Stephanie Kay
Oct 13, 2007, 10:02 pm
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/marvel/0606/ULTMTS2012_col.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/marvel/0606/ULTMTS2012_colt.jpg" align=left hspace=10 width=200height=150 alt="The Ultimates 2 #12"></a> Reviewer: Mike Sangregorio, darquehex@gmail.com
Story Title: The Avengers
I’m assuming you didn’t read superhero comics back in Mother Russia? These are called secret identities, in case you didn’t know…
Writer: Mark Millar
Penciller: Bryan Hitch
Inker: Paul Neary
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Associate Editors: Nicole Boose & John Barber
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor in chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics (http://www.marvel.com)
Spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned.
The target fanbase of this title breaks down fairly easy. Many were eagerly anticipating this issue, others had let their interest wane and some flat out detest what is happening to their Silver Age ideals. To those of you that already bought the issue, wasn’t it great? For those of you with no intention of getting it, I guess you could go read the Infinite Crisis trade that shipped as it is guaranteed not to make you think too hard. For those on the fence, please keep reading. Regardless of what you may have heard, issue 12 was worth the wait.
Read this issue’s title again. Let it really sink in. The Avengers have arrived in the Marvel Ultiverse. On a day unlike any other, when there stood a foe no single super hero could withstand, the heroes of the world came together. Captain America and his Ultimates. The Ultimate X-Men. Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. The European Defense Initiative (even Captain France). Hell, even the Ultimate Defenders. These are the heroes who stood together in America’s darkest hour against the threat of impossible odds. These are the Avengers.
This week Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s magnum opus comes one issue closer to its oft-put off, but inevitable conclusion. While the Civil War has all but monopolized the Marvel news cycle as of late, along with almost all of Millar’s press, this book continues to be not only a rewarding superhero romp but easily one of the most progressive, politically savvy comic books being produced. Not used to seeing this phrase associated with superheroes? Tough, because this book has an agenda and it shows no sign of slowing down.
No matter “whose side you are on,” the case may be that the Ultimates stands the test of time as well as, if not better than, its 616 crossover counterpart. Long after the Iron Spider costume has faded from memory and the members of the Fantastic Four have reconciled, the image of Hulk throwing Cap’s shield in a last ditch effort to stop the Iranian super soldier will still be fresh in my mind.
Forget the drips and drabs of this story that have filtered down into other books. Ultimate Wolverine & Hulk and whatever it was that Warren Ellis was trying to do in his Gah Lak Tus trilogy tried to retroactively work themselves in between the panels and into the background of the story being played out in this arc, Grand Theft America. For those just joining the festivities, a coalition of the willing, consisting mostly of countries that Millar believes are just looking for an excuse to attack the US of A, have brought America to her knees and, with the help of the Asgardian Loki, taken the Ultimates apart from the inside out.
From here, you can start to connect the dots on your own. Captain America is not going to fall in battle and the rest of the heroes are not out of the picture, no matter how bad off they may have seemed during the last two issues and the months of waiting that came in between. They are, as the self-titled Liberators discover, simply more resourceful and, yes awesome, than anyone has come to realize. All the character defining moments that have been being built up are here. Janet WaspyMcWasp uses a heretofore unseen serum of Hank Pym’s to grow well beyond his wildest imaginations and Tony Stark unveils Iron Man 6, essentially a mobile one man battle-satellite-thing, and turns the Ultimate Russian Red Ronin into so much scrap.
If you can believe it, even Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch get their shining moments.
As the title alludes to, this issue (and presumably the subsequent #13) should bring to mind visions of an earlier era, when a fleeting attempt to come up with a Justice League of Marvel brought together the powerhouses of the House of Ideas to deal with a certain god of mischief. Mark Millar has given Earth’s Mightiest Heroes the one thing that they have lacked for nearly 45 years. He’s given them something to avenge.
So far, Nick Fury has lost an arm, Thor has lost his sanity and Black Widow may have lost her life. The team that saved the world from extraterrestrial Nazis (I am never going to get tired of saying that phrase) only months before have been stripped of the façade of well marketed demigods and placed in a situation where only their unique abilities and willingness to be a team will save everyone and everything they love. They ring true as real people doing amazing things in impossible situations. Sound familiar?
Incoming scribe, Jeph Loeb, has had a lengthy tenure at the Distinguished Competition where he brought back a forgotten level of glory and awe to such stalwarts and Batman and Superman. He has been quoted as having reservations about a team of super powered people who seemed to spend more time beating up each other than the real villains of the world. I can only assume that he read the scripts for these last few issues before he signed on for both volumes 3 and 4. Though fans will get a different type of storytelling, hopefully it will be at the same level of quality that Millar brought to every issue and that has been seen on Loeb’s other work (I did enjoy The Maximums, if nothing else).
