Fantastic Four #575-582 Annotations

[The Prime Elements]

Fantastic Four #575 - "The Abandoned City of the High-Evolutionary" [1/27/10]

• There is chaos in the underworld!
• Mole Man! Moloids!
• High Evolutionary! Abandoned City! Darwin Bubble!
• Prose is kind of confusing: Mole Man says that when HE activated the Ascension Engine, it started de-evolving everyone, so they had to escape. But since they didn't turn it off, the city kept going up. Some Moloids ended up arriving in the city and getting de-evolved into humans. But shouldn't that mean they were evolved? He even says that if HE had stayed in the city, he would have had extreme intelligence. That should mean that the city evolves instead of de-evolving!
• Oh dang! The Galactus from 2509/Old Man Logan Universe!
• So the Moloids devolving enhances their intelligence and reverts them to human-like beings, but everybody else gets de-evolved.
• So the FF adopts those evolved Moloids, while the risen Forever/Future City attempts to establish it's own sovereignty.

Fantastic Four #576 - "The Old Kings of Atlantis"

• The Peak: secret off-shoot Atlantis in the South Pole, Antarctica.
• Three Old Kings: Crab (Mala), fish (Uhari), shark/eel (Chordai).
• Susan is elected as the representative of humanity.
• King Ul-Uhar.
• OHHHHHHH! The reason why it has to be her is because her connection with Namor!
• The Spiral device to communicate.

Fantastic Four #577 - "Universal Inhumans"

• What! Crazy crazy dumps!
• So TLDR, the Kree didn't just experiment on Earth, they went to four other planets!
• The Kree's plan is to use the Inhumans as a harvesting ground to prevent the Kree from genetic stagnation.
• Horse people Kymellians, fin headed Centurions, lizard-like Badoon, and the crab Dire-Wraiths.
• These four Inhuman cultures live on the Inhuman City-Ship and have arrived on the blue area of the Moon. They are each led by a respective queen, and all of the queens are wives of Black Bolt, the Midnight King of all Universal Inhumans.
• Black Bolt and the earth-Inhumans have departed from the moon with Attilan and gone to Hala, the Kree hom-world, to jump the Supreme Intelligence.
• And when he comes back, he wants to make Earth a haven for Inhumans, a new Hala!
• Eldrac the Doorway!
• Dal Damoc, the Summoner, The Wayfinder!
• The Light Brigade: six of the greatest Inhuman warriors formed to take part in the Offering, a ritual where they face an endless number of trials to prove the worth of the Inhumans. The Offering ends when the last member of the Brigade dies.

Fantastic Four #578 - "The Cult of the Negative Zone" [4/28/10]

• Annihilation Aftermath: Annihilus was killed by Nova but left behind eggs to hatch a new body.
• Blastaar takes over the Negative Zone, and has expanded his territory, including annexing the prison known as 42.
• YOOOOOOOO!
• Cool spin on the Negative Zone being an inverted universe: reverse Big Bang, cold to hot, the universe is living instead of dying. It's not expanding, it's shrinking. It's getting hotter!
• Other-Side of Zero club, Cult of the Negative Zone, Anti-Priests.
• New & improved Negative Zone portal in the Baxter Building.
• Prison 42 has been transformed into a city by the reborn forces of Annihilus.
• Give us a battle we cannot win! Epic! The Light Brigade enters the Negative Zone to war against the Annihilation Wave!
• The War of Four Cities has Begun!

[To Do The Impossible...]

Fantastic Four #579 - "The Future Foundation" [5/26/10]

• "The future of man is not here... it is out there."
• Oh my god. That might have been one of the greatest speeches I've ever read in comic book prose. Reed has been cemented as Hickman's avatar; I could feel him coming through the pages and speaking to me. Easily one of the best moments of the run so far.
• What did Sue ask the old kings for? = revealed at the end of this issue to be two Atlantean foreign exchange students who join the newfound Future Foundation!
• Moloid role call! Turg (floating head), Korr (baby), Mik (blue shirt), Tong (sweatshirt).
• They discover that there is a curved axis connecting three of the cities, and a radius that reflects onto the location of the Negative Zone portal.
• Ted is still on Nu-World, but makes a bubble to protect him and his stuff from the time dilation. He creates a new synthetic Alyssa Moy.
• Alex Ultron and his robo-peeps colonize an uninhabited moon and begin terraforming.
• Natalie X is still on Nu-World, and she evolves her power to become a hive-mind for the remnants of humanity still left on Nu-World.
• Lightwave dreams of serving Galactus.
• Banner Jr continues to grow older.
• So Artie, using the helmet the kids gave him, can project the internal blueprints for any object.
• Loved the interaction between Reed and the Wizard. His biblical metaphors are wonderful!
• What could he be hinting at? How will the world burn if Reed doesn't solve everything? What did he see in his visions!?!
• The Future Foundation is born!

