Marvel's The Ultimates

Hmmm. I'm averaging about one post a year. Will have to improve on this:

Marvel Comics launched their Ultimate universe as an alternative to their regular comics lines. The concept was fairly simple: take the core characters of the Marvel universe and reimagine them. Strip away years of continuity and make them easy for new readers to get into. They started with Ultimate Spider-Man (who became a high school kid again) and followed up with the Ultimate X-Men.

Part of of the thinking behind this was to make these old characters new again in the wake of the successful Spider-man and X-Men movies. The Ultimate universe was pretty successful in achieving its objectives and enabled creators to get back to what made these characters timeless while at the same time updating them for a 21st century audience. The line expanded, with the Fantastic Four, Elektra and Daredevil and even Captain Marvel reimagined a la Battlestar Galactica.

Eventually, they got round to putting Mark Millar (writing) and Bryan Hitch (art) on reimagining the Avengers.

And it was good!

Golden Age of the Ultimates

Let there be light...

Volume 1 of the Ultimates saw the formation of the team, their first mission to take down the Hulk and their subsequent uncovering of an alien plot to take over the world through infiltrating shapeshifters. Yes, this took place before Marvel's Secret Invasion. Along the way, we got treated to Bryan Hitch's rendition of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury before the Iron Man movie even came out and Mark Millar's take on Captain America as a no-holds-barred career soldier instead of a goody two-shoes boy scout. It's fairly safe to say that these characterisations and character designs paved the way for the highly successful Robert Downey Jr depiction of Iron Man and lays the groundwork for what will probably be the Avengers.

Volume 2, also by Millar and Hitch, followed this up with an even bigger storyline touching on the origins of Thor alongside questions of the Ultimates acting as global peacekeepers but perpetrating American hegemony. The problem of integrating real life Norse gods into a realistic depiction of the world aside, Millar and Hitch manage to pull it off and even make the Ultimates look good doing so, even though they aren't the infallible heroes of Earth 616 in the mainstream Marvel Universe. I suspect some of this will form the basis for the upcoming Thor movie.

In both volumes, Millar shows a strong grasp of what makes his characters tick. From Captain America's '40s anachronisms and his difficulty in adjusting to a 21st century world, to Tony Stark's self-destructive flamboyant streak that he uses as a shell to deal with a deeper struggle, everything rings true or at least as true as a comic book can get. Even characters like Hawkeye get their moment to show just why they're on a team called "the Ultimates" while having to deal with personal tragedy. The dialogue is well-crafted without heavy-handed exposition and the story flows smoothly. I got copies of the trades for friends who like superheroes but are not necessarily into comics and they liked them. I gave copies to friends who liked comics but weren't necessarily into superheroes and they liked them. Win on all grounds. Throughout these two volumes, we develop a certain attachment to the characters and I got the sense that Millar also enjoyed writing them up (yes, even losers like Hank Pym).

Ultimate Fail

With great power comes great responsibility... not to #%@! up.

Then came Ultimates 3, with Jeph Loeb writing and Joe Madureira handling art chores. When the solicitations came out, I was ecstatic. Loeb's work for DC in Batman's the Long Halloween & Dark Victory and A Superman for All Seasons, plus his deft touch on Marvel's Daredevil: Yellow and Spider-man: Blue showed that he was able to get a good read on these classic characters and also bring out their inner voice in his writing. But at the same time, he could handle a convoluted storyline (especially in the case of the Batman books). I'd also been a fan of Joe Mad since his X-Men days and even modelled some of my art-style on his manga-inspired characters (loved his Rogue and Gambit depictions!)

So much promise.

Then issue 1 came out and I was shell-shocked. Devastated. Heartbroken. I didn't even bother buying it but decided to wait until it was collected into a trade paperback to assess the damage. After I got the trade paperback sometime later, I managed to sift through the wreckage that was Ultimates 3. Why? Art aside - Joe Mad can still wield a mean pencil - it seemed as though Loeb had not even read Ultimates Vol. 1 and 2. Hawkeye was now a complete jackass who seemed to be channeling Grifter from the Wildcats, but with far less style and originality (see how he takes down Spidey and his awful dialogue doing so); Tony Stark was next to useless, showing none of the verve and intelligence that made him in many ways the glue that held the Ultimates together in Volumes 1 & 2 and somehow sporting some new Iron Man armor reminiscent of the Earth 616 suit; the Wasp was no longer Asian and had absolutely none of the spunk and charm I'd come to like; Thor now spoke in his Earth 616 manner, lost his axe in place of the classic 616 hammer, had hooked up with Valkyrie who suddenly had superhuman powers and no longer seemed like the intelligent and articulate hippy he was shown to be previously. In short, I no longer recognised the characters I had come to love. The dialogue was stilted and incoherent, the characters less believable and ironically, Madureira's cartoony style made everything worse in view of the surreal nature of the writing. It was as if I was reading someone's reimagining of the Ultimates.

The storyline made little sense except to allow Madureira the opportunity to illustrate some T&A and as things developed, you got the distinct sense that Loeb had a deep dislike for the characters. Or that he couldn't be bothered to read Ultimates 1 & 2 but decided to Wikipedia them to get the bullet points. No explanation was given for changes to the characters or why there were costume alterations. Black Panther is "introduced" to the Ultimate universe without any... introduction. If you missed out on the issue of Ultimate Origins where he is showcased, well you're out of luck finding out anything more about him or why "Captain America vouches for him". I came away shaking my head and wondering how all of this managed to pass through the hands of editors. Had Loeb become like George Lucas where his past successes had clouded the minds of those around him and there was no creative check against bad ideas? Like most comic fans, I read about Loeb's personal family tragedy and figured OK. I'll let this one slide. Anyway, it was just a few issues and I can always ignore it as an aberration.

