Ultimate Origins  #3 of 5
Written By: Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils: Butch Guice
Release Date: 8/6/08
Price: $2.99
Publisher:Marvel Comics 

For any of you Marvel Historians out there, the Ultimate Origins series has no doubt been one of the more anticipated titles of the year, delving into the history of a Marvel Universe easily as vital as the original (if not more), yet still young enough to be digestible.  In fact, with a little effort digging up old hardbacks on Amazon and and subscribing to Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, I’ve read damn near every issue that’s ever taken place in the Ultimate Universe over the last year and it’s been a blast.

Now to see how it all came together.

Any of you who have read the first 2 issues of the series have been privy to some new shit – like the origins of the Super Soldier program, the origins of Mutant-kind and other such goodies that don’t really make a lot of sense just yet, but that’s half the fun. Perhaps the coolest part of Ultimate Origins is that it preceeds “Ultimatum” in which the universe will be ripped a new corn hole or something. My theories on that later.

Issue 3 picks up with the Fantastic 4 inspecting the mysterious obelisk that first appeared when Steve Rogers first exploded, turning into Captain America – perhaps the birth of “The Age of Marvels”.  It also features the first meeting between Professor X and Magneto during better times, a period that was explored briefly in the pages of Ultimate X-Men and expanded on in a major way here. Aside from that the obelisk is really the focus of issue 3 and I can’t really say much about it since I’m a spoiler free sort of guy, but I will sat that I came up with some pretty well informed theories as to where it’s all headed.  Something big is on the horizon for the Ultimate Universe, that is no secret, but issue 3 gives some pretty heavy clues (for those who care to look hard enough) as to who will be involved in the upcoming calamity – and if you know who, you’ll probably also know why. Half the fun of reading these Ultimate books for me is anticipating the introduction of characters I love from the classic universe and seeing how they are folded in to the much tighter fabric of the Ultimate universe – as this series picks up momentum, it promises a slew of characters and situations that I’ve been anticipating.

I’m trying to be awful clever here even though the title of this review pretty much blew one of my key theories surrounding this series – I know plenty of you are nerdy enough to know what I’m getting at.  Anyway, in conclusion – Ultimate Origins is kind of like sifting through long lost love notes that your girlfriend left you before she died in that gym fire at the high school prom – it’s like the book of Genesis except not boring and with way more Wolverine – it’s like the cranky old coot of a grandpa you finally bond with days before he croaks in a crusty old retirement home, except you don’t know that he’s  going to croak – actually, yeah, it’s exactly like that.

Catch up, cause the origin of the Incredible Hulk is next.

Stay tuned for theories on the destruction of the Ultimate Universe.