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.

Ultramega is an “Ultraman” riff, with creator James Harren bringing in a bunch of non-standard elements to give a very different feel. Starting with the kaiju being a lot more Lovecraftian, with tentacles and sharp-toothed mouths and sharp-toothed mouths on the end of tentacles. And the Ultramega—the Earth’s defenders who look like Ultraman and get gigantic to fight like Ultraman—have more of a Green Lantern bent for their origin. A very Silver Age alien communicates with three earthlings who soon become the planet’s defenders against the kaiju.

One problem—the only way to get the kaiju to reveal themselves (otherwise it’s a virus inhabiting unaware human hosts) is for the Ultramega to get close to a hidden kaiju. They trigger one another and lead to giant, very blood fights. Harren gets gross with the repercussions of skyscraper tall super-dudes fighting with monsters. Gross in a good way.

The issue’s a setup for the Ultramega as super dudes, while not really setting up Ultramega, the comic. There’s a fairly big twist in the comic and it doesn’t get to establishing what it’s going to be going forward. It’s a compelling tease; very definitely a tease.

Harren’s art is excellent. Great movement on the giant creatures fighting. Great pacing on it too. Ultramega feels very finished, very thoughtful. So even though Harren’s script does the big change-up, it works. Harren’s able to earn enough trust to survive and delay judgement on the next riff on the genre.

There’s some fun dialogue between the Ultramega guys. Harren’s also able to great some tension, particularly because he doesn’t shy away from the collateral damage of giant monster fights. It’s a fine balance between the heroes, their supporting cast, and the bad guys. The bad guys tend to be pretty gross, but never too gross. Ditto the gory fight scenes.

Ultramega is awesome—the fights, the twists, the fights—Harren can definitely draw it and there’s nothing concerning about the writing. I can’t wait for issue two (they’re all double-sized so there’s even enough story to them).