Ultiman

    (Image, 2002)
™ and © Image Comics, Inc.

Sometimes being the strongest hero on the planet isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Such are the trials and tribulations of Ultiman, who’s such a straight arrow that he’s ultra-square. Beneath his impenetrable exterior beats an archetype ripe for satire.

Whether it’s saving cute Molly Wilson from a lightning storm, tuning out the annoying city sounds that only super hearing can detect, or fending off the ridiculously transforming curse of King Tut, Ultiman displays such mild-mannered moxie that he seems positively silly. Compared to his time-traveling counterpart Thunder Girl (Molly), or the knockoff World War I airman Black Jack, Ulti is the ultimate throwback to a bygone era of saccharine sincerity and laughable guilelessness.

Writers Gary Carlson and Odie Bracy mock the stereotypical do-gooder, as well as such other hackneyed comics conventions as parallel Earths, mythological heroes, and alien invaders. However, a wooden leading man and ersatz ’50s penmanship doesn’t float many boats nowadays. Tackling the foibles of a parody seems like what it is: small potatoes. What’s missing is the steak.

— Oliver Chin
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