“America Strikes Back”. The greatest problem with the Ultimates is not the art, the story-telling or the characterization.  It’s the fact that this is a “Made-for-trade” type of comic book. By that, I mean, all the issues are meant to be read in a trade paperback format, not individually. The Ultimates is notorious for taking 2 to 3 months, or even LONGER, to come out with each installment. By then you either don’t remember what happened last or you just don’t care anymore. But that’s really the title’s only major problem.
The issue-itself didn’t seem to cover much ground on its own. The members of the Ultimates still active regroup to counter the terrorist strike, Iron Man runs off to do “something”, and we get the usual Millar cliff-hanger/catch-phrase ending. This one’s pretty cool, but you can tell he’s reaching at this point. The art and action are fantastic, but it just doesn’t feel like ANYTHING happened in this issue.  And again, that’s because they’re not meant to be read in installments.  Unfortunate they have to be released that way or I wouldn’t be complaining.