The Avengers: Ultron Unlimited (2004)

Author: Kurt Busiek | Illustrator: George Pérez | Page Count: 96

“The battle goes poorly.”

Ultron rebuilds himself yet again and returns to cause trouble for the team.  He just can’t stay away.  Corny villain dialogue and panel-filling fights ensue.

The story threatens to become interesting once or twice in the first half when it introduces familial concerns but they’re frustratingly underdeveloped.  That lack of depth gets remedied in the second half, but it’s possible that only the most ardent fan will make it that far because throughout is Marvel at its most fanwanky, alienating anyone who isn't interested in developing an encyclopaedic knowledge of the characters and their convoluted relationships.

I kept reading just to see how bad it could get.  My brain almost shut down, but, like I said before, the second half saves the day a little.  It also paradoxically throws everything else into an even deeper pit of ridiculousness.  The number of enemies reaches critical proportions.  They’re like an unwanted currency attempting to achieve value by increasing in number. ‘More is Better,’ seems to be the motto, but a mountain is no better than a molehill when both are built out of crap.  Kurt Busiek had some genuinely great ideas but you’ll need superhero levels of endurance if you're to dig them out of the carnage.

The book collects together Avengers Vol. 3, issues 0 and 19 - 22.

2 yellow flashbacks out of 5

The Ultimates: Volume 2: Homeland Security (2004)

Author: Mark Millar | Illustrator: Bryan Hitch | Page Count: 200

"Why would she put up with that?"

"I don't know.  Why would anyone?"

By the end of Volume 1 Millar had taken steps in setting up a real opportunity to tackle a subject that needs to come out from behind closed doors.  He could've did it in a powerful and sensitive way but for some reason he pushed it aside too soon, and instead exploded the main story into a boring three and a half issue battle with some pretend Nazis.  I was bored out of my mind by the end.
I'd love to know why he ignored such a prime opportunity.  Was it his idea, or his editor's?  Was there a more satisfying draft that got rejected?  Or did he just get bored and decide to blow shit up because it's the easy way out?

Conversely, if lengthy combat scenes like the one at the end of The Avengers (2012) movie is something you enjoy then maybe you’ll get even more jollies from Volume 2 than you did from Volume 1.

Prior to the DBZ moment, Hawkeye gets an action scene and proves how problematic a character he is to write for; there’s not much you can do with a guy whose superpower is the ability to magically not run out of arrows.  He's teamed with Black Widow who has a similarly limiting condition.  It played out fine regardless but it felt like it was forced into the narrative just to give the pair something meaningful to do.  Hawkeye has his own current title but I've not read it; I'd be interested in seeing how he fares in it.

The addition of two guests from another title seemed superfluous, unless Millar was setting up something that he’d develop further in Ultimates 2; I don’t have the subsequent books so I don't know.  I'd hate to think it was pointless fan-service or there simply to undermine the main team dynamic.

At almost every turn this book left me wondering about things that were outside of the story, but not in a 'food for thought' kind of way, more in a 'I wonder would something else be better than this' kind of way.

The book collects together The Ultimates, issues 7 - 13.

2½ vendettas out of 5

The Ultimates: Volume 1: Super-Human (2002)

Author: Mark Millar | Illustrator: Bryan Hitch | Page Count: 160

“Listen, I’m really sorry about breaking your nose back there, General Fury.”

“Take it easy... This nose has been smashed more times than Robert Downey Jr.”

The team with the modest name are like an Ultimate Universe version of the Avengers.  (See Spider-Man post if you need Ultimate Universe info.)  It’s not a typical origin story; it’s more of a recruitment story.  General Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. (who was comic book Sam Jackson years before real life Sam Jackson was movie Nick Fury) puts together a team of the best and brightest superheroes he can find because he fears an attack on the U.S. by some as yet unknown super villain(s); he’s the ultimate paranoid Boy Scout.  There’s only one problem with that strategy: they've got no one to fight.  When that many egos are gathered together in one place some members of the team begin to get anxious.

Millar’s heroes are part warrior, part pawn and part celebrity in a world not unlike our own.  I was a little annoyed by the many references to the real world he kept throwing in.  Some of it was blackly humourous (I think he was mocking the kind of sad individual that believes namechecking celebrities will give them status) but mostly it was just irritating, and is the thing that will cause the book to feel most dated the further we are removed from the pop culture events mentioned.
It’s a good thing Millar was able to balance it out with some excellent pacing elsewhere, and some fast but deep character developments.

His style is as cinematic as they come.  In fact, both the first Captain America and Avengers films stole large chucks of his story for their scripts, and all they gave him was a thank you in the screen credit; they ought to be ashamed.

Bryan Hitch’s artwork is great, and some clever use of thick shadows by colourist Paul Mounts means it isn't ruined by the digital colouring techniques.

The book collects together The Ultimates, issues 1 - 6.

4 kinds of jealousy out of 5

Captain America: The New Deal (2003)

Author: John Ney Rieber | Illustrator: John Cassaday | Page Count: 176

"Blood on your hands, they say.  As though it stops there.
At the wrist.  Like a glove."

TND was John Ney Rieber’s first Capt America story, and the one that launched yet another reboot of the series, post 9/11.  It wasn't a good start.  It’s political.

I live in the UK.  We’re not patriotic.  It's a generalisation but largely true.  We aren’t taught allegiance in schools, or weaned into it by fraternities and sororities, and expected to declare undying loyalty, etc.  Being an outsider means I don’t know if the view I have of American culture is even remotely close to the real America; it’s a view based on media offerings, and we all know their truth to bullshit ratio.  The book embodies what the media tells me so I can't know how much of it mirrors real sentiment, and how much is exaggerated.  Irrespective, it’s not a good story.  If you strip away the self-reaffirming monologue, the calls for unity and the blatant mollycoddling then there’s almost nothing left.

Most of the text is in short, broken clauses; the type that's best reserved for action scenes.  When that kind of writing takes up the bulk of a text it disrupts the narrative flow and stops being fun to read.  It’s like listening to that kid with lung problems from Malcolm in the Middle read someone's diary.

There’s an attempt to show the 'enemy' perspective, but it’s uneven.  Respect to Rieber for trying, but when Capt resorts to beating down his demonised opponent with words, claiming that at least America doesn't kill children, I was ready to fling the book out the window.  I’d like to say it was a clever device to show him naïvely blinded by patriotism but I really don’t think it was.  I sincerely hope I'm wrong.

John Cassaday’s art is fantastic.  His depiction of the Captain sifting through rubble, gray dust filling the frame, with a pained sense of failure on his hero’s shoulders is beautifully presented, and the action scenes are dynamic.  It’s a shame that such great work was accompanied by such a problematic text.

The book collects together Captain America Vol 4, Issues 1 - 6

2 torn flags out of 5