Okay, just to get it out of the way: the Ultimatum storyline is poorly collected across three or four books. (I am hoping across only three, and that the epilogue book will at least have continuity[1] again.) I have read each of the three books in question, so I can say this with authority now, not merely the speculation that marked my last review. As a result, even Spider-Man’s take on the Ultimatum event is kind of disjointed. But here’s what I liked about it. While the other authors were stumbling past each other trying to figure out who could tell which part of whose story and in what order, Bendis got past the actual event as quickly as possible so that he could tell a smaller, more personal story about the immediate aftermath, and not incidentally about the nature of heroism.
The final issue of Spider-Man’s Ultimate run, #133, had the fewest words I think I’ve ever seen in a single comic issue. It may also have been the most affecting I’ve seen. And just to repeat myself, this in the midst of what has otherwise been a useless mishmash of tangled and rarely more than half-complete storylines. But, y’know, I should save a little vitriol for the next review, since this one deserves basically none whatever.
[1] The literary kind, not the years-or-decades-of-plot kind.
Re few words: There have been a number of issues of various comics that have done the “no words at all” thing. I always find it irritating, because I end up reading the issue in like 3 seconds. I am bad at looking at comic art.
Re Ultimatum: If what you hate is the fragmented telling, I 100% disrecommend Civil War. There are like reading guides online that tell you what order to read like a dozen graphic novels in so that the story is almost vaguely comprehensible, and even at that, it ends up being a mess. Marvel’s method of collecting stories just falls down completely with this sort of thing.
(If what you hate is just how lame it was, then I 50% disrecommend Civil War. Because the core stuff is objectively pretty lame, but a lot of the ancillary stuff is good — like what you’re saying above.)
Words: In some way, I appreciate the occasional lack, because I often feel like I give the art too short shrift as things stand. But with nothing *except* art, I force myself to try harder to pay attention to it. Still, Immomen’s art doesn’t do all that much for me yet (if ever), it’s a little too angular. What I liked here was not the art itself, but the effect.
Hatred: The fragmentation was definitely the least part, as you have perhaps seen by now.
Civil War: Someday.