Review: 'Ultimate Fallout' #1

By Mark Frankland

Do you want to know something that I just don’t do? Cry. Seriously, name a sad movie that you cried at in the last ten years that made you cry. I have probably watched it and it may have made me sad but I damn sure didn’t cry. Seriously I have watched Up, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, Requiem for a Dream, Stand by Me, Rent and Grave of the Fireflies and not one of them left me reaching for the Kleenex—I can’t say that anymore and it’s because of comics.

And I bet we can all guess which comic I am talking about. Yes, this is a review of the first issue of Ultimate Fallout.

All I am going to say is that this book is the single most emotionally affecting comic book I HAVE EVER READ! Easily beating most of the stuff that I have read and just edging ahead of Magneto Testament as the most likely to reduce someone to tears (seriously a friend of mine who didn’t even like comic books read it and spent an hour crying into a tub of Ben and Jerry’s).

Now I know I am a bit biased when it comes to Ultimate Spiderman. As it’s the best version of my favourite superhero being written and drawn by some of my favourite artists in the industry. BUT the strength of this issue cannot be ignored. The structure of the narrative is that or multiple vignettes of numerous characters from the USM universe from the most obvious characters like Johnny Storm and Mary Jane but also much smaller characters like Flash Thompson and Nick Fury (I know he is a big character in the Ultimate Universe, but for me at least he isn’t that big in USM) and then finally resting on telling Aunt May’s story in the latter half of the issue. And let me tell you, it’s incredible. The writing evokes incredible emotions without betraying the characters to try and make you feel sad (a serious problem that most ‘death’ issues suffer from). When the “hug” scene happened I did something I have never had to do with anything ever and stop to collect myself.

A quiet and powerful page.

Now to the art which, typical of Mark Bagley, is nothing short of incredible. Everything, from the simple yet amazingly affecting faces that he draws to the huge crowd scene, just leaps of the page and makes you very very aware of just how much love has gone into each panel.

Now this isn’t to say that there aren’t problems with this particular issue. For me the Gwen Stacy scene felt hollow and lacked the emotional resonance that the other scenes had in spades. And as weird as this may sound, the issue just ends and there is very little build up to the final and very important last page reveal so I was left somewhat wanting. But I have a feeling that this problem will be done away with once collected. And just as a side note, I think the whole run up, execution and conclusion of Death of Spiderman will be an INCREDIBLE trade.

But at the end of the day all you need to know is that these are two of the best artists in the industry dealing with the death of one of the most loved comic book characters in history with all of the respect and attention to detail that he deserves.

Can you remember when after watching Up all you had to do was to hear the word “book” and you started getting teary eyes now you will have that with the word “hug.”