The Ultimates is a comic book created by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch. It's published by Marvel and is set in the Ultimate Universe, which is their (relatively) new and modernized version of the regular Marvel Universe stories. The Ultimates is based on the superhero team book The Avengers and stars some of the biggest superheroes Marvel have.
The Ultimates story starts off in 1945 and follows Steve Rogers as he fights in the Second World War. After volunteering for the "Supersoldier program" he was put through several experiments and genetic modifications and became Captain America, the ultimate soldier. He's leading the US army in an attack against a secret German facility in Iceland, where they find that a missile filled with nuclear weapons is seconds away from being launched at Washington DC. With only seconds to spare he jumps on and manages, in flight, to destroy the guidance system, but then he's never heard from again...
50 years later, international industrialist and genius Tony Stark, has a moment of clarity and with his newly designed Iron Man combat suit he decides to join SHIELD General Nick Fury's new superhuman defense initiative. The Ultimates is specialized force to fight the rising numbers of super powered terrorists like Magneto and Doctor Doom.
Nick Fury also enlists the help of scientist couple Dr. Hank and Janet Pym, also known as Giant Man and Wasp, along with Dr. Bruce Banner. He's been trying to re-create the formula that made Steve Rogers into Captain America, but he's been too distracted with the thoughts of his last experiment, which turned him into the monstrous being known as "Hulk". Then his luck suddenly turns...Captain America has been discovered frozen deep down in the arctic ice, and he's still alive!
After being thawed and acclimatized to this new world he soon joins the team with another newcomer, Thor, who claims to be the northern God of thunder. Trouble soon start to rear its head though, but not in the way expected. A lack of supervillains to fight causes team members to clash and, in a desperate move to show that he still has what it takes, Bruce Banner mixes the "Supersoldier” serum with his old "hulk" serum and all hell breaks loose.
And as the Ultimates team start to fall apart an old enemy stands in the shadows ready to deal the killing blow...
As mentioned, The Ultimates is the new and modernized version of The Avengers. It’s set in a relatively realistic and modern world, aimed at an older audience and it's one of the most acclaimed superhero comics of the last few years.
Writer Mark Millar is an expert at doing the "summer blockbuster" equivalent of comics. This means they’re usually filled with lots of great fun, excitement and cool action, but usually lacks a little when it comes to the depths of the characters involved. Ultimate is no exception, but it's probably the best thing Millar has done so far. Everything just clicked on this book and he and artist Bryan Hitch delivered 26 issues of the purest "realistic" superhero stories the comics medium has seen.
Hitch's art is just fantastic with its rich details and glorious widescreen shots. He does a great job all the way through, from the intimate character stuff to the huge battlegrounds. It was well worth the wait and the fact that it took 4 years for 26 issues of a "monthly" comic to come out doesn't really matter anymore. He really did a fantastic job with it, especially the increased sense of realism he put into the art. The only thing I didn't like about the visuals was that Hitch and Millar went a little overboard with the celebrity references and cameos. Nick Fury looking exactly like Samuel L. Jackson puts me out of the story a little and the Freddie Prinze Jr. and Shannon Elizabeth cameos already date the book. I assume it was an attempt to increase the realism feeling and make it seem like it all happens in the real world, but I would've preferred a more timeless approach.
Millar's writing usually also includes some allegories current real world themes. In Ultimates the biggest topics he touches on is terrorism, with some not-that-well-hidden political commentary, and celebrity. They are very relevant issues in a book that tries to portray superheroes as realistically as possible, superpowers not withstanding of course. The teams is from day one treated like celebrities by the public and have a grand opening of their headquarters with President Bush in attendance, but that's just the image the PR-department want to portray. As we delve into the team dynamic and their individual histories the story becomes a lot darker. None of them are of the standard nice "do-gooder" type. They all have flaws and/or dark sides. Captain America is a very tough leader that expects everyone to live up to his superhuman perfection, Hank and Janet has a very troubled relationship that eventually turns violent and Bruce Banner is being mistreated and bullied by the others constantly. Fury is a pretty demanding boss and Stark has lots of personal issues that plague him.
In usual Millar style most of the characters have their "thing" which defines them and that's pretty much it. They go through some challenges and such, but the focus is more on what happens than how it affects the characters. There are some very good and interesting moments every now and then, though, such as the issue where the Pym's fight.
Ultimates start out with a very realistic and dark story that flows pretty slowly. It focuses on the internal troubles in the team as pretty opinionated and super powered members start to clash over personal issues and tactics. I was expecting a standard superteam fights the universes biggest villains book, but what I got was very different. Millar made a story focused on exploring the superhero concept in our modern world in a very realistic way. There's still some fighting, but it's mainly internal instead of them vs. villains. In the second volume the book has evolved a bit and it's a little more standard superhero stories, though done much much better than most other books out there. There's more focus on the political themes, the pace is increased and a lot of stuff happens, maybe too much. It seems that Millar had so many ideas that he wanted to put in that there just wasn't enough room and he was forced to leave some by the wayside. In the end though I think I think Millar accomplished what he set out to do.
The two hardcovers that collect Millar and Hitch's run are made up by four story arcs that really form one big story. Here's a bit more info on the stories they contain:
"Superhumans" is the mostly the origin story of the team, the establishing of their motives and such. It all culminates with Bruce Banner "hulking out" and going on a rampage through New York in search of his ex-wife Betty Ross as the Ultimates try to stop him and avert the PR-nightmare it would be if anyone discover that the first supervillain they stop is one of their own. "Homeland Security" kicks the story up another notch and introduces the Ultimates black-ops team with former Russian superspy Black Widow, archer Hawkeye and the mutants Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, whose father is the not so unknown Magneto. The arc concludes with the Ultimates vs. invading aliens that have been planning world domination for over 50 years.
Hardcover number two starts with the "Gods & Monsters" story and the trial of one Bruce Banner, who killed several hundred people in his "Hulk" rampage. Then, suddenly, evidence appears that points towards Thor being just an escaped mental patient with stolen experimental military hardware. At the same time Hank Pym is kicked off the team, Hawkeye is assaulted in his home and in the Middle East many powerful men has had enough of the American superheroes freely operating in their countries and decide to strike back with their own newly engineered superteam.
Overall The Ultimates by Millar and Hitch is a solid piece of superhero comics that feels very much like what a serious and realistic movie approach to superhero's should be. The art is great and though the writing has some flaws there's no denying that this is a really entertaining story of very high quality.
9 / 10
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