Shadow and Flame with Magik

Writer Brian Michael Bendis

Penciler Mark Bagley

Inker Andrew Hennessy

Colorist Jason Keith

Letterer VC’s Cory Petit

Issue opens with Kitty coming out of the wreckage of the Triskelion.  She sees Miles and hugs him, surprising him.  I guess she saw a Spider-Manish costume and figured it was okay to hug him.

Reed tells her it is time to grow, she isn’t sure she is ready but then she grows.  It is now time for her to attack Galactus and destroy his machine.

Which is pretty cool to see a giant Kitty fighting Galactus, and not a lame alternate version of him, this is the real Galactus, the one that the Proper Marvel Universe lives in fear of and here is Ultimate Kitty Pryde, harassing him.

Reed gives her this huge speech, which seems nice until you reread it.  It is a giant of a speech, spanning pages.  All of this, done into her ear.  I like how in comics, no one needs to rehearse speeches, all dialogue comes easy to them.

Then we get a classic Floating Heads montage and we get to see how Bagley draws several characters.  The one that really stands out to me is Spider-Woman, the clone of Peter Parker.  I know Kitty and her don’t have much experience with each other but the way she envisions her (if this is Kitty’s vision, at all) looks like a watermelon with the Spider-Woman mask and brown hair coming out of it.  Not very flattering.

Galactus can hurt Kitty, even when she is phasing.  It seems like she is damaging the machines and Galactus does not look thrilled that his plans are being interrupted.

In all of his history (or my history with the character) he hasn’t ever had to fight someone hand to hand before.  He does rely on his blasting powers.

Meanwhile, Reed opens a suitcase and outcomes a floating machine and off it goes.  He tells Sue that Kitty fighting Galactus isn’t the plan, it is the distraction.  Reed came up with the actual plan and Tony came up with motorizing the Negative Zone portal.  The plan is to open the Negative Zone, which is barren in the Ultimate Universe, and trap Galactus in there.  If Kitty gets stuck in there as well, then she knew the price of victory.

Sue doesn’t take this as an option and darts out of to save Kitty as the portal behind Galactus opens.  Miles is along with Sue for the ride.

Kitty shrinks down and Sue and Miles save her.  As Galactus is coming out of the portal, Thor shows up and pushes him farther in.

Unfortunately, so goes Thor.  Tony is telling Reed to not close the portal as Thor will be stuck in there.  Reed gives Tony the same speech about how Kitty knew the dangers, so does Thor.  But does Thor know what the entire plan was?  Or is he there to simply assist as he saw what the immediate solution was?

We see this awesome panel of Galactus’ hand coming out of the portal and Tony realizes that this was there only hope.  They don’t have a second portal and this opportunity will not come again.  Tony agrees to finally let the portal close.  Reed starts telling Tony that that was never the plan.

The portal closes and all we see is giant Galactus and Thor floating about empty space.  I wonder what those two will eventually talk about?

The other heroes are standing around, looking at the destruction of New Jersey and what is left of New York City.  Storm picks up Captain America’s shield.  I still say Cap isn’t dead, as we saw him running towards the exit of the plane before it blew up.  If Survive, the one shot conclusion, shows Cap’s body, then I’ll believe he is dead.  The other heroes are Jean Grey and Jimmy Hudson, so I suppose they made it out of the Cataclysm X-Men mini okay, I only bought and read the first issue.

What was the point of issue three’s “Let’s got the Proper Marvel Universe” as the flashdrive Reed receives doesn’t led to the solution of how to get rid of Galactus.  All it did was name him.  I guess it shows how easy it is for the Ultimate Universe to invade the proper universe.  Reed got to meet the daughter of Reed and Sue, Valeria Richards and that makes him want to be a better person.  Plus the HERBIES attacking Superior Spider-Man and Miles thinking that was Peter under the mask.  Which I suppose it is but it isn’t Peter under the skull.  ooof is that ever confusing!  Comics!

I really like how much Bendis likes Kitty, both the proper and the Ultimate Universe one.  Making her a crucial part of the overall plan.

So Cataclysm didn’t have quite the high death count as Ultimatum had.  From what I read, only New Jersey was destroyed (and everyone living or visiting is surely dead – which is huge! but could be fixed with a time cut, not the lives but the city itself), Pixie died in Cataclysm X-Men mini, and from what I’ve read Punisher, Vision and Captain Marvel died.  They want us to believe Cap is dead and Thor is lost in the Negative Zone but that could be undone easily as well.

I really like how the Survive cover is a homage to the previous Marvel Border Covers, if not much larger than the inch border of the previous ones.  Kitty is dominant in the upper left corner.  Hopefully the issue dress doesn’t block her.  Also, hopefully I get that issue as I didn’t reserve it as when it was solicited, there was no hint what it was even relating too.  I’m for sure on All New Ultimates but Survive is going to be pretty crucial but I’ll have to see what I can do to ensure I get a copy of it.

The Ultimate Universe didn’t end, nor did Galactus, so threats and the universe live on.

For whatever reason, the page for this issue over at comicbookdb still doesn’t have the cover.  I tried adding the above image but it didn’t like it.

I only bought issues two through five, and I could have skipped issue three as Kitty was only on the cover but a completionist is a completionist.