• Written by: Deniz Camp
• Art by: Phil Noto
• Colors by: Phil Noto
• Letters by: VC’s Travis Lanham
• Cover art by: Dike Ruan, Neeraj Menon (cover A)
• Cover price: $4.99
• Release date: September 4, 2024

The Ultimates #4, by Marvel Comics on 9/4/24, uncovers how Earth-6160’s Reed Richards became Doom and the horrific pain he endured under the Maker’s torturous obsession.

---

Is The Ultimates #4 Good?

The Ultimates #4 is both interesting and off-putting. Deniz Camp tries to do something different by writing an interwoven script of plot threads about the downfall of Reed Richards and the abortion of the Fantastic Four, but the novelty of the script forces plot and art to take a back seat.

When last we left the fledgling Avengers in The Ultimates #3, Iron Lad made a deal to bring the She-Hulk, Lejori Joena Zakaria, on board the team if he promised to fix her Gamma-irradiated South Pacific island and save her villagers. The Hulk, a member of the Maker’s Council, wasn’t happy about somebody interfering with one of his experiments.

In The Ultimates #4, Iron Lad and Doom turn their attention toward recreating the Fantastic Four. We see through a co-mingling of different points in the timeline how Reed came to prominence as a young prodigy and how a series of decisions and painful outcomes ruined Reed.

We see how Reed’s dream of unlocking the secrets to the universe by visiting a cosmic storm came to pass, but the results were anything but Fantastic. Reed came away from the experience ruined, Johnny Storm died during the trip, Sue Storm died years later from an aggressive cancer, and Ben Grimm committed suicide.

The Make eventually subjected Reed to mental and physical torture, including the disfigurement of his face. The Maker relentlessly brutalized Reed into submission, forcing him to adopt the Doom persona as some twisted joke.

Now, Iron Lad criticizes Doom for spending too much time trying to recreate the Fantastic Four, while Doom criticizes Iron Lad for not allowing anyone to touch the Immortus Engine and “fix” Time in Earth-6160. The issue ends with Iron Lad leaving Doom alone to continue his experiments.

What’s great about The Ultimates #4? Deniz Camp uses an intriguingly rhythmic narrative structure to inter-splice the snippets of scenes from one time to another by transitioning the scenes through common words and phrases. In video editing terms, each scene starts with a J-cut and ends with an L-cut. To Camp’s credit, the reading flow is unique but not so unique that you can’t follow what’s happening.

What’s not great about The Ultimates #4? The structure and narrative flow are unique, sure, but the story doesn’t do much to further the plot toward the conflict with the Maker, and you don’t get a clear picture of how the Maker is achieving his perfect utopia by taking needless risks. The main premise of the Ultimates is that the Maker prevented the origins of any hero that could challenge his authority in this new universe, but if that’s the case, why is he letting certain characters exist at all? On a single panel on a single page, the art suggests the Maker fiddled with Reed’s calculations, which prevented the known origin of the FF, but the Maker had to know that keeping Reed around could be just as dangerous. If the goal was to eliminate all resistance, why not kill Reed to prevent the very thing he’s doing now – aiding the Ultimate Avengers?

Deniz Camp has the right idea, but the story’s execution is lacking. You can’t help but wonder if the story would have been more complete and satisfying if less time was spent on trying to make an intricately structured script.

How’s the Art? Phil Noto steps in on art duties, presumably to help Camp accomplish his unique narrative structure. Oddly enough, Noto’s art accomplishes what Camp is creating, but the visual experience leans towards boring. Put another way, Noto made Camp’s script work, but Camp’s script cripples the visual pop and creativity, so the art suffered to help the writer. There are probably several lessons in there.

[Author’s Note: Multiple readers have pointed out that there’s a single panel on page 17 that shows the Maker writing on the same marker board where Reed completed his calculations on a previous page, implying that the Maker fiddled with the calculation, and thus, altered the creation of the FF. The review has been updated to note this observation.]

About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

Follow @ComicalOpinions on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter

Final Thoughts

The Ultimates #4 addresses Doom’s attempts to recreate the Ultimate Fantastic Four using a unique narrative structure and storytelling flow. The reading experience is certainly unique but in Deniz Camp’s quest to do “something different,” several plot questions are left unanswered. Likewise, Phil Noto pulls off a minor miracle in making Camp’s script work visually, but the visual pop and creativity suffer as a result.

5.8/10

---

We hope you found this article interesting. Come back for more reviews, previews, and opinions on comics, and don’t forget to follow us on social media: 

Connect With Us Here: Weird Science DC Comics / Weird Science Marvel Comics

If you’re interested in this creator’s works, remember to let your Local Comic Shop know to find more of their work for you. They would appreciate the call, and so would we.

Click here to find your Local Comic Shop: www.ComicShopLocator.com

---

As an Amazon Associate, we earn revenue from qualifying purchases to help fund this site. Links to Blu-Rays, DVDs, Books, Movies, and more contained in this article are affiliate links. Please consider purchasing if you find something interesting, and thank you for your support.