessons learned, not really. Heck, we were wondering where Ultimate Wolverine and Phoenix were throughout this entire event, and here 5 issues and some 20+ pages in, Logan shows up to magically save the day at the last minute? Come on.
The “finale” to the Ultimate universe ends up being a copout, and while there are certainly readers who will feel they got their money’s worth with the big resolutions and their favorite heroes all making it out in the end, the greatest tragedy isn’t with Doom’s death but with the sheer laziness and cowardice of an event that promised so much, was handicapped at every turn by Marvel’s editorial not know what it wants to do with some of its bestselling books and solicitations spoiling events months in advance (and they still keep doing it, much to my regular annoyance), and was then ultimately allowed to fizzle out all the genuinely good threads it set up in issue #1. With all that said and done, and with all these characters now having been confirmed to have their stories still out there for Marvel to pick up whenever they want a quick buck, I’m just glad that this event has come to an end.
A Disjointed Art Exhibition
In previous issues at least, the art was always a saving grace, but this time around, even with both art teams working like last time, the result feels far more rushed and messier than other issues. Jonas Scharf, Rachel Dodson & Terry Dodson, and Edgar Delgado all do their best on lines and colors, respectively, but there’s just something so off about this particular issue that the different art styles don’t feel in sync this time around. Like the finale itself, the art is as chaotic and messy as the rest of the book. And that problem starts early, where instead of separating art teams into segments like before, we have random art mismatches from one page to the next. A Jonas Scharf page transitions randomly into a Dodson one, and this makes for a very messy visual read, especially when the Dodsons in particular really aren’t at the top of their game in this issue.
Starting with Jonas Scharf’s pages, he and Delgado still put out some decent work, with the Maker’s physical presence still looking as demented and horrific as ever, but there’s just too much nonsensical action going around this time to capture that same dark menace. It’s a highly action-driven and lit-up issue, with lots of energy waves and transitions to the Dodson’s pages, which throws off Scharf’s work a little. Still, these pages are the only genuine highlight of the book for the most part, especially when you get to see the culmination of Doom and the Maker go at it one last time, with the art tremendously elevating the weak script in that segment, especially with the Fantastic Four showing up in the margins in such a genuinely cool way.
In sharp contrast, the Dodsons’ segments are genuinely the weakest in terms of art and composition. While the Dodsons have done okay on this book so far, a previous issue and now this one highlight the mismatch a bit more glaringly. Characters look more smudged and rushed in their movements and expressions than ever before, and having to alternate between their own and Scharf’s pages only makes these rushed segments look even more jarring. The colors don’t do much to help either, with the pastel shades being just there, rather than as eye-catching as Delgado’s more dynamic tones. What does work as a standout moment is Reed finally getting to reunite with his family in the afterlife, transitioning the margins like the rest of the Four as they were shown in previous pages. That definitely still has a semblance of heart to it, but its last lingering panel is definitely heavily undercut when you notice the goofy faces of the other Ultimates in the background, something that should have been avoided because it REALLY ruins the moment.
A Doom of His Own Making
Ultimate Endgame #5 had no business being this lacklustre. This is a bitter review, I know, but it’s only that way because of all the wasted potential we had to watch as the much-acclaimed finale to this much-loved universe, which was built lovingly by so many creators, was simply squandered for the sake of nothing, really. You get your superficial hype moments, you get the illusion of complexity and triumph, but it comes at the cost of everything that this universe was meant to be and could have been.
While nowhere near as close to the nightmares long time readers might have from Ultimatum or some of the other more egregious idiocies of the original ultimate universe, this “finale” certainly has the air quotes doing a lot of the heavy lifting, and simply ends up being another middling end to something that was meant to be beautiful, but had to settle for being less than ordinary in the end.
Final Verdict: Ultimate Endgame #5 manages to ultimately (hehheh puns) snatch a shred of heartache from the jaws of breathtaking mediocrity in this final conclusion/not-conclusion to this iteration of the Ultimate Universe.