Once again, I find myself in complete agreement with you on a title. I like the art on THE ULTIMATES, and although I can accept many of the changes in the group's modern incarnation, I find the basic concept to be cynical and the writing to be mean-spirited. That's not the type of "entertainment" I like to pay for. Being a big Hank and Jan fan, I decided to drop the title after the issue where Hank sent the ants after Jan. From now on, I'll stick with the real AVENGERS title...where the stories and characters are more uplifting.

The only other thing I'll add is that DC made the right choice in keeping Mark Millar away from Superman.

Really enjoyed your take on Marvel's ULTIMATES. While I don't agree with all your observations, I think many of them are well founded. On other hand, I couldn't disagree more with your comments about non-Ultimate Hank Pym. Jim Shooter didn't do anything that wasn't a reasonable extrapolation of that character and what he had done/been through to that date. In fact, I think his rehabilitation has been enjoyable precisely because he was a fallen hero and not because he was a hero who should never have fallen.

I think there's a huge difference between Ultimate Captain America kicking Banner when he was down--I don't see that any more than you do--and saying Ant-Man/Giant Man/Yellowjacket/Ultron's Dad/Hank Pym didn't stick with anything very long and there must be something inside this character that was causing that.

Even going back to the first time he was Yellowjacket, the guy had been oh, HIGHLY unstable. It wasn't like Jim just made that up. He merely took what was there and went in a reasonable direction with it.

As always, it's fun reading your columns. Be well.

I thought it was possible your reader had taken my statement out of context. Here is what I said, in the course of a longer response to a reader: "If you primarily consider your high-grade comics as investments, my best INVESTMENT advice is to get them slabbed. If you primarily consider your comics to be reading material, keepsakes, or anything else, these considerations won't come into play."

I suppose that's an endorsement of sorts, but one clearly directed only at people who view their comics as investments--and for those people, it's hard to ignore the auction reports. In today's market, the unslabbed investment-grade comic book is simply not treated as equally desirable by buyers. It may not be fair-- and it may not be that way forever. But we have to judge based on what's actually going on.

I should note, too, that when we ever speak of anything "worth slabbing" here, we're almost always referring to a class of comics that will be desirable by collectors regardless of changing supply or market whims. We go out of our way any more NOT to talk about values for last week's comics. The reader is certainly right to expect the market for those to sour, and indeed it often has. By contrast, I do not think the values of slabbed Golden Age and key Silver Age comics are going to be as vulnerable to collapse. I don't think we CAN max out the supply of slabbed Action #1s; there just aren't enough out there to begin with. Demand will always exceed supply.

Personally, out of thousands, I have only three comic books I view as investments more than as literature or reference material; too fragile or dear to damage. They are, not coincidentally, my only three slabbed copies. Everything else is in a nice bag but otherwise out where it can be read. It was from that experience my advice was given--and as with any advice, it can be taken or left.