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I usually don’t enjoy revamps. No matter how cheesy a comic or movie might have been in the 60s or 70s, it possessed a spirit that today’s creators can’t often match. The original X-Men series by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, and Werner Roth had funky villains like The Mimic and soap opera machinations between Scott Summers and Jean Grey. When Marvel decided to re-imagine this as Ultimate X-Men, the results were mixed. They erased all the lovable qualities of the characters that made them so unforgettable in favor of Jerry Bruckheimer style action. I had written off the Ultimate line of comics for good, and when the updated version of The Avengers appeared, I didn’t buy it until the trade paperback appeared. And I was glad I did, because unlike the other series, this one has heart. Mark Millar spent the time to explore each of the characters before sending them off into action. He updated the series in a way that made sense, by having everyone look at Thor as if he were a nut job and Bruce Banner as a misanthropic nerd. The first trade paperback introduced the Ultimates, while the second put them into action against an updated version of the Skulls.
Now the third arc is complete and you can probably get them all in comic stores today. Pick up Marvel Must Haves with Ultimates V2 1-3, and then get single issues 4-6. Rather than having one story spread among six issues, Millar breaks it up into smaller stories that form a mystery. In the first three issues, someone leaks to the media that the Hulk is really Bruce Banner and the whole massacre of innocent New Yorkers was really the Ultimates’ fault. The Hulk goes on trial and is defended by Matt Murdock. Those old timers in the audience will remember the issue of the 70s Hulk where he got the same defense attorney. Unlike that story, this one concludes as it probably would in the real world, but I don’t understand why the government chooses this particular method of execution. Ultimates V2 4-5 deal with the origins of Thor: is he really a Norse God or is he another super soldier variant? A scientist in Europe, Thor’s brother, claims to have invented the hammer and harness that gives Thor his powers. Thor says that this fellow is really Loki who is bending reality and causing the Ultimates to turn against him. The Ultimates go after Thor and it isn’t your regular superhero slugfest.
Ultimates 6, which just came out last week, had me rolling my eyes when I first heard about the Ultimate Defenders. Marvel can’t ever seem to get the formula right for the regular Defenders, why try it here? But it does work, because Millar goes for comedy. The Ultimate Defenders are a bunch of wannabees with no super-powers: Nighthawk, Son of Satan, Power Man, and Valkyrie. They are basically grown-ups playing dress up, hoping to get corporate sponsorship by inviting Hank Pym to join them. Pym is at his lowest point, having been ostracized from the Ultimates, and he can’t get back in even though he’s created two robots: The Vision and Ultron. The government has taken his Giant-Man formula, improved it and given it to other soldiers. All Pym has left is a new power to shrink and control ants (whenever he can find them). He tries to make a new start with the Defenders, but this is team that has to take a cab to a crime scene. At least he gets a girlfriend out of it with the Valkyrie, but her last request to him will have you laughing hysterically.
Cutting across all the issues is the conspiracy to undermine the Ultimates. Someone on the team is sabotaging their operation. In the first issue of Vol. 2, we see the Ultimates invade Iraq on a rescue mission. We see on the last page of the Defenders issue that this hidden agent is objecting to the misuse of their powers. It’s this threat that carries over into the next six issues, and I can’t wait to see what happens next. Nuff said.
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