Fantastic Four #580 - "The Frank-Tastic Four"

• "I promise... I've given up games of murder."
• What is the problem the FF have found a solution to that Reed never could = SO the kids found out how to cure ben! One week a year sounds like a great deal to me.
• Nu-World Update! Ted finally perfects the synthetic Alyssa Moy-2515 who can access the original long-lost memories of the original Alyssa! He and Nu-Alyssa leave a Moypilot to man the World-Ship's orbit around the singularity as they depart back to Earth. He also dumps 640+ years of info into his brain (which I'm assuming he collected while in the time bubble).
• Planet Ultron is complete after Alex Ultron finishes terraforming the moon.
• Natalie X becomes the collective conscious of humanity, a World-Mind.
• Lightwave is still dreaming of serving Galactus while Banner Jr becomes a version of the Maestro Hulk.
• The brawl in the arcade toy store was so much fun. I love Impossible Man, and pairing Franklin and Johnny is perfect. Can't forget about my boy Leech as well!
• Eager to see more dynamics between Franklin Valeria and Reed; that conflict of Franklin feeling put to the side needs to be explored!

Fantastic Four #581 - "When Everything's Lost, the Battle is Won"

• Val: "So we have a deal?"
• Johnny: "I don't wish it any more than you do."
• Doom: "Here I can build."
• SHIIIIIII
• Future-Franklin and Future-Val are working with Nathaniel Richards!
• So did Franklin remove something from his past self's mind to restore his powers? Some kind of mental block?
• Where are they? Franklin says he's going to use this weird void to build a pocket reality as an escape hatch. It's a new Eden at the end of time!
• How will Val fix the past?
• How will Nathanial fix the future?
• Nathanial Richards history lesson: He dipped on Reed to go and work for the SHIELD. When trying to stop Night Machine from detonating (See SHIELD #2), he became immortal and was given the ability to travel through time. However, every single incarnation of Nathanial Richards from across the multiverse was pulled into reality 616. They landed 600,000 years in the future, and were confronted by Immortus, a being empowered by the TVA to police time. Seeing all these Nathanials with temporal abilities as an obvious threat to the timestream, he devised a compromise where they would have to choose only one Nathanial to live while the others die. All of the variants turn on each other, and 616 Nathanial refuses to take part in this great hunt, opting instead to run and hide across the timestream/multiverse.
• We meet the last Nathanial, and he's built a Frankenstein-playground made up of artifacts from human history called Chronopolis. 

Fantastic Four #582 - "...Because of All These Things I've Done" [8/25/10]

• So the last Nathanial is called The Beast.
• The Chrononauts are a task force put together by Kang according to the Marvel wiki. More connections between Nathanial Richards and Kang-thanial!
• So if Nathanial has never killed anyone, does that mean it was Howard who killed Night Machine in the pages of SHIELD?
• Loved proto-Doom! Him smashing in the Beast's face in was hilarious!
• OH MY GOD THE LONG GAME! VALERIA IS LITERALLY TALKING ABOUT SECRET WARS 5 YEARS BEFORE IT HAPPENED!
• Could the bad future they've been mentioning since the beginning of this run be the Old Man Logan future that they're trying to prevent from Millar's run? = Nope!
• Val and Franklin and Nathanial have made changes to the timeline to prevent some cataclysmic future, but they won't survive to see it.
• I love it! Franklin kicks Nathanial out of the White-Space because he wants Reed to be with his dad! Every boy needs his father!
• Val says only Sue can hold the F4 together! There will be a moment when she wants to give up, but she must look to the sky and remember that the price was paid.
• Val gets back to the pocket-Eden in the white-space, but they won't make it to the new future before the revision wave hits. They decide to hit what we Brazilians call a "Jacare" beneath the wave and tunnel their way through. They jump into the void!

