The Ultimates 2Vol 1: Gods and Monsters
Written by Mark Millar
Art by Bryan Hitch
2005
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
The Ultimates 2Vol 2: Grand Theft America
Written by Mark Millar
Art by Bryan Hitch
2007
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
For me at least The Ultimates (for what it is) is one of the best superhero comics out there. The perfect combination of the smart and the funny: sprinkled with lashings of big wide-screen action: all the excesses of a Michael Bay film but somehow leavened with the intelligence of - say - Steven Spielberg at his Raiders of the Lost Ark peak [1]. I've lost count of the number of times a fresh-faced innocent after wandering into a meeting of the Comic Forum and asking around for "something good" has been handed a copy of the first Ultimate book (by me or someone else) and told to "get on that." [2]
Of course the problem with creating something that everyone everywhere ends up climbing up to the rooftops to sing the praises for (not to mention defining the shape of all the other superhero comics that appeared in it's wake and - oh - setting the agenda for all those big Marvel films (and thus mainstream cinema) as well for the next decade or so... So - erm - yeah: not too shabby guys) is - what the hell do you do for the follow-up?
Well - it's easy right? You just keep moving forward with a story that explores all the situations you've already set up with the kinda of feline grace and sexiness that makes it seem like you had this all planned right from the start [3]. Using the ugly fallout of relationships and situations to create bigger and worse problems for your heroes to combat and - gently - expand the horizons of the original concept so that (to use the most obvious example) Vol 1 opens with the image of Captain America being dropped into Northern Iraq (and god bless Mark Millar for not shying away from the more - let's say problematic - consequences of what the world would be like if America had access to it's own team of superheroes).
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[1] Although my favourite Indy film is The Temple of Doom - but that's a discussion for another day...
[2] "That aint grass, it's oregano." "How do you know?" "I'm a catering student."
[3] In fact: maybe this should be the point where I admit that - actually - I have no idea whether Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch conceived of The Ultimates and The Ultimates 2 at the same time (which is why the flow into each other so nicely) or if the produced the sequel because the first one did so well (or - who knows - maybe it was a little bit of both?): but yeah - I haven't done enough background reading to know either way. So all this is just (for me anyway) enjoyable supposition.
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Links: The Hurting Article, Bryan Hitch Comics Bulletin Interview, The M0vie Blog Review.
Preceded by: The Ultimates.
Followed by: Ultimate Comics: Avengers, Ultimate Comics: Avengers vs New Ultimates: Death of Spider-Man, Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates.
Further reading: The Authority, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Galactus Trilogy, Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, X-Men: Astonishing X-Men, Kick-Ass, Fantastic Four: World's Greatest / The Masters of Doom, Spider-Man: Down Among The Dead Men / Venomous / The Last Stand.
Profiles: Mark Millar.
All comments welcome.
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