Cataclysm: The Ultimates' Last Stand #5 Review

Cataclysm #5 is pretty much exactly what I expected considering the steady downward slope this mini-series has been on from the beginning. For a story intended to chronicle the most desperate and potentially final struggle of the Ultimate Universe, the tension just isn't there. Rarely do our heroes seem to be in any real danger, and what few consequences there actually are from this showdown seem shoehorned in at the last minute.

This issue manages to downplay the threat of Galactus even further by essentially tossing him into a fist-fight with an enlarged Kitty Pryde. As far as Galactus battles go, that's not exactly one of the more memorable or inspiring ways of saving the day. It reduces Galactus to the role of a common villain when he's supposed to be a larger-than-life force of nature (doubly so since he recently merged with his Ultimate counterpart). Mark Bagley's art does little to frame this battle in an interesting manner, either. Much like the writing, there's too little sense of scale or drama to these pages.

Worst of all, this issue doesn't even offer a satisfying conclusion to the conflict. No sooner does the battle wrap up and the survivors dust themselves off than the conclusion is at hand. The best we can hope is that the Survive epilogue one-shot can cap off Cataclysm in a more satisfying way, and maybe channel more of the emotion and drama that was so apparent in the tie-ins but in short supply here.

Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

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