Ultimate Impact: Reborn #1: Loot Boxes of Origin

Over two years ago, the Maker created a brand new universe in his own twisted image. Miles Morales refused a spot in this twisted land, but was forced to reconsider when his baby sister Billie was pulled into this new Ultimate Universe. Miles crossed the multiverse to save her, and the siblings returned along with a collection of Maker’s mysterious “origin boxes” which contain the powers of variants of known 616 heroes and villains that the Maker stole for his own ends. When Miles’ journey to bring the boxes to Tony Stark is interrupted by the Spot, the fallout of their battle will put the world on the path to Armageddon.

While last year’s Ultimate Incursion didn’t quite live up to expectations, it’s the end of the event that served as the main talking point as well as lead-in to this book. This book serves as something as a prequel to the recently ended Wolverine: Weapons of Armageddon, as the opening of one of the boxes was referenced in the first issue of that book. Though while Weapons of Armageddon mostly served as set-up for Colton’s role in Armageddon, Reborn is more focused on everything else that will no doubt play a factor in Ross’ ascension, notably the inheritors of the origin boxes. To that end, this issue ends up being a very solid introduction to these new characters.

Despite my misgivings about the latter half of his Ultimate Wolverine book, Chris Condon tells an entertaining story that does a good job of introducing its unique cast. Hosticulus is a bit one-note to start, but everyone else has a bit more meat to them that will no doubt get explored as the story wears on. Miles is written well and his banter with Spot is fun reminiscent of their encounter in the Across the Spider-Verse film.

Stefano Caselli’s art speaks for itself, so there is no surprise that his stellar work continues in this book. The fight between Miles and Spot was well choreographed and the scenes where each of the new characters open their boxes is punctuated with no dialogue and just lets the art speak for itself.