The Ultimates #3 (2024) Review

Background – The team wants to recruit the Hulk but gets more than they bargained for.

Writing –

Iron Lad: Tony’s team is growing, but it’s also obvious that he may be in over his head. He just promised to save someone’s homeland. In secret. Without Bruce Banner finding out. I honestly doubt that’s going to be possible. For one thing that’s a huge undertaking for a ragtag group of heroes. Second of all the issue ends with Bruce Banner declaring that Iron Lad is starting to make him angry. Uh-oh…

Thor and Sif: Thor has finally healed from Captain Britain’s attack but is still not as powerful as he should be (considering he was locked up for hundreds of years that’s to be expected.) He also has a distinct lack of care for mortals. While he doesn’t view them as playthings, it’s very obvious that the extra care 616 Thor places on humanity is absent. He kills a giant lizard without any care in battle and almost kills what I’ll call “The Abomination” before realizing its true nature. As for Sif, it’s clear she harbors immense guilt for her part in Thor’s captivity and that is going to be her driving motivation going forward. I really hope that it’s not her only motivation though.

The Islanders: Exposed to a gamma bomb and cut off from society by sunken radioactive powered ships, the islanders have been mutated beyond recognition. Most of them are completely useless in a war. Except for the Hulk and Lejori that is.

Unlike the other creatures, this Hulk seems to exhibit a more animalistic side, but then again, it’s just a baby, so maybe it’s just protecting its home and people. Abram is its actual name and its true form is a baby. It’s unknown whether Abram is older than he looks. The islanders are stated to be afraid to have children, so just because he’s a baby doesn’t mean he hasn’t been a transforming baby for a long time. He’s stated as having killed his mother in a fit of anger but has yet to realize it.

Lejori is our connection to the island. She was just a young girl when the bombs dropped but has turned into something akin to the She-Hulk. It’s never stated how old she is, but she has grown to be the leader of the island and it’s only capable coherent combatant. She makes Tony promise to save her island and in exchange she’ll fight whoever he wants. I don’t think she’ll be a permanent member of the team just yet, but hopefully we see more of her soon.

Artwork – Creature and monster designs abound in this issue. We get a great looking giant lizard that seems to pass its design down to our Hulk. The Hulk in this issue looks more like the Abomination than anything else. Lejori is a cross between Jennifer Walters grey She-Hulk design, a stereotypical Hawaiian woman, and Bruce’s Hulk. She is far larger than Jennifer, but more communicative in this form than Jen ever was. The other creature designs are gnarly. We have a guy that looks like Hector Hammond, a man with crab claws for arms, and an extremely tall lady with a very rigid neck. But our standout has to be Tara. Her entire body is just her nervous system attached to a brain with eyes. She is missing her entire skin structure, and if it wasn’t so sad it would be awesome.

Final Thoughts – This is where I jump off. It’s not that the idea of a baby Hulk is a bad one, it’s just that this book feels REALLY DEPRESSING. The whole world is screwed, and while Tony Stark wants to save it, I just don’t think it’s going to end up the way he wants to. The designs of these characters are great, but this is supposed to be a book about how the world is saved, not how damn depressing it is.

Final Score 3 out of 5

15 months until Opening Day.

Publisher:  Marvel

Writer:  Deniz Camp

Artist: Juan Frigeri

Colorist artist: Federico Blee

Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham

Cover Artists: Dike Ruan & Neeraj Menon

Genre:  Superhero

Format: Monthly

Release Date: 08/14/2024