Ultimates #18: Wake Up!

From the very beginning, Ultimates has been a book with something to say, but never has the message been louder and more clear than it has been these past three issues. The revolution might not have been televised, but it has always been building, and now the Ultimates are making their boldest move yet for the entire world to see. Tony reveals every dirty thing that the Maker’s Council have done to poison the world, and the world starts to fight back in kind.

With everything that’s happened in America this past year, it’s hard to detangle Ultimates‘ narrative from what’s going on just outside our windows. Of course there is no real overlord who created an alternate universe by hand and stole away the powers of super heroes before they could claim them, but that feeling of helplessness as well as the spread of propaganda that pulls your gaze from the truth is all too familiar these days. In order to rise, you must know how it feels to fall and no one has fallen more than the Ultimates. Now is the time to bring the rest of the world up with them. 

I’m a broken record at this point when it comes to extolling the highlights of Deniz Camp’s writing each passing month, but it’s only because he continues to outdo himself each and every time. The story is framed as if we are one with the world at large, a simultaneous moment in time that serves as a call to action in the grandest way possible. Camp understands these characters and turns them into people that are flawed, but also endlessly inspiring. You want to see them win and wake the world, which is the one of the best things this story can accomplish. Because of the Maker, people who were once good were forced to do bad things. It’s only fair that they do bad things to everything the Maker has tried to create. 

Juan Frigeri wonderfully illustrates each panel of this issue as a snapshot in time across the entire planet. Showing the reactions of the council members, Nick Fury, and even the other heroes across the Ultimate Universe that have had their own trials to endure under Maker’s rule. There are also splashes of violence throughout as the people begin to wake from their slumber and rebel against their oppressors.