Cataclysm - Ultimates 2, Cataclysm - Ultimate Spider-Man 2

Cataclysm - Ultimates 2
Fialkov (w) and Di Giandomenico and Ruggiero (a) and Quintana (c)

Hulk has been infected by the Gah Lak Tus swarm and now leads the charge against the Secret Warriors in Belarus to consume and infect them. Hercules fights him and buys the others the time they need to keep moving through the swarm. However, it's ultimately futile as the swarm goes on to infect Emil Blonsky and, through the already infected Abigail Brand, Stature, giving the swarm an incredible advantage to what was already an incredible advantage. As everything rather falls apart, Falcon has entered Reed Richards' fallen City of Tomorrow to talk with its new head, George Tarleton (GUYS, that's MODOK), who is not a part of the Gah Lak Tus swarm but is clearly running the show in Belarus to some extent. He tells Falcon that he's going to offer up himself and this city, which he's made mobile, to Galactus and become his herald, worshipping him and finding new places for Galactus to feast. He sets the city in motion with Falcon still onboard and rushes to meet Galactus. Meanwhile, Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, and Danny Ketch find themselves surrounded and Fury uses an untested teleportation device on them, deciding any outcome is better than what's coming. They successfully teleport but they find themselves not that far away and facing a swarm-infected Punisher. Back in the main kill box, Hercules is still running rampant, throwing Hulk into Stature and demanding more.

Definitely a viable threat here for the Ultimates and the Ultimate Universe as a whole to face. It's an incredibly scary concept, working off the same sort of principles as zombies but all the while being entirely more impressive than zombies. They infect, they brutalize, they, well, they swarm. It's a big enough threat to base an event around and to base an event that incorporates all parts of this universe around and Fialkov isn't doing a bad job showing off some character here and there, particularly where the Secret Warriors are, by and large, newer characters to this universe. The threat is very real and, like the best threats to the Marvel Universe, it comes with no easy solution. The upside of the Ultimate Universe, too, is that a threat with no easy solution may well end with the death of everyone here. Pretty interesting stuff, good hectic and chaotic art from Di Giandomenico and Quintana's colors are appropriately dreary. Nicely done.

Cataclysm - Ultimate Spider-Man 2
Bendis (w) and Marquez (a) and Ponsor (c)

Back in New York, everyone is panicking in the face of Galactus and what he's done to New Jersey. People are running rampant, Galactus is leisurely blowing up bits and pieces of the city, and there are injuries and lost people and really too much to focus on. Cloak and Dagger teleport right to the face of Galactus, where Dagger throws some...daggers...into him, doing absolutely nothing. They bail before Galactus strikes at them. With the Ultimates spread out trying to help things while Iron Man comes up with a plan, Spider-Man and Spider-Woman go out in search of people to help, which isn't hard to find. They find a group of school children who were abandoned by their teacher and promise that they'll get them home. Spider-Man takes a young child screaming for his father and delivers him successfully home before getting a lesson in the importance of sons to their fathers. Miles heads home to try to help Jefferson who shoves him away in his continuing hatred for all things super-powered before Miles pulls off the mask and reveals himself.

The Galactus threat continues seemingly unimpeded and the heroes of the city are left to deal with the more personal problems in the city. The issue is presented alongside memories of ULTIMATUM and the tsunami in New York two years previous. Universally, the kids who were affected by that are older now and are dedicated to helping people where they couldn't the last time a disaster of this scale hit. I don't know, necessarily, that the juxtaposition of the two events is necessary; obviously it's a meaningful parallel and it makes sense that it would be on the mind of the people in the city, but to shape it like this makes it feel like they're only helping because they weren't able to help last time or because they regret not helping last time. One of the ongoing traits of superheroes, though, is that heroes jump in when they're needed, not out of regret or anything along those lines, so it's just as meaningful if they swing into action here without the prodding of the memories. Still, not an awful issue, though occasionally marred by some back-and-forth dialogue that continues to illustrate a somewhat lighter mood in the midst of all of this horror. Miles' reveal at the end is clearly what we're there for, though, and it's a long time coming, something that will show Jefferson's true colors next time out.