Actually, it's not really technically Olde English as much as it's closer to Middle English/Shakspearean English...

Argh! Oi've been broadsided mateys!

What the hell is a continuity editor? If you find out let Marvel and DC know.

Was anyone else bothered by the Initiative's Annual? I felt that they just revealed WAY too much. The Scarlet Spiders ALSO clones of MVP? I didn't see that coming! (although I may have overlooked some detail somewhere) MVP being a clone was pretty well known, but deciding to reveal practically EVERY secret about the Initiative was just. Plain. Too. Much.

Maybe I was expecting too much, but ah well...

As for the Ultimates, I don't really follow the Ultimate universe all too closely (read: not at all). I read through Ultimate Iron Man, Ultimates 1, and Ultimates 2, so I enjoyed it as much as I could. The incest was very irritating. Stark should not have been broken up at ALL about Black Widow, but I can kinda see him and the crew watchin' his sex tape. And Hawkeye, what happened? It's clear Ult Hawkeye is working his way to becoming Ult Bullseye (does he exist yet?) or some other sort of villain.

Here's my biggest beef with Ultimates 3: The Hero cover. Iron Man was in his 616 suit! WTF?! What happened between Ultimates 2 and 3? If anyone can explain what's actually in continuity for the Ultimates Universe just before Ultimates 3, pm me or something because I'm lost as hell.

The issue was a bit boring to me. About the only story I really liked was the Baron's. I particularly liked him laughing at the "Boys from Brazil" novel (story about clones of Hitler). As for them revealing too much, I'd say not really. The last issue of the initiative pretty much gave away that the Iron Spiders were clones and as you said, it was pretty obvious that the MVP Cloud 9 encountered was a clone. The only big reveal was the Skrull bit at the end.

I'm pretty sure the first issue of the Twelve didn't come out. Issue #0 did, however.

If you think I'm just splitting hairs, keep in mind that the #0 issue is not the beginning of the story. It simply reprints 3 actual stories from the 1940s that introduced Rock-Man, The Phantom Reporter, and the Laughing Mask. It also prints the preview pages and the new character sketches that have already been seen on Newsarama.

So, this zero issue is not necessary at all for the upcoming series, but I recommend it anyway. I love seeing some of the original source stories. The Rock-Man story, in particular, is a hoot, featuring Basil Wolverton art.

Oh snap there it is for a good panel: the Scarlet Spiders unmasked as MVP clones. LOL I can't believe I didn't remember that.

Also it was boring. I felt like they were just trying to throw out the spoilers one after another to catch people up and give a little background for those of use who've kept up like good little boys and girls

Ultimates 3 is going off of my pull list. I am not interested in any of the characters as written, and I don't think I even recognized any of them.

Well, now that I've finaly gotten a chance to read Ultimates 3, I have to say I agree with what many people have said about it in this thread. I went into it wanting to like it and convinced all the negative hype it was getting would be proven wrong...Sadly it was not. So many of the characters personalities have changed drastically. I can see where they're going with Hawkeye's suicidal attitude, but I think they've jumped into it too suddenly and not really worked the reader into it. In fact, I think that's one of the biggest problems with this first issue, instead of trying to introduce changes that could have slowly been built on and revealed as the series progressed, they just force fed the readers a bunch of new changes. I think Mr. Loeb forgot the fact that Ultimates was already quite popular and decided something drastic needed to be done to get readers to like the series. About the only thing I did like was the art (save for Wanda suddenly becoming American/Caucasian and a few other things) and the addition of Valkyrie. I'm holding out hope that this series will improve and rise above the failures of this first issue.

That might be interesting, if I can find it. I do know a website with some of the bio's of the twelve and a few other golden aged heroes.


http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/7160/gaguide.html

But only if you're interested.

No, the art was very, very bad. Even if you really like Madureira's art style a lot. It's hard to tell which was worse, the art or the writing. Some examples:
-Wasp has the wrong ethnicity.
-page 1-2 transition:
Final panel of page 1: everybody is completely relaxed.
Page 2: all of a sudden there is a Thor flying through the room as if hit by the Hulk, and a Venom is breaking up a wall. Why is Thor flying through the room like that? Judging from his pose, it wasn't Venom who hit him. He's using both arms to break up the wall. Did he punch himself out? The position of his rigt arm indicates that he just might have done that.

-Page 2-3 transition
One second Venom is trying to break his way into the mansion, the next he's standing in the middle of the street.

-Page 8
The fight has been going for all of fifteen seconds by now. Valkyrie enters the fray out of nowhere. A moderately competent artist would have shown her flying in on the previous page - plenty of open space there. Now it just looks as if Valk and her pegasus just pop into existence.

-Page 10
Never trust a magical sword. Valkyrie's sword has suddenly teleported itself into Venow's hand.

-Page 11
Valkyrie's hair's got its very own healing factor.

-Various pages:
Hawkeye's guns have a Liefeldian ability to change shape.

-Page 19:
Why is Pietro's supersuit all torn up? Even before he got wounded. All he did was run very fast.

Long live 90s comics and their destructive nature!

I noticed her hair grown back too. I was like: Didn't he cut that off? Also Thor wasn't even in the room before Venom attacked and where were Tony, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver? I mean he attacked right away!!

Then Scarlet Witch's powers (which faired waaayy better than longshots and she seems to have better control than the 616 version) suddenly do nothing against a bullet that changes direction.

Did anyone else catch the outfit the alien at the beginging of the Inititive annual was wearing> Looks a LOT like Gravity's costume to me. Just a wierd, co-incedence most likely, but still, thought I'd point it out.