The Ultimates is one of the centerpiece titles in Marvel’s Ultimate line of books, which re-boot classic comic books in an effort to make them more appealing to The Kids. The Ultimates is sort of like a comic book adaptation of a live-action PG-13 Avengers movie, if that makes any sense. It’s packed with big-budget widescreen action, excellent character design, realistic art, mature situations (sex & violence), and lots of property damage. All this is good.
It’s the one thing that mars the book for me. At the risk of over-simplifying an entire genre, I want the protagonists of my colorful morality tales to have some redeeming qualities. I want to want them to win – not just because they are the main characters in the story and my sympathies lie with them by default. I want them to win because they are heroes, the good guys. I am a child.
The Ultimates, a super-team assembled by Samuel L Jackson, consists of Captain America (uptight right-winger), The Hulk (in rapey kill-kill mode), The Wasp (shallow and vain), Hank Pym (cowardly wife-beater), Iron Man (drunk), and Thor (sanctimonious lunatic). In the first volume, they battle evil aliens and each other and just generally tear shit up. Each issue features more collateral damage than Independence Day, and The Ultimates #5 is no exception.
The set-up is simple: Hulk is on a rampage, insanely jealous that the object of his affection Betty is dating heart throb Freddie Prinze Jr. The Ultimates have to stop him before he destroys Betty, Freddie Prinze, and most of Manhattan. Have I mentioned that Ultimate Betty is an asshole too? Well, she is.
Minor complaints aside, The Ultimates delivers in terms of action. Hitch clearly invests a lot of energy in every panel - there are no art shortcuts or cop-outs in this book. The amount of time it must have taken to draw the page below... man, I get carpal tunnel syndrome just looking at that thing.
There isn't a ton of plot going on in Ultimates #5 which is pretty much a cover-to-cover fight scene, but it does touch on the theme of superhero-as-celebrity that runs throughout the first volume of the book.
I have to give writer Mark Millar credit; all the characters are well-written and possess distinct personalities and all sound different from each other. The Ultimates take on The Hulk one at a time, so each little vignette allows us a glimpse at the heroes and what they're all about. Tactically, this doesn't make a lot of sense - don't those guys read X-Men? They've got to work as a team, damn it! - but it makes for a satisfying story as each character takes a turn in the spotlight.
Here's Captain America using some good ol' fashion American butt-kicking on the grey behemoth:
The socialite Wasp also engages The Hulk, but in a different way. This is the first comic book I have read where a heroine flashes her tits at the bad guy to distract him. North American male comic book readers have waited for decades for the art to reach this point, when boob-flashing is OK.
Iron Man takes his turn with the rampaging libidinous monster as well, blasting The Hulk through Grand Central Station. I love the long shot of the station, below, with the shiny marble effect on the floor. Pretty.
In the end, The Wasp manages to subdue The Hulk not with her bosom, but by shrinking down and zapping his brain. The Hulk plummets from the aircraft he's clinging to and lands like a meteor in New York City, where he reverts back to Puny Banner. Captain America approaches, and Banner begs Cap not to hit him any more...
54 comments:
I freakin love The Ultimates. You should do a post about the Direct to Video movies they did.
I think its time we have a Comics That Came Out In The Past Year Or Two theme week.
What does Dave think about House Of M? Infinite Crisis? Moon Knight # 3? Seven Soldiers # 0?
Or whatever else you've been buying lately.
Can I get an Amen?
The best thing about the Ultimates is Captain America as an old-fashioned two-fisted pulp hero from the 1930s, when it was the job of every red-blooded American male to punch the bad guy's face until he surrendered. And also as a right-wing dickhead who seems to be permanently angry. It's fun.
Also, you left out the panel in which he kicks Hulk in the balls. That was fun, too.
I hated The Ultimates, and mostly for the reasons you described. They're all jerks. And now they've got Millar writing Civil War, and he's turning Captain America into an asshole there, too. It's my biggest complaint about the whole thing. Someone needs to lock him away if he even dares to think about touching Captain America again.
By noting that the new Avengers are all just assholes, you pinpointed one of my major problems with The Ultimates. The other is that I thought the tone that more realistic violence and social dysfunction brought to superhero comics was fresh and original when Alan Moore did it 20 years ago in Miracleman. Even the Ellis Authority felt derivative from that, and the Millar Authority felt derivative from Ellis while also being unnecessarily shocking-for-shock's sake. As The Ultimates, it now feels like a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy, but has no reason to use the old Marvel characters other than to shock you.
On the other hand, it is mighty pretty looking and Millar/Hitch blow the doors off with that "fighting the Hulk" sequence. If only they would use their powers for Good...