Fantastic Four Dark Reign + #570-574 Annotations

[Dark Reign: Fantastic Four]

"The Bridge, Part I - Building Bridges" [3/4/09]

• I could have sworn Alicia Masters was blind? Did they restore her sight?
• What happened when HAMMER cut the power? Did it cause the machine to go wild and send the other three across reality/multiverse?
• But it's just an observation device! Why did they get teleported? Most likely because of the power outage? That's probably the spillover Reed was talking about.
• Where did it shoot out Ben Sue and Johnny? Seems like the Savage Land, but who are the others there besides the dinosaurs and the Celestials?

"The Bridge, Part II - Civil Discourse"

• So the recap blurb says that the Bridge is a reality bending super-computer, and that HAMMER's interference sends the three back to prehistoric Marvel.
• All of the peaceful realities that avoid the 'Civil War' stem from Reed taking individual action.
• As much as medieval revamps of characters tend to uninterest me, "Milady, tis the clobbering hour" was absolutely perfect.
• Why are there two Bens in the final warp at the end?

"The Bridge, Part III - Illuminate"

• So every reality the three warps through, they pick up an analogue: Medieval Ben, Swashbuckler Johnny, Gunslinger Sue.
• Reed discovers that every reality where the Illuminati is formed results in zero chance for an optimal world peace, instead either subjecting humanity to the will of another power or dooming them to annihilation.
• Franklin and Valeria hold down the fort as Normy boy and Venom pull up for an eviction!
• Is Beyonder a multiversal being? I thought he was bigger (given the revelations we get in New Avengers/Secret Wars).

"The Bridge, Part IV - There Is Always A Way"

• Awesome! I love essay-comics!
• Great speech by the Sup[Reed]-Intelligence, pretty tragic overall.
• Main Reed has a wonderful IM where he comes to the conclusion that he must put the responsibility of the world/reality's problems on his back and attempt to solve everything.
• Norman vs the kids was hilarious as well.

"The Bridge, Part V - The World I Created" [7/22/09]

• Fantastic!
• Council of Reeds hinting and unforeseen implications of Reed lying to Sue about rebuilding the Bridge.
• Osborn stuff was still great. Would have loved to see the Iron Patriot armor!
• Franklin reality-warping powers hinting?

[Solve Everything]

Fantastic Four #570 - "Unsolvable" [8/26/09]

• What is the true cost of a man's mistakes?
• Reed's daddy, Nathanial Richards gives some great advice! You can fail, but you must try!
• They give the Wizard a smack down, he predicts some crazy stuff coming up on the horizon.
• What happened to the small clone child of the Wizard?
• When Wizard mentions the world tearing apart and humanity being judged, is he referencing the Millar stuff or is he hinting at the Incursions!?!?!
• Reed built an interdimensional panic room...
• Johnny and Ben are going to Nu-World!
• Paranoia brings Reed to the Bridge, and we meet the Council!
• Fascinating concept! And Infinity Gauntlets!! Holy crap!
• We see so many multiversal reeds, but Armor-Reed, Suit-Reed, Beard-Reed, and Alpha-Reed are the ones with dialogue.

Fantastic Four #571 - "Initiation"

• Crazy convo between Reed and Sue. I'm honestly on Sue's side, but I understand Reed's POV. There is a higher purpose, and sometimes that gets in the way of grounded reality.
• Universe-8901 = "The Farm"
• Interesting that the Infinity Gauntlet only works in the universe that it's from.
• The Hole = a room that keeps all of the lobotomized Dooms.
• So Beard-Reed has spliced DNA with Doom!
• Daddy-Richards advice: there is nothing you can't do!
• Three trials of virtue, vice, and impossibility!
• Well fuck. Mad Celestials from Armor-Reed's universe forced him to reveal the location of the Council! Apparently they want to take over the multiverse?

Fantastic Four #572 - "Burning Bridges"

• The cost of solving everything, is everything!
• Suit-Reed and Beard-Reed are dead!
• A Reed who is a portal to the multiverse!
• Sue's convo with Reed was fantastic, and much more tolerant and mature than most individuals would react. She really does understand her husband.
• YESSSSSSS. KINO STORY!
• Armor-Reed is a bum who reveals the secret of the council: they all dipped on their families to solve everything.
• It's crazy how much Rick and Morty aped off of this.
• Where did Nathaniel Richards disappear off to?
• The "A Better Man" is one of the best sequences so far!
• So Franky and Val catch a lift on the fantasti-car to crash Ben and Johnny's vacation to Nu-World!

