Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates #25 Review

ULTIMATE COMICS: THE ULTIMATES #25

by Joshua Hale Fiakov and Carmine Di Giandomenico

Tony: I have one question. Why NOT ice cream?

If you decide to pick this up, be warned. It is not the jumping on point it was advertised to be. Fiakov is simply continuing Humphries' storyline about the Infinity Gems. Now, Fiakov's debut on the Ultimates is surprisingly disappointing. You'd think he's perfectly suited for this due to his character driven and spectacular work on I, Vampire, but he messes it up. First off, he nails MOST of the dialogue and tries to do his best, working with the story already set up for him. Sadly, it just doesn't work. For one thing, Ultimate Hulk is poorly written (see Millar's Ultimates), and the villain reveal at the end is anticlimatic and not that surprising. Also, Reed Richards is reintroduced without much introduction, and he's far from the menacing, and cold villain we saw in Hickman's run. My last problem, is the biggest one. The issue is very predictable, and you can try to guess the outcome of the entire storyline, and you'll probably be right.

Carmine Di Giandomenico (dat name) does his best to work with Fiakov's script, but his loose and cartoonish art style doesn't go with the very dark story. While Di Giandemico does an okay job with the opening pages, it just goes downhill from there. As the book progresses, his characters just start looking more and more deformed, and it you can tell that they switch inkers.

The Ultimates #25 isn't the series's savior that I hoped it would be. I find it hard to believe that this is the same Fiakov that wrote I, Vampire, and Carmine Di Giandomenico's art doesn't suit the story at all.

STORY: 3/5

+ Most of the characters are written well

+ Tries to do his best with a story already set up for him

- Hulk's voice is off

- Predictable

- Reed Richards is also off

ART: 2/5

+ Loose and vibrant

- Doesn't mesh with the tone

- Gets inconsistent

VERDICT: 2.5/5