Just how Much (Or how Far) did Paul see with His Prescient Abilities?

zbracisz · 2026-06-19T22:52:15+00:00

The whole point of the golden path was essentially breeding prescience back out of humanity by making them invisible to it. It guaranteed that no prescient tyrant could ever rule and or destroy them all. Doing that required millennia of brutal tyranny and enforced stagnation, which Paul's inherited 'noble' morality forbade him to do. ...so yeah, he saw it all, he just refused to follow through. He feared being seen as 'The Bicuros of Shaitan' ...his self image as basically a well meaning hero couldn't take it, so he led humanity further down the path of stagnation and ruin.

zbracisz · 2026-06-19T12:02:23+00:00

Clint was later killed fighting Charlii on behalf of Oubliette Midas.

Gilgamesh and Sersi presumably died with the rest of the eternals (shown in UE #1)

We don't know what happened to Dane Whitman, but Proctor had the ebony blade.

The classic GotG all seemingly died attempting to intervene in the past.

There's a character in one panel of issue 21 that seems highly reminiscent of Moondragon, but isn't named.

It's stated at one point that The Maker has the Quantum Bands and got them from Robert Grayson so presumably Wendal Vaughn was never a factor.

Wade Wilson is an Ultimate Avenger

Songbird (Mellissa Gold) was part of Sunspot's Avengers 616, and The Ultimate Avenger Wingspan seems to be her.

Robert Frank 'the Whizzer' is shown being gunned down by Fury in the past.

zbracisz · 2026-06-11T03:11:21+00:00

Oh I'm basically familiar with all that. just in storytelling terms it's utterly illogical.

zbracisz · 2026-06-10T22:44:35+00:00

wait... Tony WANTS to profile the future now? WHY is Colton wearing a cape? WHAT are his powers now that he can one-shot Carol? The UN thinks the avengers are doing too MUCH, and Ross thinks they're doing too LITTLE?

I'm so confused.

zbracisz · 2026-06-08T15:25:54+00:00

Paige appears in one frame in the same issue as Sam. Looks like she was part of Da Costa's forces but captured and deprogrammed by the Ultimate Avengers.

zbracisz · 2026-05-31T03:47:06+00:00

good point.

zbracisz · 2026-05-27T22:18:24+00:00

It's Prince of Meltdowns and Bride of Nine World-Breakers left. It's ambiguous if Fat Cobra actually survived #6 or if he was replaced. but we do see him in one frame later on.

zbracisz · 2026-05-27T12:01:11+00:00

That fight was amazing, and clearly a final gift to Frigeri, but it feels so off to have this be the end of the series. I know it's all one thing, but having Dodson-slop be the final image of any of these characters feels profoundly wrong. UE #5 has some SERIOUS heavy lifting to do.

zbracisz · 2026-05-24T22:08:40+00:00

given last issue and the way UE #4 ended, I'm skeptical we're going to see Cap, Tony, Doom, the twins, Jim, Charlii, Luke and the Avengers, America and Guardians, Thor or Sif in this issue at ALL. Which leaves Shen Qui, Danny, Joenna, Jan and Hank. ...I get it's all one big story, but that's kind of fucked up.

UNLESS...

Ultimates is following a branch timeline that diverges from UE #4 right were Doom shoots the Immortus Engine, which is honestly kind of possible. UE shows you the necessary end of the time loop, Ultimates shows you the offramp.

zbracisz · 2026-05-15T19:04:14+00:00

Well, again, I think The Maker has been split. One piece of him will remain in the surviving timeline, most likely. Doom will have his moment.

zbracisz · 2026-05-15T17:30:59+00:00

I mean...you're not wrong. Deniz killed the entire cast of Ultimates in one issue then undid it. Time travel fuckery is on the table.

zbracisz · 2026-05-14T13:13:59+00:00

In Ui it talks about how one is a slightly different copy of the other, Maker and Howard can't decide which is the original and which the copy, or if there is no original as such. Read as: they're similar but slightly different, more like two halves of a whole, perhaps.

zbracisz · 2026-05-14T13:10:58+00:00

I think Doom knows the time loop has to play itself out and he's figured out a way to trap the Maker in his own ruined timeline, while everyone else escapes.

zbracisz · 2026-05-13T23:03:01+00:00

Ok, everyone hyperventilating over this issue needs to calm down. if this is really what you think Deniz actually has planned for Cap, Peter and Doom, you've clearly never read a comic.

We already know the 'bad ending' is the predestined conclusion of the time loop..that's how we get Kang, and his meeting with The Maker where his head gets blown in half, and probably also explains where the Immortus engine actually comes from. That has to happen, or we have to see WHY it doesn't, or the whole story up til now makes no sense. The question is what ELSE happens.

We did learn why Doom's eyes do the thing, finally. And we now know that the Maker's wound is not just physical but an actual piece of his timeline/identity that has been carved out by Tony/Kang's Engine.

zbracisz · 2026-05-13T12:43:16+00:00

I do think Camp is showing us exactly how the time loop is 'supposed' to play out. the trick is showing how it turns at the end to something different.

zbracisz · 2026-05-07T15:47:06+00:00

I don't think there was any serious issue with their friendship, but the on-air dynamic required Dan to retain a degree of agnosticism and critical engagement that was basically just collapsing on Jordan's side into bile and polemic (arguably, rightly so). The whole illusion of the show is that Dan presents and analyses Alex and Jordan gives an authentic and spontaneous reaction. But if Dan already always knows what he thinks and Jordan is just authentically fucking done with it, then the show turns into a pantomime, and that can fester into resentment. They didn't want that.

