Ultimates 3 #4 (OF 5)

Did I miss a memo?  I mean, sure, this comic has come out about as often as sunlight in Seattle lately, but I've been reading all the Ultimate titles (except FF because Mike Carey was making me yawn), and I don't seem to remember Pyro being a bad guy, let alone *such* a bad guy. 

The fact that this book comes out so infrequently makes it hard to keep up with, but beyond that, I think even if I read it in TPB form it would leave me going, "Wait, what...?"  The new characters (hello vapid blonde I don't care about at all and Black Panther who is here...why?  They keep intimating in the recap that there's some huge reveal coming on that point, but at this point, my faith is waning) have not been developed at all, and we're on the fourth of five issues!  4th!  of 5!  This sucks!

How in hell is this story supposed to be "wrapped up" in one more issue?  Granted, it seems to be kind of a poor man's Secret Invasion by way of Battlestar Galactica, which may allow a couple more "familiar ideas" to tie a nice neat bow on the package...but it's just such a far falling down from the Ultimates of the first two seasons that it's sad.  I'd rather this third mini-season hadn't happened the way it's been going, and it's going to be a miracle if the final issue turns it around.  If it were on TV, we'd have blamed the writers' strike.