I can understand why anyone wouldn't like The Ultimates, and I wouldn't blame them for feeling that way... but man, I love this book and I love this issue.
The Ultimates was really the exact opposite of Millar's Ultimate X-Men, which was big and noisy and action-packed and stupid right from the first issue. The Ultimates' first arc was a fairly slow burn, and this issue was the first time we really got the team assembled and fighting something, and man, is it great. Hitch just draws the hell out of it and it's very well-paced. The entire issue is a single action sequence, but it feels substantial when you read it. Great stuff, and easily one of my favorite comic book fight scenes of all times, quibbles about Millar's characterization aside.
And I really liked that the Ultimates attacked individually, and I thought it made sense. Up until this point, Millar had written them as a bunch of self-centered assholes, so of course they didn't fight like a team.
I have all the same complaints about this book -- it's over the top for shock's sake entirely too often (cannibalistic Hulk, I'm looking at you), and the characters are undoubtedly terrible people, but it makes for good drama.
And the one I'd disagree with -- and this doesn't become entirely clear until Volume 2 -- is Thor, who seems like a pretty decent, if ultra-liberal, sort.
But yeah, good stuff, and it was less frustrating back in the days where you could always switch over to The Avengers and have the classic team portrayed in the classic style. Now, of course, you can't really get that anymore...
"Apocalyptic snow globe." I am, somehow, working that into my everyday conversation.
Didn't She-Hulk flashed people to save the day or something in one of her stories? It was not in a fight, though, but at a trial if I remember correctly.
Spencer: Here's what I think about House of M: Mantlo could have done the whole thing in 38 pages and made the same pointss. Infinite Crisis: Because Mark Waid Demanded it! Moon Knight #3- Verily, this is a sad sack attempt to grim and gritty up the character by making HIM an asshole instead of the world he inhabits dark, which is what Moench did. Big distinction. Seven Soldiers #0- BOSS!
Bryan Hitch draws so well, it fools people into liking Millar's shitty story.
If they had some half-ass artist working on the Ultimates, people would see right through this crap in a hurry.
Hell, even McNiven gorgeous work on Civil War doesn't prevent readers from realizing that Millar has the soul of a black, ugly twisted troll.
Civil War, Ultimates, Wanted -- Millar consistently creates charaters that are nauseating/repulsive.
Congrats to the man who can flush away decades of Marvel stories and turn Cap, Reed Richards, AND Iron Man into detestable assholes! Yay for Mark Millar!
(PS -- Bryan Hitch is good.)
Think of the effect it would have on Boob War if the Wasp's flash attack caught on among the superheroine community. I mean, my g/f's rack has near-hypnotic powers, and she's just a normal human.
I'm enjoying the wacky adventures of Captain Grampa, Daddy IronBucks and ThunderHippy mostly for the pretty pretty KickSplode. Trying to parse the political or philosophical stance of the writer seems like a particularly unpleasant exercise in futility, really. Especially since he seems to be presenting Not Fury as being a "good guy" instead of essentially Cobra Commander as played by Sam Jackson.
But the KickSplode is very pretty.
Hard to disagree with much here except the idea that these characters all sound different(ly?).
Millar's one of the many, many writers who seems to have a hard time injecting unique speech patterns into various characters.
"Dogbreath," "Shut up and _____," "Oh, don't be an idiot," are on his dialogunous (yes, I just made that up) merry-go-round and, like the town slut, everyone gets a ride.
I like the theory I read once that states that 'The Ultimates' is set in Star Trek's Mirror Universe. Once you imagine all the characters with sashes and sinister goatees (especially Betty and Hulk), their behavior becomes a lot easier to understand.
I'm confused, Ghostman. What is this "girlfriend" that you speak of? I am unfamiliar with that word. Please elaborate.
:P
All of what you all say is true...but on the other hand, I can appreciate an Iron Man who is merely a drunken womanizer. At least he has a modicum of roguish charm. Thor hasn't murdered anybody, and the Wasp has ALWAYS been vain. Yeah, Cap is a little over the top, but some of the other characterization of him being a man out of time is rather well done.
And oh the art is delicious.
And it ISN'T Civil War.
The Ultimates put me in a weird place. For once, I thought Thor was the coolest one in the group. Confusing. Then I figured out why. Cap is an Ultimate because he's driven by duty and gets off on kicking people in the face. Giant-Man is an Ultimate because he wants to show off his brilliance. The Wasp is an Ultimate because, well, I'm not sure why. Iron Man is an Ultimate because it's a kick. Black Widow and Hawkeye are Ultimates because it's their job. Thor is an Ultimate because he wants to help people.
