While I agree, I still think that Fantastic Four and Spider-man are the best on-going titles that the Ultimate universe have to offer. X-men has been seriously declining with every new writer and that is a serious problem. The book has so much potential and so many issues that could have been dealt with but the hole keeps on being dug deeper and deeper and the stories just get weirder and more ******ed.
USM had some fundamental flaws in the narrative since the beginning, and Bendis never improved upon them because he thought they were clever. Despite that, I enjoyed every arc overall until CARNAGE, and after that they were hit and miss, growing worse and more predictable, until the abomination of comic book pages of the 21st century, Ultimate Clone Saga, happened. That was my last straw.
UFF, I have stuck with. Millar's run there was vastly underrated and far less extreme and dividing as some of his other works. Carey has taken a while to get up to snuff with his stories but has finally gone up to speed. I agree that Ultimate X-Men has been in decline for a while now. Vaughan left the book better than it was when his run began and Kirkman just pooched it. Kirkman's been great on literally everything else he writes, but for Ult. XM, his best is mediocrity.
I enjoyed your summary Dread, but I will add one more thing that has led to Ultimate Universes' decline: lame villains.
Ultimate Magneto is just a one dimensional psychopath, Ultimate Doom is a bum, Ultimate Gobby is a Hulk rip off, etc.
Also Bendis has wasted a ton of villains in USM. Omega Red, Vulture, Sandman, Scorpion, etc were just throw away villains, a total waste. Each of those guys could have had their own arcs, instead they get beaten in less then one issue.
Let's compare that to DCUA, look at how they made villains more interesting, Timm Mr. Freeze was way more interesting than pre 1992 comics Mr. Freeze or look at how they revamped Clock King from scratch.
Millar has done most interesting twists with characters like Cap and Thor, BKV did some interesting revamps of Mr. Sinister and Mojo, but for the most part UU villans have been unimpressive. I didn't mind when Bendis made Shocker into a loser, but Bendis has over played the turning villains into losers card in USM.
I don't know why they didn't just take some D-list villains and make them better in UU. For example Ultimate Trapster could be a guy who makes dangerous death traps, traping heroes and civilians in sadistic traps (a comic book version of the Jigsaw Killer) instead of a guy with glue gun or Ultimate Egghead, could have been a SHIELD scientist who secretly sells classified info to the highest bidder, resulting in an increase in super human crime. heck I thougtht of a million ideas with Ultimate versions of DD's rogues gallery. The fact that Bendis has turned one of the best rogues galleries around into bunch of goobers is quite sad.
I do share this sentiment that a LOT of decent villains were wasted in Ultimate and some others had odd turns. I never liked the "Hulk Goblin" that Bendis created, but I liked his persona. Making Shocker a dweeb ruined his potential and oddly, Bendis made his bread and butter during urban crime stories yet his Ult. Kingpin was essentially a brainless thug until WARRIORS (or the second Annual, essentially). And I agree that Ultimate had a lot of potential with re-imagining many B and C list villains that has been pooched.
But there has been some success, at least for UFF; Diablo was superior here, somewhat, and I liked the take on Psycho Man. Carey is off to a good start with the Red Ghost, and his Mad Thinker wasn't too bad (except for the dialogue that had no spaces in between, THAT crap was annoying). But it depends on the writer and Bendis honestly is hit and miss with villains. Sometimes he is making The Hood into an awesome crime boss. And other times....ninjas. Boring, stale, overused ninjas.
I guess. I haven't read enough Unverse crap to be a judge of that, really.
I usually take crap when I proclaim judgement on stories I haven't "read enough" of. I wouldn't call Ultimate comics overall some timeless prized material, but a lot of it in the beginning at the time was good.
Ultimate Universe seems to be working well as a launchpad for talent.
True, but then when that talent moves to 616, where they CAN'T pick and choose what to follow, CAN'T just use THEIR interpretations of characters, and have to SHARE, they, and by they I really mean Bendis & Millar, have acted like spoiled children, unwilling to adapt.
I will say that Ultimate has provided some ore for video game and movie people for "modern" ideas on some of the franchises that haven't come from Hollywood hacks. I LIKE that someone developing a game or movie has a choice of both 40+ year old 616 comics as well as 7+ year old Ultimate comics, and can mingle the two. It worked well for Raimi.
Still, the line really needs a creative overhaul in this age of reinvestment in 616, and I am not sure yet another event mini will do so. Every one beforehand has underwhelmed. Every. One.
