Ultimate Origins is shaping up to be a damn good time and, if nothing else, it's succeeding in what virtually nothing else in the Ultimate Universe can seem to accomplish: it's making me interested in these characters. Read Full Review

Overall, this series is off to a pretty great start. The art is solid, the storytelling is brisk, but friendly for new or casual readers, and the storyline seems as though it is going to make good on the promises made on the hype. Good stuff all around. Read Full Review

Bendis' story telling is perfectly paced, and I'm hoping the pace remains the same for the rest of the mini-series. Ultimate fans will get a kick out of this series, and if it leads us down the path I think it is taking us to, the Ultimatum series could indeed be the last hurrah for MUU. Ultimate Origins is a good read, I would recommend it, and it earns a 4 out of 5 rating. Read Full Review

Issue #1 hinges on a single twist that I imagine will divide many readers. It's interesting, if not entirely unexpected, and something that could go horribly wrong if not handled properly. For now we'll just have to wait and see. The biggest fault with the story in this issue is that there simply isn't enough of consequence. After waiting for over a year to read Ultimate Origins, I simply wanted more than I received. Read Full Review

6.
As mentioned earlier, "Ultimate Origins" #1 feels like the first 20 minutes of a movie that's not quite compelling for me to keep watching. I'm sure that it'll read fine when collected, but as an individual piece of serial storytelling, there's little to recommend it to those who aren't supremely curious about things, and I'm getting more and more tired of this approach. Writers and editors need to stop assuming that I'll read the next issue of their comic and instead give me a reason to read the next issue. Read Full Review

My biggest criticism of Ultimate Origin #1 is that it doesn't feel like a story yet. At this point, the book is more of a loose web of interconnected events that underpin the Ultimate Universe, and there's nothing here to really make you care about how the events play out. Even though readers of this book will probably already be familiar with several of the characters featured in the series, it wouldn't hurt to be given some reason to invest in them here. Without that investment, there's no drama, and the book risks feeling more like a fictional history lesson than it does a good story. I can only hope that future issues of the series will tie the various events of the book into a more compelling story, because without that dramatic connection, it's going to be difficult to get a lot of enjoyment out of this book. Read Full Review

Where Bendis drops the ball in the story, penciller Butch Guice picks up the slack. While not particularly a joy to read, Ultimate Origins is nice to look at. Guices moody shading works perfectly with a series focusing on secrets, keeping things in the dark. The expression on his characters faces is great as well, with many contorted looks keeping far enough away from comedic to convey emotion. My only complaint would have to be the difference in appearance for a few characters, Bruce Banner in particular. Having grown fond of the hunched over, socially awkward looking Bruce Banner of Bryan Hitch, this noticeably more muscular version simply looks off. But besides this, Guices pencils, with all their dark moodiness, are a great visual representation of the core theme of Ultimate Origins. Read Full Review

Aside from the mutant revelation, there's nothing worth really seeing here and it's not exactly a story worth telling or reading at this point. This could have all been implied or told in Ultimate SpiderMan / XMen / etc and it would have worked just as well and probably more effectively than making a big deal of it with a rather lackluster first issue. Read Full Review