Ultra: Seven Days [Paperback]

Joshua Luna (Author), Jonathan Luna (Author, Artist)

Book Description

In Spring City, where super-heroes blur the lines between law enforcement and celebrity, Pearl Penalosa, a.k.a. Ultra, is a workaholic. At the prestigious agency, Heroine Inc., she has earned a legion of fans, a nomination for "Best Heroine of the Year" and a perfect life. Well, almost perfect. A chance encounter with a mysterious fortune teller prophesizes true love for Pearl within seven days.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the not-so-distant future, or maybe a parallel today, there exists a world where superheroes walk—and sometimes fly—among ordinary citizens. Although Ultra is the star of the tale, it follow three heroines who all work for the same superhero management company—Ultra (down-to-earth Latina Pearl Penalosa), Aphrodite (model-turned-superhero Olivia Arancina), and Cowgirl (trust-fund baby Jennifer Janus). One night, the trio drop in on a fortune teller for a little harmless fun and receive fortunes that will come true in the next seven days. Aphrodite and Cowgirl quickly see results, but Ultra doubts she'll find true love within a week. She's momentarily convinced she's wrong after hooking up with a charming civilian, but when Ultra discovers he was just after her for the money he could get by selling her photos to the tabloids, she's back to her cynical self. Meanwhile, Cowgirl and Aphrodite are busy figuring out who they really are. With elegantly casual art that conveys a sense of place with an economy of line, and a wicked ear for contemporary dialogue, the Luna brothers have created a vivid, vibrant world and a charming story. (June)
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Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Image Comics; Graphic Novel edition (September 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582404836
• ISBN-13: 978-1582404837
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 6.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #91,461 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #70 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Publishers > Image Comics

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A DIFFERENT LOOK AT SUPERHEROES, September 7, 2005

By 

Tim Janson (Michigan) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Ultra: Seven Days (Paperback)

This trade paperbacks collects all eight issues of the Ultra Limited series from Image Comics. Ultra: Seven Days is a unique look at the superhero genre presented by Joshua and Jonathan Luna who plotted, scripted, drew, inked, colored, and even lettered this book. Ultra is one of the greatest female superheroes in the world. Superheroes in this story are roughly akin to professional athletes in our world. They endorse products such as soft drinks, cosmetics, and perfumes. They are represented by large public relations firms such as the Heroine Agency and they are the stuff of tabloid gossip.

We meet Pearl Penalosa AKA Ultra. She is one of the most popular heroes in the world with millions of fans and admirers, a female version of Superman if there ever was one. She's even been nominated for Heroine of the year in a red carpet event as illustrious as the Oscars. She puts her duty before her own personal life. Pearl is out on the town for a night of fun with her friends Olivia and Jennifer (Also heroes known as Aphrodite and Cowgirl respectively) The trio pay a visit to a local fortune teller who looks every bit like a charlatan to get their fortunes told. It's there they learn that Ultra, always unlucky in love, will meet her true love within seven days.

Pearl thinks the whole fortune-telling thing is pure nonsense, until she meets a regular guy that she falls head over heels in love with. Taking him into her confidence, although her real identity is out in the open as most heroes are, she has a steamy night of passion with him, only to find that he was a paid stooge, selling his story to a sleazy tabloid publisher, destroying Ultra's untainted reputation in the eyes of her legions of fans. Her agency immediately goes on damage control as her boss gives her the "I told you so" speech when it comes to watching who she associates with.

Pearl now finds herself ostracized by the public and subject to taunts and insults from the people who once adored her. This leads to an ugly verbal fight between her and Olivia. On top of all of Pearl's personal problems, a new and very deadly villain has hit town. A superhuman pyro-kinetic who is using his powers to set devastating fires all over the city and taking a number of superheroes down who try and stop him. Ultra now has to pull herself together and forget her personal troubles to try and take down this threat before more people are killed.

