Ultimate Fantastic Four - Volume 8: Diablo

One of the main selling points for the Ultimate Marvel universe is that they can do almost anything they want with what are, at the core, the established characters we recognize. The major heroes such as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men all have the same identities and powers as their 616 counter-parts, but other details can be added, updated, etc. The Ultimate FF getting their powers from a trans-dimensional teleporter rather than cosmic radiation is a prime example, and this is one thing I like about the Ultimate line. It's familiar in many ways, but it's more modern, updated to today's world, and the Ultimate universe doesn't have to follow the same continuity as the 616. Characters don't have to behave like they do in Amazing Spider-Man or Uncanny X-Men. Yet one thing that concerns me with a lot of the Ultimate line is that the writers are seemingly running through the heroes, villains and major storylines of the 616 universe like a checklist. Gwen Stacey dying, Captain America being found in ice, Hank Pym assaulting Janet. It's all happened in both the 616 universe and then redone in the Ultimate, with varying degrees of success. And sometimes, these events happen so quickly or so soon (within the run of the series) that they don't carry anywhere near the same impact as the original. This is a particular drawback, in my opinion, to Ultimate Spider-Man and X-Men. Ultimate Sandman was introduced right at the start of the Ultimate Six storyline simply because Bendis needed a sixth man. He has no backstory, no beef with Spider-Man, nothing to even indicate why he's a villain. It's just that he's the Sandman of that universe, so he has to be a villain. He's hardly an actual character, no personality or desire. Too often the Ultimate line is trying to mirror the 616 universe rather than establishing itself as different. These characters are heroes, these characters are villains and these events happen all because that's what happened in 616. But Ultimate Fantastic Four seems to carry the weight differently. Yes, villains such as Thanos, Dr. Doom and vol. 8's main villain Diablo are introduced and don't have many differences from their initial version. But I don't fault Ultiamte FF for the check-list problem as I do USM or UXM. I think the main reason is that UFF goes to greater lengths to make the familiar characters unique to the universe. Diablo as an alchemist in the Rennaissance is a better idea for a character than his 616 predecessor, truth be told. I'm not a big fan of completely deconstructing the superhero genre (as Bendis seems to be doing with USM) with taking away costumes and secret identities and true criminal super-villains, but I like attempts to make the heroes and villains more realistic, more like what a real human in their position would do. 616 Diablo was locked up for hundreds of years and lived off his magic potions. Ultimate Diablo simply reached across time and space to find the people th