When a comic is running out of steam and starts adding unnecessary moments and subplots just for the sake of shock value, it leads to many questionable decisions. One of Marvel’s most critically panned stories, Ultimates 3, is filled with needless edginess – including a sex tape between Iron Man and Black Widow.

Ultimates 3 represented a low-point for the Ultimate Marvel imprint. After Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch handed the reigns to the third Ultimate series to Jeph Loeb and Joe Madureira, the storylines significantly devolved. The series initially grew popular as it wasn’t caught in the constraints of previously established continuity. However, Ultimates 3 proved that it wasn’t always a good thing not to have restrictions on characterization and plots.

The very first issue of Ultimates 3 opens with a pretty graphic image. The Ultimates are sitting around in Tony Stark’s mansion as a leaked sex tape from Iron Man and Black Widow plays on the big screen. In The Ultimates 2, Black Widow betrayed the team and killed Clint Barton’s family – and in an act of act revenge, Clint killed her. Tony and Natasha’s graphic sex tape is all over the news, and it’s revealed it’s already being sold on DVD. Tony just stands in silence drinking his pain away as the Wasp wonders how the security breach could have happened. The sex tape continues to play until Venom attacks the mansion.

While the moment doesn’t reach some of the sheer lunacy of its sequel series, Ultimatum, the sex tape is exactly the edgy type of storytelling that killed the Ultimate universe later in its life. The sex tape doesn’t really add anything to the story, besides revealing the affair, and is shown purely to gratuitously add sex appeal. It just comes across as gross and unnecessary. Although, it’s not even the worst romance-related subplot of the issue. That honor belongs to the incestuous relationship between the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. While Iron Man and Black Widow’s sex tape may have been uncalled for, the sibling romance in Ultimate 3 might be the biggest misstep of the entire series.

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Iron Man and Black Widow being together or having sex isn’t really the issue. It’s the fact Ultimates 3, for almost no reason whatsoever, opened with the graphic sex tape being revealed to the world. Still, Even more than a decade later, it’s jarring to read. The story absolutely doesn’t need the visual. There had to be better ways to reveal the affair. In this case, it’s hard to forget – even if you desperately want to.

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Liam McGuire
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Lead writer for Screen Rant’s comic team. [email protected]. Find me on Twitter @LiamRMcGuire for comic news and reporting.

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