Writer Michel Fiffe

Artist Amilcar Pinna

Color Artist Nolan Woodard

Letterer VC’s Clayton Cowles

Pinna just keeps getting better!

West Side Church.  I really like the use of captions in this issue (and the series) there are a lot of characters and it helps keep everyone straight!

Spider-Man is fighting the Serpent Skull Leader,Crossbones.  He foolishly saves Crossbones life and gets punched in the face, as thanks.

Bombshell is just going around wrecking the place.  She has finally snapped out of Diamondback’s poison and now wants to snap her neck.  Rightfully so, she killed Bombshell’s boyfriend.  Well, ordered his death but that guy was later killed, so next best thing.

Sidewinder moves Diamondback out of the way.  The entire church is starting to crumble around them.

Oh that Ultimate Shadowcat, knows how to be sassy in a middle of a fight!

Black Widow, we learn, is the leader of the Ultimates.  I imagine Kitty is Deputy Leader or something like that.

Cloak and Dagger are fighting side by side against Death Adder.

Those cops, that I’m pretty sure we are suppose to care about, show up.  I just want more team interaction, so anyone who isn’t the team or in the same panel as the team, doesn’t hold my interest.

Scourge, the bloodthirsty vigilante, shows up, he’s ready to deal out justice!  Back when it was popular to guess at who the next character who was going to get the Ultimate treatment will be, I use to say Scourge and Deadpool.  I thought they both could serve the same purpose and this way, they can introduce lesser known characters into the Ultimate Universe, as they kill them off.  At least they made it in!

Scourge kicks a door down and starts killing fools with a minigun out of Fallout 3.  I got the initial impression that he was in a different location than the church.

Bombshell is still pursuing Diamondback.  Serpent Skull members start surrounding Bombshell, which doesn’t seem to be smart with a character who has shown a willingness to end this, permanently, and her power is to blow things up.

Kitty shows up behind her and phases the two of them away from the falling debris.  I can’t tell if Kitty knows why Bombshell is freaking out, I believe it is implied but I’m not sure when that conversation would have happened.  I like how Bombshell doesn’t want a speech and Kitty wasn’t going to offer one.

I really like how Pinna has laid out the comic so that for the past two pages and the next several, Scourge owns the bottom panel, and it gets larger as he becomes the focus of the page.

Cloak informs the team that as the fire gets worst, they have less opponents.  Kitty wants to be teleported out but Cloak wants to gather everyone first.  Which is smart, he wants to just do one big leap.

Spider-Man and Crossbones have moved their fight outside.  Crossbones gets to punch Spider-Man’s face again, finally shutting him up.

Black Widow is punching thugs with both hands!  We get the first panel to confirm that Scourge is actually in the church at the same time.  I didn’t think it was that big of a church but it must be.

The cops finally come inside as Scourge stabs a dude.  He runs off and sees Crossbones and just straight up stabs him to his chest.  Maybe right below his heart.

Underneath the Westside Church, Crossbones goes into the sewers to get away.  Probably not the best place to go with an open wound.

Spider-Man webs up Scourge.  Not how I would thank a guy who just saved me but I’m not a teenage hero in a half shell.

Bombshell catches up to Diamondback, again, and starts revving up her powers.  She starts bringing the church down around her.

Cloak tries to absorb all of the fire into his dark dimension.

Kitty tries to tell Bombshell that it is over.

The cops decide that they will not pursue the teen heroes.  They make it seem like they are doing the Ultimates a favor.  The team starts running across rooftops.

It finally dons on Spider-Man that it was Diamondback who is responsible for Poey’s death.  Such a weird name of a character.  Who is he, Garfield?

Issue ends with Kitty hugging Bombshell, she tells her that Poey knew Laura loved him, even if she never got to say it.

Writer Michel Fiffe

Artist Amilcar Pinna

Colorist Nolan Woodard

Letterer VC’s Clayton Cowles

Somehow I missed posting this!  My system must have a hole in it as I can’t figure out how I missed it.

