Writing a story is an interesting balance between familiarity and originality. We are all influenced by the stories we've consumed. So taking that information and placing it into an original tale is a process between molding classic tropes and premises into something new and compelling. The ultimate adventures walks this line well. The story has a lot of familiar elements to it. It's a coming of age tale about a young genius trying to search for a lost parent and gets swept up in a larger than life adventure along the way. Growing up, I'm sure tons of creators have experienced stories like this. But The Ultimate Crusaders puts enough heart into its characters that it makes the start of the journey worthwhile.
The story revolves around a boy named Orion who is determined to find his long lost father. He's a mechanical genius and has a best friend named Claire, who he built a prosthetic robot hand for. The story begins when a meteor crash lands next to Orion’s house. The meteor is in fact a robot and hands blocked a mysterious orb. Aliens arrive on the planet and start attacking people in search of the orb, forcing Orion too fight back.
The plot is fairly familiar. There are tons of stories about individuals getting caught up in a larger galactic conflict for which they become a hero of. But that doesn't mean the premise is any less valid to build a story off of. These characters are fully formed and charming. I cared about their story even if it felt familiar. And the artwork really matched the tone the story was going for. There are a couple of ways the writing could have been tightened up. There's a lot of "telling" going on, especially in regards to revealing blahs backstory. Voice over narration can be a particularly tricky trap a lot of stories fall into, and this one could have been elevated by trying a workaround to get that information across. Still, it's a minor critique in a fun comic tale that would be great for a younger demographic that might be unfamiliar with a lot of its rehashed tropes.