Secret Wars: Ultimate End #3

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Artist: Mark Bagley

Overview:

In the last few issues, Brian Bendis tries his best to illustrate on how two different universes (616 and Ultimate) coexists in Manhattan. Both worlds are trying to figure out what the hell is going on, and so are readers in the past few issues. So what's been happening in Ultimate End? First, Thors killed off Hawkeye for his insolence (Bendis wants Barton dead no matter what). Parker finds out that the Ultimate world knows his secret identity and tries to cope with it. Lastly, the 616 Hulk takes on his Ultimate counterpart and accidentally destroys Ryker's Island, which releases all the prisoners including the Ultimate Punisher. Not much of a story, but that's Bendis for you. But on the flip side, the interactions between characters has been good. Bagley's artwork has been okay; there hasn't been any wow moments with his art. It has it's good and bad parts.

Synopsis:

The story starts off with the 616 and 1610 team interrogating 616 Bruce Banner. Nick Fury goes off like Samuel L. Jackson and rants about the destruction of the Hulks to Banner. Banner is begging for forgiveness and offers his help, but Nick Fury is hell bent on arresting Banner. Stark believes the Hulk ordeal wasn't Banners fault (well, kind of).

Banner gives them his recollection of what happened. Earlier in his Doc Green form, Banner is in his lab to see if he can find a solution to what's going on between the universes, then suddenly his Ultimate version finds him. Ultimate Banner starts to become a self-pitied man like he did in Ultimates. 616 Banner tries to reassure that everything will be fine, and even asks his Ultimate version for help; but, Ultimate Banner continues to act like a drama queen, which irritates 616 Banner and calls his Ultimate counterpart a coward. Both of them Hulk out, and a fight ensues. They fight until Savage Hulk knocks Ultimate Hulk into the sea.

After hearing all this, Fury and Stark continues to argue about Banner's innocence, but in the end everyone agrees to keep Banner chained up at the Triskelion.

Meanwhile, Ultimate Frank Castle visits one of his safe houses and gathers equipment for himself. Suddenly, his 616 version appears and points a gun at him. Both of them have a stand off, then the Ultimate Punisher manages to throw a knife and kill his 616 version (seriously, if he had a gun and killed his 616 version like Han Solo, I'd let that slide. But a knife Bendis? A KNIFE?). Then Ultimate Punisher has a mental breakdown….for reasons.

Later, Bombshell takes on the Wrecking Crew along the streets of Brooklyn. She appears to be losing, but then the Wrecking Crew is all shot down (pretty sure some of them are bulletproof Bendis). It turns out that Ultimate Punisher killed off the Wrecking Crew and sets his cross hairs at Bombshell (because “This is the only way it could end”, no Bendis, it wasn't).

Back at the Triskelion, two scientists are trying the measure the gamma levels in 616 Banner, then a power outage occurs. When the powers are back on, Banner is gone. It turns out that Stark created the power outage, and sent his suit to rescue Banner. Both agree that they must figure out what is happening with their universe and how they are going to fix it.

Review:

Here's my thoughts for this entire series so far….

So why in the world am I reviewing this stale Secret Wars tie-in? I'm interested on how Bendis will actually “end” the Ultimate universe. I also want to see how bad he does it; comparing it to Jeph Loeb's Ultimatum, yep I went there. As for the plot and characterization, I don't know if Bendis was trying to make Fury go full Sam Jackson because as Fury was ranting I was reading the dialogue with Jackson's voice in my head. This is just a minor nitpick; there wasn't a clear explanation on how Doc Green's facial hair appeared then suddenly disappears when turning into Savage Hulk. The creative team did not do a great job on the interaction between the Frank Castles. 616 Frank gets killed off by a freaking knife? That whole sequence felt anti-climatic and was prematurely written. I think Bendis is possibly trying to recreate a “Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe” for the Ultimate universe, which he's doing a mediocre job after seeing the characterization of Ultimate Punisher. Not only do I think Punisher is being handled poorly, the entire cast of Marvel characters Bendis has at his disposal is handled poorly. The writers has a handful of characters to work with, but it seems like they a) don't know how to use them or b) don't even bother to utilize them. It'll be interesting on how things will play out in Ultimate End, but it definitely is not an essential read for the Secret Wars event.