After a promising start, Stohl's run was derailed by its tie-in arc that has been mediocre mess from start to finish, doing little interesting with its cast despite the admirable attempt to build uo supporting characters for Carol.

Secret Empire's story started promising, in the middle was good and interesting but then things fell down miserable. The whole art style and portrayal of heroes look properly. Climax leaves reader
with two questions - "Who in the world could've given a green light for such worthless and disappointing event?" and "Who and How will bring balance to the Marvel Universe?"
(Although it's better than Civil War II and Inhumans vs. X-Men) more

Really wanted to like this conclusion more, think it would've been better if Cap had an internal conflict rather than what we got. Hopefully the next epilogue issue ties up all the loose ends this one didn't bother to acknowledge. Would like to see a more serious fallout that this event was building up too rather than the oh ok everything is fine now approach.

Damn, even with a good artist on board for the last issue feels rushed. Some pages were great, many were pretty weak for McNiven. I thought the way they got Steve back was pretty creative. The narration is still very cheesy. Overall, this event was okay, neither the outrage a lot of people made it out to be nor this fantastic story about our current political climate.

This story isn't for the faint of heart it tackles som heavy subject matter moreover if you're not versed in the mythology of this Kirby concoction this issue will do little to explain the situation. Mr. Miracle begins with our protagonist in dire straights and things don't improve as the story progresses. Tom King gives us the main players as the story creeps toward the ominous. The Art compliments the story and vice versa Tom King and Mtich Gerard's operate as one would expect a seasoned team to. It is a fantastic start to what promises be an epic foray into one of Kirby's most unique creations. The New Gods are back and Scott free is in for arduous escape. I look forward to what comes next. more

ULTIMATES2 #100 was an excellent, thoroughly original and surprisingly surprising conclusion to one of Marvel's best books in recent memory. Honestly, the biggest, most pleasant surprise (for me, at least) was something that did NOT happen rather than something that did (I'll avoid spoilers here but if you don't know what I'm alluding to, the non-event is mentioned by Mr. Ewing in his afterword for the issue). I've sung the praises of Al Ewing in other reviews on this very site so I won't bore you by repeating the same things I've said many times before...with one exception: If ULTIMATES2 (and its predecessor, ULTIMATES) have not convinced the decision-makers at Marvel that Al Ewing needs to write a new FANTASTIC FOUR title, nothing will.

SECOND READING AMENDMENT (09/02/17): On a second read, ULTIMATES #100 was even better . I couldn't ask for a a more satisfying conclusion to this sprawling tale that started with the transformation of Galactus (and made me an actual fan of the character for the first time in 30 years). THE ULTIMATES are why, as an adult, I continue to read "superhero" comics. I'm looking forward to, inevitably,rereading the whole twenty-two issue epic without monthly interruptions.
SCORE: 9.2 more