Ultra is a Superhero book, certainly, but the Luna brothers have constructed a Superhero book with dysfunctional characters that would make Stan Lee green with envy. Pearl is a workaholic hero obsessed with her clean image to the point of virtually having no private life. Olivia (Aphrodite) is an admitted nymphomaniac, unable to commit to a stable relationship. Cowgirl is naïve and insecure, always following the lead of others. Throughout the book the Luna brothers gives readers great renditions of faux advertisements and newspaper/magazine articles featuring their heroines doing ads for products like "Levy's jeans" and other well-known product parodies. This helps bring the reader into this world of heroes as media shills and it's very well done.

The plot is not action-packed...there are only a handful of fights. This is not a superhero tale about action but rather the flip-side of being a hero. In many respects, the real lives of these heroes are the masks they hide behind and they escape into their super personas to get away from their troubled, and often mundane private lives. This was my first exposure to the work of the Luna brothers and I am very impressed. Despite the lack of action, they pace the story well and it's never dull. Their minimalist art was also a welcome reprieve from the typical in-your-face, splash page-heavy art of many of their contemporaries.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A smart and fun take on female superheroes, March 7, 2006

By 

Mark - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ultra: Seven Days (Paperback)

This work is rather brilliant in many ways. It sneaks up and grabs you with its characters. You feel like you know these women after only a few panels of conversation--the dialogue being some of the best natural dialogue I've seen. It fleshes out each character without heavy exposition. And when they converse you hear the characters, not the author(s), which actually is (unfortunately) a rare talent in comics. By far the dialogue and characters are reason enough to buy this book.

However, another good reason is the humor! I laughed out loud so many times reading this book... It's a mature humor, often sexual without being crude. Certainly not something for younger readers, so be aware of that if you're planning on buying it for someone else. But it truly is some of the funniest, smart humor I've seen lately. The "ads" are hilarious. The "articles" on the superheroes are hit and miss, but mostly hit. Aphrodite's interview is by far the best of the lot and a brilliant piece of writing, which harkens back to the obvious strength of the Luna brothers--their dialogue.

The art is modern, computer fair, but gorgeous just the same. Probably one of the best examples of what modern techniques can do. It has a photorealism as if there is a camera filming with some shots of the foreground in focus and the background not, and vice versa. It works most of the time, and where it doesn't isn't a big deal. If that look isn't a favorite of yours, I would still suggest giving the book a try. It's that good, and it might even win you over.

The plot is interesting, and comes with its own twists, which are well done. It moves along at a good pace. I read it all the way through when I got it, which to me means it has that reader quality of wanting to find out what happens next. Some of the plot elements don't exactly break new ground, but the characters are so convincingly real and sympathetic, it adds a new dimension to the story regardless.

I would have liked to see more of Ultra doing her job as superhero, but what is shown is great.

Overall, I can tell you I'm very pleased I bought this work and hope more people do. It's a great value on Amazon, and these guys are far too talented to not be read more widely.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superheroes Made Real, March 4, 2006

By 

Joshua Koppel (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ultra: Seven Days (Paperback)

Ultra is a superhero in a world more real than that of standard superhero comics. Here superheroes are celebrities and subject to all that our film and television celebrities are. Many heroes work in agencies that hire them out to work with the police and others. I found this very refreshing. As the story opens, Ultra and two other heroines are hanging out when one decides to check out a fortune teller. A little time and a lot of dollars later they have their fortunes and expectations. Each will experience their fortune sometime in the next seven days.

Ultra has been told that she will find true love. At the urging of some of her friends she tries to enter the dating scene while managing her civilian and hero life. She must deal with criminals both ordinary and super, public opinion and yellow journalism, trust and betrayal. Somehow she manages to get through it all.

By the end of the story we see how each fortune has worked out while learning a lot about this interesting world and its all too human characters. The reader is left wanting to read more and I hope more will be forthcoming. The art is excellent with a film-like feel with foregrounds or backgrounds being unfocused. I really liked the characters and the world they live in. Definitely one of the better comics out there.