Green Hulk is apparently back to being dumb "Hulk smash" Hulk, and is no longer the smart, calculated warrior that so many people loved from Planet Hulk and World War Hulk. Red Hulk is in complete control of what he's doing, so wins his fights with well-thought-out strikes and submission-holds, as opposed to just smashing at his enemies. It makes sense, but I hate this sudden and unexplained regression of Hulk's character. Planet Hulk was awesome, and reading it over again, I can't even imagine how it would lead to this.

I'm just curious (like watching a train wreck), what ended up happening in Ultimates 4?

It sounds like a rehash of the origin story of the Abomination (Blonsky). Emil was stronger then the Hulk, beat the Hulk up, but then.....

And punching out a Watcher? The Watcher has huge power levels, I find it hard to believe. I guess someone over at Marvel didn't get their facts right before sending this rubbish to print.

Starts with a flashback to Xavier, Magneto, and young Wanda and Pietro, as their plane crashes in the Savage Land and they tell the natives they come in peace. In the present, adult Ka-Zar says that they lived peacefully for a few years until Magneto started bringing in more and more mutants, and then decided there wasn't enough room for the natives and slaughtered most of them. Since then, the remaining natives have been waiting for a day when they could overthrow Magneto, and now Wolverine has given them that chance.

Back at the mansion, robot-Iron Man is preparing to kill the Wasp when Cap shows up and saves her by smashing up robot-Iron Man. They start to run, but Cap short circuits. He was also a robot, and Hank, riding on a flying ant, sabotaged him and saved Jan. He tells her there's a conspiracy, it's everywhere, and he thinks it's his fault.

In the Savage Land, Hawkeye snipes some of the Brotherhood, then nearly gets gutted by Sabretooth, who can't finish the job after being attacked by some sabretooth tigers. Ka-Zar plans to take Hawkeye back to get medical attention, but Hawkeye just wants to be left behind to die. Wolverine and Black Panther get caught and beat up by the Juggernaut. Valkyrie gets subjected to her worst fear (still being powerless) by Mastermind while Pyro (wasn't he a good guy in Ult X-Men?) scares off her flying horse. Thor runs into Unus, who tells Thor he won't get past him. But Thor's a god, and he smashes through Unus's force field anyways, only to run into Magneto, who uses the metals in Thor's hammer, clothes, body, etc. to cause him to fall into the ground that's been torn open beneath them. Quicksilver (in red and purple) shows up and tells his father that Wanda's body is safe, and Magneto says it's time to squash the rebellion.

And back in New York, Hank and Jan find the person who's making the robots. Jan remarks that he sounds just like Hank. Hank says it's because he's their son. He looks like Yellowjacket, and he's made robot versions of Cap, Iron Man, Thor, and Hulk, and he's saying "They think of us as toasters, alarm clocks, and vibrators. But when the war between man and mutant is settled, and most of the human population is dead, only then will they realize, the machines have already won."

Ya know, I bet there is a market for Incredable Hulk vibrators. Not to mention ones of Thor. Maybe with sound's like "Hulk smash"... only more "interesting".

I think Ultimates proves that when you're completely bankrupt of creativity, you have the heroes fight sinister versions of themselves.

Don't forget the WONDERFUL dialogue of Ultimates 3, #4. Stuff liek Robot Cap looking down at Wasp saying, "Come with me if you want to live."

Oh, and the title of the next issue (according to #4) is 'Robots in Disguise'.

Yup. He sucks.

Wow, what original quotes and titles. I bet the title of the last issue of the series will be "Final War" or something simular.

I'm putting my money on "End Game"

I don't get how Pyro did a complete 180 in turning into a bad guy now. I mean Bishop even foretold him being on the X-team. IF he does plan on raping Valkyrie like hes planning, I can't see him being an X-character.

I hate how they don't give explanations of anything. First the x-men/emma's students playing a happy baseball game together with Nightcrawler (who despised the x-characters), now Pyro's evil, and Wasp is asian again. Whats going on? Not to mention the whole "robots in diguise" is a cheap ripoff of the skrull invasion. Talk about the Ultimate ####up!

Thanks for the recap Orin.

Don't forget, he's always got those wonderful colors he can use for titles: Ultimates: (Back in) Black!

Hey now. Anything he did with Tim Sale in the vein of Hulk: Gray, Daredevil: Yellow, Spider-Man: Blue, and the upcoming Captain America: White has been thoroughly enjoyable, and shines above his other works. Just like Batman: The Long Halloween and Dark Victory.

Jeph Loeb can only produce something good with Tim Sale. Although some of his Superman/Batman stuff was enjoyable.

My problem with Loeb is his last couple years of work. Namely Ultimates 3 and Hulk. Before this recent stint of shockingly bad comics, I was a big fan of his. Especially Hulk: Grey, Superman For All Seasons and The Long Halloween. I don't know what happened to him, though. It's like he's not even the same writer.

It can only mean one thing, and that thing is Skrull.