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Welcome to My Nightmare
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Ultimate Galactus Book 1: Nightmare
Warren Ellis, Trevor Hairsine, Steve Epting
Marvel, 2005
Rating: 3.6
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Posted:
June 4, 2005
By
The Gentleman (exclusive
to Shaking Through)
The title of this collection kind of gives away what will be the real payoff
for most readers -- in the story's original serial form, the title Ultimate
Nightmare hid the fact that it basically sets up the coming of the Ultimate
Universe version of the world-devouring giant Galactus. A surprise is spoiled,
but otherwise this collection holds up well, with Warren Ellis cleverly setting
most of the action in a de-commissioned Russian military base whose purpose was
once to churn out Soviet super-soldiers.
The setup for the setup: A large-scale psychic freakout leads Nick Fury to
assemble a team of operatives (including Captain America and the Ultimate
version of the Falcon, a pretty savvy scientist who for some unexplained reason
carries around a flight suit with wings) to trace the psychic broadcasts to
their source at the base, even as Charles Xavier dispatches three X-Men (Jean
Grey, Colossus and Wolverine) to stage a "rescue mission" of what he decides is
obviously a powerful mutant mind crying out for help.
As usual, Ellis displays a fine mind for science-based adventure (dig those
Russian experiments with their cannibalized alien technology), but his basic
contempt for the superhero genre is all too clear in Xavier's transparently
naïve assumption. That the X-Men "got so sweaty about rescuing some poor little
mutant that you just didn't think twice," as Wolverine sneers at one point,
doesn't ring true; Ellis saddles the X-Men with a suspect motive just so that he
can a) shoehorn them into the story and b) shower them with disdain.
That stumbling block aside, this is an agreeable adventure tale that picks up
steam once both teams are fighting their way through the installation toward an
Ultimate Vision who's been scavenged for parts by the base's inhabitants. Ellis
knows that it's those kinds of touches -- the fun of unveiling different and
more modern versions of favorite Marvel icons like Vision and the Falcon -- that
are arguably the Ultimate line's biggest attraction.
It could be argued that this is all pretty much window dressing, that everything
that transpires on the base happens basically to fill up five issues. The
psychic broadcasts, the introduction of the Vision, the first warnings of the
coming of Galactus -- all of these could be gotten out of the way in an issue or
two of a larger story. But of course, a protracted introduction sells more
copies than if we get to Galactus arriving at our doorstep too early (Nightmare
is the first installment of a trilogy, so rest assured there's plenty more space
to fill).
But leaving such speculation aside, and overlooking the contrivance that allows
Ellis to introduce the X-Men into his plot while painting their leader to be a
touchy-feely idealist somewhat lacking in common sense, Nightmare is an
enjoyable read, solidly sketched by two talented artists (Trevor Hairsine and
the underrated Steve Epting). If the subsequent installments in the Ultimate
Galactus series can sustain its level of diversion, the trilogy should prove
to be quite an event.
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