Regardless, with this issue something else becomes clearer. It may have taken almost five years but what Millar has done is simply retell the first Avengers story. He just made the scale more grandiose and added in all the details that originally took years of retconning to work out. Yes, yes I know how simplistic that statement makes both sets of mythos seem. In rereading the entire story, across both volumes, you can see the evolution of a team of superheroes from there real world origins and through their trials by fire. Their losses are bitter and their victories (some involving extraterrestrial Nazis, are there more vile villains) are fulfilling team experiences that yield entertainment and more quotable lines than most team books.
In many cases the art of a book is an afterthought for me. I’m not too much of a critic when it comics to most visual storytelling but in this case, it is undeniable that Bryan Hitch is as important to the success and quality of this book as Millar is. At the outset, Hitch was not new to this type of real world brain bashing as he had made his major American mark as the opening artist on Warren Ellis’ The Authority, of which this book is really a bastard child of. Nonetheless, Hitch has continued to grow into a seminal archetype of the modern comics world providing in both hyper-realistic backgrounds and characters that actually look like characters and not still shots from an entertainment magazine (a problem that plagued Millar’s run on Ultimate Four with Greg Land).
This issue had promised every character in the Ultiverse fighting the enemy and that essentially amounted to one double page spread with a smattering of various heroes and generic enemy troops. I’m not complaining, but it almost seems as if Hitch’s work becomes awkward when he is forced to draw characters he himself did not design, especially those clad in the traditional superhero costumes (Spider-Man in particular looks plump and out of place), but then again maybe that’s the point. Either way, between the Colonel and Captain America’s fight and Quicksilver’s takedown of Syrian Hurricane, fans will be rewarded for their patient waiting in spades.
As much fanboy bliss as this issue serves up, the best moments come from what is not shown, but merely teased. As was the case with volume one, this is only the first half of the conclusion of the series with the newly solicited issue 13 on its way “before the end of the year or else everyone can punch me in the stomach,” as Millar himself so recently promised. As the issue comes to a close, it makes a promise to readers that will not soon be forgotten. Forget Ragnarok, Thor has returned in what is certainly Midgard’s darkest hour. If I could give this issue more than 5 out of 5 I would!
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/umfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/umfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/umfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/umfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/umfull.jpg
Buy The Ultimates 2 #12 online now from X-WORLD and save! ( http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopexd.asp?id=19630)
Story Title: The Avengers
I’m assuming you didn’t read superhero comics back in Mother Russia? These are called secret identities, in case you didn’t know…
Writer: Mark Millar
Penciller: Bryan Hitch
Inker: Paul Neary
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Associate Editors: Nicole Boose & John Barber
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor in chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics (http://www.marvel.com)
Spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned.
The target fanbase of this title breaks down fairly easy. Many were eagerly anticipating this issue, others had let their interest wane and some flat out detest what is happening to their Silver Age ideals. To those of you that already bought the issue, wasn’t it great? For those of you with no intention of getting it, I guess you could go read the Infinite Crisis trade that shipped as it is guaranteed not to make you think too hard. For those on the fence, please keep reading. Regardless of what you may have heard, issue 12 was worth the wait.
Read this issue’s title again. Let it really sink in. The Avengers have arrived in the Marvel Ultiverse. On a day unlike any other, when there stood a foe no single super hero could withstand, the heroes of the world came together. Captain America and his Ultimates. The Ultimate X-Men. Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. The European Defense Initiative (even Captain France). Hell, even the Ultimate Defenders. These are the heroes who stood together in America’s darkest hour against the threat of impossible odds. These are the Avengers.
This week Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s magnum opus comes one issue closer to its oft-put off, but inevitable conclusion. While the Civil War has all but monopolized the Marvel news cycle as of late, along with almost all of Millar’s press, this book continues to be not only a rewarding superhero romp but easily one of the most progressive, politically savvy comic books being produced. Not used to seeing this phrase associated with superheroes? Tough, because this book has an agenda and it shows no sign of slowing down.
No matter “whose side you are on,” the case may be that the Ultimates stands the test of time as well as, if not better than, its 616 crossover counterpart. Long after the Iron Spider costume has faded from memory and the members of the Fantastic Four have reconciled, the image of Hulk throwing Cap’s shield in a last ditch effort to stop the Iranian super soldier will still be fresh in my mind.
