Iron Lad has assembled a group of Freedom Fighters called the Ultimates and is leading them to the White House! Find out how it goes in The Ultimates #2 by Marvel Comics! 

THE ULTIMATES #2

Writer: Deniz Camp
Artist: Juan Frigeri 
Colorist: Federico Blee 
Letterer: Travis Lanham 
Editor: Wil Moss 
Publisher: Marvel Comics 
Cover Price: $4.99 
Release Date: July 10th, 2024 

Previously in The Ultimates: The Ultimate Universe was relaunched when the Maker used his knowledge of the multiverse to guarantee that Earth’s Mightiest Heroes never got their powers. With the moniker Iron Lad, Tony Stark has now assembled a team to try to take the world back from the Maker and his allies while giving powers to the people who can help him. Thus, he formed the Ultimates! 

The Ultimates #2 has two different storylines. The first is Captain America learning the history he missed while stuck in stasis. The other is an attack on the White House from Iron Lad, Captain America, Giant-Man, and the Wasp. While Giant-Man and the Wasp deal with the multitude of guards, Captain America and Iron Lad go to the Oval Office to find Midas. Midas seems to have a lot of surprising abilities, along with wearing an Iron Man outfit made out of gold. While this is happening, we see images of history that Captain America is learning, and Captain America realizes Midas’ career is based on trade, capitalism, and commerce. 

Iron Lad uses his full power on Midas, putting his suit in power-saving mode. While Midas appears unharmed, it destroys the floor to reveal a woman Midas has been experimenting with to gain specific technological innovations and use her as a battery. The Wasp comes in to destroy the machine that imprisons her, and the team leaves with America Chavez. 

The plot beats in The Ultimates title feel slightly erratic, jumping from point to point with little information. I admit, I haven’t read every issue of this rebooted universe, but I felt like the fight with Midas was pointless in The Ultimates #2. He wasn’t a compelling villain, and the fight was intermingled with images from the history that Captain America was learning about. The art was more interesting than the plot, but the art didn’t emphasize this, making the comic feel a little busy for little reason. Not to say the art and colors weren’t well done; they just didn’t grab my attention. 

The Ultimates #2 has the potential for really great ideas and plots, and I think we are seeing it in other titles. But right now, I think the cast of characters isn’t getting enough time to shine because we are balancing the retelling of a whole history amongst the other storytelling techniques being incorporated. This means we probably need more pages if they are trying to accomplish so much. 

I’m unsure if it is me because I have been fatigued recently, but The Ultimates #2 did not hit the spot. I wanted this book to have character tension and complex themes, but I did not necessarily get that. With that in mind, this book gets a 3 out of 5 from me. Lots of potential. 

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The Ultimates #2

63%

63%

Lacks Execution

The Ultimates #2 struggles with balancing the plot, the characters, and the settings due to the sheer amount of content they have to pack into a single issue.

• Writing

  5
• Art

  7
• Coloring

  7
• User Ratings (1 Votes)
  9