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Product Description: Super-scribe Warren Ellis chronicles the coming of Gah Lak Tus! This deluxe hardcover collects the entire Ultimate Galactus trilogy -- Ultimate Nightmare, Ultimate Secret and Ultimate Extinction -- plus extras. In Ultimate Nightmare, world communications systems break down, and the source of the anomaly is revealed as Tanguska, Russia. Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. leads a force comprised of Captain America, Black Window and Sam Wilson to investigate; simultaneously, Charles Xavier of the X-Men dispatches his own team consisting of Jean Grey, Wolverine and Colossus. What they discover there -- and what happens next -- defies belief! In Ultimate Secret, a hidden alien race is trying desperately to keep man from reaching the stars. Cape Canaveral scientist Philip Lawson, secretly a Kree soldier assigned to a mission on our planet, knows of the hideous plan and will use all his considerable power to stop it... the power of Captain Mahr Vehl! But his sudden betrayal may mean a swift doom for the Earth. And finally, in Ultimate Extinction, it's time for the coming of Gah Lak Tus! And his arrival could mean the end of all life on this planet! Not even the power of S.H.I.E.L.D. or the brilliance of Fantastic Four leader Reed Richards seems able to stop its inexorable march to Earth. What role do the Ultimate X-Men have in this drama? And who on Earth is Misty Knight and how does she know the fate of our world may rest with -- Ultimate Silver Surfer? Collects Ultimate Nightmare #1-5, Ultimate Secret #1-4, Ultimate Extinction #1-5.
Great ride that seems to fizzle out... First off I'd like to say that I do recommend this for fans of the Ultimate universe. Since you're here you probably know what this book is about, the Ultimate re-telling of Galactus. I'll keep it short since there's plenty of long winded reviews out there.
Everything leading up to Ultimate Extinction is great. They do a wonderful job of building the suspense and tension. Then once the climax arrives everything just kind of ends and we're left going "huh."
For me at least, the ending was a bit too abrupt and definitely leaves the window open for another visit from Galactus. It also looked like we may have not seen all that the "Un-creator" has to offer.
Hmmmm, he drives people insane who see him? So let me get this straight? And I loved the book up until we got to the "Galactus is a bunch of widgets" ending.
Let me get this straight... no one can see Galactus without going insane, why even the knowledge that he exists drives a Kree almost over the edge. But when we finally see Galactus revealed around Jupiter, he turns out to be a bunch of widget robots who collectively form Galactus. Strange that the operator who says, "Hey look here near Jupiter, isn't this wierd?" shows no inclination to even develop a migraine.
In fact, none of the dozens of humans who get down to developing a way to stop him before he reaches earth bats an eye at what Galactus is. It was SUCH a huge disappointment, I was hoping when I read the initial Jupiter description that the robots were an advance wave of Galactus. Nope, no luck. What a let down.
Great Set-up, So-so ending I can say for starters that this is WORLDs better than either the original campy Lee-Kirby story or the Fantastic Four 2 movie. Of course, if something like Galactus were headed for a world like the Ultimate Marvel Earth, all the heroes would be involved.
I thought the sense of doom was well-set up in the first two parts...HOWEVER the ending AKA "Ultimate Extinction", was a bit of a let down, for several reasons.
For one thing, we get a big storyline focusing on...Moondragon and Misty Knight??!?!!? Seriously, we have a world-wide threat, and no glimpse of Thor, The Black Widow, The Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, the Wasp or Quicksilver among the Ultimates - and they all could have and should have been lending a hand. How great would a fight between Thor and one of the Surfers have been? Certainly much better than a fight between Marvel D-listers Misty Knight and Moondragon.
Second, we barely see the X-Men, nor do we see half of the fantastic four. And there were plenty of villains for all of these missing heroes (and probably Spider-man too) to fight. One additional issue could have crammed that in and given us more action, both in NYC and in the desert.
Third - while Reed's idea for stopping Galactus was great, the writing of it was horrible. Seriously - a pre-big bang universe is NOT a ball of swirling gas, its a singularity, and Reed would certainly know that. Also, it seems a bit beyond conceited to have the vision say that no civilization among the thousands who have ever faced Galactus have ever defeated him - including races far more advanced than our own - yet Reed, by himself, without help from Tony Stark or Hank Pym or even Doom or Forge - comes up with a weapon to stop him in a matter of days? Really?
I could buy this IF we found out that other races HAD survived...say as with the classic Galactus tale, the surfer and or the Vision's people had struck a deal with Galactus to survive, or like the Skulls for thousands of years in mainstream Marvel, had managed to hide. But I have not gotten to th worst part:
That is the fact that after all of this, we are expected to believe that super-secretive Nick Fury simply GAVE the secret to this super-weapon, one that could theoretically destroy entire solar systems, to the Vision, so that the vision could deliver the specs to any and every civilization that might ever encounter Galactus. Really? You mean none of those civilizations will use such a weapon to conquer and kill others, including perhaps Earth? No Skrull or Kree would not want to use it as revenge? Galactus himself might not send his Surfers to take the information from the Vision? It boggles the imagination to think that SHIELD would just give something like this away and let an alien android leave the planet with it.
Finally, not enough action in the conclusion - which again, could have been solved by involving more Ultimates, X-men, etc in fights against more Surfers and Moondragon clones.
Refreshing look at Galactus This series is a great new look at the fantastic four and the dealings of galactus. It is not like the regular giant coming with the machine storyline thats been done multiple times. It is more like a revamp of the usual characters and tries to put the setting into a semi modern, with a little futuristic vibe. It is an entertaining read.
Ultimate Galactus - a good example of Marvel Sci-Fi done right! It took Marvel a long time to complete this trilogy when it was in comic form, and just as long to finally collect it into one large hardcover edition. I had waited to read any of the series until I got the hardcover. Was it worth the wait? That's difficult to answer. Is any comic worth two years wait to read? I don't know. What I do know is that Mr. Warren Ellis is a great Sci-Fi writer, and I enjoyed this as much as I've enjoyed much of his other Sci-Fi-tinged work. The Ultimate Marvel Universe became my preferred universe of the two Marvel playgrounds long ago. While it features many characters with the same moniker who have similar adventures to the the characters in the "616" universe, the characters and stories in this universe seem more real, less dorky, and more unpredictable. Death is common, continuity is much more cohesive, and the new looks of the characters are usually much better than the originals they are based on.
This storyline introduces many new characters to the Ultimate universe, including the ultimate versions of Vision, Captain Mahr-Vell, the Kree, Silver Surfer, and, of course, Galactus. The new look of Galactus is, in particular, far removed from the origianl, but I liked it and I think new readers will like this version, too. Though the first part of the trilogy has little impact of the overall story and serves as little more than an opportunity for a small battle between a few of the Ultimates and the X-Men, the other parts of the story are very fresh and interesting and a compelling read. The artwork by Steve McNiven is the best of the artwork supplied by the pencillers for this book, though it is really above average throughout.
Overall, a worthwhile purchase for any fan of the Ultimate universe or of Sci-Fi in general.
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