Editor's Note: Ultimate Origins #5 arrives in stores tomorrow, October 15.

Years ago...

Marvel's solicitation for this book is baffling: "It all comes together in this climactic issue as we follow the twisted paths of Bruce Banner and Nick Fury as they approach their destinies." So that's it? Seriously? Glowing kid and then... nothing? Well, not exactly nothing, there's Ultimatum beginning in November, so I guess that Glowing Kid will get some face time over there. If you're a Hulk/Banner fan, however, wait you must as neither the dweeb nor the monster are so much as mentioned in this chapter. Which is fine, he had his big moment last month, but the ad copy sets you up for a payoff that never comes. Baffling.

Eighteen years ago in San Francisco, Erik Lensherr introduced himself to Charles Xavier, demonstrated his ability, and stymied them both as to why Xavier couldn't read his thoughts. Sixteen years ago the pair returned to the Savage Land where Lensherr introduced Xavier to a cave full of mutants to whom he referred as their "brotherhood" and, using a blueprint telepathically given him by Xavier, magnetically built the first the Savage Land structure.

Then, "years ago" in the Savage Land, Xavier is impaled through the back as he attempts to flee, apparently alone, from Magneto. Old buckethead was a tad miffed at his old pal for breaking into his home and attempting a psychic makeover: "Using his powers to get inside my head. Attacking me in my own home." Though we've been explicitly told that Xavier can't read Lensherr...

Funny story. I missed The Ultimates in their early goings, including various tie-ins and spin-offs such as Ultimate Six (the Spidey crossover) and Ultimate War (the X-men crossover). So, when Georgetown got a comic shop several years ago, one of the first things I snapped up was issue #5 of Marvel Must Haves, which included the first chapter of Ultimate War and issue #26 of Ultimate X-Men (and, yes, I'm beginning to suffer a recurrence of "Ultimate Repetition Fatigue Syndrome"). That particular issue of UXM featured the return of Magneto after having been mind-wiped by Charles on the one hand and officially declared dead on the other. Based on that story, "6 years ago" Charles and Erik had established a mutant school/sanctuary in San Francisco (where Wanda and Pietro were pre-adolescent), and "5 years ago" Erik introduced Charles to the Savage Land and spelled out his dream of a global mutant empire. "4 Years Ago" Magneto had completed his modern city in the jungle, and "five months later" debuted the bucket which he claimed "blocks out nosy, telepathic minds." "Three years ago" Charles and a band of followers attacked Magneto in his home. As they fled into the jungle, Magneto impaled Charles from behind with a metal spike.

So there you have it. Everyone who has vociferously denied any real contradiction between Ultimate Origins and established Ultimate continuity are now having their noses rubbed in it.

The "Watcher" totem at Project Pegasus, using Sue as a conduit, identifies itself and what its deal is (to watch, 'natch!). It warns of the coming storm and, like its 616 counterpart, decides to help humanity. Instead of throwing up smokescreens to confound the herald of Galactus (and since we've already done the Ultimate Gah-Lak-Tus bit), this watcher (helpfully named "Uatu") chooses a herald of its own, introducing the Ultimateverse to a very old Marvel character writ young. I'm not going to identify them, but consider the Supreme Intelligence of the Kree's intervention in the original Kree-Skrull war for a hint.

If Erik Lensherr believed that killing his own parents and freeing James Howlett "years ago" resulted in the end of the Weapon X program (and the creation of all mutants - those whacky Canadians!) he badly miscalulated. Following Our Logan, Nick Fury leads a team to the vast Weapon X bunker and discovers a new world of horror. He isn't terribly sympathetic to the pleas and justifications of the project director before bringing the house down, and liberating one (and only one) of the experimentees in the process. Logan sort of disappears into the background after his introduction which is several kinds of peculiar; you'd think that he would've been highly motivated to have performed the coup de grace on the administrator before Fury got a chance to cock his rifle, but there it is.

Despite internal lapses of logic and gleefully wagging his man parts in the face of established continuity, Bendis succeeds in putting together (for me) the most compelling chapter of the series so far (just in time for it to conclude). I'm not entirely certain why that is, mind you, though another full dose of Butch Guice's gorgeous pages definitely informs my opinion. Some illustrators get stuck in a rut, some regress, but very few measurably improve with the years once they've established their professional credentials, making Guice something of a pioneer in this respect. Justin Ponsor could, and probably should, give some other colourists a few lessons, too. Here is an artist who appreciates mood and depth and what appeals to the human eye rather than simply showing off how many different tones can be crammed into a single panel. Even if you're on the fence about the story, the series is so visually stunning as to demand your full attention. Those lapses I mentioned, however, can't help but knock the score down a notch, even as Guice and Ponsor ratchet it back up a bit.

There's nought left to do but wait to see what Jeph Loeb has planned for the not-quite-end of the Ultimate universe. Good luck with that.

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