14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Gah Lak Tus is coming...", June 8, 2007
This review is from: Ultimate Galactus Trilogy (Hardcover)
Warren Ellis is a man of many mad ideas. His most recent work at Marvel has involved making the Ultimate Fantastic Four one of the best titles in the Ultimate lineup, and he lends his talents to re-vitalizing the planet devouring Galactus with the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy. All three mini-series'; Ultimate Nightmare, Ultimate Secret, and Ultimate Extinction, are all collected in this handsome hardcover edition. Ultimate Nightmare is undoubtedly the best of the trilogy, as Ellis sets up the trilogy as images of the genocide of an alien race is broadcasted on Earth out of the clear blue. Nick Fury, Captain America, Black Widow, and Sam Wilson (with Falcon wings in tow) are sent to Russia to investigate; unbeknownst that Professor Xavier has sent Wolverine, Jean Grey, and Colossus to do the same. What they discover only sets the stage for Ultimate Secret, which introduces us to Kree warrior Captain Mahr-Vell, who teams up with the Fantastic Four, the Ultimates, and Nick Fury as alien attacks are launched. Ultimate Extinction wraps the series up as the Gah Lak Tus is revealed, along with his herald the Silver Surfer, and the Ultimates, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four all band together to save the planet. Ellis' penchant for science facts, mad ideas, and poppy dialogue are peppered throughout the entire trilogy, with the only downside being Ultimate Extinction. The story iself isn't bad one bit, but the ending is so abrupt that it's kind of disappointing considering everything that was crafted to set it up. Not to mention that some may not dig Ellis' new takes on the Silver Surfer, Vision, and Misty Knight, but they all work well nevertheless. Negatives aside, there is great art throughout as well from Steve McNiven, Steve Epting, Brandon Petersen, Trevor Hairsine, and more besides, so the overall result is better than one might think. All in all, the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy isn't excellent, but Ellis' style shines through, and if you missed out on the single issues or single TPB's, this hardcover is worth picking up.
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30 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Ghost of Galactus, July 14, 2007
This review is from: Ultimate Galactus Trilogy (Hardcover)
I don't understand the resistance to Kirby's classic Galactus. Re-imagining the classics is the fashion right now, and there have been three major efforts at re-imagining Galactus. The most conservative is John Byrne's effort, which he never completed, but which was most faithful to Kirby's original, building on the myth in some interesting ways. The other extreme, if you can even call it a re-imagining, is the absurd cloud in the latest FF movie. That cloud is actually evidence of a severe lack of imagination. It is also proof that Tim Story is the wrong director for these kinds of movies. He has made it well-known that he will have no giant robots in his films, and so has squandered the enormous potential of the FF in Hollywood. The irony is the relative success of the Transformers movie coming out right after the FF flop. (The FF movie fails for more reasons than the Galactus let down, but most of the problems can be blamed on the director's lack of understanding or respect for what makes comics great. The studio deserves to lose money for putting him at the helm, but it's a shame for the franchise.)
SPOILER ALERT! But this review is about Ellis. This is not his first re-presentation of Galactus. He works him into his version of the evil FF in Planetary. But there the world devourer, though dead himself, is still recognizable as Kirby's creation. In Ultimate Galactus, Ellis has gone much further, into the realm of the barely recognizable. The cover image exploits the famous Galactus helmet, but now instead of Galactus' dead body lying like an enormous whale carcass on some distant planet in Planetary, or a big storm cloud in the movie, we are left with his ghost merely. Yet, what power even the ghostly suggestion of Kirby's creation still has! Like Tim Story, Ellis wants to give the effect of enormous power. Tim Story does it by not ever letting us see Galactus at all. Rather, his presentation is weirdly Judaic, implying that either Galactus cannot be seen, like the invisible God of Judaism, or that he must be hidden by a cloud because his glory is too awesome, also like the Judaic conception. (Story's lack of imagination keeps him from idolatry at least!)
Ellis' take is more clearly materialistic. Ellis is a consistent materialist who re-imagines things along the lines of scientific explanation. Thus, Galactus turns out to be a swarm of machines with a shared "mind" sort of like the internet in space. The threat it poses is basically a kind of virus. This materialist conception of things extends to the conception of the Silver Surfer as many silver men who form suicide cults to lessen resistance to the incoming strain, rather than one harbinger of doom torn by his desire to save. Kirby's messiah figure is answered with the cynical cult leader stereotype.
Ellis shows his awareness of the shift he is undertaking by having Captain America muse over the good ole days when everyone believed in God. This is of course a pretty naive view of the early 20th century when Cap. was turned into a super soldier in the first place. And Ellis' obvious lack of sincerity makes Cap's speeches fall flat. Finally, Cap comes to the materialistic conclusion that his only value is in his fists and that he is only effective against what he can hit. So this is a Brit's. take on what makes (or made) America great. This lack of depth is the result of Ellis's materialist philosophy. Because he dismisses the paradoxes inherent in Kirby's more religiously based conceptions, his entire idea "ultimately" falls flat. This happened with Planetary, too, which he seems unable to conclude to this day. What conclusions he comes to are typically quick and unsatisfying.
This is the most common complaint about the Ultimate Galactus, that it is such a lot of build up for so quick and unsatisfying a conclusion. But that is what can be said of the entire materialist worldview! Though religion can be maddening, it at least attempts to recognize the paradox of a material world with apparently non-material qualities (soul, spirit, virtue, values). Without that, all we have are machines fighting machines. And that's about all Ellis's Galactus trilogy offers. Humanity's saving "virtue" is its cleverness rather than any really abstract heroic qualities to speak of. Granted, vaunted speeches may not inspire us much anymore, but what we get here is the much praised Warren Ellis "style" of clever quips and constant sarcasm. It's amusing, but in the end quite hollow.
You might say that it's only a comic book after all, but the power it has to amuse us on a deep level is borrowed from the very ideas it undermines. It is the ghost of Kirby's Galactus, a combination of mechanics and humanity and quasi-religious associations in the form of a giant man coming down out of space that makes Ellis's idea seem more interesting than it would be without it. By itself, a swarm of robots attacking from outer space is a pretty hackneyed scenario. Materialist notions are only interesting in juxtaposition to the notions they seek to challenge. But those notions, like Kirby's original conceptions here, are the fuel they run on. Without them, they just run out of gas. We owe Kirby our thanks and respect for having the guts and the imagination to envision and body forth such awesome characters as Galactus, and I would like to see the myths built on rather than avoided, or their power undermined by a one-sided and merely reactionary materialism.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ultimate it is, September 9, 2011
This review is from: Ultimate Galactus Trilogy (Hardcover)
For anyone who who loves to read modern graphic novels and has an opend mind and never listen's to negative opinion about what they want to read find out for your self and then make your own opinion. Let tell you mine this was an ULTIMATE fantastic read and the artwork was no slouch either. This a must have and read if your a Marvel fan.I loved the new take on the Galactus methos not to say the old story were bad but I for one love and am always interested on a new angle or take of an old story. Very smart and captivating a mature read no holds bard type of writing it had me on edge to turn on to next page. I truly recommend this graphic novel to anyone who will read with an opened mind. Please support writers and artist of this caliber because if weren't for new material this industry would not thrive.
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