Ultimatum #2

The second chapter of Jeph Loeb and David Finch's five-part Ultimatum series arrives with a cover that packs in an extraordinary assembly of Marvel's Ultimate heroes — Captain America crouching at the forefront with his shield, Thor wielding his hammer amid crackling lightning, a golden-haired warrior woman, Iron Man blazing with fire, Wolverine, the Wasp, and a brooding winged figure crowding a darkened, foreboding landscape. Finch's pencils, inked by Danny Miki, deliver raw, muscular energy across every figure, giving the whole composition a sense of desperate urgency that suits a series called Ultimatum. At $3.99 in 2009, this is the second of five chapters promising that the story's title — "Death Becomes Her" — means serious business for Marvel's Ultimate Universe.