New Ultimate Edit Week 1: Day Six
March 12th, 2010 by Gavok | Tags: black panther, captain america, frank cho, iron man, jeph loeb, ka-zar, ms marvel, new ultimates, shanna the she-devil, ultimate edit, ultimates, zardaYesterday’s adventure involved Thor having the mistress of the afterlife take care of his hammer. Then Tony Stark and Carol Danvers started going for the jugular. Let’s continue on with that.
This was one of the more difficult Ultimate Edit installments to write based on the matter of what we were critiquing. Back when we first started doing these, we laid down some ground rules and made certain things off-limits. The main one being Jeph Loeb’s personal tragedies relating to his son, Sam. The whole point here is never to make fun of Jeph Loeb the person (who I’ve heard from many is a genuinely nice guy), but of his writing.
A lot of Jeph Loeb’s writing has become very much Sam-based, and that is completely understandable. Captain America: Lost Son was more than anything Jeph’s attempt to come to terms with his son’s passing. It wasn’t my cup of tea, but I respected what he was doing. He would continue to make minor references to his son in his work, which was fine, but it’s become more and more apparent that it’s something he can’t push himself past. Most of his work revolves around it, basing the adventures on father/son relationships and the grief related to it. Hell, look at why Magneto killed everyone in Ultimatum.
For those who haven’t read the original, the Iron Man narration boxes tell the story about how Tony Stark met a young boy named Sam in a hospital who was dealing with cancer. It was the boy’s horrible experiences and eventual death that inspired Tony to become Iron Man and create the Ultimates. The whole overuse of Sam is beginning to dilute the message and the seriousness of it all, at least in my eyes. It makes me think of when Puff Daddy used to talk about Biggie Smalls so much that on one skit show, Jamie Foxx (I think) played the role of Puffy and would randomly start pointing up and yelling about Biggie. The crowd laughed pretty hard at this, showing that the whole thing has resorted to becoming self-parody. It’s disheartening to see that this is the direction Jeph Loeb has been leading into.
It’s a touchy subject, but I wanted to get it off my chest.
Enough about the serious stuff. Let’s move to stupid stuff, like Farmville.
Thanks to ManiacClown, who spent WAAAAY too long working on that Farmville image. Join us next time as the big villain shows up and more sex is had. No, not by the villain. Maybe in the next issue.
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It’s Biggie >:|
lol I was gonna say!
Hmm. I’m not sure the “wedgie” panel works, because you can see her right hand on his shoulder.
@david brothers: My bad. I’ll fix it in a bit.
@Joe England: She’s working her way down. And according to the next panel, Cap certainly needs it.
Seriously, I spent 8 damn hours doing that hay bale art. I leveled twice just from buying so many hay bales, and it took me to level 59. At least if I replace it with the HYDRA logo, I’ve already got the circle (the largest time sink) blocked out.
Would it be better if Sam was like Courtney Whitmore, a more-or-less living memory of his son that will be part of a larger universe, where he can grow and have adventures as long as the company survives? Could Sam be the Ultimate Bucky? Or would that be too much?
I like the sam thing more than the original “I’ve got brain tumour so I’m a superhero” explanation.
my two cents.