Written by Mark Millar
Illustrated by Leinil Francis YuThere’s only one certainty in Ultimate Avengers Vs. New Ultimates #1 and that is: There Are No Rules! Do not miss out as Death Of Spider-Man continues in further issues of both Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate Avengers Vs. New Ultimates.
The Ultimate universe was great in the beginning because of the synergy between creators and titles. Books that actively reflected each other created an active and visible continuity that is somewhat missing from most mainstream comics. Mark Millar and Brian Bendis had a great hand in doing this if not the hand, and now that the two are back and working on a crossover once again – this time leading up to the Death of Ultimate Spider-Man – Mark Millar is once again writing a grandiose Ultimates tale featuring all of the characters he defined within the Ultimate Universe.
But does the return to “basics” pay off? Find out after the cut.
Mark Millar’s original run on the Ultimates volumes 1 and 2 are absolutely fond comic memories for just about everyone who has read the Ultimate Universe, but with Ultimate Avengers something was lost. For three volumes now, the arcs have simply served to be fast paced one-and-done stories that have had no feeling of impact or longevity to them in the same way the original Ultimates stories did. They also felt like the logical evolution from Mark Millar’s success in Hollywood, with stories tailor made for the same crowds that adored the mindlessness of Kick-Ass. Millar had certainly devolved himself from an “edgy” creator who told tricky, fun and interesting stories to a writer that served to just try and pander to his brand new audience that read his comics in droves.
Ultimate Avengers Vs. New Ultimates feels like the first Mark Millar Ultimate story in quite a long time.
Ultimatum destroyed the Ultimate Universe in a very literal way, but what it did was to try and serve as a place to bring the Ultimate universe back together. This is the first time that this has actually felt true, as the book actually picks up both of the final plot threads from Loeb’s New Ultimates and Mark Millar’s vampire story. Millar’s main duty here is to bring these characters all back together, even if it’s done in an antagonistic fashion, and right up until the end he has total control of the story. Everything up until literally the last three or so pages are great Ultimates adventures, actually taking some time to give a few characters depth as well as bring loose plot threads full circle. It was going so well until the “villain” of the story is revealed, and once again we’re lost to messy continuity and hat tricks that don’t pay off as well as Millar probably hoped – which is a damn shame.
Of course, what Millar lacks in storytelling is completely made up for by Leinil Yu’s always fantastic art. The two made a great collaboration with Superior (which is wonderfully coming out on time!), and it doesn’t change here. The opening scene with Thor’s hammer and a train – while being decidedly Millar in it’s pseudo-“Michael Bay in a comic” fashion – is made that much more awesome with Yu’s art. In fact, it’s actually quite wonderful to see Yu on the title once again, as he manages to create both quiet and touching moments (like the Black Widow/son scene) as important as a train getting destroyed, and all the while he brings his character renditions to the pages in expert style, giving every character a dagger-edge to their appearances. While Millar obviously has worked with some great artists, Leinil Yu is currently climbing his way to the top of the list as far as current collaborations go, because between this and Superior Yu is definitely helping to bring out the absolute best in Mark Millar.
At it’s core, UAvNU is still the beginning of an entertaining title. Right now, the first issue stands as a “clean up” issue, which is a good way of quickly catching fans up to what Millar and Loeb both did with the characters while they were all separated. While the final page is essentially the exact same trick Millar pulled back in Ultimates 2, the collaboration between this book and Bendis’ – as well as the FANTASTIC art by Leinil Yu – is enough to warrant following the storyline, if only to see what Millar tries to pull next.
Final Verdict: 8.2 – Buy
