Ultimate Endgame #3: A Bloodstained Farewell to My Love (SPOILER WARNING!)

Time has run out. The two years of “peace” have passed. The Maker has returned, and the Ultimates and their allies THOUGHT they were prepared, but we all know the saying about best laid plans. With battles raging all over the planet, the Endgame is finally here. 

As the Maker continues to bear down on the heroes in the city, victory gets further and further out of reach. Forces continue to converge in and outside of the Dome, but hope remains in short supply. When one hero falls during battle, things truly seem lost. 

SPOILERS AHEAD!!! DON’T SAY WE DIDN’T WARN YOU!

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A lot happens in this issue, as a result it’s kind of hard to focus my thoughts completely. Overall, this is still a good comic, but it feels like it is a tad unfocused. Ripping the band-aid off immediately, Peter Parker dies in this issue, killed when the Maker takes over his picotech suit and turns into the 6160 version of Carnage. With that shocking development, you’d expect a bulk of the issue to focus on Peter. In a sense it sort of does. The opening narration boxes are the start of a letter Peter wrote to MJ sometime before leaving with Tony, and the last page is the letter in full (which is beautifully written), but the in-between plays out as normal. There is no special insight on what Peter is thinking as he fights the impossible, just somewhat frenzied banter between him and Venom. As such Peter kind of feels like he’s just there. Perhaps that is the point as Maker gloats that him choosing first to stop Peter from getting his powers was nothing more than a whim. That being said the moment still lacks the emotional weight it could have had, not for lack of trying though because there are some genuine moments here, like MJ’s scene at the end of the book when she realizes her husband is gone, and Ben and Jonah’s conversation with Vision. Even Peter has one last moment of defiance when he tells Maker to F off before he is killed. One of the best moments is when the X-Men arrive in Latveria to fight the enemies outside of the dome and are saved by Kilmonger (which results in a fun fangirling moment for Maystorm). It’s good to see the girls actively engaged in the plot after their series concluded. Outside of this, other plot points like the return and unmasking of Kang as well as Doom’s continued mental breakdown fight for screentime with everything else happening. 

Camp is still very much capable of keeping these elements all compelling, but it feels just a bit too much to juggle in this issue. Attention divided against so many different elements, it becomes hard to get a bead on the events in the end. Kang’s message, the X-Men and Killmonger’s arrival in Latveria, Doom’s hallucination, and Peter’s death all clash and it’s not always pretty, but it is effective enough in the end to stick it’s landing. 

Terry Dodson’s art remains strong, but special attention goes to Jonas Scharf who does their best work in the series so far with this issue. A lot of scenes are visually striking, notably the birth of Carnage and the arrival of Kang, both of which are highlighted by Edgar Delgado’s muted colors. On Dodson’s end the fight with the X-Men, while brief, is very energetic and fun.