Ethan is back with another comic book review! Get comfy and enjoy the best The Toku Source’s comic book corner has to offer as we jump into the ending of this kaiju sized crossover!
These issues were written by Matthew Groom and Kyle Higgins with pencils by Francesco Manna, colours by Matt Milla with lettering by VC’s Ariana Maher. The cover art was done by Dike Ruan & Neeraj Menon.
Recaps
Issue 3
The recap for this issue should be extra short for reasons you will understand in a few paragraphs. Following the end of last issue, everyone is launching their big attack on Galactus and the machine he uses to eat worlds, but a ton of Kaiju are also attacking at the same time. The good guys divide their forces, some watching the payload as Jack needs to get close enough to use the new energy weapon the first two issues have been building up to, and the rest dealing with Kaiju and getting civilians out of the way.
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They destroy the machine but Galactus reacts to the pure refined energy by going “oooo thats yum and I’ve detected where that’s from, bye!”— I’m paraphrasing, of course. As he leaves Earth, Ultraman tells Shin that its the Land of Light Galactus is now going after. Everyone clears up the remaining kaiju, mostly off screen. Back at base that night, everyone congratulates themselves on a job well done and theorise that if the refined energy of the batteries rebuffed Galactus, maybe enough negative energy would hurt him. Spider-Man suggests they get Alien Zarab to help—the one that was Galactus’ herald in issue one, that was beaten up and not acknowledged again. I guess they locked him up in between issues and I didn’t realise!
The issue ends on a page teasing that Ultraman number six, Ultraman Taro, will be the fourth Ultraman to join Shin… I guess third actually seeing how this version of Jack is a mecha… but you get what I’m saying. That closes the issue out.
Issue 4
Issue 4 opens with Galactus’ approach on the Land of Light getting halted by my boy Taro knocking him down to a nearby planet and engaging him in combat. Meanwhile, back on the Ultra Island, they talk Zarab into helping them and have a video call with Father of Ultra. Ultra Dad tells them that Taro is buying them time and that they hope they can reach a peaceful solution that will not result to killing Galactus, as he’s a being too important to the cosmic fiber of the Marvel Comic Universe (or MCU for short). With their VTOL retrofitted for space travel, everyone but the Spider-Men set off with the Spideys hanging back to help fix the Jack mecha.
When they arrive they find that Taro and Galactus fought each other to a standstill. A kaiju pops up and the Jack mecha also shows up, piloted by the Spider-Men. They make reference to Toei’s Spider-Man, Takuya Yamashiro, which is neat.
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With the kaiju busy, the team set off on their plan, which is to have Zarab distract Galactus while everyone else hits him with the bad energy to knock him out and get him back to the MCU. Galactus instantly sees through Zarab’s illusions and they go with plan B. Shin tags in Ultraman and they run distraction, which leads us to getting a really cool sequence where the wasp makes Cap’s shield big and Ultraman uses it. They all then do a beam attack and knock him on his ass.
When he wakes up, Taro’s back with the Ultra Key and makes an offer: Galactus gets to eat some of the energy from the Key but he has to go back to the MCU. He says he was planning on doing this anyway so sure, why not? I really feel like he walked away the winner in this deal…
Taro gives Shin a thing that should be able to fix UltraSeven and we end the crossover with a shot of everyone singing Karaoke after dropping Galactus and Zarab back off in their respective universes/planets.
My Thoughts
Issue 3 was an action issue. It read quickly and there’s not to much that can really be said about it. My biggest gripe with this issue was by far that the reveal of Zarab being in a cell in the base; it caught me off (Ultra) guard. Before this reveal, the last time we saw them was this page (below) in issue one, which seemed like they might have died…
Other than that, I don’t really feel like I have much to say about this issue. It was fine. The writing and art continue to be great and of the standard I’ve come to expect from Marvel published Ultraman books.
Right off the bat, I would like to say I enjoyed issue 4 like all the others but there’s definitely the sense that you can feel that this is the final issue and they have a finite page count. I’m sure the creative team would have liked to get a few more pages in to flesh out the final fight with Galactus, or give a nice epilogue and tie everything off. I would have liked that too but it’s worth remembering, reader, that with big crossovers like these, stuff has to get approval from lawyers and stuff not just the normal editor team. They have to make sure no one getting represented poorly, like how in the Fast and the Furious movies they have a system to make sure none of the big actors look bad or actually lose a fight. I’m sure that inter company negotiations are likely why these Ultraman comics have been a series of miniseries too and not an ongoing thing, but that’s getting off topic..
Conclusion
This crossover as a whole has been great. Going from issue to issue has been fun and the fact that this one feels a little rushed and last issue’s Zarab in the cell catching me off guard is the most negative I’ve been on it really says a lot. This was a fantastic series and well worth the read, as are all of the Ultraman miniseries, and now I have to wait for the next miniseries to be announced. Will we see Ace show up next? Will it be Taro joining the Earth team? I hate that I have to wait to find out!
Did you enjoy these issues? The series as a whole? What was your favourite part? How do you think they will handle Taro in future issues now that we know he can 1v1 Galactus? Let me know in the comments down below. As always, I’ve been Ethan: Writer, reviewer and Avengers liaison for The Toku Source and will see you next time!
