Cataclysm - Ultimates' Last Stand 5, Guardians of the Galaxy 12

Cataclysm - Ultimates' Last Stand 5
Bendis (w) and Bagley and Hennessy (a) and Keith (c)

Kitty Pryde is prepped and ready to go in the fight against Galactus. She grows to giant size and goes after Galactus, providing the rest of the Ultimates with the distraction they need. Reed Richards launches a little ship towards Galactus and, as the world-eater begins to retaliate against Kitty, it flies behind him and opens a portal to the Negative Zone. Galactus begins to be pulled in, along with Kitty, as Reed preps to shut the portal. Spider-Man and Sue Storm race to catch up to and save Kitty despite the fact that, as Reed puts it, she knew her chances of survival. The pair of them catch up to Kitty and start trying to pull her back but the pull of the Negative Zone is strong. Galactus is going in first but it won't be long before it pulls the whole city in piece by piece as Galactus struggles against it. Fortunately, the deus ex machina comes in the form of actual deus Thor, who flies straight at Galactus with enough power to push him into the portal. With Spider-Man, Sue, and Kitty still fighting the pull, Reed goes to shut the portal down. Tony stops him for a moment, begging him to give Thor a chance to come out of it, but ultimately relents and Reed closes it down. With the threat gone and the city left to rebuild, Storm finds Captain America's shield in the wreckage, but with no sign of a body.

So this is it for Cataclysm after what feels like a really long time. It's a solid issue and the end of a pretty good event as a whole (though, and this isn't anybody's fault, it seems as if this solution is exactly the same as the solution at the end of the video game Lego: Marvel Superheroes, an immensely frustrating game only because of how broken it is but ultimately fun - this is my review of it, tucked away inside of a review of a comic. Maybe I'll really review it at some point. LOOK, whatever). Given that this is the Ultimate Universe, it's very surprising how few casualties there were in Galactus' would-be world-ending attack. Granted, Galactus is very much, more than anyone else in probably any universe, an all-or-nothing sort of villain, but I think we only really saw the death of Vision and maybe Punisher? Everyone else survived, after a manner of speaking, though the fate of Captain America is still up in the air (I'm going to go ahead and guess that if they didn't show a body this issue they're never going to, not until he's shown to still be alive) and Thor is trapped in the Negative Zone. Neat stuff with a good amount of potential as the Ultimate Universe does indeed survive and continue.

Guardians of the Galaxy 12
Bendis (w) and Pichelli, S. Immonen, and von Grawbadger (a) and Ponsor (c)

The Guardians and all-new X-Men have met up with the Starjammers, shocking a young Cyclops to his core as he comes across his father for the first time since he saw their plane blown up. Of course, for Corsair this isn't the first time he's seen one of his sons since but it's the first time he's seen him so young. All of this is covered and Scott has a lot to deal with as he runs into some new emotional ground and has to work his way through it with X-23, who comes to give him a hug. They've reached the Shi'ar throne world and found their defenses high as a whole ton of Shi'ar have gathered at the planet. Coming soon, too, will be J-Son, head of the Spartax empire and father of Peter Quill as he's received word that, despite his previous announcement to all the planets and races out there, the Shi'ar have meddled with Earth and the Guardians are heading for them. Meanwhile, Gladiator believes that the X-Men, though they may even be aware of Jean Grey's disappearance, won't get there before a decision is reached about Jean's fate. She's not helping her case as she continues to lash out and yell about her innocence as the trial commences.

There are...interesting parts to this storyline. On the one hand, it feels like trying to do too much, throwing the Starjammers into this story after years on the outskirts of the Marvel Universe and really only to show young Scott his father again. Sure they may play a bigger role but it feels like such a weird time to throw them in except as a plot device. By the same token, sending the Spartax there to further J-Son's demands that Earth be left alone makes sense to the story at large but it may also be one too many moving parts. Finally, I still don't particularly care for the driving plot behind this story. Putting aside my many complaints about the O5 X-Men being in the present, I just can't bring myself to care about another story right now where someone is charged with possible crimes from their future. It's been done a lot and it can be done really, really well and it's been done a lot recently and sometimes pretty well. Here, though, it's not as compelling and it's weirdly timed, coming right off of BATTLE OF THE ATOM, which dealt very much with the same sort of ideas, AGE OF ULTRON, which dealt very much with the same sort of ideas, and INFINITY, which dealt with Gladiator and the Shi'ar finding immense respect for Earth and its people. Makes me not love this event as a whole, though there are parts that may work in the end. Hopefully the parts are enough to justify the sum.