Mark Millar's Ultimate Avengers

[Mr Light]

So, the first issue of the third Ultimate Comics Avengers series has now come out, all by Mark Millar.

I'm generally a big Millar fan, and while I didn't love the Ultimates I did appreciate it for what it was. But I'm really not enjoying these UC Avengers series. While Ultimates was huge and epic... these stories are just lame. The Red Skull is the neo Nazi bastard son of Captain America? A story about Ghost Rider? Blade and vampires? It's all so pathetic.

And the stars of the series? Hawkeye... a new made up Hulk character... a new made up Black Widow... a new made up Wasp... it's just sad.

Even the art isn't very good for the artists' normal level of quality. Carlos Pancheo was never an A list talent for me, but Lenil Yu's art was very sub par and Steve Dillon's first issue looked way too simplistic.

What happened? I was looking forward to this series.

 

[Assimilated Tom]

It's kind of hard to match Ultimates 1 and Ultimates 2. Those were downright awesome, and Bryan Hitch's art certainly helped. The same goes for many series/creators --- compare any of Bendis' current Avengers work to the first few volumes of New Avengers, or the current Green Lantern stories to Geoff Johns' earlier GL work. Still good, just not super-good.

I am still enjoying Ultimate Avengers. Millar's got himself a corner where he can do stuff, which is more than many comics do. I'm still intrigued by a bunch of these dark characters he's thrown out.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I was looking forward to this series along with the restarted Ultimate Comics Spider-Man and imo both have been uninteresting. I'm not a fan of where the Ultimate verse has been going lately and while I don't completely blame "Ultimatium" (it was kind of time to clean up the place) I don't like the direction it has gone since. For a line that wasn't supposed to adhere to continuity it seems like it's starting to fall prey to it. I wonder if it hasn't lost it's charm?

 

[Mr Light]

Also, this "Ultimate X" thing is just horrible. Sure the Art Adams art is gorgeous (even if Jean Grey suddenly went from a B cup to Double Ds) but the story is terrible. Who cares about these made up characters only appearing one at a time? And are they REALLY going to replace Wolverine with his dopey teenage son?

I don't read USM... though right now I am skimming through the original series. Turns out I had already read half of it from the library! I think this is Bendis at his worst, though. There's like two fights in every six issues. And I don't like the "updates" he makes, like a Green Goblin who is a mindless hulking monstrosity incapable of speech. Or a Carnage who is a mindless genetic creation.

 

[Assimilated Tom]

I think killing Wolverine is their proof that shit can happen in the Ultimate Universe and it isn't clone of the Marvel Universe. If they brought back Wolverine, they'd be abandoning that premise.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ They already proved that though when they killed Beast and invalided date that death by bringing him back a year or two later. The Ultimate verse has become just as diverse and cluttered by it's own continuity as 616 has and in a much shorter time. I was slightly excited by the relaunch post-Craptium but the stories have incredibly sucked.

 

[Mr Light]

I actually think Beast "died" twice and was "resurrected" twice.

On the whole I don't care for the Ultimate-verse but I'm curious enough to keep reading. I just read the entire Ult X run and it's just not very good... well the Mark Millar issues were alright. I also just read Ult FF and I think I enjoyed that the most of the three on-goings.

 

[Admiral_Young]

It would have been interesting to see Signer, Dougherty, and Harris's year long run after Millar's original on Ultimate X-Men which if happened we would have gotten an alternate take on Singer's planned X3. It never happened due to Singer's shooting schedule for "Superman Returns". I hated the Kirkman run. Everything felt different after Millar left. It seemed like Millar had a plan for the X-Men and this was dropped when other writers came aboard so they could do their own thing which IMO wasn't great.

Ultimate Fantastic Four was great for the first two or three arcs under Ellis then fell apart too. I think one of the Ultimate lines problems was that they decided to include Ultimate versions of 616 characters too early and felt rushed in some cases. There was that awful Ultimate Daredevil and Elektra mini that came out.

I loved the first two volumes of Ultimates under Millar....not so much the later ones. The early Ultimate verse is great stuff imo, not for everyone but I enjoyed it.

 

[Mr Light]

I wonder what it's like for the people who have no knowledge of the original stories that the Ultimate comics are endlessly repeating. It might be more exciting for them

 

[Assimilated Tom]

^ They already proved that though when they killed Beast and invalided date that death by bringing him back a year or two later. The Ultimate verse has become just as diverse and cluttered by it's own continuity as 616 has and in a much shorter time. I was slightly excited by the relaunch post-Craptium but the stories have incredibly sucked.

Sorry, I should have said explicitly that my argument was for the post-Ultimatum UU. Wasn't shaking things up and making the UU different from the MU the reason they gave for Ultimatum (which I agree sucked except for the art)?

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ Yep. It was also to clean up continuity. Killing major characters for shock value though isn't the way to go to do so. It was poorly executed despite all the hype surrounding it. It should have been epic (Magneto's final brutal attack against humanity) instead it was like a modern retelling of Noah's ark or something (a giant tidal wave to sweep away all the old and bring in the lame new stuff...come on guys). Jeph Loeb wasn't the person to write that either.

 

[DarKush]

I checked out the latest issue mainly because Blade was on the cover. I'm not sure about the story, but I did like how Millar made Blade such a badass. I don't think the Blade part meshed well with the Daredevil part, the shift just seemed so abrupt. The issue was decent, not spectacular but I'll probably stick with it for a while to see where it goes.

 

[Mr Light]

Oh yeah I forgot about this weak ass new Daredevil! I dunno who's worse him or Wolverine Junior

 

[Admiral_Young]

Blade is everywhere right now in both Marvel universes thanks to the vampire craze that has broken out. I agree though the art looked really good on X-Men #2. I still might check it out.

 

[Mr Light]

Yeah Paco Medina is a great artist, particularly on the X-books. He's been on New X-Men (the one with the kids) and the new Deadpool series.

 

[DarKush]

Blade is everywhere right now in both Marvel universes thanks to the vampire craze that has broken out. I agree though the art looked really good on X-Men #2. I still might check it out.

I'm not complaining since I'm a Blade fan. I actually like the Ultimate version a little better than the 616 Blade. Ultimate Blade seems a little more like a combination of 70s and movie Blade. Also, he doesn't have a completely terrible hairdo. I don't like the jagged lightning streaks they have him rocking these days.

Also, with X-Men #2, I didn't like the handlebar mustache they gave him. It reminded me of the Village People. He had a good intro though, but after that, he didn't do much. I do hope they use him a bit more throughout the series.

He was also in the recent Spitfire one-shot if you or anyone was interested. I liked how he was drawn there better than in X-Men #2.

 

[Mr Light]

Yeah his facial hair in X-Men #2 was horribly laughable!