Fantastic Four #573 - "Adventures on Nu-World!"

• Wow Wow wtf?
• Who is this mysterious man; Is it Ted Castle = yep.
• How did Alyssa end up as a brain in a robo-spider body?
• How did things get to this = apparently it's been 8 years because of the space time distortion from the black hole.
• How did the sun collapse?
• How is Nu-World undergoing abnormal evolutionary acceleration; What is the cause; = the black hole created by the sun's collapse; it's event horizon is the cause.
• Why does Alex Ultron have his own territory?
• What is the treaty/pact?
• How was the portal damaged?
• What caused the revolution and war?
• Natalie X controls the population with telepathy.
• Ted and Alyssa are based in the center of the earth, a place called The Wheel.
• Lightwave and psionics are based in the capital of Nu-World, called the Fortress.
• Who has kept them alive = Ted!
• So Banner Jr is kept in prison, but he claims it's only as long as he wants...
• Alex Ultron and Lightwave are now enemies and leaving Nu-World.
• Psionics merc's Alyssa, Banner merc's Psionics, Ted stays behind to pilot the ship.
• Will we see them again? = #578 + #579!

Fantastic Four #574 - "Days of Future Franklin" [12/23/09]

• The future must be avoided at all costs!
• Happy birthday Franklin!
• Power Pack (of whom I know literally nothing about).
• Katie: light/fire powers.
• Jack: blue fire or water powers.
• Alex (19): super-intelligence.
• Leech: Bro gets a key!
• Artie: Uses the new helmet to project his thoughts and communicate.
• The clone! They're calling him Bentley, but he refers to himself as Thirty-Two.
• The Dragon-Man was from an old issue of FF by Kirby but I can't recall who he was built by = Diablo!
• Who is random dude who warps into the Baxter building? = Future Franklin
• What does he do to Franklin + What does he say? = check the last bullet.
• Why must the future be avoided?
• What is the War of Four Cities? = Four Cities are the Forever City of the High Evolutionary, New Atlantis in Lake Vostok, Universal Inhuman City-Ship, and the prison 42 in the negative zone.
• The Dead must not be forgotten...
• The Future Man must return to save the past...
• All Hope Lies In Doom...
• We get a bunch of little kid drawings: the Four Cities must correspond to the elements, earth water fire and air. Namor is depicted, so Atlantis must be water.
• We see a bunch of drawings of the multiversal reeds.
• So Future-Val sent Future Franklin to send her this message as a kid!
• Rest, and remember what you are = So Future-Frank restores present-Franklin's reality warping powers, and he makes a baby universe!

Adventures of Superman by Greg Rucka Reading Order

[Superman : Unconventional Warfare]

• Adventures of Superman #627 - Battery, Part I : "Girls, Guns, & Replikons"
• Adventures of Superman #628 - Battery, Part II : "You Use To Be A Reporter"
• Superman Secret Files and Origins 2004 - "Suicide Watch"
• Adventures of Superman #629 - Battery, Part III : "War-Zones"
• Adventures of Superman #630 - Battery, Part IV : "Villain Interruptus"
• Adventures of Superman #631 - Battery, Part V : "Casualty of War"
• Adventures of Superman #632 - "Time Elapsed"

[Superman : That Healing Touch]

• Adventures of Superman #633 - That Healing Touch, Part I : "Twin Parasites"
• Adventures of Superman #634 - That Healing Touch, Part II : "Narrative Interruptus Secondus"
• Adventures of Superman #635 - That Healing Touch, Part III : "Drained"

[Superman : Road To Ruin]

• Adventures of Superman #636 - Road to Ruin, Part I : "Identity Compromised"
• Adventures of Superman #637 - Road to Ruin, Part II : "Two Truths & A Lie"
• Adventures of Superman #638 - Road to Ruin, Part III : "Narrative Interruptus Tertiarius"
• Adventures of Superman #640 - Road to Ruin, Part IV : "Exposed"

[THE OMAC PROJECT // SUPERMAN SACRIFICE]

• Countdown To Infinite Crisis - "The Life & Death of Ted Kord"
• The OMAC Project #1 - "The Eye In The Sky"
• Superman #218 - "Power"
• Adventures of Superman #641 - "Innocence"
• The OMAC Project #2
   - "There Is No 'I' In Team"
• The OMAC Project #3
   - "The M-E In Team"
• Wonder Woman #218 - "The Calm"
• Superman #219
   - Sacrifice, Part I  : "Touch"
• Action Comics #829
   - 

