Seldes Katne said:
I went back and read this again. The re-read cleared up the problem of the time jumping, but it did leave me with a few other confusing events. Such as:
- When did Nick Fury get demoted to colonel? He was still a general in the Ultimate Six story arc, which was three or four arcs ago.
This is just Bendis being a dumb-*** again. Either that or we can assume the reporter was a dumb-*** and mistakenly referred to him as a Colonel. One of the two. I mean he's been a general since after UXM #11 when Ross (supposedly) died.
- What’s the deal with Mr. Shaw? At one point I thought he might be a figment of Harry’s imagination, but he does seem to interact with the physical world, and I don’t think Harry would be able to shut his own memories off and on with the “cellar door” codeword, so presumably Shaw really is there. So he has access to some form of stealth technology? Or has some innate ability to render himself invisible? Was that explained somewhere, and I missed it?
I think this is one of those things Bendis left open, to explore further in a later arc. I think Shaw at this point was a figment of Harry's imagination as a result of the hypno-therapy (see the Legacy arc, USM #22-27 to see what I mean). See Fight Club to see how he's interacting with the real world.
- Some of the characters’ motivations are escaping me. I’m not entirely certain I understand the point behind having Harry ask Peter about Norman Osborn’s whereabouts. If Norman is in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, why would Shaw expect Peter to know where he is? Is this some sort of set-up to get Harry killed? Why? How is that going to help find Norman Osborn? The only thing I can think of is that Shaw assumes S.H.I.E.L.D. will take Harry (or Harry’s corpse, if he’s killed) to the same place that they’re holding his father.
Cuz if Shaw's a figment of Harry's mind, then he only knows what Harry knows. And since as far as Harry is concerned Peter is involved with Norman's disappearance (see the ending of Ultimate Six), he thinks he'll know where he is.
- Apparently Harry does have a death wish. Or are Harry and the Hobgoblin actually two different characters inhabiting the same body, and it’s the Hobgoblin that’s seeking death?
I think Harry is ashamed of what he's become. Can't really offer any more insight than that.
- By the end of Issue 77, Fury decides it’s time for Peter to lose his spider powers. If they’re still trying to figure out how Oz works, what method would they use to render Peter’s powers inert? If they can do that to him, why can’t they do the same to the Ultimate Six villains? Or have they? (Don’t remember seeing this, but I could have missed it, I suppose.)
They're still trying to figure out how to do it, that why Fury mentions wanting it solved by his birthday. Hence all the illegal genetic mutations still having their powers.
I rummage around the USM forum for clues, but I think the point of UltimateE’s original question was to see what people thought about the trade if they had no advance knowledge of the issues. I thought this was an acceptable arc, but it did leave a lot of unanswered questions for me. The cover was all right, about the same as a couple of other covers in the trade series (#4 with the Goblin, #6 with Venom, for example). I would consider this to be an open-ended arc, with the expectation that we’ll be revisiting Shaw and/or Harry’s situation again at some point in the future.
Definitly open-ended. We'll see a return of Hobgoblin sometime in the future (hopefully with Norman joining him, and maybe the rest of the Ultimate Six so that they don't have to rely on Peter being the sixth member).
Marvelman, you just made my evening. I don't know a single woman who doesn't appreciate being told she looks younger than she is. Thanks!