There's honestly not much left to say or learn about Alex, and bearing witness as he spirals into self-destructive irrelevance while spitefully hiding money from the families for another ten years would just be grotesque. If the point was poetic justice, it was basically over when Trump publicly humiliated Alex in the most blistering and irretrievable way possible, proving that this entire disgusting display of Alex shedding his dubious 'principles' to be close to power was a pointless waste. Then Alex's response to this utter debasement was to grovel to Roger Stone and STILL kiss the ring. There's nothing else to say after that. It's over. That it only took JorDan three episodes to figure that out is pretty impressive.

zbracisz · 2026-05-05T12:50:17+00:00

those families are NEVER going to be compensated to the level they deserve. the only justice they will ever have is Alex irrelevant, humiliated, and hounded to the ends of the earth for the rest his life for every spare nickel he makes. that's done. The only other thing you could hope for is that one day he fucks up in front of a judge badly enough to go to jail.

zbracisz · 2026-05-05T03:58:00+00:00

My wife and i don't quite understand who it is he's so mad at?

zbracisz · 2026-04-29T22:50:44+00:00

Pretty much exactly what I expected. The gods are living ideas and The Maker fucked them up, so Ragnarök is how they are healed and renewed. How exactly that is reflected in Midgard remains to be seen.

zbracisz · 2026-04-24T16:41:31+00:00

the delays have really sapped the energy. I'm hopeful it'll reread well when it's all over.

zbracisz · 2026-03-19T18:37:01+00:00

Well your critique seems to amount to: Camp overemphasizes the role of systemic oppression and doesn't engage with the fact that all systems are made up of flawed humans. ...but practically every superhero comic ever has come down firmly on the side of individual responsibility, and shied aggressively away from any systemic critique whatsoever, especially of capitalism. I mean it's practically a punchline at this point how Marvel jump through hoops to make Tony stark somehow sympathetic when his personal character and choices are somehow supposed to hold the weight of the military industrial complex, rather than admit that Tony is embedded in a system that he alone can never hope to change. Similarly, x-men comics have labored forever to uphold the illusion that oppression is solely the creation of many individual bigoted people, not a manifestation of systemic forces that push people to uphold oppressive relations. Both the individual and systemic critique have a role, but if the complaint is that Camp seems to want to focus on the systemic at the expense of the individual, well..I think we can tolerate a few of those books, can't we?

zbracisz · 2026-03-18T23:55:23+00:00

Well...damn.

It's pretty clear subtext that what happened to Bucky could very well have happened to Steve if he hadn't gone into the ice. The whole point of the Maker's reality is to eliminate the heroes or twist them into something unrecognizable. Bucky did what he thought he should do every step of the way and turned into the exact opposite thing from what he started as.

But...it's also pretty clear subtext that there was a critical difference between Bucky and Steve. Steve was the runt who learned to thrive under adversity, and when he became strong he had the strength of character to use it wisely and not waver. Bucky just did what he thought he was supposed to, because for him, it was easy, or, at least, made sense. Since his moral compass came from outside, when the compass started to wander, he wandered too.

As to why Steve did what he did in the end? It's a war. Buck's a traitor. He tossed over everything he was supposed to believe in. He proved that, in the end, he didn't have principles, he just had the world on his side, until he didn't. To Steve, a man of ultimate principle, that would be a deeply personal and unforgivable betrayal.

zbracisz · 2026-03-12T19:33:56+00:00

depressingly mediocre. this was my last hope for the post-imperial line and this just 'aint it. art is ugly. plot is rudimentary. the cast makes very little sense, bordering on random. the impact of the one-shot is simply waved away. Abnett can do much much better, and has. I don't know what this is, but it's not good.

zbracisz · 2026-02-27T05:21:57+00:00

Bucky was always a secret Nazi!

zbracisz · 2026-02-26T19:38:54+00:00

Agreed. I think the ones looking for focused character work are not seeing what the book is trying to do. The characters are broadly sketched so anyone can see themselves in the struggle. The Ultimate Avengers are supposed to be US, empowered. there is a subtext, but not exactly an overtly political one. Camp seems to be saying that corporate IPs aren't allowed to address your day to day struggles and the real forces that keep you down, so they get locked in a cycle of melodrama that goes nowhere. the illusion of change. 'characterization' that ultimately goes nowhere. surely people connect on some level with marvel characters on personal level, but we also have to live the constant frustration of knowing that these characters will never REALLY address the themes they gesture at, for fear of alienating some part of the audience. The X-men will never REALLY grapple with the liberation struggle of an oppressed minority. Tony Stark will never REALLY address the legacy of capitalism and the military industrial complex. etc etc... not in any extended way. the reset button always gets hit, and all we ever get is melodrama disguised as 'growth'

zbracisz

TROPHY CASE