Ultimate Origins 4 of 5

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis

Drawn by: Butch Guice

Published by: Marvel Comics

Release Date: 8/10/08

Price: $2.99

Revised origins seem to be all the rage as of late in the Marvel Universe what with X-MEN: MAGNETO — TESTAMENT (which is also out this week and I highly recommend) and others which haven’t turned out all that well – never the less, Ultimate Origins has become one of the more anticipated titles for me over the past months.

This is after all not revisionist history, this is the untold story of the Ultimate Universe preceding it’s destruction this fall/winter in Jeph Leob’s Ultimatum. Issue 4 seems to be the calm before the storm which wraps the “age of Marvels” into a very neat package while adding a great deal of dimension to characters that we may have thought we knew everything about, particularly in the case of the Hulk who’s origin casts a much more tragic light on a character who was already dominated by guilt, fear and rage.

With many comic book “fans” content to sit through 90 minute Hollywood interpretations of these classic hero’s tales, Ultimate Origins succeeds in setting up the type of multifaceted epic that is simply too vast and in depth for any movie which earns this title my highest recommendation. As much fun as Secret Invasion is proving to be, I know of several meat-bags who were too intimidated to pick it up for fear of being lost in a continuity that they’re not completely up to date with. Lame excuse, but not completely without merit, but thankfully this excuse doesn’t hold up in the Ultimate Universe which is not even 10 years old and only includes a handful of titles and even if you’ve never read any Ultimate title, you probably still know enough about the characters to jump in and get the hang of it.

Basically, some serious shit is about to go down in the Ultimate Universe and I strongly recomment that any and all self respecting nerds be there to watch history unfold.