Ultimate Power #9 - Marvel

What an incredible book. Of course the story, by Jeph Loeb, was superb. And the artwork of Greg Land, was again . . . off the charts. We found out last issue that the probe that Reed had sent here was actually harmless. But, what he didn't know, is that Fury had intercepted it and had Doom make some alterations. Obviously when Doom found out they were coming to another world, he secreted himself aboard there ship, and then waited for the time to come forth and announce that this world would be his new playground. I mean, why not? The virus had already knocked out most of the world's competition, so all that stood between him and complete domination is the Squadron. But . . and I'm not sure why . . . Doom was actually one of his robots. So between this large group of heroes . . they took him out pretty handily. That was when Fury decided that the only way to stop the conflict is to introduce another threat. A threat that is larger than both sides, and will bring the two together. So he drops the Hulk on them. The second Squadron came from Wanda's magiks. She literally split each person in two to create the newer versions. The problem was that it made it difficult for both to function. So together, they went to her and begged her to fix it. She does eventually, but not until after they beat the Hulk. Also, the Hulk, literally, was beaten by Spider-man and Sue. Of course the knock-out blow came from Ben. But those 2 set it up. At the end, Spider-man reveals to everyone that the probe was altered by Doom, so they shouldn't be trying to punish Reed. Instead, they should look to Fury and Emil Burbank. They were co-conspirators in this endeavor. There's a few things that came out of this story. First, this is where Carol Danver takes of SHIELD. So now we know where Fury's been these last couple months. Secondly, Zarda has come to our world to keep an eye on the Ultimates. Which sets up future story-lines. And finally, up until this point, nobody really knew the extent of Wanda's powers. So, from now on, she's going to be someone they're going to have to keep an extra close eye on. This was a great series. I'm kinda' sorry to see it end. But, in ushered in a few interesting changes in the Ultimate Universe. Now we'll sit back and watch what happens.