BATTLEWORLDBATTLEWORLD

Round 1, Battle 4

follow the bracket here!

INFERNO #1

VS

ULTIMATE END #1

Okay, so comic books are a major thing right now and everyone is good with that. It’s cool because I am also super good with that. I’m not going to freak out about it so stop thinking that I’m going to freak out about it. Today, instead of freaking out, we’re going to look at the merits of Ultimate End 001 vs. Inferno 001. One is about a bunch of superheroes doing things and the other is also that. Okay, stalemate. Let’s do this.

Not a picture of me about to write this article.

Inferno is a crazy tale of someone named Piotr (which is an admittedly stupid name) trying to rescue his sister, whose name is also painfully Russian. She is trapped (or not) in a living, breathing tower that was once the Empire State building but now houses hell on Earth (or at least a crazy fucking den of dastardly demons). Got it? Good. Ultimate End follows basically every superhero from the Marvel universe that has had or will soon have a film dealing with a gigantic rip in the universe that has caused all kinds of things to happen that very clearly should not have happened. With me so far? Great. Without spoiling too much of the sweet pages of either issue, Ultimate End is our winner. And while it does have a slightly better known cast of crazy characters, the reason it is the victor in this battle is two-fold.

Not seen in either book, Bikosaurus Rex, whose powers are far too numerous and obvious to name.

To begin with, comic books are won and lost between the huge battle scenes. You know the type; big, hulking monsters getting punched and kicked by our superheroes while dealing out their own brand of pain over two or three pages where the only dialogue is “ooooof” or “faboom”. In between those pages, you get a voice, an idea and a perspective of what an author is trying to do with his cast. What does Brian Michael Bendis have to say about Spiderman that hasn’t been spewed across pages and screens for decades? When a group of heroes is chatting, does the dialogue bend to the characters or do the characters find a way to fit into the narrative? While Inferno does a good job of making me care about characters like Colossus and Domino that I am all but completely unfamiliar with, Ultimate makes familiar characters act in an unfamiliar way and I buy it hook, line and sinker.

Psych! I don’t care about Domino!

As if that weren’t enough, the artwork in Ultimate blends and helps the story in a much more natural way than Inferno. With Inferno, Javier Garron is doing masterful work that makes you forget that you’re reading and feel like you’re watching. Unfortunately, Inferno drew the short straw in being forced to spar with Ultimate, which finds a way to balance Bendis’ insane balance of humor and action with Mark Bagley’s odd ability to enhance or counteract those moments through his artwork. Even with his seemingly intuitive knowledge of how to work with Bendis, without a doubt, Bagley’s most impressive artistic moment was his ability to turn a bright white light into something that you felt you had to squint at until you realize that it’s a fucking comic book and the light isn’t actually getting brighter.

Psshh, like I care about bright lights. I don’t even care about Domino…

For everything Inferno did right, Ultimate End found a way to do super right. It’s easy to get immersed in both books right off the bat, but in a battle of comic books, it only seems fair that the most super challenger moves on.

With Love,
Jason R. Noble