The Ultimates: Super-Human TPB
By Mark Millar, Bryan Hitch, Andrew Curry, Paul Mounts and Chris Eliopoulos
Published by Marvel Comics
Now you can read The Ultimates as it was meant to be read. Mark Millar's pacing of this, his best (albeit twisted) work, has clearly not been suited to a monthly format. I've been buying the floppies because Bryan Hitch is one of my favourite pencillers and I have enjoyed the book on its (alleged) monthly schedule, but this collected version of Millar and Hitch's first story-arc reads best in one sitting.
Hitch's status as my favourite superhero penciller (believe me, that's a short list) is secure, although his work here seems little more rushed and rougher than his Authority run. It's a safe bet that I would not have even read The Ultimates when it debuted if it had been in the hands of another artist. Millar's Ultimate X-Men leaves me cold (more on that in a bit), and his Authority was troublesome as well (more on that, too). But Hitch's spectacular page design, and the level of detail he brings to the book, would sell me even if Millar's scripts weren't up to snuff (which they are). Hitch and inker Andrew Curry depict some amazing scenes here -- the Hulk on a real rampage through New York, or a psychotic inventor's serial-killer stare as he utilizes a new piece of equipment for a terrible new purpose -- with a seeming ease that marks this as one of the best looking monthly comic books on the stands. There's a new level of realism to Hitch's work that takes it even further from its Alan Davis/Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez influenced roots and into a new, more mature and assured realm.
This story, this series, though, is clearly not for everyone. If you're coming into this thinking this is The Avengers, well, it isn't. If you can accept it as an extended Elseworlds-type of thing, reminiscent perhaps of Warren Ellis's Ruins mini-series from a few years back, you will enjoy The Ultimates more. The very premise of the book is that most of the characters are deeply flawed, and Millar is exploring what happens when troubled souls like this universe's Bruce Banner or Hank Pym gain vast powers, popularity and responsibilities. Yes, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced heroes with flaws in the easly 1960s, but Millar and Hitch are amping that up to previously unseen levels -- at least, for characters with this sort of semi-iconic legacy behind them.
But if you can accept Captain America as a real man -- as a good person who would be angry enough after a battle to kick the bad guy when he's down and harmless -- then you will enjoy this. If you can accept that being abused as a child would seriously damage someone's self-worth -- this Bruce Banner is really a mess -- then you will enjoy this. If you can accept that sometimes in domestic violence incidents both parties are to blame and things can get hugely horrible -- especially if they both have superpowers for Christ's sake -- then you may, well, enjoy may not be the word for some sequences. But I was riveted by the escalation into violence of the petty sniping and between Jan and Hank. Jim Shooter introduced the idea that Hank Pym could be mentally destabalized by the experiments he'd done on himself in the MU. No one can deny that what Millar's done with that is a logical extension of stories written decades ago.
The key difference is Millar's perverse sense of -- well -- the perverse. Heterosexual men are in large part driven by their base, animalistic sexual desires. It's hard-wired into our DNA, and being an adult involves to a large degree controlling and directing this powerful energy. Mark Millar's Hulk is uncontrolled, a wild beast of unimaginable power -- and horny as hell. It's funny, but it's inarguably logical as well. But clearly, if you're coming into this book looking for The Avengers of Stan Lee, or Roy Thomas, or Roger Stern, or Kurt Busiek -- well, in a way, I think they're in here, but they're hyper-real and being filtered through Millar's twisted looking-glass. By the issue #5 kick-in-the-face scene, the battle-lines were drawn between readers who wanted to see this and those who didn't. By #6's domestic violence sequence -- one of the most haunting in a Marvel Comic ever -- you know absolutely for sure if this is a comic you want to read, or one you wish would just cease to exist.
I want to read it. Millar's taken superheroes out farther on a limb than I've ever seen them taken before. The Ultimates is a book clearly indebted to The Authority -- in tone, in style, and of course in its creative team. Bryan Hitch drew the most vital and compelling issues of that series, #1-12, and Millar was chosen to replace writer Warren Ellis with #13. I was bothered by aspects of Millar's run. He never seemed to really have an ending for his stories in The Authority -- not a good one, anyway. This story here in The Ultimates: Super-Human has a satisfying climax and a fascinating extended epilogue. The problem with endings seems to have been solved in large part by the fact that there is no villain, as such, in this story. Every conflict is between members of the group. I suspect the need for villains in Millar's Ultimate X-Men, along with unappealing artwork, is in large part to blame for how disinterested I am in that series even while loving this one.
There are some elements that fall flat for me. The inclusion of people like Shannon Elizabeth and Freddie Prinze date the story firmly five minutes ago, and Betty Ross's snide cruelty should be fleshed out a little -- and may be, in future issues. But it's a key element in Banner's actions in this story, and should have been explored at least a little more.
I'm definitely going to get the hardcover when it comes out, because Hitch's work is even more impressive in an oversized format. But this standard-sized TPB is a great introduction to The Ultimates that won't break your budget. I had my doubts about The Ultimates, but this collection is eminently entertaining and spectacular to look at. It's not for kids, not young ones, anyway, but as a grown-up examination of super-powerful adventurers and what might motivate and plague them early in the 21st Century, The Ultimates: Super-Human is a wild, surprising ride -- Marvel's best title. Grade: 5/5