I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it until it don’t happen any longer, the Marvel Comics Ultimate titles are the best comics out right now. The stories are fresh, gritty, and keeps me wanting more when I’m finished with them.

Right now I just finished reading Ultimate Enemy 4 and Ultimate Spider-Man 11. Both are such a great read that I couldn’t put them down. In fact I read Ultimate Enemy 4 twice. This was the last of the issues of Enemy before it leads into Ultimate Mystery, which by the way it’s a huge mystery as to what’s going on in this title. The Thing is dropping chunks of his rock skin off, some pink monster thing destroying NYC (again, that is not the big pink monster but NYC being destroyed), and Nick Fury being back to take some names and doing some kicking. What got me though in this issue was the one panel of Peter Parker being in the Spider-Man suit in the kitchen of his Aunt Mays home and is about to leave when he hugs Aunt May. We get to see Spider-Mans face on her shoulder and the imagery of his emotions under the mask is intense. I’ve seen Spider-Man drawn sad, happy, mad, confused, and all sorts of other emotions but this was the first time I’ve seen him look scared, small, and lost. This one panel is what made the whole issue for me. I also like how they are making Hawkeye even meaner as the titles progress. It’s looking like he might become that Ultimate Bullseye, at least to me that’s the way it’s looking.

Not to be outdone by the one Spider-Man panel, there is the last pages of the issue. Sue Storm lays it out for Thing and it was not what I was expecting. Though I kind of like how she lets him know how she feels. What I’m confused about though is Reed Richards. He’s supposed to be dead but come on, it’s Reed Richards. There’s no way that he’s dead. His family yes but him I just don’t think so. What I’m thinking is he slipped into some emergency dimension that has him trapped there. But as I said, these titles leave me wanting more and the way it ended with Thing sitting there makes me want July to get here really quickly.

I also said I read Ultimate Spider-Man 11 and I did and it’s also great. Not quite the same impact as issue 10 had on me but it’s got some teeth to it. It looks like even in the Ultimate universe the populace is afraid of mutants and are going to treat them horribly. Worst of all though it’s Kitty Pryde is the one that’s getting targeted by the government and I don’t like that. Then again because of this happening Kitty has been given some different fighting skills and even had her powers evolve some. I thought she was really awesome before but now she’s in a new league that makes her really cool.

Kitty Pryde is not the only cool character in this title, can’t forget about the supporting characters of Johnny Storm, Bobby Drake, Gwen Stacy, and of course Aunt May. Without these characters working together this title would get bland. This is not happening though with the way this issue ended.  Is that bad guy who I think it is? He sure looks like it and if so I’m digging the way his Ultimate image is looking.

However I got to end all the praise I have for these titles and talk about what’s been bugging me. That is the lay out of the comic and panels. Lately the Ultimate titles have been doing the 2 page layout with the panels going from the left page across it to the right page. It’s taking up both pages. One or two like I don’t mind but somehow it feels as if I’m losing some story that could have been put in with the normal one page layout. The panels are larger it seems and are taking up more space on the page. Sure the drawings are larger and look extremely cool, but with the prices of $3.99 a issue I don’t want this sense that I’m now losing some of the story I’m paying for. One thing I’ve also said about Ultimate titles is that they are really fast reads and when you take up more space with larger panels and a different layout, that read goes even faster.

I just recently had a conversation on how much comics cost and how much material we are getting in them. For me I wouldn’t mind the $4 or even $5 cover prices on comics as long as I got enough story to read for my money. Make the issues a 40 page issue every time instead of just when it hits a milestone number or year. And even when that happens there will only be a shorter main story, then some info on some of the characters, and reprinted stories from past issues that normally didn’t sell well when they first came out. If there was a 40 page issue with all new stories in it every time then I wouldn’t have a problem shelling out that $4 and $5 bills for it. Let some fresh, just starting artist and writer fill in the back parts of the issues. This way we get new, fresh stories, and it don’t fell like I’m being ripped off or losing money when I buy the title.

Official Marvel Comics Site: marvel.com/