Ultimate X and FF question

[Foggy's Pal]

Ultimate Spiderman will always be considered the pinnacle of the Ultimates comics, but what do you guys and gals think of Ultimate X-Men and ultimate FF? I'm thinking of picking them up; they both have a lot of great talent who have worked on them, but I haven't heard a lot about them- good or bad.

[Piechuck]

I really enjoyed the Bendis & Vaughan issues of UXM and the Millar issues of UFF

[Fake Pat]

Ultimate Spiderman will always be considered the pinnacle of the Ultimates comics, but what do you guys and gals think of Ultimate X-Men and ultimate FF? I'm thinking of picking them up; they both have a lot of great talent who have worked on them, but I haven't heard a lot about them- good or bad.

Uh, says who?

I think a whole lot of people would say Ultimates is the centerpiece.

And I'd say both UXM and UFF are pretty average throughout. Something about those books led to great guys like BKV and Ellis to produce some of their most underwhelming stuff. I wouldn't say either title was bad overall, but don't expect anything special.

[GrandeMaestro Fünke]

It's really a mixed bag, and a lot of people seem to view the runs differently.

Personally I think Millar's run on Ultimate X-Men is a lot of fun, and it stays pretty decent until the end of BKV's run.

As far as Ultimate Fantastic Four the only time I really enjoyed it was during Millar/Land issues.

[THWIP!]

I really enjoyed the Bendis & Vaughan issues of UXM and the Millar issues of UFF

Pretty much the only good stuff in those books. But I kinda liked the early stuff of UXM by Millar.

[c.rob]

Uh, says who?

I think a whole lot of people would say Ultimates is the centerpiece.



even in terms of quality?

If so, I would disagree.

[Raphael J]

I think the first arc of Ultimate X-Men is some of the best comics Mark Millar has ever done. The second was pretty excellent as well (save for some art change ups in the last issue, which was a bummer). In my opinion, his run goes downhill after that. Bendis does some interesting stuff. I didn't love the Blockbuster arc, but New Mutants and the solo Wolverine issue were great.

I hear Vaughan and Kirkman did some cool things, but I stopped following it right before Vaughan came onboard.

Millar's 12 issues on Ultimate FF are great comics. Lots of fun stuff happens in those stories. Ellis' N-Zone arc was great too.

[TimWithNumbers]

I liked UXM right up through the the Magnetic North run. I still continued to buy it through the garbage "Banshee" arc, and I've finally dropped it altogether. But 13 out of 19 volumes is nothing to shake a stick at.

[Fake Pat]

even in terms of quality?

If so, I would disagree.

If we're gonna talk quality, I'd say again that most would lean to Ultimates even harder.

[kylethoreau]

dialogue aside (cause some of it was WOW.....ugh IMO) I always dug Ultimate X-men and felt that in many ways tended to diverge the most from it's established origins.....and I loved the Dazzler,

UFF? It was good but later stories tended to bore me.

and I really think that Ultimates is a bit on the overrated side.:surrend:

[TimWithNumbers]

If we're gonna talk quality, I'd say again that most would lean to Ultimates even harder.

Mmmm. Ultimates was plagued with delays, but still came with an air of consistency right up until the ending of Ultimates 2. USM is typically excellent, but has definitely had a few clunkers mixed in here and there.

[Foggy's Pal]

Uh, says who?

I think a whole lot of people would say Ultimates is the centerpiece.

And I'd say both UXM and UFF are pretty average throughout. Something about those books led to great guys like BKV and Ellis to produce some of their most underwhelming stuff. I wouldn't say either title was bad overall, but don't expect anything special.

I agree that Ultimates is good, but Spidey maintains greatness for 130 issues. That's tough to beat. I think the re-sale price on Spidey #1 speaks for itself.

[SAVETHEB]

Along with USM, UXM was one of the reasons I got into comics. I though what mark millar was doing in the beginning of this series was amazing and I had no idea comics could be that interesting. Making the x-men rock stars was a very cool move to me.

The last few years of the series have made me really sad.

[tom daylight]

UFF under Ellis is worth reading, with great art by Immonen and Kubert there. I loved BKV's 21 issues of UXM and Bendis' 12 are worth a read too (particularly for the Wolverine-Spidey-DD team-up). Both kind of suffer next to the consistent voice of USM. Also if you haven't read Ultimate Marvel Team-Up I'd put that at the top of your list, it's basically another huge book of Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man (including the Lizard tale that sets up Curt Conners' appearances in USM).