  Sacrifice, Part II : "End of Identity

  "
• Adventures of Superman #642
   - 

  Sacrifice, Part III : "

  Remembrance"
• Wonder Woman #219
   - 

  Sacrifice, Part IV : "Tygers & Lambs

  "
• The OMAC Project #4
   - "The King Is Dead..."
• Wonder Woman #220
   - "Affirmative Defense"
• Adventures of Superman #643
   - "Fragmentation"
• The OMAC Project #5 - "Long Live The King!"
• The OMAC Project #6 - "Loss of Signal"
• Wonder Woman #221 - "Pride of The Amazons"
• Adventures of Superman #644
   - "Blame & Remorse"
• Adventures of Superman #645
   - "Breaking Point"

[INFINITE CRISIS]

• Adventures of Superman #646
   - Rack & Ruin, Part I : "Take Me Home"
• Adventures of Superman #647
   - Rack & Ruin Part II : "Speeding Bullets"
• Adventures of Superman #648
   - "Look... Up In The Sky!"

Ultimates #7-12 Annotated

[Two Cities, Two Worlds]

Ultimates #7 - "The Flower Reaps, The Hammer Yields"

• Falcon, Fury, Widow, and Hawkeye arrive in Tian.
• Earlier, they plan to acquire the Celestials and Eternals as allies in the war against the COT.
• We get a recap of the Hawkeye mini: SEAR creates a virus to eliminate mutants, then create their own serum to build metas. The metas rebel and take over the country in a month.
• When they meet with Xorn and Zorn, Zorn doesn't want to get involved, but Xorn tells his oracle to peacefully reach out to the City.
• Maker, Children, and City respond by hijacking the frequency and issuing a warning to Tian; they are coming.
• In the Himalayas, Agent Flumm brings the Hulk back into the fray by threatening him with the torture of Betty Ross.
• Hulk attacks the City.

Ultimates #8 - "Let's Talk About It"

• Hulk is smashing up the City. Maker confronts him.
• Xorn lays Oracle to rest. Zorn leads the Eternals to attack the City.
• POTUS is granted power over SHIELD and prepares to speak to the senate/house.
• Spider-woman and Jamie chill in the Triskelion until it's taken over by SHIELD.
• Tony and Thor are ambushed at Stark Tower.
• Maker bargains with the Hulk.
• President speaks to the government.
• Maker reveals that the US Gov is tricking Hulk.
• President reveals that although one nuke did not work against the City, they have now launched all the nukes!

Ultimates #9 - "All-Consuming"

• Fury, Hawkeye, and Widow depart Tian to watch the battle between Eternals and the COT.
• Marvin Flumm and the agents of SHIELD send unconscious Jamie and Spider-Woman to the Cube as they take over the Triskelion.
• Thor and Tony take out the attacking SHIELD forces, and learn of what POTUS has done. However, Tony starts bleeding...
• The COT gain the upper hand over the Eternals, but Zorn takes off his mask and turns into a Black Hole, wreaking havoc onto the City.
• POTUS explains to Congress that what's done is done, the attack had to happen. The nukes and the singularity turn the City into a nuclear wasteland.
• As Maker and the COT assess the damage, Maker gets a young COT and anoints him with a name: Death. Death is sent with an anti-matter bomb to the middle of the Congressional Assembly, and detonates, wiping out everybody.

Ultimates #10 - "Invincible Under The Sun"

• After the blast, War Machine picks up the secretary of energy as the designated survivor to become the new potus.
• Wreckage is assessed by SHIELD. Flumm tries to locate Nick.
• Fury, Falcon, Hawkeye, and Widow escape from a Heli-Carrier trying to bring them in. Nick splits off from the rest.
• Tony is having hallucinations of a young boy. He has a plan to deal with Reed involving him, Thor, and one other person. But first, he needs to see a doctor.
• Flumm locates Hawkeye, Falcon, and Widow.
• Tony gets a check up diagnostic from Invisible Woman. He tells her that Reed is alive, and blew up DC.
• Reed evolves the City once more to finish off their enemies.
• In the ruins of Asgard, a hand emerges with Mjolnir from Yggdrasil.

