A review of Mark Millar's "The Ultimates"

Mark Millar's The Ultimates is an alternate retelling of the origin of Marvel Comics' Avengers team. The main concept behind it and other "Ultimate" Marvel titles, was that newbie comic readers could get into Marvel, and not have to worry about not knowing all of the details of a certain title's mythos. It was similar to   a previous series, Heroes Reborn, but was actually successful, and not an epic failure like that earlier venture. This series, like I said before, was supposed to retell the origin of the Avengers, and update it for a modern audience. It was pretty good, but was annoyingly snarky and meanspirited at points, and much of the hip, 2000's-y stuff that was added seemed cheesy and forced.

The characters of Giant Man, The Wasp, Nick Fury, Captain America, and the Hulk were fleshed out and realistic, but a lot of the bits with Hawkeye, Black Widow, Iron Man, and Thor skirted the edges of self parody.The dialogue was often too hip for its own good, but had its moments. Millar's very good at handling action packed events, and this was no exception, with the plot moving along at a brisk clip. It was refreshing, after reading a lot of talky DC comics events, where the fights scenes and action sequences weren't as emphasized as the plot exposition, to read the well written battles that fill this book. Bryan Hitch's art for this series reminded me vaguely of J.G. Jones, which is a good thing, and carried the weaker sections of the book.

Overall, I thought it was great fun, and a good jumping on point for the Avengers mythos in general, and if you liked the Avengers movie, chances are you'll like The Ultimates.

Grade: B