Written by Mark Millar
Art by Bryan Hitch
Published by Marvel Comics
It's been months since a new issue of Ultimates came out--and although no comic is ever really "worth the wait," the latest issue came as close to that as anything else in the last twenty years. Without delving into the mechanics of plot, this latest issue of Ultimates was what one would refer to as a "fight" issue. For most of this 7 part story, the various members of the team have been betrayed, tortured and imprisoned by a massive army of third-world terrorists who only recently had revealed why they were doing in this first place. (It has something to do with "hate" and "America.")
The last issue was the obligatory issue where our various protagonists break the bonds of oppression using various methods of killing, maiming and/or mixtures of both. It ended with the return of the Incredible Hulk, who then proceeded to kill as many people, robots, and super-powered bad guys as he possibly could. Of course, he only did this for a few pages, and then the issue was over. All those months later, issue 12 showed up and was non-stop brawling from cover to cover. The most impressive part of the Ultimates has always been it's mixture of violence and dialog, so issue 12 was sure to be entertaining--but would it match up to it's already high standard? After all, we've already seen the Hulk kill his way across New York in hopes of eating Freddie Prinze Jr. (sadly failing), we've already seen Captain America shove his fist down a immortal Nazi alien throat, and only two issues ago, Hawkeye ripped out his own fingernails to slaughter the men who had been torturing him for weeks (he used them like a ninja star.)
How much more over-the-top can you get? After all, this is a comic book, not Con Air for God's sake. We've got standards, don't we?
Thankfully, Millar thrives on this sort of insanity, and with the help of Bryan Hitch (who can draw big panels of disgusting violence that look like they'd go well framed in your parents living room) he's pulled off the best knock-down drag out fight of any superhero comic in a long time--and by long time, we mean Maybe Best Ever. Millar has punished the main characters for over a year now, and this issue was the one where the good guys got revenge--and it was a mean, ugly thing, as good revenge always is. Every character had their moments: Hulk dismembering his counterpart while telling him that "you think too much," Quiksilver taking his competitor speedster apart, literally, at Mach 10, the debut of Iron Man 6 (which has to be seen to be believed, as it's the best art in the issue) and, of course, the final punch out at the base of the Vietnam War Memorial between Captain America and a super-powered Muslim who calls himself Abdul (because, as he puts it, "costumes and names are childish.")
You'd be hard pressed to turn the Ultimates into a larger statement on the current global situation--and you'd be foolish to do so. If anything, the Ultimates has left the realm of dark satire (like the Colbert Report) and become a Republican fantasy (like Fox News.) Other than that, it's just plain fun--crazy, blood-soaked fun not fit for children, but fun nonetheless. Sometimes we don't need comics to be more than that.
Comments