Sure, Ultimate Thor is an annoying quasi-hippie, and lordy, do I hate hippies, but he's also the only member of the team who operates from noble motives. Thus do I dig him. He's kinda rad.
I, for one, absolutely dig the Ultimates. But equally, I passed the first three TPBs to my brother and his response was "meh."
I appreciate Millar's portrayal of Cap as the displaced 1940s man that he is: he's out of touch with everything and only really feels at home when he's kicking the crap out of something. (By the by Dave, shame on you for not posting the shot of Cap dropping the tank on the Hulk!)
My biggest complaint about the Ultimates (aside from Sam Freakin' Jackson as Nick Fury) is Thor not using the faux Shakespearian. It just seems wrong without him dropping the smack about how he is going to "mightily smite thee." As Dave has noted, Thor is the greatest trash talker in comics and should be rightly portrayed as such - hippy-dippy or not.
I say thee nay, Millar. I say thee nay!!!!
The problem with the portrayal of Cap as a pulp hero is that a lot of those guys were anti-heroes. Captain America is a patriot, an entirely different (and largely unfashionable, these days) matter. Miller is the only one who has done justice by Cap since Kirby, and that was in Daredevil.
The Samuel L. Jackson Nick Fury reminded me of one other thing that really cheesed me off about the Ultimates. In an interview with Sequential Tart, Millar boasted that black Nick Fury made sense because "over eighty per cent of the army are black" and said the addition of Spyke from X-Men Evolution and John Stewart from the Justice League cartoon were "shitty tokenism." Put together the facts that he totally made up the 80% statistic and the fact that there are no other black people anywhere in the the ranks of Ultimate SHIELD and you get Nick Fury being just as much of a shitty token black character as the ones he mentions.
I can usually divorce creators' personal views from their work (I still like Cerebus, after all). However, this isn't the first time Millar just made up stuff to justify his creative decisions and that really bugs the hell out of me.
Geez, this is terrible. The Avengers have worked for more than 40 years - why does Marvel feel the need to "reinvent" them, particularly as a team of jerks?
To make things worse, Millar is bringing this oh-so-special vision over to the mainstream Marvel universe. He's turned Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic into completely unrecognizable characters.
The sign of a good writer working in serial fiction like comic books is the ability to shape his or her story to fit the established characters. Instead, Millar is screwing up long-established characters in order to tell his story.
Anyone remember The Unfunnies?
The biggest problem with the whole Ultimate universe is that all the writers seem to feel as though they need to catch up to the regular Marvel continuity. There seems to be the need to do all the cool things that were done over 40 years in about 5.
The worst example has to be Gwen Stacy in Ultimate Spider-man. Here is a pivotal character who was very different from the original and just really starting to hit her stride when she gets killed seemingly for shock value by some crappy Carnage take-off. Hell, even Uncle Ben lives for like 6 issues!
Well, at least the Ultimate Defenders aren't quite as arrogant . . . .
I stopped reading the Ultimates (after the first issue or so of Volume Two) and anything else by Mark Millar for the very reason you name: the team was composed of snide, hateful jerks. Except for Bruce Banner, who was a pathetic asswipe. It's the same reason I gave up on Warren Ellis ,whom I used to absolutely love. I just got tired of reading about obnoxious, wisecracking fuckwads. Especially when the writing made it clear I was supposed to sympathize with them, or at least respect or envy them. That shit might work for a five-minute SNL skit ("And now, two assholes saving the universe...") but over a long period of time it really starts to grate on me.
I share that love/hate relationship. When I read a comic, I want the heroes to win because they're good guys, not because they're evil sons of bitches who work for the government. THE ULTIMATES #5 is the only comic I've written hate mail to, which, as an adult, is kinda silly. Still, I think Mark Millar is a good, engaging writer, but I just don't particularly care for the sentiments he puts forward and I don't like his idea of cool. Captain America, the Sentinal of Liberty, kicking a naked, unarmed prisoner of war in the face? That's not patriotism; that's criminal behavior. Mark Millar's Ultimates seem like the kind of people who would beat up and wedgie Brian Michael Bendis's Ultimate Peter Parker, and who am I more likely to empathize with in that scenario? Still, it's engaging storytelling that I buy every three months it comes out.
I love the Mardi Gras special
While there have been some stories that tried to imply that Reed's a jerk, for the most part he's really more of an absent-minded professor type than a standard Millar-written, Machiavellian dickhead.
I agree, Reed is usually shown as a single-minded workaholic who neglects his woman at worst.
"Oh no! Our anniversary dinner! Sue's going to be sore at me, but this experiment is important!"
