Ultimate Comics Avengers #1 - Review

Ultimate Comics Avengers #1 - Review

Story by
Mark Millar

Art by
Carlos Pacheco, Danny Miki

From the start I’ve never been a fan of the Ultimate Universe, I’m not sure why but the idea just never appealed to me, and even though I’m a fan of most of Mark Millar’s work, I thought his and Bryan Hitch’s Ultimate’s Vol. 1 & 2 were a bit over rated. After the critically panned Ultimate’s Vol. 3 and Ultimatum (both by J. Loeb) the whole line was to get a reboot and I thought I should give the line another go.

Leading up to this relaunch all the things I was hearing about Ultimate Comics: Avengers really grabbed my attention. Firstly Millar was this time being joined by fantastic artist Carlos Pacheco, secondly this was to be a stripped down Ultimate Avengers, focusing on the Ultimate’s Nick Fury, Iron Man, Hawkeye & Captain America, with the lead story focusing on Cap’s world being turned up side down by a big reveal at the end of the first issue. So I had to pick this issue up.

(SPOILERS ON!)

We start a few weeks after Ultimatum. Fury is asked to rejoin the Ultimate’s by S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Carol Danvers and Hawkeye for a Black Ops mission to bring in an AWOL Captain America. We then flash back to find out the reason Caps gone missing; Hawkeye and Cap are on a mission to stop A.I.M breaking into the Baxter Building, the action that ensures is great, Cap and Hawkeye engage a couple of A.I.M Helicopter as the villains try to escape, the banter between our heroes is written really well by Millar and the splash pages of art make this feel like a big action movie (think True Lies, only a lot cooler). Both our heroes come across as no non-sense, military bad-asses, and it suits the feel of the book and the action perfectly.

After taking out the first chopper, Cap leaps to the second, only to be confronted by Ultimate Red Skull, a fight ensures and Steve gets taken out bad by the new villain, and is thrown to certain death only to rescued by Hawkeye at the last minute who leaps to aid Steve by pulling his parachute open just before they crash land. The last page reveals the shocking truth that Red Skull had revealed to Cap on the Helicopter, that Ultimate Red Skull is in fact Ultimate Cap’s son! Fucking awesome.

All round this is a great read and a really good looking book, lots of action with great characters and an awesome last page reveal to keep me coming back for more. The only negative comment I will say is that with all the splash pages the book reads a bit too fast for my liking and for a $3.99 price tag, bet hey, I definitely recommend this book, and if you are interested in the new Ultimate Universe, this is a great place to start.

Hex's score: 4 out of 5