Ultimate Impact: Reborn #3: Still Waiting on That Other Shoe

Hosticulus is on the loose on Earth-616, and he’s quickly gaining the attention of the superhero community. After crossing paths with the Punisher, the would-be conqueror now finds himself in the sights of Iron Man. Elsewhere, Spider-Man is still trying to track down the boxes, while the recipients dive deeper into the new lives they have stumbled into.

Armageddon is well underway, so where this comic fits in the timeline is more than a little wonky. We know this takes place around the same Wolverine: Weapons of Armageddon because events in this series are referenced there, but the rest of the timeline is questionable. This issue slowly expands a bit more on the rest of the Origin Box founders outside of Hosticulus and Boothe, but not too much happens with them. Hosticulus’ fight with Iron Man is painfully short. Stark himself also seems a bit off to say the least. He seems to be more irritated that Miles didn’t answer his phone than he is worried that six boxes of unlimited power found their way into the hands of civilians.

Chris Condon’s script is competent for the most part. Hostiliculus and Boothe are still rather one note, but they are fine for what they are. Some of the other characters are getting more fleshing out so hopefully they will be able to pick up the slack. It’s kind of hard to see what the end goal of this series is right now. Things are happening with very little to tie them together and it feels like Condon at times clearly cares about certain characters more than others.

Stefano Caselli’s art is always good, but it feels a bit constrained so far. The truncated length of Hosticulus and Iron Man’s fight kind of robbed the art of what it could be, but there are a few good panels and pages to be found here.