A Few Thoughts on Comics from this week

Some over-due mini-series finally see their end, some story-arcs wrap up and two outstanding books make for an interesting week of books. Let's start with the joy, shall we?

The Muppet Show Comic Book has started as a series of mini-series. The first four issue series took some time to focus on some main characters (Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo, and Miss Piggy) and establish the style for the books. This week the second mini started under the story title 'The Treasure of Peg Leg Wilson'. This four issue arc will apparently follow a few storylines rather than the 'one and done' of the first mini-series. I have no problem with this and this issue continued on with the joy I received from the first set. The structure of the issue still follows the structure of the original show: there are backstage storyline scenes, sketches, and a closing number, all of which may or may not be impacted by the others. There are, as I see them, three plot threads for the overall arc: a map that indicates a treasure is hidden in the Muppet Theatre, Kermit returns from a 'dentist appointment' (on Sesame Street, Grover couldn't Kermit a toothbrush because he has no teeth) acting strangely, and Animal is part of a Muppet Labs experiment to make him smarter which has the unfortunate side effect of making him a drummer that lacks passion. Oh, and there's a ninja tap dancer. Wayne and Wanda appear in this issue. Animal gets a country club membership. The Swedish Chef makes onion soup. This is good stuff here!

Fantastic Four #569 is the final part of the 'Masters of Doom' storyline as well as the end of Millar and Hitch's run on the book. Wow! I think I can explain the awesomeness of this issue, and indeed this entire run, with a quote: 'You are of no consequence. I bear as little animus for you as the brainless megalodon that tore me asunder.' Over the top craziness that, somehow, makes sense. Love it.

Long over-due Ultimatum #5 finally came out this week. A bunch more Ultimate characters die or probably die. Possibly die? Anyway, for a universe that was the 'anything could happen' universe, a lot of anything did happen. Was all this death in order to reset the Ultimate Universe as something separate, something clearly different from the regular Marvel Universe? Or was it an excuse to kill off a bunch of characters? At this point, it's hard to tell. We really won't know until the new stories begin and the books either continue to forge ahead or if they just continue to revamp old characters in new forms. To me the most telling part of the whole process so far was the epilogue to the book, with the 'No More Mutants' chant. In theory, the Ultimate Universe needed this big 'shock' as the regular Marvel Universe had grown too much like it. The chant told me differently, this book was the Ultimate Universe's version of the 'House of M' storyline, just done more 'realistically'. Everyone was more violent. Everyone seemed to be more 'justice means I must kill you now'. The only character that didn't seem to follow that path was Spider-Man and he was missing for most of the series. In the end, as much as I was enjoying this crazy roller-coaster ride, I'm left with a feeling of 'ugh'. I'm debating whether or not to even bother giving the relaunched Ultimate Comics a try. There's 'heat of the moment, this is war' stuff and then there's the 'you must be punished' moments that don't feel right for the characters. One I get, can understand, the other, not so much. I know this has reached 'ramble' mode because I try to avoid spoilers here but I'm just a bit disappointed, that's all.