3 out of 5

I’m not sure if these issues should be grouped together or read as one-shots, but the contents aren’t quite defined enough to merit individual reviews and enough elements drift over from issue to issue… so here we are.

Fiffe’s Ultimates has been a little weird since the get-go.  I struggled to point to a cause then, whether it was having to jump into an established property, or juggling other Ultimate events happening at the time… but overall, either way, the first arc had some fun art and moved along at a good pace.

We change up the art here for Giannis Milonogiannis, which is a big change – much looser and less detailed but a tight sense of framing (although maybe not what’s depicted in those frames, as action sequences seem rather juddery) – but the style is maybe closer to Fiffe’s own flat style, albeit a million miles away from the inventiveness he brings to his art, and it works well with the ramshackle ethic of our not-very-teamy team.  All-star colorist Jordie Bellaire doesn’t look much like an all-star when paired with Giannis, unfortunately; the artist’s minimal style forces Jordie to use too many flats, and it sometimes looks downright weird when some definition is needed, like on Spider-man’s red-on-black suit.

We also change up the vibe a bit, focusing more on that teen drams the first arc mostly skipped over.  It’s not too noxious, mostly just little nips at each other and some Clock and Dagger nonsense, but the issues feel spectacularly underwhelming with this addition, even though coupled with the multiple old-school references Fiffe tosses in there, we can suspect he’s trying to bring in a similar old-school Marvel sensibility which was pretty much always about teens feeling outta place.  Any modern comic still has plenty of bickering and whatnot, of course, but it’s blanketed in “THIS WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING” banners, whereas Fiffe seems to be reveling in the minor interactions, and then tossing a battle-of-the-issue interaction at us, with Vermin in issue 7, the Femme Fatales in issue 8 (I’m all for non-traditionally drawn women, but I’m a bit confused by the Femmes with their complete lack of female characteristics and complete abundance of full-on pecs… unless that’s meant to be a realistic take on the female bodybuilder type…?), and the Watchdogs in issue 9.

Things are even more scattered than they were before, with even fewer moments to establish our characters, but the books have a zippy pacing that makes them readable, and Giannis’ art is fast-paced if not always clear.  To be clear, there’s nothing bad about these issues that make me consider docking the rating, but they do feel pretty dern inconsequential.  With the book coming to a close the next arc, possibly some of the background pieces Fiffe shifted around here – Scourge, a mystery manipulator – will come to some kind of fruition.