Ultimate Doooooooom! Not to be confused with Ultimate Dr. Doom, unrelated. Bryan Hitch is here to do interlocking covers to take us home. Same creative team as the “previous 2 miniseries,” and they begin this one by flashing back to show us more of what happened when Sue caught up with Reed (And also Kilowogg from the Green Lanterns and other alien looking guys).
“Reed Richards, the World’s Most Dangerous Incel” is… not a great villain origin. Reed ramps up the incel attacks and begins physical ones until Rick finally steps out of the shadows and says he now sees that this is why he’s here. If Reed really is why Rick was chosen by the Watchers, him being there when it was explained is pretty wacky. He powers up and does a big zap at Reed, but Reed mostly dodges it. However, the big portal Reed was absconding thru is not so lucky, and it turns into a black hole, sucking Reed and his stuff and almost our heroes in, but that’s when Rick makes a portal and zaps them back to the Triskelion. So that catches us up. Time to go to see what befell poor Jessica Drew…
This thing, where a roomful of people are talking, almost to no one in particular, gets more common and more extreme in Bendis’ writing. It start to read like a bunch of standup comedians are in a room doing their tight 5 at the wall at the same time. Within a few years, he’ll be at DC, writing Legion of Superheroes, a comic where dozens of people are doing it at once. I couldn’t make it past the first issue. It was just noise. It was very disappointing.
The good doctor hasn’t appeared since way back in USM 105. Meanwhile. Sue is being rushed into a medical ward in the Triskelion, manned by a rather starstruck doctor, and the Human Torch wants revenge. He’s freaking out so bad he sets off the sprinklers. Rick tries to explain that Reed disappeared through some kind of wormhole before pointing out that he’s only 16 and “doesn’t know what these things are,” which is a really nice little, real human moment. Fury tells Rick to take them to Reed, but Ben tells him to wait, because it’s not looking good in the operating room.
And, you know, “Will Sue dies in surgery??” is a weak cliffhanger in the regular comics, but in the Ultimate Universe, it could actually happen! Look what’s happened already! So that gives things some real oomph they wouldn’t normally have.