Part of the blame lands squarely on the shoulders of the editorial staff. Continuity was clearly thrown out of the window and any attempt at retaining the loyal readership built up after Ultimates 1 & 2 cast aside without much thought. For shame, Marvel.

Epic Ultimate Fail

As above, so below.

Then came Loeb's Ultimatum. As an Ultimate universe-wide crossover event, it was touted as something that would shake up the Ultimate universe and pull together the threads that had been building up through all the books in the Ultimate line. What it showed was that Loeb really did seem to hate all the Ultimate characters. Amidst the devastation and carnage, many characters are killed for no better reason than as collateral damage. When the mastermind is revealed, I yawned, let's get this over with quick, Big Bang Theory is coming on in 15 minutes. Dr Strange is dispatched in a couple of pages. I watch as a master story-teller comes up with something mind-numbingly pedestrian as a bad Emmerich disaster movie. With cannibalism. Loeb builds on the unlikeable doppelgangers of the Ultimates that we saw in Ultimates 3, so the best we can say is that he is consistent with his interpretation of the characters. Only now, he spreads the hate to all the characters in the Ultimate universe. I got the feeling he was taking a giant dump in someone else's sandbox saying "You like these guys? Well take that!"

A Ray of Sunlight?

The Second Coming of the Ultimates, in my lifetime! Huzzah!

You can probably tell by now I was pretty much done with the Ultimate universe. Having discovered Geoff Johns' Green Lantern, I was revisiting the DC universe post-Identity Crisis and really getting into the Blackest Night. So you can imagine my surprise when I see Ultimate Comics: Avengers #1 at my friendly local comics store by Mark Millar with Carlos Pacheco on art chores. After a quick glance, I see Iron Man's old suit, read Hawkeye and Cap's easy banter and I think to myself, They're back! Thank you, Mark Millar! Five issues in, while it is fairly lightweight compared to Ultimates 1 & 2, I feel as if something has been fixed and I can finally put the dark shadow of Ultimates 3 and Ultimatum behind me. Nerd Hulk is a riot, War Machine rocks and Gregory Stark is a fresh take on the genius inventor concept. But there continues to be a lingering sense that this creative team has its hands full repairing all the damage that Loeb hath wrought. Verily. UC: Avengers #7, which starts the second story arc featuring Ultimate Punisher, is already out and is showing much promise and I can only hope it continues. Mark Millar has gone on record saying he has more stories to tell, so I hope that the well doesn't run dry anytime soon.

But Wait, What's This?

Verily, I say thee nay!

Another books hit the shelves round about the same time as Ultimate Avengers. Ultimate Comics: New Ultimates. Good gravy, two Ultimates titles? The art rocks! Could it be Frank Cho on pencils? It is! Who is the writer? Wait, is it... is it... Jeph Loeb?

Hands trembling, I read through the first issue. Sigh. And wish I hadn't. If not for the completist in me, I'd have just dumped it. If nothing else, UC: New Ultimates showcases the strong disparity in the characterisation under Loeb with the characterisation under Millar in a parralel book being published at the same time. The art is phenomenal and takes things to another level entirely, but the plotting, story and characters leave me cold.

Captain America comes out the worst, with hackneyed tough-guy dialogue and a terrible attitude, especially in issue #2 where he beats up on Valkyrie. New characters are introduced without any explanation and Tony Stark is Iron Man once again without a clear explanation of what he'd been doing since Ultimates 3 and Ultimatum. And why he's in a new Iron Man suit. Ka-zar and Shaana come out colourless and there's nothing really explaining the presence of the Enchantress in this book. Again, it's as if I blinked and characters multiplied. Frank Cho can really draw and his clean-lined art is reminiscent of Kevin Maguire's Justice League International. Sadly, it serves a poor story about characters I can't be bothered with.

Seems like everyone in the book has a chip on their shoulder.

Post-Mortem

It's life, Jim, but not as we know it.

Where does one go from here? I'm hoping that the New Ultimates will have a short run with Tony Stark waking up with a bad hangover saying "What the-?" and then realising that it was all a bad dream Bobby Ewing-style. That this was a failed experiment in creating a Marvel Elseworlds within the Elseworlds of the Ultimate universe. That they'll cancel the title to let UC: Avengers carry the flag. It seems as if you need to read UC:A as happening before UC: NU, so it is theoretically possible that the latter is happening in an alternate universe in a possible future timestream. Whatever. Bottomline is this: please keep Jeph Loeb away from a comic book for a while, especially the Ultimates. I heard that his Red Hulk saga is also a big disappointment, so this seems to be consistent.

I sincerely grieve for Mr Loeb's loss, but the distinct sense that he is still working through his pain undermines the work he is doing. The heavy-handed Tony Stark internal monologue in New Ultimates #1 pretty much shouts this out using a megaphone. For the moment, I would stay away from the New Ultimates series.

So if you have a chance, check out Ultimates 1 and 2. Skip the rest and pick up Ultimate Comics: Avengers. For top-notch entertainment, they guarantee a few hours of intelligent fun reliving the joy you had reading comics as a kid, but with adult sensibilities.

Note: 17 year-old Sam Loeb succumbed to bone cancer in 2005 after a three-year battle. By all accounts, he was a bright young man and much loved by those who knew him. The world is lessened by his loss.