Cream of the Comics – 10/11/2006

Ultimate Power #1
written by Brian Michael Bendis, pencils by Greg Land

Here at last, it’s the big crossover between JMS’s Squadron Supreme and the Ultimate Universe! It’s a 9 issue series – which is supposed to take place between Ultimates 2 and Ultimates 3 – and it’s being divided into three sections: Issues 1-3 will be written by Bendis, issues 4-6 will be written by J. Michael Straczynski , and issues 7-9 will be written by Jeph Loeb. Er, I guess Greg Land’s onboard for the whole thing.

If you read Squadron Supreme or the Ultimate books, this book is something worth keeping an eye on – At the end of the series, someone from the Supremeverse will end up in the Ultimateverse, and vice versa. Granted both universes have their set of crap characters, but I can’t imagine someone like Ultimate Longshot in the Supremeverse being the gimmick they’re selling. And heck, even if it is, it should still make for an interesting read.

The story kicks off with Reed Richards trying to find a cure for Ben Grimm, and accidentally opening up a connection between the two universes – You’d think after the Zombie fiasco, he’d know better than to poke around like that, but thank God he doesn’t yet! Anyway, while the premise is a somewhat tired story concept in the normal Marvel U, I couldn’t help but notice this page in the previews –

I was moderately interested in the book, but not terribly, until I saw that. This puts a whole different pressure on Reed to find that cure, and while some of the work from these writers has been hit or miss for me lately, I find myself looking forward to this book a LOT.