Ultimate Impact: Reborn #5
“Meet Your Maker”
Writer: Chris Condon
Artist: Stefano Caselli
Colorist: David Curiel
Cover Artist: Leinil Francis Yu and Dean White
Publisher: Marvel Comics
And so this miniseries ends, not with a whimper, but with a bang… of Nega-Bands (called it!).
Who Were They Again?
We start off checking in on the two kids who got transported to the Ultimate Negative Zone (hey, we finally remembered them—but not their names, sorry). Their situation has not improved. But it’s okay, they’ll receive a deus ex machina finish soon enough.
“Jersey Wonder Man” and “Sightseer” (she’s only called that on the credits page, never in the story) both make their way to the Helicarrier in the sky, which has opened a portal to the Negative Zone and aims to go through it. Captain America is no longer alone on it, as Iron Man and Miles Morales remembered that they’re part of this series too. The Punisher apparently couldn’t find a way up to the Helicarrier; he’s just completely forgotten about. Soon everyone teams up to fight Hostilicus and save the day.
What about the media mogul guy who’s apparently called “Mogul” (again, only on the credits page) who was manipulating Hostilicus for his own gain? Well, um, nothing. He’s sorta just forgotten about until an ominous panel at the end of the issue. I guess he’ll show up somewhere else? It’s not like they introduced all these new characters and won’t do anything with them, right?
Oh, Right.
Okay, that recap was a lot snarkier than usual. This miniseries has been rough. At the beginning, it seemed like it was a Miles Morales vehicle while he was in between series of his own, but then he vanished partway through. He gets the closing voiceover this issue, though, bookending the series with scenes that again make it look like he was the main character the whole time. The book even ends with a “Spidey’s Adventures Continue In…” splash page. It’s all very confusing.
As for our new characters, they’re… certainly people with superpowers. And maybe semblances of personalities. I’m sure there are big plans for all of them, and they won’t just be immediately forgotten about. Wait, what were their names again?
There was a decent action scene in the center of the issue, I guess, even if the heroes all stood around for way too long before Hostilicus reminded them he was literally in the next room the whole time. Everyone gets a chance to show their stuff at least once, and Miles uses his energy sword, which always looks cool. The newbies learned how to use their powers effectively really fast. Oh, and Cap, Iron Man, and Miles all spent various amounts of time getting acquainted with Hostilicus’s fists for the last several issues, and it’s not until now that someone notices the Nega-Bands on his wrist?
Speaking of the Bands, there’s no way in hell I would let those two stupid teens walk around holding hands while they’re wearing them. That’s just a disaster waiting to happen.
Hopefully, now that David Colton has been revealed as Miracleman over in Avengers Armageddon, we can forget about these stupid Origin Boxes and pretend they never existed. I still say the only reason for this miniseries was to keep them in the public eye until Colton’s big reveal. They certainly haven’t done anything else of note.
Anyway…
Chris Condon is a good writer, but at this point I think anything connected to the Ultimate Universe is his Kryptonite (I know, wrong company). Everything he’s done that is Ultimate-adjacent has been leagues below his regular work. Ultimate Incursion was a bit of a mess that didn’t seem to fit anywhere in the rest of the Ultimate line, and ultimately just existed to bring some Origin Boxes to the 616 universe for Colton and the folks in this book. Even the pacing in this series has been off the whole time. People just disappear for lengths of time, then everyone conveniently appears for the big finish and all arrive at precisely the same time (just like a wizard—yes, that’s another property, too).
Stefano Caselli’s art is a bright spot in this series. I’ve always been a fan of his work, and he gets to draw a bunch of characters here. He’s good at kinetic action, and there’s been a lot of that throughout the series. Not sure about some of the character designs—Sightseer’s is really busy and looks like something out of Witch Hat Atelier—but he does good figure work overall.
Speaking of bright, David Curiel’s colors are the kind of glossy palette you expect a big event book to have. Too bad the only reveal event here is “it ends.” He does get to play with a lot of power effects, and everything does look pretty cool. And the glowing red eye effect on Mogul makes him look way cooler than he actually is.
What Was This About Again?
Ultimate Impact: Reborn #5 brings the miniseries to a merciful end, with our heroes finally gathering together in one place and paying attention to the details around them. Seriously, this whole thing could have been much shorter if any of them had any situational awareness. Now the question becomes: where, if anywhere, will we see the new characters introduced here next?