Ultimates #11 - "Long May It Reign"

• Tony calls Carol Danvers, telling her to come to washington. He needs her to access the president.
• Tony and Thor in the meantime dispatch a number of SHIELD agents trying to take them down.
• Widow, Falcon, and Hawkeye arrive at the West Coast Avengers Facility (Wackos). We meet Hugo; he has a bunch of people in tubes.
• Flumm talks to POTUS, and the prez thinks it's stupid how many resources they're divulging to go after the Ultimates instead of dealing with the real threats.
• Kratos Club comes to the new independent Texas with solid gold.
• Tony talks to the invisible little boy only he can see. They surrender to SHIELD forces in order to have a meeting with POTUS.
• Widow and the gang get ambushed by a squad of Giant-Men.
• Tony and Thor meet with POTUS and propose a plan to deal with Maker and the COT. A little robot iron man starts moving (controlled by the invisible kid?). Don't worry, it's somehow all part of the plan.
• Widow and the gang beat the giant-men, but are still captured by SHIELD.
• POTUS has a call with Maker, revealing that he does not want war with The City, and will turn over Stark as part of some kind of treaty.
• Stark is given up to the COT, and left face to face with The Maker.
• 1 more to go!

Ultimates #12 - "Quorum"

• Glad we get a conclusion to some of the main stuff, although I'm not too mad about the less interesting plot points left over for Humphries to take on.
• Tony is revealed to have a sentient brain tumor; that tumor is sentient and has techkinesis. "Anthony" goes and talks to The City, convincing it to give up Reed Richards as the leader since he's made some choices that inhibit the COT and regress it for his control.
• Anthony builds a Iron-Man mech while Richards injects Hulk with giant-man serum. Big kaiju fight. Thor and Sue Richards come in to finish them both off.
• That's all I really care about haha.

Ultimate Hawkeye #1-4 + Ultimates #5-6 Annotated

[A Tale Of Two Cities]

Ultimate Hawkeye #1 - "I Don't Miss"

• Not a fun read! Boring!
• We get Hawkeye's perspective of the stuff going down in the SEAR.
• They made a virus to inhibit the X-Gene as well as a serum to build their own supers.
• Hawleye fights them.
• Nick Fury wants him to get the serum. 

Ultimate Hawkeye #2 - "Boogeyman"

• Hawkeye origin.
• SEAR supes end up taking over, they declare that SEAR is now called Tu'an.
• Fury sends Jean Grey/Karen Grant and Ultimate X along with Hulk to join Clint.

Ultimate Hawkeye #3 - "The Sun Is Setting"

• Tu'an is a floating city.
• Hawkeye leads Ultimate X to get the Serum while Hulk smashes shit.
• The gang meets a uber powerful super-human who shows them the serum, called the Source, as a huge green lake. He says there's more than enough.
• Hulk gets his ass beat by this universe's version of Xorn!

Ultimate Hawkeye #4 - "Celestial & Eternal"

• So we get the ultimate celestials, eternals, and deviants!
• Xorn leads the celestials, Zorn leads the eternals. Starheart and Singularity. Twin superpowers.
• Hulk gets yoinked to tibet and meets an old friend.
• Ultimate X stays behind.
• Tu'an opens its doors to anyone who wants to join.
• Hawkeye delivers the serum back to fury.

[The World]

Ultimates #5 - "Let The Bloodletting Begin"

• Nick mees with the president.
• Tony stark watches economic chaos in the American stock market, while the Kratos Club profits. He wants revenge for using his tech to kill thousands of people.
• Nick Fury leaves a dossier in Spider-woman's apartment about the new Spider-man, miles morales.
• Clint briefs the pentagon about the Tian stuff from the Hawkeye mini. The mutants who deserted shield are called the runaways.
• Thor has dinner with Jane while the ghosts of his fallen friends sit with him as well.
• Fury sends Falcon to sneak into the city to gather recon.
• Fury meets with Cap in the desert of New Mexico. American needs its captain.

Ultimates #6 - "Rewrite The Rules"

• Fury wants Steve as a symbol, to denounce the President. Steve declines Fury's offer.
• Tony meets with the Kratos Club. They dunk on him.
• Jamie talks to his comatose brother and then yells at his dad.
• Falcon makes his way through the city, but is caught by Maker. Maker reveals that his brain has been augmented to keep up with the children of tomorrow. He tells Falcon that there is no win against the Children, and gives free reign over the city to Falcon if he can explain the coming extinction.
• Clint and Fury make a new plan to beat the Children; teaming up with the metas from Tian.
• Black Widow serenades her kid.

