THE ULTIMATES #1
"Super Human"
Highly Recommended (9/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Mark Millar
Pencils: Bryan Hitch
Inks: Andrew Currie
Colors: Paul Mounts & Bongotone
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Price: $2.25 US/$3.50 CAN |
While the plot to saving Private Ryan was just a shade too Hollywood, Steve Speilberg took the film to a level of greatness with the first half hour and its unflinching depiction of the real horror, chaos and strategy of war. It stunned audience with its authenticity. In this first issue, artists Bryan Hitch and Andrew Currie also capture some of that sense of chaos and fear, while Mark Millar updates Captain America for a new age.
Iceland, 1945. U.S. troops attempt to storm a Nazi weapons base, desperate to prevent the launch of an experimental Axis weapon of mass destruction. Fortunately, the Allied forces have their own secret weapon: a man willing to risk anything... a man his childhood friend and media tail, Bucky Barnes, has dubbed Captain America.
Millar has done to the Ultimate version of Captain America what he did for several of Marvel's X-Men characters, and what Brian Michael Bendis has done for Spider-Man and other Marvel icons. He's stayed true to the core concept while making the fantastic figure more plausible. This Cap is a little rougher around the edges. In regular Marvel continuity, Cap is often referred to as a soldier at heart, but Millar does a better job of conveying that notion here. Cap sounds and acts more like a tough-as-nails, Nick Fury-like leatherneck. There's a wholesome, all-American quality to the character, though, maintaining Cap as a symbol of purity of heart and character.
Hitch's art is stunning. He captures landscapes and man-made settings with a remarkable level of realism, and he does the same for many of his characters. The two-page spread of Mount Everest at the end of the book stopped me in my tracks. I was also pleased to see that Andrew Currie works as well with Hitch as the penciller's longtime inking collaorator, Paul Neary. My only real qualm with the art is that Hitch doesn't really do enough to distinguish the various soldiers (and Bucky) from on another, and the appropriately dark colors blurs those differences as well.
Based on the hints we get in this brief look, it would seem that Millar's take on the Ultimate Universe's version of the Avengers will blend the super-hero genre with conspiracy-theory fiction and mystery. Not surprisingly, this is a poewrful debut, and I can't wait to see where Millar is headed with what will no doubt be far more complex versions of some familiar faces.
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