Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #3 (*****)
This was the best issue of Ultimate Spider-Man in a long time. This series has been a bit disappointing lately with the new Venom arc, but this was a refreshing return to greatness. I’m sad that Mark Brooks wasn’t providing the art. I actually thought that Brooks would have made a better replacement for Bagley. Lafuente does a decent job though. He has a super cartoony style that mostly works well here due to the large quantity of laughs. That’s right folks! USM is hilarious again! That’s what was so great about this issue. It wasn’t the action or the new Ultimate character (It’s a villain. I won’t give away any more. It will remain a mystery until you read it), it was the high-dose of laughter and those oh so lovable teen moments. Peter and MJ talk about sex (There I spoiled something, happy?)! Hey! What did this have to do with Ultimatum? Unless that new villain is the reason, I have no idea why this was an Ultimatum tie-in. Oh and I loved that moment when the girl dressed as 616 Spider-Woman screams “Embrace change! Embrace change!” So awesome!
Ultimate Captain America Annual #1 (***1/2)
I don’t know, but I think Ultimatum might actually be pretty cool. First off, this is such an awesome teaser.
C’mon! How can you not be excited after seeing that!? Anyway, this wasn’t really a Captain America comic. It was really about Black Panther. It’s pretty much his origin and then it explains how he got to Ultimates 3 and such. I don’t know if Loeb just had to get his bearings or if it really was intentional that most of Ultimates 3 seemed so off. At first, it was like Loeb had never read an Ultimates book, but in the last installment of Ultimates 3 and again in this issue, you can tell the man knows his stuff. Continuity is thrown at us in a totally accessible way. I rarely get to see Marko Djurdjevic on interiors, but he provides some stunning work here. There is also a new Ultimate character and the usual Loeb humor (Fury uses a Hulk cutout shooting target. Ha!). This comic is mostly about explanation, but it does plant some seeds that I’m sure we’ll see pop up like daisies soon.
read/RANT! 
for all the hype, the Spidey annual was a HUGE let down. i’m not saying i want them to have sex, but i don’t feel like this issue really moved their relationship forward. i mean, all we basically got was MJ and Peter acknowledging their NATURAL TEENAGE URGES! DUH! did we need an entire annual for this? where the #### was the sub-plot development?
…it was still a fine issue, and everything you said holds true, but the HYPE, man! enough with the ####ing HYPE!
Not buying Ultimatum. I think the exact words that come to mind are “fuck Jeph Loeb.”
Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Though that teaser is indeed supremely badass. I just wish someone else were writing it.
@Billy: I’m sorry about the hype man! You know how we do the five stars. Enjoyment!
Plus, I didn’t talk about the sex thing too much anyway. I just laughed a lot, more than I have in a long time with USM. So I was happy about that.
Plus, I do think this was the best USM issue in awhile. I could be forgetting something though.
Plus again, my opinion seems to be going easy on Bendis right now because I’ve been so disappointed with almost all his work for like a year.
So because of all that, I gave it five stars and I brought the “hype”.
no, i wasn’t calling you out about over-hyping it… i was speaking of the ridiculous Marvel and Bendis hype on this book. sorry for the confusion.
Oh ok. You said “the HYPE, man!” I thought I was the man. 😉
Have they been heavy with the hype? Lousy Millar! (Millar gets blamed for all hype)