Forget the drips and drabs of this story that have filtered down into other books. Ultimate Wolverine & Hulk and whatever it was that Warren Ellis was trying to do in his Gah Lak Tus trilogy tried to retroactively work themselves in between the panels and into the background of the story being played out in this arc, Grand Theft America. For those just joining the festivities, a coalition of the willing, consisting mostly of countries that Millar believes are just looking for an excuse to attack the US of A, have brought America to her knees and, with the help of the Asgardian Loki, taken the Ultimates apart from the inside out.
From here, you can start to connect the dots on your own. Captain America is not going to fall in battle and the rest of the heroes are not out of the picture, no matter how bad off they may have seemed during the last two issues and the months of waiting that came in between. They are, as the self-titled Liberators discover, simply more resourceful and, yes awesome, than anyone has come to realize. All the character defining moments that have been being built up are here. Janet WaspyMcWasp uses a heretofore unseen serum of Hank Pym’s to grow well beyond his wildest imaginations and Tony Stark unveils Iron Man 6, essentially a mobile one man battle-satellite-thing, and turns the Ultimate Russian Red Ronin into so much scrap.
If you can believe it, even Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch get their shining moments.
As the title alludes to, this issue (and presumably the subsequent #13) should bring to mind visions of an earlier era, when a fleeting attempt to come up with a Justice League of Marvel brought together the powerhouses of the House of Ideas to deal with a certain god of mischief. Mark Millar has given Earth’s Mightiest Heroes the one thing that they have lacked for nearly 45 years. He’s given them something to avenge.
So far, Nick Fury has lost an arm, Thor has lost his sanity and Black Widow may have lost her life. The team that saved the world from extraterrestrial Nazis (I am never going to get tired of saying that phrase) only months before have been stripped of the façade of well marketed demigods and placed in a situation where only their unique abilities and willingness to be a team will save everyone and everything they love. They ring true as real people doing amazing things in impossible situations. Sound familiar?
Incoming scribe, Jeph Loeb, has had a lengthy tenure at the Distinguished Competition where he brought back a forgotten level of glory and awe to such stalwarts and Batman and Superman. He has been quoted as having reservations about a team of super powered people who seemed to spend more time beating up each other than the real villains of the world. I can only assume that he read the scripts for these last few issues before he signed on for both volumes 3 and 4. Though fans will get a different type of storytelling, hopefully it will be at the same level of quality that Millar brought to every issue and that has been seen on Loeb’s other work (I did enjoy The Maximums, if nothing else).
Regardless, with this issue something else becomes clearer. It may have taken almost five years but what Millar has done is simply retell the first Avengers story. He just made the scale more grandiose and added in all the details that originally took years of retconning to work out. Yes, yes I know how simplistic that statement makes both sets of mythos seem. In rereading the entire story, across both volumes, you can see the evolution of a team of superheroes from there real world origins and through their trials by fire. Their losses are bitter and their victories (some involving extraterrestrial Nazis, are there more vile villains) are fulfilling team experiences that yield entertainment and more quotable lines than most team books.
In many cases the art of a book is an afterthought for me. I’m not too much of a critic when it comics to most visual storytelling but in this case, it is undeniable that Bryan Hitch is as important to the success and quality of this book as Millar is. At the outset, Hitch was not new to this type of real world brain bashing as he had made his major American mark as the opening artist on Warren Ellis’ The Authority, of which this book is really a bastard child of. Nonetheless, Hitch has continued to grow into a seminal archetype of the modern comics world providing in both hyper-realistic backgrounds and characters that actually look like characters and not still shots from an entertainment magazine (a problem that plagued Millar’s run on Ultimate Four with Greg Land).
This issue had promised every character in the Ultiverse fighting the enemy and that essentially amounted to one double page spread with a smattering of various heroes and generic enemy troops. I’m not complaining, but it almost seems as if Hitch’s work becomes awkward when he is forced to draw characters he himself did not design, especially those clad in the traditional superhero costumes (Spider-Man in particular looks plump and out of place), but then again maybe that’s the point. Either way, between the Colonel and Captain America’s fight and Quicksilver’s takedown of Syrian Hurricane, fans will be rewarded for their patient waiting in spades.
As much fanboy bliss as this issue serves up, the best moments come from what is not shown, but merely teased. As was the case with volume one, this is only the first half of the conclusion of the series with the newly solicited issue 13 on its way “before the end of the year or else everyone can punch me in the stomach,” as Millar himself so recently promised. As the issue comes to a close, it makes a promise to readers that will not soon be forgotten. Forget Ragnarok, Thor has returned in what is certainly Midgard’s darkest hour. If I could give this issue more than 5 out of 5 I would!
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/umfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/umfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/umfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/umfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/umfull.jpg
Buy The Ultimates 2 #12 online now from X-WORLD and save! ( http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopexd.asp?id=19630)