Hello and welcome to Comic Book Herald’s Hickmania, a series running through 2022 where we’ll be reading and analyzing the creator-owned works of writer Jonathan Hickman, from his debut The Nightly News through to his most recent output. We’ll be reading one creator-owned work a month through 2022, and each month I’ll release a new analysis with a new guest discussing the comic!
Today we’re talking Hickman’s Ultimates
and I’m joined by Charlotte Fierro & Zack “The Snack” Deane from My Ultimate Year. We’ll analyze the work in depth, so expect spoilers!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Previously: Past episodes of Hickmania
Topics today include:
- How does Hickman’s approach to the Ultimates fit into the broader Marvel Ultimate Universe context?
- What corners of the Marvel Universe does Hickman pull into his vision for the Ultimates?
- All the ways Ultimates and Ultimate Hawkeye predict what’s to come in Hickman’s Avengers and X-Men runs!
- Where does Hickman’s Ultimates rank in comparison to the rest of the Marvel Ultimate Universe?
- Why did Hickman’s Ultimates end so early, and what might have been?!
Hickman on EW, circa Secret Wars: “I think that Ultimate stuff that Esad and I did is one of the best things I’ve done at Marvel. It was unquestionably a failure, but it wasn’t because the book wasn’t good, it was because it was the same time the New 52 came out. .. It got completely crushed under a wave of product. That was a bummer, because the one book that I wanted to do when I started at Marvel was the Ultimates, and do it in a way where I’m basically building in the Ultimate universe…you’re not constrained by continuity in the same way that you are when you’ve got 60 other books coming out in the regular Marvel line. I desperately wanted that book to succeed. I would’ve done that book for years.”
Ultimate Comics Ultimates is:
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Esad Ribic, Brandon Peterson, Rafa Sandoval
Colors: Dean White, Brad Anderson
Letters: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Marvel
Referenced interviews:
https://ew.com/article/2015/01/29/jonathan-hickman-secret-wars-its-end-horror-story/
Schedule:
January 2022 – The Nightly News
February 2022 – Pax Romana
March 2022 – Transhuman / Ultimates
April 2022 – A Red Mass For Mars
May 2022 – The Red Wing
June 2022 – The Manhattan Projects
July 2022 – Secret
August 2022 – God is Dead
August/Sept 2022 – East of West
October 2022 – The Dying and the Dead
November 2022 – The Black Monday Murders
December 2022 – Decorum
December 2022 – 3W3M
Hi Dave,
My name is Brandon Chandler. I am a friend of Nathan Peyson, who works for your site doing many of the reading orders. I wanted to reach out because I saw you were doing a Hickmania coverage of all of Jonathan Hickman’s various titles and I was wondering if I might be able to chime in for an episode or two. I have read every single book Hickman has put out (twice) and know them incredibly intimately. I even see that April and May’s episodes will be dedicated to A Red Mass for Mars and The Red Wing, both of which I know very well. I understand this may be a little unorthodox, but I hope you will consider having me as a collaborator as I’d love to chime in. Thanks so much and I hope to hear from you soon!
Best,
Brandon Chandler