Oh brother. Ultimate "Armor Wars!"

Snell over at Slay, Monstrobot of the Deep tips us off to another modern Marvel head-shaker: Ultimate Armor Wars.

Say WHAAAAT??

Snell nails the whole hassle with the "Ultimate" universe (my emphasis):

One of my big objections to what (admittedly little) I've seen of the Ultimate Universe is the completely wasted opportunity.

Created to be an entry point for new readers, to negate the need for knowledge of 40 years of continuity, the Ultimate books were in a perfect position to tell brand new stories, create brand new characters, and go where no Marvel has gone before.

Instead, all too often, the books seemed to be a race to introduce as many "Ultimate" versions of Earth-616 characters as possible. Damn the original story ideas, here's Ultimate Cable and Ultimate Stryfe and Ultimate Scorpion and the Ultimate Galactus trilogy and Ultimate this and Ultimate that. Rather than an entry point for new readers, they were marketed to attract old readers: "Come see our new version of X and Y!!"

Sigh. Stay tuned for Ultimate Kree-Skrull War, Ultimate Contest of Champions, Ultimate Infinity Gauntlet, Ultimate Celestial Madonna Saga, Ultimate Demon in a Bottle, Ultimate...

"Sigh" is right. Besides the ridiculously overt [left-wing] politicking that has overcome Marvel in the last few years (which is documented so aptly over at Avi Green's Four Color Media Monitor; in addition, Warren Ellis is scripting "Ultimate Armor Wars" which, if his volume four Iron Man arc is any indication, get ready for some far-left preaching), the stories just really started to suck. I was a fan of the first volume of The Ultimates, but then things began to spiral downhill, as Snell so eloquently noted above.

I wonder what David Michelinie, author of the original "Armor Wars," thinks of this. (The first issue, Iron Man #225, is at top left.) I'll have to drop him an e-mail ...