Broken Frontier

After the catastrophic attacks on the Ultimates last issue, Jonathan Hickman takes some time to develop the Ultimate version of his Future Foundation. Hickman is at his best as he weaves an incredibly expansive history around the evil FF, which is told in stunning detail thanks to Esad Ribic’s high-caliber art skills.

The FF have holed themselves up in a dome where time passes at an accelerated rate, which allows them to build and breed to astonishingly advanced levels. When he is on fire, Hickman’s writing has such great depth that the richness of his story seems to expand far beyond the pages. This issue, he is an erupting volcano. The FF’s ability to evolve on the spot seems wondrous at first, but when the FF discover the source of Thor’s power and go after Asgard, it shows just how brutal that ability can be.

These events also allow for Thor to take the spotlight and earn a touching character moment. A siege on Asgard could seemingly take up an entire series by itself, but Hickman keeps the narrow focus on his characters and pushes their interactions to the spotlight, making Thor’s reaction bigger than the destruction of his home.  

Esad Ribic’s art looks gorgeous on every page. Moments of horror are appropriately sold with nightmarish visuals and terrified facial expressions, while moments of awe are given proper space and scale to truly create a sense of wonder. The design for the FF in their mechanical exoskeletons make them look like a swam of angry insects, although there is one that sticks out of the crowd who could be friends with Robert Kirkman’s Battle Pope. Dean White’s colors maintain the realistic tone of the book, although a few characters look too shiny, like a plastic mannequin. Tony Stark also bounces back, but he is given little to do. His one take-off scene is supposed to look exciting, but the image is static instead of in motion.  Regardless, one would be hard-pressed to find a better looking book out this week.