The Ultimates 2, Vol. 1: Gods and Monsters | Mark Millar, Bryan Hitch

The Ultimates 2, Vol. 1: Gods and Monsters | Mark Millar, Bryan Hitch | Better than "Heroes"

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The Ultimates 2, V...

	The Ultimates 2, Vol. 1: Gods and Monsters Mark Millar, Bryan Hitch Marvel Comics, 2005 - 152 pages average customer review:based on 22 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

It's been one year since they stopped an alien invasion, and now things get hard. New members, new costumes, and 12 months of gossip to catch up on! Who's getting married? Who's divorced? Who's gone nuts since we last saw them? Why, just in this first story, we see Ultimate Hulk and the secret origin of Ultimate Thor, and get a look at the entire Ultimate Universe as drawn by Bryan Hitch! It's guest-stars galore - featuring the X-Men, Daredevil, Captain Britain, and even the Defenders! Collects The Ultimates 2 #1-6.

great tpb...

i hated the ultimates 1 vol 1, the ultimates 1 vol 2 was a lot better but still not great.
the ultimates 2 vol 1 however is great. i still hate the idea of bruce banner being a scumbag, and there are a bunch of other ultimate universe things that carry into this that i don't like. but overall this is a great tpb and highly recommended.

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Better than "Heroes"

For an action/drama focusing on a super team of heroes, look no further. If you haven't picked up The Ultimates yet, you don't want to start here. This is basically season 2 of the series and you'll be lost, but this is where it really takes off for me. Ultimates 1 was a very well done series and got this franchise off to a good start and Ultimates 2 still blew it away.

This is a testament to the skills of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch for giving us a mature look at super heroes that doesn't patronize the reader and pushes the realism as much as possible. Comics have certainly changed in the wake of popular serialized dramas like "Lost" for example and for the better. I couldn't be bothered to even watch NBC's "Heroes" anymore as it doesn't even come close to the action and suspense showcased in this book. Continued in this book is more focus on Hank Pym, Thor and Tony and Natasha's budding relationship. The whole team begins to fall apart due to a possible informant within S.H.I.E.L.D. but who's the traitor?

I enjoyed seeing cameos in here from Prof. X as well as Matt Murdock representing Dr. Banner in court. Helps to keep the Ultimate Universe feeling all encompassing with these crossovers. I enjoyed the dialogue between Steve and Jan as the Captain America of the 40's is still having a hard time adjusting to the 21st century. Those moments also help to ground it in reality. And that's what I'm enjoying so much about this take on The Avengers is how much more seriously I can take it than ever before. Comics are not just for kids anymore and The Ultimates is a prime example.

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The best of Ultimate Marvel

In a nutshell, "the Ultimates" AKA the Ultimate Avengers is far and away the best of Marvel's Ultimate titles, as evidenced by its top-rating among all of Millar's books. Interestingly, it rates higher than his other Ultimate titles...I think in general the tone is the most adult and most serious of the Ultimate books - closer to the new Battlestar Galactica or Season 5 of 24 than than to its comic peers.

While I liked Ultimate Fantastic Four, Ultimate X-men, etc - this is the standard bearer of the line - even if you don't follow the avengers, this is an easy to grasp title. And Volume 2 is far better than volume 1!

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Graphic SF Reader

More of the entertaining destructive and self-destructive antics of the Ultimates. The general public now know that Banner is the Hulk, and his trial demands capital punishment.

Giant-Man is Ant-Man, Iron Man is married. There is the aftermath of the alien invasion to deal with, and now, Loki.

An Epic Comic If I Ever Read One

Unlike the previous Batman collection I read (Batman: Officer Down), The Ultimates 2 collection was fantastic. Stories like these are what have started to bring people back to comics again following the disastrous market crash of the 1990's when people became fed up with generic art and horribly written titles.

This arc picks up 12 months following the last Ultimates book and much has happened in the Ultimates' universe. Bruce Banner is locked away and awaiting trial, Thor has broken away from the team, and Dr. Pym continues to try to find a way to rejoin the team. Captain America, Iron Man and the other Ultimates find themselves at the center of numerous debates concerning the problems with the American government and other nations pursuing super-powered groups and how they should be used, if at all. Although Bryan Hitch's art is quite strong, what separates this book from many other things on the shelf is the writing. I used to be highly critical of many of the comics being sold because the writing was often weak and depended so heavily on the art to carry the book. Now, in many ways, books like this and the work of Bendis and Miller keep producing, comics have reached the point where the writing is as strong if not stronger than the art, making the medium that much richer and more entertaining. Millar does a fantastic job of keeping an epic feel to everything and at no point do we lose sight of how all-encompassing a team that contains many of Marvel's most important icons should be. At the same time, we see the moments when everyone, including Captain America, seems all too human.

I think this is a fantastic collection and highly recommend it to seasoned and new comic readers alike.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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