The Ultimates, Vol. 1 | Mark Millar | John Bernier's Super Fun Review Of The Ultimates Which...

The Ultimates, Vol. 1 | Mark Millar | A Great Origin Story

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The Ultimates, Vol. 1

	The Ultimates, Vol. 1 Mark Millar Marvel Comics, 2004 - 376 pages average customer review:based on 64 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

John Bernier's Super Fun Review Of The Ultimates Which John Wrote Today, 3/23/06

The Ultimates is a book about a group of super heros who join together to fight super crime. They dont always get along, eventually, this conflict results in the death of an Ultimate
My favorite part of this book was when The Hulk came in to fight. It took a lot of time to defeat him, and some of the ultimates were injured. When they defeated him, they found out that he was just a sad man.
I recommend this book because it is full of action and violence. The charictors in this book act like regular people. They arent just people without a history or backround. People with regular problems and some super problems. This has been one of my favorite books

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A Great Origin Story

The first volume of The Ultimates serves as a very interesting, if somewhat slow, origin story for the Ultimate Avengers (known as the Ultimates). The story takes place in Marvel's Ultimate Universe, which is basically a parallel reality to the regular universe, often known as Earth-616. The Ultimate Universe effectively took Marvel's biggest characters and teams and started them over at the beginning, in order to help a new generation of comic book readers get acquainted with the characters. While there are differences between the characters in the 616 world and their Ultimate counterparts (Spider-Man is still in high school, Rogue is ex-Brotherhood, Bruce Banner wasn't exposed to gamma radiation), the stories remain relatively similar.
The Ultimates is a super team funded by the United States government, and they are the Ultimate Universe's version of the Avengers. Led by General Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D., the team consists of Captain America/Steve Rogers, Giant-Man/Hank Pym, The Wasp/Janet Van Dyne Pym, Iron Man/Tony Stark, Bruce Banner/The Hulk, and Thor. It starts off at the end of World War II, with Captain America being a prototype for a super-soldier serum. He and a platoon of soldiers storm a Nazi base in 1945 in order to destroy a weapon. The mission is a success, but Cap is thrown into the icy Atlantic and frozen, and is thought to be dead by the government, and his fiance Gail and friend Bucky. In the present, Banner and the Pyms are trying to recreate the super-soldier serum used in the Captain America project. Banner came close, but accidentally created the Hulk when he used himself as a test subject, and he ended up destroying part of New York City's harbors. Meanwhile, Hank Pym, who is employed by S.H.I.E.L.D., is working on a project to control ants, as well as a growth formula in order to make giant soldiers. His wife Janet can shrink herself down and grow wings, allowing her to become the superhuman known as The Wasp. While the Pyms take credit for designing a formula that allows Janet to shrink (which is how the story went in the 616 universe, the real answer is different in the Ultimate world). Meanwhile, billlionaire industrialist/playboy Tony Stark has offered his services as Iron Man to S.H.I.E.L.D. as well. Nick Fury is putting together a superteam, and he wants Stark involved. The team will be known as The Ultimates, and will be a very public entity. They are being trained to deal with some of Earth's most serious threats, and Iron Man is a good addition. Fury is also trying to convince the Norse god Thor to join, but he is reluctant, claiming that he stands against the current American administration.
Unfortunately, things can't seem to go right for Banner and the Pyms; no matter how hard they try, they can't seem to replicate the Captain America serum. But when Cap is discovered frozen in the Atlantic, everything changes. They revive him and ask him to join the team. They are also able to experiment on his blood in order to try to recreate the serum, although Banner's experiments lead to something awful...
While the book takes a little while to get going, once it does, it gets really good. And even in the parts that don't deal with action, it is still enjoyable. The story focuses not only on the threats that the Ultimates face, but also their human flaws. Banner is a very angry man beneath the surface (which can cause problems, seeing as how he is the Hulk), Hank Pym is on anti-depressants, and Captain America is a man from the 1940's who just woke up in the new millenium. The book mixes drama and action very well, and a good amount of humor is thrown in as well.
This is my first foray into the Ultimate Universe, and it is a good place to start. Since this is the beginning of the story, you don't need any backstory to understand things, with the exception of a vague knowledge of the characters from the 616 Universe (the writers assume that people have a history with the characters). While there are references to events occuruing in other Ultimate books (X-Men and Spider-Man mostly), this is a fairly stand-alone book. While I prefer the 616 stories, The Ultimates is definitely a great book and should be on every comic fans list of books to read.