I really like the cover design, there are some fun touches!  Kitty is on a towel with a slew of Xs on it.  Jessica has a spider web motif bathing suit.  Dagger has a miniature dagger on her bikini top.  I do feel bad that Bombshell doesn’t have a defining motif besides the coloring – but she’s still a new character.  A fun thing additional could have been #*(@& which is often shown as censored profanity as that’s how I first met the character, she had a bit of a foul mouth.  But I haven’t seen that side of her in this title, so maybe she matured out of swearing, just to do it.

I reread issue two and I can confirm now that the design of Bombshell’s bikini is the same as the design on her hero costume’s legs.  It would have been nice if she donned her costume in this issue.  Now that I notice her bikini / costume connection, Kitty and Jessica’s fall under that too.  Kitty wearing all white, just like she did in Ultimate Comics X-Men and Jessica in black and red, just like her costume.  Jessica also has a spider on her mobile phone.

What I am getting at is, a lot of thought clearly went into this cover.

This is also a cover, I tried to make sure my wife didn’t see.

The beach issue!  Pinna’s art really picked up this issue, which I’m not sure if that is due to the ladies being in bikinis – I would like to think it isn’t – but it is better.

Off the west side highway.  This opens with the not-so-dead cop who is now a reptile.  He falls into the sewer.  I really have no interest in the villains of this series – thus far.

Coney Island Arcade.  Kitty and Bombshell are playing air hockey.  I do love me some air hockey.

Jessica is watching Dagger play a shooting game.  I am lucky that Kitty has long hair and Jessica short, as I am not sure if I would be able to tell them apart.

Kitty lies to a couple that she isn’t who they think she is.  She still doesn’t want the public’s love and admiration for saving the planet.

The ladies see a police officer arrest a guy.  Dagger feels bad for taking a day off from heroics.

I sort of like how Lana is the team joker, she has a wicked tongue.

Dagger calls Lana, Baumgartner, which I originally thought was a new slang term today’s youth was using.  Turns out, that is just Bombshell’s last name.  Dagger’s name is Tandy Bowen.  Since they are out of costume, I should use their real names.

Kitty mentions, Iceman, which is this title’s first reference to the X-Men.  Do they still exist?  Does Utopia still stands?  Has Colossus stepped down and elections for their next leader happened?

With the announcement that Ultimate FF (Future Foundation) being cancelled with issue six – and this title ending at twelve, who knows if we will get answers to those questions?  Regarding the rumors of this title ending, I am not surprised.  Previous Ultimates runs have ended when the creative team was done.  I am sure they will just relaunch it again with the same cast of characters but with a new creative team.

The ladies take off their sun dresses, except for Tandy – her’s apparently can be swim in.  I like how Jessica is in a one piece swimsuit and Kitty is in a sensible bikini.  Lana’s bikini is the only one that is overly showy, but she strikes me as a lady who is full of confidence.

Two loser guys show up with lame pick up lines and Lana dismisses them, promptly.

Tandy talks about how it is a shame the boys couldn’t make it to the beach. Which transitions us to those two.

Westside Church.  Cloak teleports two trespassers to the street.  An older guy is tired of heroes being above the law and starts shouting at Cloak.

Spider-Man and his pal, Ganke, are webslinging to a film.  Miles is apparently dating a gal named, Katie.  She knows he is Spider-Man.  He wants to know if he should tell her that the Serpent Skull leader kised him.  Ganke doesn’t believe he should.  It didn’t mean anything.  If it was me, I would have called my wife seconds after it happened.

Spider-Man has to refill his web-shooters.  I don’t quite get what he webbed to the wall.  Is that how his webbing refills?  He surrounds the cartage with webbing and it soaks it up?  So confused by that visual and what is in the middle of the webbing.

Back at the beach, Lana wants to get to know her team a little better.  We get confirmation that Tandy and Ty (Cloak) are officially dating.  They have been through some stuff together.  Lana asks if they do like … like, which I can only guess she is asking if they have had sex.  Tandy answers with a “I wouldn’t know, at least not without powers.”  I echo Lana’s, whuuut.  What does that mean?  That when they combine their powers, that that is like a sexual release?

