Review: ‘Ultimate Endgame’ #1 Requires Some Time To Process

This is it. The culmination of two years of the new Ultimate Marvel Universe. In Ultimate Endgame #1, the Maker returns. And it’s not what anyone expected.

The debut of the ultimate event (I’m sorry) comes from Deniz Camp, Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson, Jonas Scharf, Federico Blee, Edgar Delgado, and Cory Petit.

The Maker has been locked behind a temporal dome for the last two years. The Ultimates have risen and are ready to bring an end to his evil. What will they face when the dome falls and the City reopens? It’s going to take the Ultimates by surprise.

I had to sit with this for a little while after finishing reading it. I didn’t know what to expect here. The more I sat with it, and digested it, the more I enjoyed it though, and on a re-read, I know what I think of it.

I’m going to say for anyone that hasn’t read it, or is still digesting it like myself, the best comparison for me is Secret Wars #1 from 2015. Obviously, it’s not 1:1 but it’s apt. Realizing that re-framed it quite a bit for me in a great way.

A whole lot happens, it’s a lot of action and chaos. There’s some genuine emotional moments. And then it all goes wrong … and in the last few pages things shift and we seem to get the direction for the rest of the story.

Camp does a great job with it. By centering the emotional beats on Peter Parker and his supporting cast- the people who got the most character development and who are frankly closest to their Earth-616 counterparts — he gives us a strong emotional throughline. When everything goes wrong and the Ultimates’ plan falls apart, flashing to them gives the catastrophe a man of the street perspective without introducing new characters we won’t see again.

That also makes the events in the City, where Peter joins Iron Lad, Doom and America Chavez, that much more relatable. Yes, this is a trippy sci-fi hullabaloo (scientific term). Lots of craziness is happening. And Peter is right there to practically scream “what the @#$%?!” as an audience stand-in for the big heady ideas.

Petit does great work with the letters. It’s a big, busy chaotic issue. He never gets in the way of the storytelling, always enhancing it and strengthening it.

As for the art, it’s a mixed bag. I usually like the Dodsons. Here though, their work is incredibly muddy. Terry’s pencils have always had a great fluidity to them, but here it makes the lines flow together in confusing ways. There’s also a serious lack of detail. Some pages are better than others, but it doesn’t always work. Blee’s colors on those pages are good though- he even uses some color wash to fill in some of the details that the pencils leave out. His use of reds and oranges makes it seem like everything’s gone up in flames even before it all goes bad.

Scharf and Delgado’s pages are top notch though. Scharf’s rougher pencils make the Maker look absolutely terrifying, playing up the body horror baked into Reed Richards’ powers and twisting the character in some disturbing ways. His action later in the issue is clear and easy to follow, and he has each character move in ways that fit their characters (I always love when an artist nails agile Spider-Man poses). Delgado uses his color art to build up to the horror of the City, and his use of greys and blues makes the place feel unsettling and wrong.

Ultimate Endgame #1 is available now from Marvel Comics.