"I can't feed on the powerless, when my cup's already overfilled..."
This was an "Age of Ultron Aftermath," but not what I thought it was going to be, and it leads right into another event because of course it does. From 2013, Hunger #1, written by Joshua Hale Fialkov, art by Leonard Kirk.
I no longer have an innate sense of when crossovers were or in what order, since I thought this was going to be after the Galactus appearances, with Ultron, in Infinity Countdown, but this was five years earlier? Really? So, I wasn't expecting the lead for this one to be Rick Jones--the Rick Jones from the Ultimate universe. Boo. Rick Jones has cosmic power here, from a Watcher, which in the Ultimate U. isn't a big bald guy, but a really judgey-sounding fancy pillar. Rick didn't seem like he was getting a lot in the way of training or even basic instructions, but "abandons his post" to go to earth for a burger (those Ultimate kids love their burgers!) which he doesn't get to eat, as he's teleported to the middle of the Kree/Chitauri War. Which is interrupted by the arrival of the Gah Lak Tus swarm.
The Watcher doesn't so much guide Rick, as much as tell him how momentous everything is; particularly when Galactus from the 616-proper Marvel Universe arrives, is swarmed by, and then merges with Gah Lak Tus! Directing the swarm as a herald, Galactus hungers...Rick would get an upgrade a bit further in the series, but that feels like they just wanted to get that character into the Ultimate Universe before wrapping it up; since this leads directly into Cataclysm. Of course, the Ultimate U. is being rebooted again now, so...
Anyway, I went into this expecting something else, so that's on me.
There was a sequence that reminded me of a bit I like a lot better, in Baron and Rude's Nexus: Alien Justice, where the Merk "phases out" Horatio as Nexus, to give aliens a shot at the job: he later complains, the demon he gave powers to took them and the costume and hadn't been seen since!
Could just be me, but the moment someone on the scale of a Galactus casually enters an alt universe should be played up as a much bigger deal than it feels given how his arrival was laid out. Could just be me, but THIS is the time when a heavy, verbose dialogue-laden intro & description you used to only find on old comics would apply to accurately convey how momentous this all is. Then it’s comics, and doing the impossible on a regular basis is the norm for the medium right? Anyhoo, how cool was it that Galactus & his UU counterpart met, merged & went to go eat EVERYTHING? Having not read the miniseries, I can only imagine how much of a Herculean effort it took from both universes to fix this one.
LOVE Hunger Strike. That whole album actually. Definitely a shame the group didn’t last much longer than its initial purpose as a tribute to the lead singer of Mother Love Bone. I know Cornell & Vedder had their own VERY successful bands as it was, but I’d have loved for them to have reunited at least once more before Cornell’s death.
Could just be me, but the moment someone on the scale of a Galactus casually enters an alt universe should be played up as a much bigger deal than it feels given how his arrival was laid out. Could just be me, but THIS is the time when a heavy, verbose dialogue-laden intro & description you used to only find on old comics would apply to accurately convey how momentous this all is. Then it’s comics, and doing the impossible on a regular basis is the norm for the medium right?
ReplyDeleteAnyhoo, how cool was it that Galactus & his UU counterpart met, merged & went to go eat EVERYTHING? Having not read the miniseries, I can only imagine how much of a Herculean effort it took from both universes to fix this one.
LOVE Hunger Strike. That whole album actually. Definitely a shame the group didn’t last much longer than its initial purpose as a tribute to the lead singer of Mother Love Bone. I know Cornell & Vedder had their own VERY successful bands as it was, but I’d have loved for them to have reunited at least once more before Cornell’s death.