CM - remind me to give you some rep when I can again as I feel you deserve some for not only keeping us updated but, well, I know you kept backing Hitch and Co. and it's admirable that you're willing to see both sides.

No worries about the rep, I still owe you for the Spirit discussion. I guess I'm just not spreading enough love.

Personally, I just want a clear answer from Marvel et al as to what's happening. I respect that Hitch came back and made it clear where the book stands whereas Quesada (who really should feel some responsibility for knowing what's happening) seemed to direct all the blame on to Hitch and Neary by saying he and Marvel are being kept out of the loop (a comment I found very unprofessional). And from what Hitch said (the inker being sick as well as being assigned the Wisdom book that took him until January) it seems Hitch knows more about what's happening with Marvel's books and talent than Quesada does.

It's a standard Quesada-answer: He's not at fault, Marvel's not at fault - it's all someone else's fault. I'm surprised he didn't blame the retailers again like he tried with "Civil War" (sorry but that was the breaking straw).

Well, at least it's not Hitch's fault. I think one reason it maybe delayed this long is because the book is so big that it's taking forever in the various stages of production. Like the 8-page spread they mentioned in Newsarama. But at least there's light at the end of the tunnel, and it's coming out in a shorter time span than the delay between Spider-Man/Black Cat that Kevin Smith did, or or infamous delays.

Or it could be delayed so that when Vol. 3 comes out, Joe Mad would have a huuuuuge head start that vol. 3 will hopefully not be as delayed as Vol. 2. I mean, adding an extra 2 months of delay lets Joe Mad draw 1/4 [or maybe even 1/2 if we're lucky] of the current issue he's drawing.

The funny part of this?

As of WWLA apparently Mad had just gotten issue two in the bag. Comedy at its finest.

This shouldn't really surprise you, 'Editor' has been pretty much an honarary title at Marvel since atleast the turn of the millenium, akin to assistant producer on a movie.

You just need to look at the writers obliterating 50+ years of canon for proof there's no-one watching the kids.

For those reading comics in the early 80's, I have a question for you -

Do you think that Ultimates 2 will end up taking longer to finish than Camelot 3000 did?

Why on earth they hire him to draw anything besides covers is beyond me. His reputation for lateness at this point is ballooning to Liefeldian proportions.

Someone needs to smash his Wii with a hammer, tape a pencil to that boy's hand, and sit him down at his drawing table with no supper.

or,... you know... fire him and hire a style clone to finish the series up.

Can't they just hire the guy who's doing 52? Then we can have Ultimates Weekly!

This isn't a MARVEL ONLY haters club when it comes to late deadlines. My fiancee has been (not so) patiently waiting for the latest issue of "All Star" Batman and Robin to come out for nearly a year and a half now. Or is it almost two years at this point? DC started this imprint as a means to combat the sucess of Marvel's Ultimate books, but the only thing they are competing with is the lateness displayed by Ultimate Hulk vs. Wolverine and The Ultimates.

Yeah now we're talking, I'm so sick of waiting for this comic, I mean I hate waiting a month to see what happens but I can't even remember when I read issue 12

I really like The Ultimates. It's one of the few titles that I buy as it comes out, rather than just buying it in trade alone. I mean, I really dig Peter David's stuff, but I'm only buying X-Factor in the collected editions. Same goes with Annihilation and New Avengers.

Part of what gets me buying each issue of The Ultimates (and lately, Ultimate Power) is the level of excitement that this book is capable of generating.

Stretch out the time between issues, however, and that excitement disappears. It's getting to the point that I don't really mind when #13 comes out anymore... I may not pick it up. Just wait for the trade.

There isn't just one artist working on 52. Keith Giffen is doing the breakdowns for all 52 issues while there are at least 4 other artists doing the pencils and inks.

I always hated it when comics are late, back when I was still collecting per issue. Then, I hated it even more when an issue is late because then I'd have to wait longer for the trades to come out (this is when I started buying TPBs only). And now, I don't really mind at all. I no longer buy comics or trades, I am now downloading comics and reading it for free (relatively speaking as I still have to pay for electricity and internet connection) so I don't mind late comics anymore but I still hate the lateness of Ultimates 2. This is even worse than when Image comics first started. Remember waiting for that WildC.A.T.S. #2 prism cover? It took almost four months for that book to come out and don't get me started on Pitt by Dale Keown (although its understandable because I heard that Dale was sick or was grieving). Anyway, I'm ranting here because even though I am reading comics for free and no longer have the right to complain, I am still very pi-ss-ed on the fact that Hitch is taking almost a year just to finish an issue.

Where did you hear he was sick or grieving? I've been waiting to hear more about the Pitt/Darkness book, his website has a posting from September 2005 saying it's "coming soon".

But Dale Keown (even though I love his artwork and have a sketch of the Hulk done by him when he used to live here in Ottawa) is notorious for being late. They had trouble with him on the Hulk as he was often late with the pages and Peter David has said that was the reason he wasn't able to do issue 400 (and not because Keown had agreed to move to Image). And his work on Pitt was pretty much late from the get go (though he wasn't the only Image creator with this problem). He also has a tendency to get sidetracked with other things like music (he tried making a record with his band) and just lose interest or give up (like the Pitt series itself). Every once in a while I see a cover or a little bit of promotional artwork by him. So his lateness on these comics can't be all sickness or grieving.