Thank goodness it’s double-sized. Ultramega definite needs the double-size, what with creator James Harren introducing an entirely—sort of—new cast who’ll be taking over the comic from now on. The previous issue was very prologue-y, complete with the cliffhanger being set twenty years in the future. This issue’s got its own, Kirby-esque (squishy Kirby-esque) prologue, all about the the birth of the Kaiju and the Ultramega, which will tie into this issue’s soft cliffhanger (and refer back to the previous issue).
Ultramega #2 is the first comic in a while where I went back to the previous issue to confirm details. Harren lays a lot of groundwork, so it’ll probably read great in a trade. Anyway. This issue.
This issue’s about seemingly series protagonist Noah—I won’t got through all the character names, but another reason it’s good Harren got double-size is because he introduces maybe seven characters this issue–who was in last issue as a baby. He’s grown up to fight the bad guys even though he really should just be trying to help out with his friends so they can all get to the good city so they aren’t living in the Cursed Earth anymore.
Harren splits the issue pretty evenly between exposition and action, with Noah’s trip to the city—not the good city, the Cursed Earth city—revealing a bunch about his backstory. Harren’s art is good enough he can get away with the telling and not showing; he’s got a nice sense of animation to the talking heads sequences, able to work some drama into the conversations.
The cliffhanger’s decent. I’m confident Harren will do something solid with it next issue, but the meat of the comic’s in between cliffhanger resolve and cliffhanger setup, so I’ve got an impatience about it.
Ultramega’s good. There are some precarious places Harren might end up—Noah’s not off to the best start as protagonist—but it seems like he’ll be able to navigate them.
Especially with double-sized issues.
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