Ultimate Secret #1 Review

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Reviewer: Tim Sheridan

Written by: Warren Ellis
Penciled by: Steve McNiven
Inked by: Mark Morales
Colored by: Morry Hollowell
Lettered by: Chris Eliopoulos
Production by: James Taveras
Associate Editor: Nick Lowe
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Half the pages here don’t have words on them. That’s a problem right there.

I wanted this book to be good. While I found it’s prequel, “Ultimate Nightmare” to be padded and meandering, I saw it had promise and overall thought it was an alright story. So I was excited about the first issue of it’s sequel here.

So what went wrong? Well a lot.

The art by Steve McNiven is beautiful, and I found it similar to Bryan Hitch, in scope, if not entirely in style. He captures the “widescreen” approach that Ellis is famous for. But while it’s good looking, it’s given too much space. Like I said, there are many pages where nothing happens. It could just be a set up or a reveal, and splash pages have their place, but not every other page. It made me feel cheated.

The writing (when it’s there) is overly heady and dull.

The story is almost nonexistent. There is something that attacks some place and someone has to save everyone.

We see a new hero here, presumably (Ultimate) Captain Marvel, but we don’t really meet him.

On the cover we are promised Iron Man, Thor, Nick Fury, and at least half of the Fantastic Four. We don’t get any of those fine folks. Just some scientists.

I can’t remember the last time I was so let down by so many talented people.