Writer: Deniz Camp
Art: Juan Frigeri, Federico Blee, Neeraj Menon, VC’s Travis Lanham, and Dike Ruan
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price:$4.99
Reviewed by: Anonymous
Release Date: September 17th, 2025
FROM THE SKIES TO THE STREETS – THE NEW ULTIMATES! The Maker is only three months away and time is running out. But the Ultimates network is bigger than ever now that they’re inspiring more and more people to join their cause! A can’t-miss street-level adventure from the Ultimates’ new recruits!
If you’re interested in this comic, series, related trades, or any of the others mentioned, then simply click on the title/link to snag a copy through Amazon as you read the Ultimates #16 Review.
THE DISPATCH
The issue leans into gritty, street-level energy. This gives a nice contrast to the looming cosmic threat, sharpening the urgency. It feels like the narrative is trying to pull the sky down, bring it close, to make us feel the danger not just in big panels and interstellar visuals, but in conversations, in small acts of heroism. That kind of shift almost always helps keep a serial story from getting numbingly large.
Juan Frigeri’s pencils have shown they can do both spectacle and detail. Ultimates #16 has some dynamic angles: wide shots showing how large the network has grown, contrasted with tight close-ups when recruits are introduced or when emotional stakes are personal. The layouts use page splits that contrast the busy city-street maps with more focused character moments, giving breathing room when needed, tension when needed.
The color work has been solid throughout this run. In earlier issues, shifts in palette help signal mood — colder blues and greys in times of fear or uncertainty, warm lights when people act together, neon glows when tech or powers are involved. For a street-level adventure, more muted tones, more shadows, and more grit prospered. That helps with tone: danger, urgency, hope flickering in the darkness. Moreoever, there’s a natural pacing device: countdown, pressure.
The Maker is a looming cosmic threat; it’s hard to both honor that scale and make street-level moments feel meaningful. With a growing network of Ultimates recruits, there’s danger of diffusing responsibility: everyone is important can sometimes dilute tension if there are so many new faces that none of them feel individually at risk. It will be important that the issue commits to showing costs or failures at street-level: someone makes a mistake, someone gets hurt, doubt, etc., so that the urgency becomes concrete.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Ultimates #16 is going to be one of the stronger issues in recent months, especially for readers who connect with heroism in the small moments, with tension built from the ground up. The promise of new recruits gives an opportunity to humanize the broader threats, to explore what ordinary people do when faced with impending disaster. It might not shift the overall arc dramatically in a single issue, but expect it to deepen the emotional stakes, to ratchet up the urgency, and to give breathing room for character voices among the new recruits. It should feel more immediate, more grounded, while still reminding us that something big is coming.