I'm in the LOVE IT camp. When they turned the hulk lose on the alien and he ... ate the thing's head...I couldn't believe it. Now that was putting the primal back in the hulk.
Also, I wouldn't call the new Cap a right winger..he's just an anachronism. Oh wait.
And Samuel L.Jackson as Fury. YES. In one of the Ultimate Spiderman's, Fury shows up and says to Parker "Enjoy the next couple years, kid. When you're eighteen you belong to us."
How bad ass is that?
The Ultimates are great.
I'm in the "love it" camp as well.
If only because the regular Avengers were as boring as any concept that didn't change a bit since 1962. Same reason I love all of the radical changes that have been ongoing since about 2000.
I mean, if you want static, unchanging cannon, read a bible.
Well, Ultimate Iron Man is my favourite version of that particular character. Tony's a dying man who wants to live what's left of his life to the full, and he's more or less cornered the market on true heroism in his team. (I'm thinking of the end of the first volume when he saves Phoenix, AZ from being wasted by a ginormous UFO and then suffers a brief crisis of confidence, saying he can't go on any more, then gets asked the BASIC SUPERHERO QUESTION: "If you don't do it, who will?" He then gets a recharge and flies off to kick some more butt.) Ultimate Thor, however, is a complete and total dipwad. I reference Vol 1 Issue 5, when he basically says, "Screw New York. Unless the President ponies up the dollars I'll LET the Hulk run around killing and eating people."
My main problem with Millar is that everything he writes, from his company work to his "original" works reeks...take the worst habits and tics of guys like Ellis and such and filter them through the sensibilites of an "edgy" 16 year old pimple-farm who thinks he's making a statement with his dead baby jokes and "You laugh at me because I'm different, I laugh at you because you're all the same" T-Shirt.
There, you've got Millar's work. The Unfunnies (CARTOON ANIMALS DOING VIOLENCE AND SEX STUFF, THE MOST MINDBLOWING CONCEPT EVAR!!!), Wanted (RAPE KILL RAPE KILL RAPE KILL ALL YOU READERS ARE A BUNCH OF SHEEPLE), that comic about the Anti-Christ, etc. And the BS reasons he uses to "justify" some of his creative decisions...
Of course, I've learned my lesson and haven't gone near a Millar book in awhile.
And I'm tired of the old saws that are brought out when people complain about characters being unlikeable "well characters don't have to be likeable to be compelling or well-done", but Dave put it best in the article...I got tired of obnoxious idiot characters in stories where it's obvious I'm supposed to think they're the coolest, the best, and like, TO-tally AWE-some!!! etc. This is not limited to the comics medium, after all. And it is not a new thing, either.
Millar's characters are not only obnoxios idiots and all, but he is not good at building characters asides from those of the flimsiest 2-d sort. He does for comics writing what Liefield does for comics art, a ton of IN-YOUR-FACE and not much else.
I think the problem is we've got way too many people writing mainstream comics who really kind of hate mainstream comics. they either don't understand or detest what it is that those of us who love the superhero genre without irony see in it.
I tried reading Ultimates when it first came out, but just couldn't get into it.
I guess I'm just not thrilled about such flawed super heroes.
I like what I have read of the Ultimates so far altough I agree it does seem like it goes over the same ground as Miracleman or even X-Statix. I liked the set-up of the first volume, but it seemed like too quick a resolution.
As far as all this Millar hate is going, has anyone read the Superman Adventures he's written? Those are some of the most enjoyable Superman stories I have read in years, and they aren't fueled by spite or "gritty realism." They're actually really fun.
Just my 2 cents...
I think for purists, one of the things most frustrating about the Ultimates has to be that... The flaws all kinda make sense.
It's a one-sided view, but it's not without it's logic.
Bummer.
I don't personally love or hate, but I have to agree with earlier sentiments. It was a much more attractive prospect when The Avengers were still readily available.
This Marvel Universe Team-Up book does not seem to suffice... Let's see if Mighty Avengers wastes more time, or gets back on track.
Not too sure about that line-up...
I liked the first volume, thought the second was ok and the third one fantastic. I think Millar is a strong plotter and I really can't fathom the hate for the characters. I find them all pretty sympathetic - the original Avengers, on the other hand, were dull and two-dimensional.
I will disagree and say that Ultimate Captain America is in fact, the balls.
He's a member of the greatest generation who kicks ass the old fashioned way.
And can you blame him for being uptight? He came from a time when America was brought togehter with strong values and ideals, to a time when the idiots reign supreme.
The point is he's a leader, someone you can respect. Like a super-tough grandpa that beats you up and tells you to get a haircut.