Ultimates #1-4 Annotated

[The Republic is Burning]

Ultimates #1 - "That One Thing You Don't See Coming"

• In northern Germany, Reed Richards and the Children of Tomorrow engage the Dome. Here they can build...
• Nick Fury's morning is met with three fronts of battle. This is a segway from that sequence in #5 of Ultimate Fallout.
• Above Europe, Asgard descends, and apparently some of the Asgardians stole a shit ton of beer. In retaliation, the EUSS employs the Excalibur super soldiers led by Captain Britain Jamie Braddock.
• So SEAR is Southeast Asian Republic, good to know. Bangkok is in flames, but Hawkeye is on the way to deal with it.
• Uruguay/Argentine war is exploding: Argentine fleet is approaching Montevideo. Security council asks SHIELD to deal with it, so a task force led by Iron Man prepares to defuse the conflict.
• However, Tony is in Tokyo partying, and his new assistant William tries to pull him out. Tony keeps calling him Jarvis, what a douche. Tony plugs in remotely into his armor, leading the rocketmen against the Argentine fleet.
• Braddock and his gang storm Asgard in the middle of a feast, and declines a drink from Thor, pouring it out. Of course, he gets bitch slapped. Fury sends a group of Giant-Men to break up the fight.
• Iron Man enters one of the battleships only to find that it's completely empty...
• Braddock punches Thor out of Asgard, and he lands right in front of the Dome in Germany.
• Hawkeye talks to Nick, who tells him that the POTUS wants them to help SEAR in peacekeeping efforts. They deploy a Heli-carrier from the SEAR Triskelion.
• They suddenly lose contact with Hawkeye and the Heli-carrier; apparently the SEAR Triskelion is under attack. Fury sends an attack group out of Okinawa.
• Stark tells Fury about the ghost ship and breaks off shielding to find out what's up with the controls, only to discover a stark industries nuke ready to blow. The bomb goes off, and Tony is knocked unconscious from the feedback to his remote control.
• One of the Excalibur super-soldiers touches the outside edge of the Dome and is yanked in. We see that there is a bunch of crazy sci-fi shit going on with the COT, mechs and ships and wings and crap.
• Everything has gone wrong. Where is Cap when you need him?
• Black Widow, Spider-Woman, and the Hulk protocol on the back burner, but Fury doesn't know what to do...

Ultimates #2 - "Last Day of Legend"

• A new Ragnarök!
• In literally five minutes, the Dome closes and a thousand years pass within...
• Artificial children, collective hive minds, numeric designation naming conventions!
• The City gains sentience and a desire to expand.
• Reed now calls himself The Maker, and the First Speaker leads Tomorrow's Children against Thor and the Super-Soldiers.
• Tony is revived by William, activating a spare Iron Man suit.
• The COT analyze the super-soldiers as they fight, seeing that Thor is different.
• Giant Men are on the way as SHIELD still can't reach Hawkeye. Nick Fury makes contact with Tony, who believes the Kratos Club is behind the nuke detonation. Fury tells him to go to Germany.
• The COT analyze Thor, and Maker explains that he remembers him. COT discover that his god-energy is linked to Asgard, and Maker unleashes them to destroy the city.
• Braddock and super-soldiers leave to warn the world, while Captain France and Thor go to stop the invasion.
• Gods are getting killed left and right, so Thor takes his son Modi, gives him Mjolnir, and puts him in the room without doors. Odin is killed, but Loki and Thor fight on as Yggdrasil is destroyed. Loki dies too.
• Tony catches Thor, and the COT continue their genocide on the Asgardians.

Ultimates #3 - "There's No Win Here"

• Tony builds Thor a new suit and a new hammer that can teleport.
• One week after the fall of asgard, shit looks pretty dire. The excalibur supes have failed, and the giant men as well. The City overtakes a good part of Germany.
• It's a big fight in the sky against the COT.
• Nothing works out. Not even nukes.
• They escape after losing a couple of heli-carriers.
• Thor tells Tony his vengeance must be had, and goes alone to take on the COT.

