The Ultimates was my favorite comic of 2024, and the hits continue with The Ultimates #9. With mere months from The Maker returning at full force, the Ultimates continue to bring new heroes into the fold. This month, it’s all about Luke Cage, but will a man unfairly imprisoned and oppressed even want to join Tony Stark’s Ultimates?
The Ultimates #9 is a time-jumping issue, opening in 2005, jumping to 2025, back to 2019, and so on and so forth. It’s an effective way of showing Luke Cage’s transformation and how prison breaks and prison riots formed the man he has become. Right off the bat, we learn he’s put in prison at only 15 years old for doing nothing at all, while the reader understands it was likely The Maker trying to take him off the board. The problem is, if you try to break Luke Cage’s spirit, this issue reveals you’ll likely get something far stronger to fight later on.
Outside of how Luke Cage became a grizzled freedom fighter, this issue is also an obvious commentary on the cruelty and unjust prison system, especially in America. In one key scene, writer Deniz Camp uses Luke to detail how prisoners are a kind of slavery and are turned into “non-people.” The commentary is an important one and a reminder of how American prison systems are more unjust and cruel than they are fair.
Luke Cage lives a hard life.
Credit: Marvel
It’s exactly what is being done to Luke, but we see he’s motivated to learn and educate himself to understand that and hopefully escape. Now, without a nudge from Iron Lad, maybe he couldn’t escape, but it’s a reminder of how there are very real people in this same situation across the nation.
Chris Allen, who uses a nine-panel grid on nearly every page of the issue, comes in as a guest artist. With 13 pages of 9-panel grids, Allen gets to slow down the pace and really put you in Luke Cage’s shoes. A single wordless panel of Luke’s hands in handcuffs says it all; for instance, when we meet Danny Rand, we get beat for the beat of their conversation. It’s a strong way to make this a character piece rather than a conventional story.
How this fits into the larger narrative is a plus and a minus for the issue. On the positive side, we get a key scene with Iron Lad that helps us understand where Luke Cage fits into things. On the negative side, it’s fairly open-ended, and it’s unclear where Luke goes from here. My guess is he pops up at some point as a surprise, but I’m not even sure what Luke’s goal is unless it’s to shut down prisons. That’s my guess, but it’s not explicitly said. At the very least, the cliffhanger to the issue promises a bigger plot progressing reveal.
The Ultimates #9 masterfully jumps around the life of Luke Cage with an intense character focus that also shines a light on the injustices of the prison system. While the issue succeeds as a compelling standalone narrative, its lack of clarity regarding Luke’s future within the overarching plot could leave some readers wanting more resolution.
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