Marvels line of "Ultimate" comics have been a resounding success. Everyone seems to like them except for me. Actually, I don't dislike them at all. Each one that I have read have been at least well crafted and competent. In some cases, they have been far better than that. However, these books simply aren't aimed at me. Being your typical older fanboy type, I have already read these stories in one form or another. So while I admire the talent that has gone into them, and appreciate the new readers that they have brought into shops, to me they are mostly a rehash. This is not meant to take anything away from them at all. It is important to attract new readers with a newer, fresher version of Spider-Man and the X-Men and these books have done just that.
The Ultimates is Marvels new take on the Avengers. Written by Mark Miller and drawn by Brian Hitch, it takes the basics from the original Avengers comics and grinds them together with more contemporary elements to form a new mash of story. In this case The Ultimates are government formed under the direction of General Nick Fury (who looks somewhat like Avery Brooks with an eye patch). Bruce Banner, hopefully cleared of the serum that turned him into the Hulk (but you know that he won't be), is head of the new Super Soldier Project. Banner is at odds with most everyone, especially the husband and wife team of Hank and Janet Pym. They have their own serum which has granted them the ability to grow to a giant size and shrink to a minuscule one, respectively. With funding by inventor Tony Stark, who of course doubles as Iron Man, the team only needs a focal point and leader. This is provided by the discovery of the original Captain America, who we saw fall into the Arctic in issue one. Most of the third issue is devoted to the Captains adjustments to a world that aged 57 years without him.
The difficulty is reviewing a book like this is that you have to take it on its' own merits, and yet it is impossible not to compare it to the original material. While The Ultimates features heroes that we are familiar with, they bear only superficial resemblance to the ones that we are used to seeing. Tony Stark is an obnoxious ego maniac. Bruce Banner is far from the calm genius that he is in the original universe. Nick Fury is still tough, but now he's a different race and awfully young to be a General. Still, the characters are fleshed out nicely and they interact believably. Which is good, because so far character interaction is pretty much all we have. The story is moving along at such a leisurely pace, it may be many more issues before anything happens. It is probably best this way, as we are eased into these new characters and given plenty of time to get used to the differences.
Brian Hitch is doing an excellent job on the art. His homage on the second page to Alex Ross' work on Marvels (or swipe, depending on how you look at it) roots the book somewhat incongruously in the Marvel tradition. His layouts are tight and clean and you never have any trouble telling one character from another, which is so important in a team book with a large cast like this one. Hitch has a rare talent to make the art seem as if it is spilling off of the page. He occasionally is a bit too fond of the vertical panel design, but he makes up for it with a cinematic design.
I like this book the best out of the four Ultimate books that Marvel is producing. Although Bendis is an exceptional writer, Miller has done a better job here of making a firm enough distinction between these characters and the original ones. It often feels like an "Elseworlds" story that just doesn't end. Now that the foundation has been laid for the book, it is crucial that pick up the pace of the story. As is purpose of the Ultimate Comics, this is a book that will appeal more to fans who didn't like the old Avengers title than those who did. Either way, it deserves an audience.
All images on this page
are copyright 2001 Marvel Comics
