Comic Info
Comic Name: Ultimate Extinction
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Brandon Peterson
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2006
Ultimate Extinction #1
Reprints Ultimate Extinction #1-5 (March 2006-July 2006). Gah Lak Tus is approaching Earth and the Ultimates are scrambling to find a way to stop it. As a detective named Misty Knight investigates a cult led by a being called the Silver Wing, a group of cultists called the Enclave reveal that they are emissaries of Gah Lak Tus. With the combined powers of the X-Men, Fantastic Four, the Ultimates, and Captain Marvel, Earth must take its final stand to face Gah Lak Tus once and for all for the sake of humanity.
Written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Brandon Peterson, Ultimate Galactus Volume 3: Ultimate Extinction is the final chapter in the Ultimate Galactus saga which included Ultimate Galactus Volume 1: Ultimate Nightmare and Ultimate Galactus Volume 2: Ultimate Secret. The comic has also been collected as Ultimate Galactus Trilogy.
The Ultimate Galactus storyline was a bit of a mess. The first collection was delayed for various reasons and by the time Ultimate Extinction rolled out, much of the Ultimate line was losing the steam which had made it popular.
Galactus is one of my favorite Marvel characters, and it was an interesting twist to combine Galactus (here called Gah Lak Tus) with almost a mechanical swarm of locust that travel through the galaxy consuming. Throughout the other limited series, the anticipation of the arrival of Gah Lak Tus was exciting, but here I feel a bit bummed out by it.
Ultimate Extinction #5
Part of the reason is that Ellis tried to hard to change things. One thing nice about the Ultimate line is that it kind of streamlined years and years of Marvel history…resulting in a less episodic feel. Here, the goal is kind of a disaster movie along the lines of Independence Day, which like Independence Day tried to mix in other storylines that had nothing to do with the storyline. I like Misty Knight and Moondragon, but their part of the story just bogged down the action.
The art for Ultimate Extinction also is a bit iffy. Sometimes Peterson’s art is very good, but other times I feel it is lacking. I didn’t like the redesigns on the modified Silver Surfer (generally referred to as Silver Wings here), and sometimes the art is over-inked or under-inked.
Ultimate Galactus isn’t really worth the trip. With three lackluster series, it isn’t Ellis best work (stick to Planetary and The Authority for that). It is a shame too because Galactus is such a rich character and totally different than many other comic book characters. I really wanted a smackdown and got a slow, methodic story that doesn’t end up doing much and taking fourteen issues to do it.
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