Comic Review – “Ultimate Adventures”

The Ultimate entry into the U-Decide initiative
wrapped up in January. The trade paperback
collection of the series was cancelled by Marvel
(presumably due to low interest; the sixth issue of
the series, which was also the last issue, only sold
about 15,000 copies, about 7,000 below the
cancellation mark.) The perpetual lateness probably
hurt it more than anything. (It took 15 months to
ship 6 issues.)

General Information

Title: Ultimate Adventures

Author: Ron Zimmerman

Illustrator(s): Duncan Fegredo

Original Publication Date: The six issues were
published between
September 2002, and January 2004.

Cover Price: Series total was $14.98 US or $24
Can

Past comic reviews can be found here.

Premise

This is, basically, the Ultimate version of Batman
and Robin. A rich
guy adopts a young orphan who became a vigilante as a
way to deal with
the death of his parents.

High Point

“Long pants.”

Low Point

Naming the series, in capitals, right in the
dialogue. It just didn’t
work.

The Scores

It’s a Batman parody, and not a particularly unique
one, at that. I
give the originality 3 out of 6.

The artwork gets the job done, but never
really impressed me
with anything. Another 3 out of 6.

The story was decent, until the ending. I’m
heading into
spoiler territory here, but anyone who can hold his
own against
Ultimate Captain America wouldn’t go down that
easily, nor would his
comrades with similar training. Hawk-Owl was
unstoppable when
convenient, but worthless when he needed to fight
back. I give it 4
out of 6.



The characterization showed very little
depth. Once you’ve
read the first two issues, you not only know the
stereotypical
characters, you know the stereotypical character
growth you’ll see
from them. I give it 3 out of 6.

The emotional response was pretty bland. It
didn’t thrill me
at all, but it didn’t disappoint, either. My main
complaint is that a
series which was solicited as a comedy never made me
laugh. If it
weren’t for that solicitation, I’d have enjoyed it
more. It’s not
bad, but it’s not what was advertised. I give it 3
out of 6.

The flow was like the rest of the series;
the job got done,
but not in any really impressive way. The action
could be followed,
although sometimes panels progressed in columns
instead of rows for
part of a page. When this happened, the border space
between the
consecutive panels was removed, so the reader can
still follow it, but
it is disruptive. I give it 4 out of 6.

Overall, it’s the weakest entry in the
Ultimate line, but
it’s still mediocre. I give it 3 out of 6.

In total, Ultimate Adventures recieves 23
out of 42.