Kitty sees where this line of questioning is going.  Lana turns her attention to Kitty and asks if she ever got with an X-Man.  As far as I know, she only dated Iceman to disastrous results.  We know she was at least sleeping with Jimmy at Utopia, but not sure if they were sexual.  I doubt it as we never even saw them kiss.  Also, I’m pretty sure Peter Parker died a virgin as Ultimate Spider-Man Annual 3 dealt with him and Mary Jane and the whole ‘sex’ issue.  He told Mary Jane that he and Kitty never did it.

Kitty just tells Lana that it is none of her business.

Lana turns to Jessica next.

Jessica isn’t sure how to answer.  Kitty tells her that Jessica doesn’t have to.  Tandy doesn’t know what the big deal is.  Kitty tells Tandy that they are all not as forth coming as Tandy is.  To which, Tandy starts to call Kitty a b– and Jessica reveals that she is a clone of Peter Parker, Spider-Man.  I love Pinna’s decision to have her roll her eyes so hard.  I would also hate having to explain my origin if I was in her shoes.

We do get treated her a one sentence origin for Jessica – which I’m always a fan of a character having to sum of their origin in as few words as possible.  “I was literally made to be a government super-solider by Doctor Octopus and the government a few years ago.”

Jessica goes into issues with self identity that I have wondered about clones for a while.  It is especially harder for poor Jessica, being the different gender of who she is a clone of.  She has Peter’s memories and feelings in her head.

The main take away from the issue is Jessica revealing that not only she is a clone of Peter Parker but that she is attracted to the ladies.

As I was reading it, I was thinking – good for you Jessica, owning your sexuality!  Then I read her types.

So red head and Jewish gals.  So it is still Peter Parker’s attractions that she now is feeling.  But like she states, if she can’t shake those thoughts then they must be hers.

I do like how none of the gals try to cover themselves up, now that they may have a lesbian amongst them.  That is very mature of them and they handle it as great as one would always hope people will handle such news of coming out.  Those are good friends.

The only time she has had any romantic anything with a boy was Ultimate Comics Spider-Man issue nine when Human Torch forced a kiss on her.  The dirt bag. It was probably the first time she had to even have the thought about him.  Though we are not really shown them kissing, Johnny just tells Peter that it happened.

Lana gets a call from her boyfriend Poey.  He sounds super depress and she leaves the gang to check on him.

We see someone shoot Poey with a gun through a mango.  Which seems more like a movie thing to do than something that a person would in RL.

Next, we get two pages of two panels each (for four panels) of solo Serpent Skull gang members taking out entire groups of competing gangs.  Sidewinder vs. the Zombies in Lower East Side.  Anaconda vs. the Wolfpack in the Bronx.  Black Racer vs. Supreme Soviets in the Meatpacking District.  Death Adder vs. the Nastyboys in Harlem.

I’m glad we only got these pages and not an entire issue committed to these fights.

Lana gets to Poey’s house.  Now that I am looking for it, her skirt is her costume theme, with the black and pink stripes.

The second she finds his body, she gets glitter thrown in her face.  She is frozen in place as the Serpent Skulls unfold their plan to her.

I feel so bad for Bombshell.  Her boyfriend, Poey, is murdered and now she is going to be used by the Serpent Skulls as the tool that destroys the team.

I do like how that female leader of the gang straight up killed that would-be-rapist.  Good for her!  That’s a gang leader, I can get behind!

I was going to post Poey’s chronological appearances, to see how big of a character he was.  Neither comicbookdb or the Marvel Database has pages for the character.  I suppose they never will now.  I just know he was in this issue, the previous issue and apparently in All New Spider-Man 26.

Poor Poey, didn’t have much of an impact.  He was Lana’s boyfriend, so he mattered to her but that’s the extent of it.