Ultimates #4 - "The Man Behind The Mask"

• Thor attacks the City and discovers its genetic experimentation to artificially grow children.
• He frees Jamie Braddock, but is then ambushed by Maker and his rook, the Knife. Knife messes Thor up pretty bad.
• Maker lets him live, but reveals his true face as a warning. The City has reached current potential and will stop expanding, so long as the Republic and its heroes do not intervene.
• Thor is pissed, but communion with the spirits of his father and friends get him back on track, Thor has all of Valhalla in him now, he is the remnant of Asgard.
• "Do you lack faith brother... or do you believe?"
• Thor comes back to the Heli-carrier and tells everybody what happened, revealing that the Maker is in fact Reed Richards!

Ultimate Fallout by Bendis/Hickman Annotated

[Spider-Man No More]

Ultimate Fallout #1 - "Spider-Man RIP"

• Mourning!
• Grief!
• Sadness!
• Funeral where the whole city attends. Tony takes Aunt May and Gwen.
• May meets the little girl Peter saved from a fire. They hug.
• When they enter the cathedral, Steve Rodgers extends his condolences to the girls, while admitting that he is the one who caused Peter's death.

Ultimate Fallout #2 - "How The World Killed Spider-Man"

• Steve confesses to May his error in rejecting Peter as well as the fact that the bullet that hit him was meant for Cap.
• May slaps him an breaks down outside the church.
• Jameson helps her up, and they go back into the ceremony.
• The Thor segment was wonderful. I loved Hickman's Thor mini, and this seems like a spiritual sequel to that Ultimates prequel.
• Thor has a vision during the ceremony, claiming that Asgard will one day return with Odin, and that within Valhalla are the warriors who gave their lives for the greater good.
• We see Peter, Janet, Hank, Scott, and Wolverine feasting in the halls of Valhalla.
• Very touching.
• The Rogue stuff, I did not care for.
• Mary Jane types up an article: How the World killed Spider-Man.

Ultimate Fallout #3 - "Moving Forward"

• Tony recalls meeting with a dude named Jonathan Blackhaven at his brother's funeral.
• He is invited to Blackhaven's home in Zurich where he meets a group his brother was part of: The Kratos Club.
• Members include Valentina Allegra, discount winklevoss twins named Miroslav and Dieter Buchwald, Ming Xiang, and a 21-year-old billionaire named Damon Dunn.
• They want to play new world order and control the world. Tony thinks on it.
• Kitty Pride is pissed and angry at the world for its perceived hypocrisy.
• She finds Bobby Drake and Johnny Storm, inviting them to a supposed safe haven where they can escape the government if they don't use their powers...
• Jean Grey/Karen Grant pacifies Bruce Banner in his Hulk state, winning the favor of Nick Fury, who allows her and her friends protection if she can continue pacifying the Hulk.

Ultimate Fallout #4 - "New Kids on the Block"

• A new spider-man is on the scene, taking out some punk dreg named Kangaroo.
• Is this the first appearance of Miles Morales!?!?!
• The Reed sequence was fantastic.
• Your boy makes it out of the Negative Zone. Nice enough recap of Ultimate Enemy. Don't care at all to read that.
• He builds something called the Dome, enlisting a group of people called the Children of Tomorrow for his experiment of survival of the fittest...
• The Veronica Cooper stuff was absolute cheeks. I guess the world is about to find out the US gov created mutants. Don't care.

Ultimate Fallout #5 - "The Art of the Deal"

• Worst issue so far.
• Don't give a crap about Pietro's machinations. He wants to sell mutants as slaves.
• Fury is under the gun.
• War between Uruguay and Argentina.
• Asgard descends over the United Kingdom. The EUSS reactivates, prepping Captain Britain soldiers commanded by Jamie Braddock.
• The SEAR group is making meta-humans as well. No idea what they are about, but Fury sends Hawkeye to figure it out.
• Fury meets with Jasper Sitwell from the White House. They cut Fury's budget by 30%. He's pissed. Everyone's screwed.
• Pietro bangs Devon, but she turns into Scarlet Witch. Wanda tells him to go to Egypt.
• He was imagining it all! Or was he...

Ultimate Fallout #6 - "The Blame"

• May and Gwen take up Tony's offer, and decide to move to France.
• Kitty, Bobby, and Johnny move into the Morlock tunnels.
• Captain America quits, leaving his shield in the Triskelion with Nick Fury.
• Nick Fury visits Mary Jane. She's finished her manuscript for how the world killed Spider-Man.
• He reveals that he knew Peter's parents, and that he loved him. He tells Mary Jane that she's right to blame him. Nerds cry.