We’ve turned the corner on a year’s worth of Ultimates comics, and now it’s time to gear up for the final sprint towards fighting The Maker. He’ll awake in six months for the characters and for readers, so time is of the essence. So far, Deniz Camp and Juan Frigeri have shown the Ultimates aren’t even close to ready, and in Ultimates #13, dangerous choices are made while the team attempts to gain favor from the youth of the world.
Ultimates #13 sends a message of hope. If you can help rehabilitate people and capture the interest of a generation, you can make a meaningful difference. There are two corners explored in this issue to gain an edge. One is Luke Cage, who frees imprisoned people, and the other is giving teens and young people a means to understand what is really going on and communicate without fear of repercussions. It’s about empowering those who are often overlooked or considered inferior. In this way, the events of this issue show grassroots efforts and hard work that require small wins that may amount to winning the war.
This issue bounces around quite a bit, opening with Wasp communicating with Iron Lad on their space station base. His eyes are blue and odd, which is certainly unnerving. Through his captions, which act as a letter to his father, Howard Stark, we get a play-by-play as events unfold. We see a meet-and-greet between the Ultimates and the teens, we check in on an attack on the Red Skull’s stronghold, and catch up with the monsters She-Hulk swears to protect.
What’s with his eyes?
Credit: Marvel
The most empowering is the work of the Ultimates in educating and preparing imprisoned people to fight. Acting as teachers, we see Doom, Captain America, and Iron Lad all helping Luke Cage in his efforts to free those who have been jailed and left to rot.
Outside of the Red Skull fight, which is all of two pages, most of this issue skims by smaller events. It shows how this team isn’t just a bunch of heroes, but creating a movement. It does a good job at this, although it does lack the impact of one big mission or a singular focus on one hero. Iron Lad may narrate the entire issue, but he’s absent or missing on many pages. The cliffhanger does progress the character in a way that Tony Stark fans will note is very on brand for him, though.
Frigeri draws another good issue with the many scene changes, feeling organic and natural. A scene stealer is a full-page splash of Iron Lad communicating with a god. The rendering of the clouds is realistic, and the thunderbolt eyes of the god are striking. The final page, along with Wasp’s reaction, helps convey that Iron Lad may have gone too far, even for a traitor like Wasp.
Ultimates #13 trades high-stakes battles for a quieter but powerful message about organizing, educating, and creating lasting change, even if its many moving parts occasionally undercut the momentum. It’s a reminder that sometimes saving the world starts by uplifting the people in it.
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