Ultimate Fantastic Four #49 (Marvel – Brooks / Carey / Mendoza) – Racing through the frozen Russian tundra, caught between the Crimson Dynamo and the Soviet Super Soldiers, our fledging heroes ask: How can you defeat a foe who can’t be touched? Think you know these villains? Just wait until you see what writer Mike Carey (X-MEN) and penciler Mark Brooks (Ultimate Spider-Man Annuals) have done to them! I will give them that, this is a fresh look at the Red Ghost, Crimson Dynamo and the Soviet Super Soldier program. The only only other thing I can give them is that book didn’t have Ultimate Thanos or Jimmy Olsen in it (two sides of the same annoying coin if you ask me)! What can I say… UFF is perhaps the most under utilized property Marvel has. At one point this fresh look at their flagship characters was the best thing that Marvel was printing, UFF helped push along the the whole Ultimate line and it was the UFF line that introduced the Zombie revival. Given that Dwayne McDuffie is doing such an incredible job with Fantastic Four, maybe Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch should be put on the UFF book and save it from overstated characters and re-used plot than change the direction of the mainstream FF book. I know the Millar / Hitch combination will do a great job, it’s just truly McDuffie is writing the best FF stories in years… and UUF needs an overhaul… here’s to hope that they get it soon!
Issue Grade: C
