The Ultimates has been defined by big, splashy action sequences and an outrageous no-boundaries approach. Ultimate Spider-Man has been a more personal book about how being a super-hero really affects a teenager, his family and friends. Despite sharing the same universe, these two books seemed to share little in common, and really didn't seem to belong to the same universe at the beginning. Ultimate Six, however, attempts a blend of these two styles, bringing the smaller world of Spider-Man into the larger world of the Ultimates and at the same time being an "Ultimate" version of that Marvel classic, the super-villain team. The results, as you would expect from Bendis, are at least good and at times show glimmers of being something really interesting. I'm still not sure how Bendis's talky style is going to work on the slam-bang widescreen style that the Ultimates, or even a group of six master villains, would seem to require, and this first issue is mostly setup so it's a little hard to judge, but there's enough here to keep readers of both Ultimate Spider-Man and The Ultimates interested.
Mind you, Spider-Man doesn't really make an appearance in these pages unless you count flashbacks and the Ultimates are really at cameo status as well, although Bendis does give "Ultimate" Hawkeye one of my favorite moments of his relatively short career. No, this issue is all about the titular villains, five of them pre-established villains from the Ultimate Spider-Man run and one of them... well, one of them doesn't make an appearance in this issue either. So the general feel is of a book that is paced for the trade, as there's not a whole lot accomplished this issue. But what little is accomplished is done with a great deal of style, and a couple of relatively important things are taken care of, such as making "Ultimate" Kraven into a viable villain instead of the laugh-relief punk that he was in Ultimate Spider-Man or putting all these villains together in the same room where they can plot.
As always, where Bendis excels is in the characterization, the dialogue and the sense of humor. I love that we really don't see the Ultimates having any trouble with any of these villains. One of their fight scenes isn't even shown because the outcome is so clear and so quick and the other amounts to the villain taking off running with a goofy frightened look before having his wings clipped by a bored member of the team. I also like the one-page intros of each villain where we get to see a little of their personality, from Octopus's neurotic mess to Electro's practical convict to Sandman's hardcore convict to Osborn's quiet arrogance. This is not just a collection of powers and costumes, it's a collection of deranged and dangerous people, and I suspect that these villains won't just be propped up as cardboard cutouts for the good guys to beat up on once they've all gotten together.
Aside from a reprint of a Wizard #0 story with artwork by Joe Quesada, the artwork here is by Trevor Hairsine, who reminds me of the photo-realistic style of Bryan Hitch crossed with some of the unusual stylistic tics of fellow former Authority artist Frank Quitely. Hairsine sometimes makes some odd choices with his faces, including a Kraven who tends toward the dorky-looking and a very-similar looking Norman Osborn and Flint Marko, but in general the work here is pretty impressive. It's not quite as insanely detailed as Bryan Hitch's work on The Ultimates, but it captures the general tone of that book pretty well, and his displays of power, such as Kraven's "wolfing out" or the imposing physical threat that the Ultimates present, are spectacular.
Right now, The Ultimate Six consists of five super-villains in separate cages, and this issue is all about establishing those for the new readers and putting them together for the story. I'm a bit annoyed that by the end of the issue we don't even know who the sixth member is, and there's no indication of where the story is going unless it's going to be about group therapy in a secret SHIELD facility, but that's pretty standard Marvel pacing these days, and Bendis is better at making this kind of thing enjoyable than folks who are employing the same pacing like Bruce Jones or Chuck Austen. At any rate, this looks like pretty much what you'd expect from these characters and this creative team, which is a pretty solid blend of characterization and action, and if Bendis can handle two large teams, a challenge he hasn't really faced before, I think it's safe to assume this will be a fun read for fans of the Ultimate books.
