I was kind of dismayed to see Warren Ellis return to superheroes, because he's been quite vocal about his dislike of them and it really seemed like it was going to be a bad fit. Despite seeming like a backward step in his career, though, I have to admit that superheroes, or at least the superheroes of the Ultimate universe, seem to agree with Ellis. Ultimate Nightmare #1 appears to be the setup for Ultimate Galactus, although I may be wrong in that assumption, and even if it is, it's delivered with Ellis's usual style, which means that it includes a pseudo-science explanation, a touch of conspiracy and some exceptionally dark moments instead of a giant purple space god touching down in midtown Manhattan. Trevor Hairsine, Simon Coleby and Frank D'Armata bring everything to vivid life, whether it's the pyrotechnic arrival of the alien probe or the haunting after-effects of its broadcast, and the end result is everything that an Ultimate "event" comic should be.
Typical of the Ultimate universe, Ultimate Nightmare is paced relatively slowly. It's not that nothing happens, it's that we don't get the villain, the plot and everything else in the first three pages and then 19 pages of fight. Instead, Ellis and company take their time in showing the crash of the alien probe and its transmissions, and I can't imagine any way it would have worked better. Does Hairsine use four pages to show something impacting with the Earth and causing a massive crater? Yes. Could it have been done in one page, or even a couple panels? Sure, but it wouldn't have looked this impressive. Forget about superheroes, Ellis is pacing this more like a science-fiction horror movie, and these early pages really set the mood.
Hell, the whole thing sets that mood, and while Ultimate Nightmare isn't Signs or Uzumaki, it really does get the sense of creeping, otherworldly, inevitable horror bearing down on the Earth. The suicides that we see in the latter half of the issue are exceptionally well staged, shown in silhouette or even just implied, but the sense that these images are causing people to take their own lives, as if the entire race has slipped into a depressive, suicidal funk, is palpable. Ellis's text of the alien message, and Hairsine's visual, also give a great sense of what's causing this horror, and even knowing that the heroes will triumph and save the day, I was a little creeped out. That's good storytelling.
Fortunately, this being the Ultimate universe, we know that the heroes are going to save the day, and the last few pages of the book show the heroes gearing up. The X-Men are barely in this one, and what they have is kind of light, but the Ultimates sequences are terrific. Nick Fury's analysis of Tony Stark is brutal and funny and right in line with what I've come to expect of Ellis (while also ringing completely true with Millar's version of the characters), and Black Widow's snarky aside was a terrific bit as well.
The real gem here, though, is the introduction of Sam Wilson (sorry, I just can't bring myself to call him Ultimate Falcon, it sounds too dorky, and this coming from a guy who loves MODOK). Ellis's Wilson isn't a '70s stereotype street hustler, he's a trained military operative, and though we see precious little of his personality, I like what I see so far. I like even more that Hairsine, Coleby and D'Armata make Wilson's first on-page flight look majestic and just mind-blowingly cool, giving his power of flight a touch of magic that is absolutely necessary if you're going to take the character seriously.
