Ultimate Origins #4 - Marvel

This is a fantastic mini-series. The problem is, I don't see any way that they're going to be able to wrap all of this up in just 1 more issue. I wasn't overly impressed by either of the covers for this issue. I'm glad they were both for regular price. These obelisks that have been popping up everywhere? I think they are the Ultimate Universe's version of the Watchers. Apparently they show up whenever there's a significant event that's going to change, or shape, civilization. It tells Sue, "It's here to witness the most significant event of this generation. It just told me . . . it is here to witness the coming devastation." So apparently this series will lead directly into March on Ultimatum. We find out in this book though that Nick Fury was the original Super-soldier experiment. He was transformed about 90 years ago but he got scared and ran away. However, now he's come back to try to make up for his past transgressions. In that role he's been tasked by the President to develop the new Super-soldier formula. To that end he's recruited Doctor Franklin Storm, Richard Parker, Doctor Bruce Banner and Hank Pym. Doctor Storm is soon taken out of the equation and lent to the Army for the Baxter Building project. Richard is the calm on of the group, but it's hard for him to keep control of Bruce or Hank because they're both such mavericks. They've been told, specifically, that they aren't allowed to test on humans . . period. But when Bruce thinks that he's got the formula licked, he and Hank decided to test it on themselves. Bruce says he'll go first, and that's when he gets turned into the Hulk . . or the Ultimate Human, I guess, as he's called here. The resulting catastrophe is when Richard and his wife are killed, turning Peter into an orphan. Nick finds the baby in the rubble, and that's why, I think, he goes out of his way to protect him now that he's a teen-ager. He feels responsible for his parents. I'm not sure how all of this background story connects to the current one with the obelisks, but . . it'll have to all come together next issue, I guess. Since Brian Bendis is the creator of the Ultimate Universe, he's at the creative helm of this project. It appears that everything really is all connected. The interior work of Butch Guice's was fantastic. But then we've come to expect nothing less. I really can't wait to see how it all comes out next issue.