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My faith in Marvel writing has been restored

The entire Ultimate line, and more especially this series has shown me that at thier core Marvel has the best storytelling world out there. Other companies have had great writers come in and work on thier lines, but this vision of the core Marvel super-hero team into a post-modern revisualization "ultimatly" emerges as the best of them all.

Avengers Re-Imagined

Story: Mark Millar, coming off a successful--if controversial due to its timing--run on Wildstorm's The Authority, helped launch Marvel's 21st century brand and is thus perhaps the perfect fit for its signature book, the Ultimates.

While some might suggest Ultimates runs too close to Authority, given the same writer as its second run, and the same caliber as the paramount heroes of a company, where Authority was a deconstruction--and almost parody--of the upper echelon of super-heroes, the Ultimates are a reconstruction.

Captain America was still frozen in ice at the end of WW2, Iron Man is still an alcoholic, Thor still the son of Odin (maybe), Hulk still a raging monster, Giant Man still giant, and wasp still tiny, only more so than ever. This Captain America doesn't forget the solider part of super-soldier, and fights (and kills) like a soldier. This iron man requires a team to get into and out of his armor, more like a jet-pilot than a guy in metal tights. This Thor is a hippie-esque environmentalist, maybe more madman than Norse god, and will only fight to save what he believes in. This Hulk, while perhaps a little too close to Alan Moore's Mr. Hyde in League of Extraordinary Gentleman, is a murderous cannibal. And this Giant Man and the Wasp take the domestic violence and abuse angle a far more realistic, and hence disturbing degree.

Set in modern times, with modern politics--including Dubbya as President, and Larry King referring to Captain America as a Person of Mass Destruction, its all familiar enough to be accessible, yet new enough to be refreshing.

The plots flow well, if a little decompressed at times, the dialog is smart if trendy, and it brings both the chills and the thrills in dynamic fashion.

Art: Bryan Hitch produces amazing action sequences (having, along with Warren Ellis, pretty much brought 'Wide Screen Violence' into the comic lexicon during the first run of the above-mentioned Authority), distinct characters, excellent historical/technical renderings, and effortless 'camera' work. When rushed, however (as the scheduling sometimes seems to make him), his anatomy can tend towards the distorted, and his faces towards the less than appealing. And, while his panel-to-panel continuity is amazing, some of his splash pages, especially those close-up on a single face, often cut the flow (though that may be Millar's script at work).

Laura Martin does her usual spectacular job on colors, and the lettering never intrudes, which is the best thing lettering can ever do.

Bonus Material: I was hoping for more here. Joss Whedon penned the intro, in typical, whimsical, style. There is a brief and somewhat insightful commentary by Millar and Hitch, but script pages (which many other collections boast) would have been nice as well. There are some pinup-like character designs, but nothing extensive. I would also have loved to see Millar's original pitch for Ultimates, and character sketches/behind the scenes development material would have made it truly Ultimate.

Good: Excellent re-imagining of Marvel's premiere super-team with gutsy twists on characterization and the tackling of controversial issues, along with some of the best set-pieces ever put to comics.

Bad: Some pacing issues, especially in the choice of splash-page placement and focus.

Overall: Highly recommended.

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Great but Late

This is the Ultimate version of the Avengers. While the names are the same, these avengers certainly have problems. These are very human super heroes who make mistakes. Very realistic storytelling, and good art by Hitch. This is one of the top comics of modern time. Though they are chronically late, you do have this collection along with two others to read. By then, they should be done with the second half of year 2 and then release that in trade form.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

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