Property of the Army?

[E]

We saw in Ultimate FF #5 that the Army general called Ben, Reed, & Johnny "Army personnel" - does that mean the Ult. Fantastic 4 are to the Army what the Ultimates are to S.H.I.E.L.D.?

That would be a pretty cool, realistic take on super-powered beings - it only makes sense that there would be some sort of attempt at control as shown in Ult. Spidey and Ult. X-Men rather than just a band of weirdos deciding to use their powers for good.

It would also be interesting to see if they are part of the Army how that will affect merchandising, assuming that the FF will be like movie stars and sell t-shirts, etc. Will profits go to the Army?

 

[supermusli]

I always got the impression that SHIELD and the Army are not separate, but rather that SHIELD is a special branch of the army (like the "peacekeeping secret undercover black ops superhuman"-branch), or perhaps that the regular army is under SHIELD controll, depending on how you see it. After all, Captain America seems to have authority over the army, and not only the special SHIELD-troops. And wasn´t General Ross head of SHIELD in Ultimate X-men, with Nick Fury replacing him when he dies?

Of course, organisations can very well change. At least it seems to me that SHIELD got at lot more independency from the army after Fury became the boss, and with the creation of the Ultimates.

So, it could go something like this:
United States Defense:
a)=>Navy
b)=>Army
c)=>Air Force
d)=>SHIELD:
d1)=> Ultimates
d2)=> Black Ops
d3)=> Xavier Institute (X-men)

So... where does this leave the fantastic four?

 

[ThatOneGuy]

I always got the impression that SHIELD and the Army are not separate, but rather that SHIELD is a special branch of the army

yeah, and i see the fantastic 4 as another "branch". where S.H.I.E.L.D. is like a mini-army, the fantastic 4/baxter building are like an R&D department.

 

[supermusli]

I always got the impression that SHIELD and the Army are not separate, but rather that SHIELD is a special branch of the army

yeah, and i see the fantastic 4 as another "branch". where S.H.I.E.L.D. is like a mini-army, the fantastic 4/baxter building are like an R&D department.

On the other hand... In Ultimates #2, Nick Fury doesn´t want to involve the FF in the Ultimates, because of their bad publicity lately. This suggests that the FF are not so close to the SHIELD - at least not officially (we know that SHELD doesn´t have any problems with recruiting even mutant terrorists as long as no one knows about it).

Could it be that the Baxter Building is a self sufficent company, who recieves funding from the army for some of its more special research (like Reeds teleportation-project)? So the army is just one of the sponsors, but not the supreme owner...

 

[Dark_Images]

If the Four are Army property, wouldn't Doom's attack on the Baxter Building technically be a declaration of war on the U.S. Army?

 

[Goodwill]

It would also be treason seeing as how he, too, was in the Baxter Building... He has powers that came from the Negative Zone, too.

Should be an interesting title with all the little hints about the Four in the other Ultimate titles.