Writer Michael Fiffe

Artist Amilcar Pinna

Color Artist Nolan Woodard

Letterer VC’s Clayton Cowles

I’m starting to really like how when the Penciler / Inker is the same person, Marvel seems to be changing Colorist to Color Artist.  I recognize them doing it and I enjoy it.

Last issue, Jessica got poison towards the end of the issue.  This issue opens with Kitty finding a doctor who helps former SHIELD agents and cures Jessica.  I sort of love how easy and simple this solution is!  Of course they can just fix her, it is a comic.  There is no need to drag that subplot out for issues upon issues.

 As the two ladies are looking for a taxi, I recognize something about Pinna’s art style that I wish I didn’t.  He draws people’s irises pretty large.  Like their eyes are nearly full and then their eyes take up 30 percent of their faces.  I’m sure I’m exaggerating but now I can’t notice how big their eyes are.  It isn’t anime eyes, as that I would recognize and move on.  It just seems like cartoon eyes in a comic that I’m not use too.

After school.  Blocks away from Laguardia High.  A group of teenage girls, including Lana – are talking about what to do next.  I didn’t recognize Lana – at all.  Even after she mentions Poey.  Which should have been a dead give away.  I thought it was suppose to be like the Ultimate version of Lana Lang or something.  Which is odd as I’m not much of a Superman fan and I haven’t thought of Smallville in forever.

Lana is going to see her boyfriend, Poey.  We see that in the shadows that Spider-Man is watching.  Which I like how subtle his costume looks in the shadows.  It really is a pretty sweet costume that Miles has.

Lana gets to Poey’s place and we learn that he is selling drugs for his uncle.  She wants to go to the meet site.  Spider-Man has followed her there.  Poey eventually agrees to take her.  She mentions her mother being in jail and it dawns on me that this may actually be Bombshell.

There is a scene with the cops and it makes me realize that I have no interest in the cops nor Serpent Skulls.  I believe it is due to how much I don’t know the team themselves so more characters don’t attract me.  They distract and deny me what I really want, more team interactions.

Jessica and Kitty are in their uniforms and they come across Scourge spray painting a wall.  They chase him, he tries to shoot them.  We get Pinna doing that fade effect that I loved from the previous issue as Spider-Woman jumps over a dumpster and lands.  She isn’t wearing that brown jacket so the costume looks somewhat okay.

I called her Spider-Woman but she really is going by Black Widow – I have to watch for that.  She tells Shadowcat to call the rest of the team.

In classic early 24 where Jack Bauer forgot to turn off his cell phone, Spider-Man does the same.  So a room full of drug dealers start shooting at him as his phone wasn’t on vibrate, at the very least.  Bombshell takes advantage of the distraction to start using her power as no one is watching her.

Shadowcat gives chase to Scourge.  Cloak and Dagger show up.  I really like the light trim on Cloak’s … cloak.  It really breaks up the darkness and is a simple yet superb addition to his costume.  Proper Marvel Universe Cloak needs to be told about this!

Scourge gives them the slip and the team has to regroup and be humble by the not-so-victory.

Spider-Man is webbing drug dealers.  The leader of the Serpent Skulls gets knocked out by him and Poey doesn’t notice that his girlfriend has hand blasting powers.  Lana and Poey take off, leaving Spider-Man to wait for the police.  I’m sure once they get there, he’s just going to swing away as the New York City Police do not like superheroes now that SHIELD isn’t covering for them.

Thanks to my good pal, Kaiolino, for screen capping Kitty’s newest costume!  He nailed it on the head with how it looks just like the Generation X uniforms they used way back in 2000!  Minus the flair.  She needs a belt, at the very least.

So now both Kitty and Jessica both seriously need new uniforms, right after getting new ones!

From Generation X issue 62 – even Monet couldn’t pull it off!

Cover by Terry and Rachel Dodson

The team regroups and laugh about how they are not quite there as a team yet.  They also joke about how a superhero is dating a drug dealer.  I could go for a full issue of just them as a team, hanging out!

