Monteverde Super Mega Review: A Bold Carbon Fiber Fountain Pen

Introduction

The Monteverde Super Mega is a fountain pen that takes its name seriously. It is a larger pen, and while the length is not extreme, the girth certainly is. This carbon fiber version pairs that oversized body with gunmetal trim and a black coated nib, making for a stealthy and notably robust writing instrument.

Monteverde offers the Super Mega with extra fine, fine, medium, broad, and 1.1 millimeter stub JoWo nibs, plus an Omniflex option if you want line variation. The MSRP is $185, though it is commonly found on the street for around $148. This review covers the pen’s design, writing performance, and the trade-offs worth knowing about before you buy.

Design and Build Quality

The pen arrives in Monteverde’s classic green presentation box with a cardboard outer sleeve, along with two starter cartridges in black and blue, a limited warranty card, fountain pen filling instructions, and a collection guide. Inside, the pen itself is solid: a carbon fiber barrel and cap with gunmetal grey accents on the finial, clip, center band, and end cap.

Compared with a slimmer pen like the Pilot Metropolitan, the Super Mega’s identity becomes clear: this is a pen defined by its girth rather than its length. The design has evolved from Monteverde’s earlier Inkball rollerball, which was once featured in The New York Times, and this fountain pen version carries that legacy forward.

Details are well executed. The cap and center band carry the Monteverde mountain range logo in relief, along with “Monteverde USA” branding. The clip is fairly stiff but slightly springy, topped with a rolling wheel that works well. The cap unscrews in about half a turn, so keep that in mind when carrying it in a pocket, since it could loosen if jostled. The section tapers down to a comfortable cap lip, and the number six black coated nib completes the stealthy look.

One practical highlight: the Super Mega uses a screw-in standard converter. That is a small touch Monteverde gets consistently right, keeping the converter secure so it cannot fall out and rattle around inside the barrel.

Writing Performance

Out of the box with a broad nib, the Super Mega proved to be a very pleasant writer. The line is smooth, with wetness tuned nicely in between super wet and super dry. On smooth, coated paper like Rhodia, occasional hard starts and rare skips appeared, but nothing systematic, and the skipping test showed almost no issues.

The one nuance worth knowing: the tipping material on this black coated nib is itself coated, which adds a bit of tactile feedback. It is not an unpleasant feeling, just different from an uncoated nib, and the same characteristic shows up on black nibs from other manufacturers as well. The good news is that the coating tends to wear off with extended use, after which the nib behaves like any normally tipped one.

There is no meaningful line variation from the standard broad nib, though careful pressure can coax out a little, entirely at your own risk. If line variation matters to you, the Omniflex nib is the better route. Reverse writing also works well, shifting from broad down to roughly a fine, and it is not scratchy in that mode either.

Overall, the nib feels well tuned. If you have experience with older Monteverde pens that ran very dry, that issue did not show up here at all.

Things to Consider Before Buying

The Super Mega is not a cheap pen at around $148 on the street, but it delivers a genuinely robust, substantial build in return. The solid metal construction feels sturdy in hand without being so heavy that it becomes tiring to use.

Two quirks are worth flagging. First, the pen cannot be posted. Given how thin the back end gets and how bulbous the cap is, it looks like it should post nicely, but retailers actually recommend against it because posting could damage the gunmetal finish. Second, the proportions may not be for everyone: the cap can look a touch short against the long barrel. Neither issue affects how the pen writes, and nothing here hampered performance.

Buying Advice

Buy the Super Mega if you want a large, durable fountain pen with a reliable screw-in converter and a nicely tuned JoWo nib, and you are comfortable spending around $150. Choose your nib size carefully since extra fine through 1.1 millimeter stub options are all available, and consider the Omniflex if line variation is a priority. Skip it if you prefer posting your pen while writing or if the proportions bother you at first glance.

Conclusion

The Monteverde Super Mega is a solid, comfortable, and pleasant-writing fountain pen whose quirks are cosmetic rather than functional. The carbon fiber build feels genuinely robust, the broad JoWo nib writes smoothly, and the screw-in converter is a dependable touch. For writers who enjoy a girthy pen and do not need to post the cap, it is an easy recommendation.