Ultimates 2 #5

Here's another one recycled from my LiveJournal. It's slightly out of date but I'm moving it here because it mentions an upcoming issue of Ultimates 2 that I'll review when it comes out.

I didn't like Ultimates 2 #5 very much.

A while back I talked about Ultimates 2 #4 and how I liked it. #4 set up a big conflict between the Ultimates and Thor. Mark Millar wastes no opportunity to mention that Thor is the most powerful superhero on Earth and issue #4 ends with Captain America (sorry, Ultimate Captain America) pointing at Ultimate Thor and telling him he's going down.

"Ooh," I thought. "This is gonna be a good fight."

I thought this because Millar has written some good fight scenes in the past and Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary worked on The Authority which was pretty much one big fight scene and they did it really well. #5 disappointed me because the story was just OK (yes, I still want a good story with my big fights, sue me) and the art was confusing.

Some artists don't do action well. Hitch and Neary have shown that they are very good at action. However, I couldn't figure out what was going on in several of the panels. Clarity is important when you're drawing a fight scene. There's not much dialogue so the reader needs to see what's happening. When three-quarters (or more) of the issue consists of a fight scene, clarity is essential.

There was a good part at the end where it's still not clear whether Thor is THOR or if he's just some deranged guy with stolen supertech. That was handled very well.

I was all set to stop buying Ultimates 2 anymore but then I saw the cover of #6.

Sigh.

Cheesecake aside, this is the Defenders. The Ultimate Defenders! They have always been one of my favorite teams and I'm looking forward to what Millar does with them. So, I'll pick up #6. We'll see.

And, um, if the writing is substandard there's still the cheesecake.