[NeverWanderer]

I could never get into Ultimate X-Men, but the first three trades of Ultimate Fantastic Four (plus the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy) are about the most interesting the FF has ever been to me. I wish Warren Ellis had never left. He had that perfect balance of playfulness, humor, mystery, suspense, adventure, and kickass sci-fi concepts.

[Dan-C]

Most of UXM I thought was great. The only run I didn't really like was Kirkman's. UFF is hit pretty solid as well. Millar and Ellis issues are great. But I think Carey's take on FF is spot on and a certainly worth reading. Also, UFF #1 is probably one of my favorite Ultimate issues - line wide.

[Kirblar]

UXM was varying degrees of "good-great" until Vaughn's run ended. After that the quality just went away.

I don't really think "UFF" worked from Day 1- the changes to Doom's origin really weakend the character.

[tom daylight]

My issue with UFF was that I couldn't understand what the point of it was. The other titles all brought the characters back to their roots, but this was "FF as teenagers" - which to me never seemed compatible with the basic premise of the series. And it's not like they've really changed, at all, in 45 years of continuity.

[VonDoom]

Ultimate X-Men started me collecting comics. It's sad to me how far the quality took a dive after Vaughan's run. The Millar run was fun, but looking back, I'm less wowed than I was back when I was 14 (though I intend to re-read 'em soon). Bendis' run with Finch was pretty sweet - especially issues 41, and 43-45. I liked a lot of Vaughan's stuff - his exploration of the various relationships got me really attached to the characters. When Kirkman came along, I dumped the book pretty fast.

Ultimate FF was always the weak link in the chain, though Ellis and Immonen produced some solid stuff. Likewise Millar and Land. Your milage may vary. I don't like Ellis' version of Doom, but I thought his Galactus crossover was pretty sweet - I really loved ultimate Mahr-Vell.

Ultimates under Millar and Hitch was incredible. Ultimates 2 was a solid followup, though less spectacular than the first 13. I haven't read Ultimates 3, but I understand it is supremely lame, so I'll probably give it a miss.

[Kirblar]

Honestly, Ultimates 1-6 is far superior to anything that followed. It was intense and character-driven, but the character elements of the book fell by the wayside as it became more of an action book.

[Jef UK]

What do delays have to do with the quality of the first two Ultimates seasons?

[JimmyF1982]

being the voice of dissention, i enjoyed the shit out of kirkman's run on UXM but i could be partial because he used my favorite two villians, Apocalypse and Mr. Sinister.

[RegularJoe]

i loved pascal ferry and mike carey's thanos run. it was very great and i loved ferry's art on it.

and ellis wrote the best johnny/ben interactions ever.

[TheKraken]

USM wins almost by default. It's the only one with a sense of purpose and evolution from start to finish, and it's the only title that really did what the Ultimate U was advertised as doing in the beginning: distilling the mythos of a classic character to its essentials and updating it for a modern audience. UXM, The Ultimates and especially UFF seemed to be about trying to be as different from the source as possible rather than taking a fresh look at what made the concepts great enough to last this long.

I think a big part of why USM was so much more successful was not being a team book. Spidey avoids all the hurdles of deciding which characters from the original book's 40+ year run should be on the team and how they should get together and so on. As long as he's swinging around and cracking jokes, he's Spider-Man. I don't think you'd want UXM to start with the original X-Men line-up, ignoring Wolverine and Storm and so on, but not starting with the original X-Men line-up already deviates from the source a whole lot more than Spider-Man has to.

[PhoenixFactor]

USM has been great as you know.
UXM was really good i thought to the end of Vaughan's run. Then it starts sliding rapidly to not good. I still buy it and will be finishing out the run but it hasnt been the same since Vauaghan left. I'm not even sad its ending, kinda relieved.
I have read UFF from issue one, looking back, its well written but, I agree with the who cares vibe stated above. I love Mike Carey but his later issues just started sliding when Tyler Kirkham came on art. The Millar run, however, I felt was very fresh and fun.

[bradical]

Ultimate Spiderman will always be considered the pinnacle of the Ultimates comics

most consistent but not the pinnacle.

bkv's uxm run is just not to my tatse. i just didn't enjoy it. same with kirkman's. to many mutants to soon.

uff was never great but often good. millar's run in the middle is the best and the carey/ferry run had some great moments where they went away from 616 and tried to do something unique with the mythos.