• Written by: Deniz Camp
• Art by: Chris Allen
• Colors by: Federico Blee
• Letters by: VC’s Travis Lanham
• Cover art by: Dike Ruan, Neeraj Menon
• Cover price: $4.99
• Release date: February 5, 2025

The Ultimates #9, by Marvel Comics on 2/5/25, returns to Earth-6160 to follow the lifelong prison struggles of a wrongly convicted black man destined to become a symbol of Power, Man.

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Is The Ultimates #9 Good?

Recap

When we last left the Ultimate Avengers in The Ultimates #8, they received a visit from the Guardians of the Galaxy of the 61st century to reclaim one of their missing own – America Chavez. America had no recollection of her past affiliations since crash-landing on Earth, so the abrupt reunion resulted in a quick fight and an even quicker reconciliation. The Guardians departed with instructions to call if they should ever be needed in the future.

Plot Synopsis

The Ultimates #9 has nothing to do with the previous issue. Instead, the issue begins by following the life of one Carl Lucas “Luke” Cage. Luke was imprisoned without an explanation or trial. According to his prison counselor, Luke will be out in one year with good behavior.

Of course, Luke’s short-term incarceration doesn’t go as planned. Luke endures years of abuse by the prison guards as he educates and radicalizes himself in the ways of power – in how to wield it and how it’s abused to keep people enslaved. The radicalization is born out explicitly when Luke is seen reading a copy of Soledad Brother, written by a man whose life Luke directly mirrors.

As Luke gets older, he becomes stronger and meaner due to the constant weight-lifting and the prison guard beatings, respectively. One night, a glowing box materializes in Luke’s cell with a holographic message from Iron Lad about returning the power to Luke that should have been his long ago. When Luke opens the box and lays his hands on the sphere inside, he gains the abilities of Power Man.

Luke escapes his cell, gathers his allies, including fellow inmate Danny Rand, and takes over the private prison. Iron Lad soon arrives in person (this story takes place before Tony Stark was put in a coma by Banner, apparently) and welcomes Luke Cage to the Ultimates. In turn, Luke refuses to join the team and instead remains a prisoner to destroy the private prison system from within.

The issue ends with Tony Stark opening his eyes.

First Impressions

For the love of Uatu, why?!? Yes, it’s almost a given that Marvel would position an issue about the Ultimate Power Man to come out in February, but if you’re going to reimagine Luke Cage’s life, why on Earth would Deniz Camp use George Jackson as the real-life inspiration? The creative direction of The Ultimates #9 isn’t racist, but it is inexcusably stupid.

How’s the Art?

Chris Allen steps in as a guest artist to bring Luke Cage’s prison experience to life in brutal detail. The issue is presented in a 9-panel grid format for most of the issue, so the strength of the art is determined by how well Allen can present the story through the grid in a series of montages. For the most part, Allen nails the aesthetic and the presentation of Luke Cage as a hardened, indomitable prisoner enduring one ordeal of prison violence after another.

What’s great about The Ultimates #9?

The praise due to Deniz Camp for this issue is the same praise he received for his take on the Ultimate She-Hulk in The Ultimates #3 – it’s different enough to stand on its own. Ultimate Power Man has a grittier, harder edge that reads more like the Blaxploitation films of the 1970s than the kinder, gentler, softer Luke Cage of Earth-616. If the point of creating Ultimate Universe variants is to create variants that look and feel familiar but stand apart from their mainline counterparts, Camp succeeds.

What’s not great about The Ultimates #9?

There are two minor issues in the structure and one major, problematic issue with the creative direction.

On the minor issues, Camp first neglects to explain how and why Luke winds up in prison. The intent is to lean on the notion that people are imprisoned unfairly, but it would have landed better if even a minor offense was offered to show the Justice System as unjust rather than random.

Second, the issue appears to have no point because Luke Cage ultimately rejects the offer to partner with The Ultimates, so restoring his power becomes pointless in the face of the Maker’s eventual return in nine months. Why is Marvel wasting time with one-and-done stories instead of building up to the big event?

Now for the problematic creative choice. Deniz Camp does nothing to disguise the fact that he uses the template of real-life prison activist George Jackson’s life to pattern Luke Cage after. Jackson is famous for writing the Soledad Brothers book, which is explicitly shown in the issue, but Camp conveniently neglects to leave out the facts that George Jackson was convicted of armed robbery, became radicalized early in his prison career by joining an extreme arm of the Black Panthers, preached the glories of Marxism and Maoism, was later convicted for killing a prison guard, and ultimately died during a prison break attempt.

Why on Earth would you pattern a new version of a black superhero during Black History Month after a violent criminal activist and murderer? Again, the creative choices in The Ultimates #9 don’t make Deniz Camp a racist, but it’s hard to believe he thought through the ugly stereotypes this series of foolish creative choices would lead to.

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

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Final Thoughts

The Ultimates #9 reimagines Power Man on Earth-6160 by turning him into a career prison inmate radicalized into becoming an activist, patterned after a real-life activist, George Jackson. Deniz Camp’s gritty tone reads like a Blaxploitation film, and Chris Allen’s art makes the 9-panel structure succeed beyond the limitations of the format. That said, patterning an original(ish) black character after a radical Marxist and convicted murderer is a creative choice in extremely poor taste.

4/10

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