Bombshell and Spider-Man were working as a team the entire time, she’s a double agent!

Black Widow apologizes to Bombshell, she really wants them to be friends.

I think my problem with Pinna’s eyes are that with brown eyes, I don’t notice it, its Jessica’s green eyes that pop with Woodard’s coloring and so I’m noticing the bigness.

I also really like how dense this comic is.  Not even six pages into it, do I have the thought that I’m reading a modern Claremont comic.  Fiffe gets a bunch of dialogue into this comic and I love how it took me actual time to read this issue.  I could go for more of this.  Fiffe also lets Pinna do what he does best and also leaves the art to speak for itself at times.  They really are a great team together!

Writer Michel Fiffe

Artist Amilcar Pinna

Color Artist Nolan Woodard

Letterer VC’s Clayton Cowles

I wish the cover version of Jessica’s costume was what was used in the issue itself.  Instead the costume is overly blue with a brown jacket.  It is not ideal.  I’m sure that this cover one is coming soon.

I really like the continued use of their logos being used to introduce the characters.

The opening splash page seems to make this title a little more mature than I thought the title would be.  Something about having a dead body with a bullet to the brain, just laying there in the middle of the page.

There are also some old school throwbacks in the issue.  The use of the technique of showing three Daggets, two faded as we watch her fight – leading to the full image of her kicking a guy, I really like.  Harkens back to my days of Spider-Man, as I would follow each faded image as I tracked all of his jumping around the page.  Great way to show motion and momentum.

Rocket Raccoon is being used for a Dr Pepper ad.

The issue picks right where the previous one ended.  We are still watching a three way stable fight of – Ultimates v Serpent Skulls v New York City Police Officers.

Diamondback, the Skull commander, fights Spider-Man, eventually kissing him.

Bombshell lands near the dead Styx, freaking out on Death Adder, when he mocks her.

The poice are waiting for reinforcements.

I really like how physical Dagger gets.  Lots of hand to hand fighting.

Black Racer stabs Jessica with a needle full of the Skull’s drug.

The reinforcements finally get there, they get in front of their respective pees and open fire on everyone else.

The Ultimates jump through Cloak’s cloak and teleport out of there.

No one is happy with their first outing, once they land on the roof of the church that Cloak and Dagger call home.

Cloak is still recovering from being hit hard.  Bombshell’s powers quit working for a moment, also she has blood on her costume.

Jessica whispers to Spider-Man that he should tell the team about the JJJ thing.  He doesn’t feel now is the right time.  Does J. Jonah Jameson want to support the team?  Financially, I mean.

They keep calling her, Jessica, so I am not sure if she really is going by Black Widow or Spider-Woman.

Bombshell quits the team after getting into an agreement regarding Tony Stark.

Spider-Man asks Jessica about Kitty not being there.  He thought she was joining the team.  Jessica is working on that.

The team goes their seperate ways, promising to meet up next week.

Dr. Stone is walking away from the battleground when the homeless man from last issue kills him.  At first, I thought this was Ultimate Chameleon but it is Ultimate Scourge.  I only know of the one who appeared in Thunderbolts, back in the day.  That guy was the third to use the name.

Ultimate Styx and Stone are dead after only two issues.  That didn’t last long.

We get a scene with the Serpent Skulls.  We learn about their organizational structure.  Crossbones is their leader.  They decide that they are going to start killing all of the other gangs.  They are no longer caring about truces.

I really like the final three pages.  Really great job by Pinna. We pretty much get a montage of various characters as they go about their day.

Before I continue, do young women who live together, walk around in their underwear?  It seems more like one dude writing it so another dude will draw it.  It seems unlikely to me.

Kitty examines Jessica.  Cloak’s powers seem to be enhanced.

To make Jessica feel better, Kitty agrees to join the team.  It doesn’t make Jessica feel better, as she is experiencing a bad trip with the drug.

Scourge is seen killing criminals.  Next issue is titled, Summer of Scourge, so he is being spotlighted.

I am glad Kitty is going to lead the team, they clearly need her.