Jeph Loeb has retreated into full shock mode. I'm not sure if this was the direction from the top, when you consider Ultimates 3 and now Ultimatum, I think it is more of a personal style thing.
In issue #2, there were some shocking moments. They seemed to work okay. But it seems as the series progresses, each socking new moment is meant to top the previous. Which in fact only makes the series feel more and more contrived. And he can't even say that this is super hero story telling the way that it should be, real and gritty. Because this much bad stuff hasn't happened in the past 50 years, let alone 5 hours!
Good looking art and a great cover give us lots of nice graphic storytelling. In particular, the cover was great. I love the reference of Blob holding a chicken leg (after saying the Wasp tastes like chicken in the previous issue!)
Maybe if I was collecting all the other Ultimate titles this would be coming together better for me. As it stands though, I find it a little too "sensational" for my tastes. Needs a dash of subtlety thrown in!