Besides, I'd rather have a right-wing Cap then some lefty candyass who tries to stop the bad guys with sanctions or something.
Better a right-wing asshole, than a liberal douche.
M- Mis. Coulter?
Wow. have the Newts and Dubbyas already won? Why do all commenters - good, liberal stock all (save those last two, of course), accept that Cap is depicted as a "right-winger"? Since when is being a patriot who is willing to fight for his country and it's values equal to being a right-winger?!
Over here ("here" being Israel) there are many people who would describe themselves as far left, who also have the sort of military credentials George W. jerks off thinking about at night. The main difference between right and left wing, regarding the use of force, is thinking of it as a solution as opposed to seeing it as a last resort.
Cap has been transplanted right from an era when the US and most of the world were locked in a fight to the death with the greatest evil in history, a fight that had no nuances, no ifs or maybes or buts, and he's trying to come to terms with this new world, where the PR spin is king. The books don't really show how his political worldview evolves - he has to deal with a cannibalistic monster, an alien invasion of the earth and an invasion of the USA, and he just fights back, as ruthlessly and efficiently as he was created to do.
And keep this in mind: today, when you think right-wing, you think chickenhawk lunatics like Dubbia and Wolfowitz and Coulter and Limbaugh and Rumsfeld - but, go back 15 years, and your president was Bush senior; as a young man he went to fight for his country in it's hour of need, and as president he knew when to declare war (and how to define it's goals). So, right wing is not necessarily bad - it's only when you inject God into the equation (as the Bush revolution of 2000 has done) that the trouble begins. And say what you will about the Ultimates' Cap, he's too practical and down to earth to get God involved in his fights.
One more thing: love the Ultimates.
I used to be really in to the Ultimates, but my tastes have changed in between all the delays, and I was pretty underwhelmed by the first story arc on the re-read recently when I got the hardcover. It could be Millar's whole "everyone is an asshole" writing tick; I don't despise the man's work, but that's why he isn't a favorite of mine, and it cuts across just about everthing I've read of his.
I still find his version of the Avengers more interesting than the original (who are about the only super team I have never warmed to other than maybe Alpha Flight, probably because I hate all Candians who are not cartoonists or pro wrestlers), but I don't particularly like any of them, either, and as impressive as Hitch's art is, I can't help but not care. I do still want to see how Millar wrapped it up, though. Holy flip flop, Batman!
I really liked Ultimate Thor and Iron Man, for instance, way more than the original versions. The last issue of Ultimates I read had Thor in a sanitarium and Loki screwing with him, with the implication that he might just be nuts. I liked the angle that Tony was dying and wanted to do some good before he went, although Millar seemed to have forgotten about that somewhere along the way. I also didn't mind all the cynicism, but then again, that's because I generally do not give a crap about the Avengers. I kind of hated his X-Men because they were mouthy teenagers, so I'm a bit of a hypocrite there.
I also liked Millar's Cap, because I thought he did the man out of time thing better than even Lee and Kirby (because their take consisted if Cap whining about Bucky between action sequences), although anyone from Roy Thomas to Mark Waid could have done it better (my Cap reading has lots of holes in it). The rest of the characters kind of sucked, though, and I would not have cared if they all died at the end of Millar's last issue in a freak meteor shower at the Triskelion or whatever it was called. Especially if Fury's last words were a Sam Jackson line. His Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were always especially insufferable. If nothing else, Loeb should improve on that.
So those aren't photoshopped captions for those Ultimates pages?
I dig The Ultimates a lot. They are complete dicks, but it doesn't bother me to see dickish Cap, Wasp, Iron Man, etc. because I don't think of them as the REAL Cap, Wasp, Iron Man, etc. It's fun for me to be able to read an alternative Avengers where they're all assholes.
Now, I haven't been reading Civil War, but from what I hear, it depicts the real-deal Avengers as being dicks, and that does bother me, just as I hated Identity Crisis as showing the real Justice League to be real assholes.
I think the problem is we've got way too many people writing mainstream comics who really kind of hate mainstream comics. they either don't understand or detest what it is that those of us who love the superhero genre without irony see in it.
**********
That's the best summary of why so many current comics stink that I've ever read. So true - and so applicable to garbage like "The Ultimates."
I think the problem is we've got way too many people writing mainstream comics who really kind of hate mainstream comics. they either don't understand or detest what it is that those of us who love the superhero genre without irony see in it.
**********
That's the best summary of why so many current comics stink that I've ever read. So true - and so applicable to garbage like "The Ultimates."
Here's a question: in the panel depicting Captain America vs. the Hulk, where exactly is Cap's left foot going. Ouch.
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