The Ultimates #1-4
Originally released in 2024
Written by Deniz Camp
Art by Juan Frigeri (#1-3), Phil Noto (#4)
Art tends to hold up a mirror to life, so it seems telling that both Marvel and DC created alternate universes where a tyrant (the Maker in Marvel's Ultimate universe, Darkseid in DC's Absolute universe) has warped and twisted an entire universe to the point where its heroes have lost much of what makes them who they are, only for them to fight back against the tyranny regardless. I haven't read much of DC's Absolute universe, so I'm not sure how accurate that is; I intend to read it at some point, though it seems like there's only one issue of any given series on the DC app, so it doesn't seem like it would make for an interesting blog entry.
Today, I'm focusing on the Ultimates, which shares a name with Mark Millar's early 2000s reboot of the Avengers for the original Ultimate universe, though hopefully it's better. (Some people really like that comic, but I couldn't stand it) It takes place on Earth-6160 where the Maker (the original Ultimate universe's Reed Richards) has been sealed away for two years. In that time, Tony Stark (who is a teenager in this universe) and Reed Richards (who goes by Doom after the Maker tortured him and killed his friends) have to assemble a resistance.
This is easier said than done when the Maker's allies have framed them as terrorists. They've got a small team together - Captain America (who was found frozen despite the Maker's best attempts to locate him), Thor (who had been in an Asgardian prison after the Maker helped Loki overthrow Odin), and Sif (who's Thor's jailer) - but they need to expand. They've tried sending out information packets to people who became heroes in other universes, with mixed results.
Their attempt at giving people superpowers six months in the past via time travel didn't work out like they hoped (they were limited in terms of how far back they could go), so they're forced to stick to the present while ruling out time travel entirely.
Their first picks are Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne. I was introduced to the characters through their incarnation in the show Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, where they were sweet and well-written in contrast with how their relationship had developed in the comics over the years. Unlike that show, where Hank was a well-meaning pacifist, Hank in the comics ranged from someone struggling with mental problems (and going back and forth between being a superhero and a scientist while rarely seeing any meaningful success in either field) in the main continuity to an unrepentant domestic abuser or outright villain in other continuities like the old Ultimate universe or Marvel Zombies.
Hank got Tony's information packet six months ago, and he's been keeping it a secret from Janet ever since. The packet came with a sample of Pym Particles along with details about how their lives were supposed to be - and Hank is horrified by what he sees. Janet leaps at the opportunity to become a superhero, but it takes a speech from Captain America to convince him that the problems of another universe's Hank Pym aren't his problems, and he's not destined to go down the same path.
The series is clearly counting down to the Maker's return - Tony and Reed jumped forward six months in the future, so starting in issue 1, it begins counting down from eighteen months, with each issue going down by one month. Clearly, when the Maker returns in issue 17 or 18 (unless something happens to move that timetable forward, which seems entirely possible), something big is going to happen.
Considering that Captain America woke up in a world where the United States of America had been dissolved fifty-five years beforehand, he took it better than expected. (He was furious) Issue 2 has the team launching an attack on the White House to save America, complete with a fun little reversal of Captain America's infamous line from Mark Millar's Ultimates.
The White House is under the control of Midas, who bought it back in 1963. (It's heavily implied that the Maker was behind the Kennedy assassination in this universe) Midas's true identity is unclear, as he spends the entire issue wearing the gold armour from Iron Man's early days, but what he represents seems especially resonant nowadays, when unelected billionaires in the US can buy their way into government positions and fire millions while enriching themselves and claiming it's all in the name of "government efficiency".
Midas's power source is one woman, who appeared from some point in the future and was kidnapped to drain her of the cosmic energy. Midas claims to love her, but he doesn't even know her name - once she's freed, Captain America asks her if she remembers her name.
I loved how they changed things up from what I expected. I figured the focus would be on recruiting Avengers' mainstays - Hawkeye, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, etc. (Hulk is part of the Maker's council, while Black Panther has his own comic), so much like Sif, the inclusion of America Chavez is a nice touch, and (assuming that she's anything like her 616 counterpart) adds quite a bit of muscle to the team along with some much-needed transport with her portals.
She-Hulk debuts in issue 3, though she has a very different origin story and completely different opinions about Bruce Banner. Rather than being Bruce's cousin, she's one of his test subjects. (Though I suppose the Hulk is just referred to as "Director Banner" here, so unless I'm forgetting something, it's possible that the Hulk could be Brian Banner, Bruce's psychotic father) The Maker's forces detonated a gamma bomb off the coast of an inhabited Pacific island, killing half of its residents from radiation poisoning and mutating the rest.
The island, now known as Monster Island, is home to all sorts of gamma mutated creatures, and it's the Ultimates' next destination (though due to the radiation, only Iron Lad, Thor, and Sif can go). She-Hulk, whose name is Lejori Joena Zakaria, protects the island and can calm its mutated inhabitants down, briefly returning them to normal
She-Hulk fills them in on the island's history, and how they have good reason to hate the Maker's forces for using them as experiments. This raises Iron Lad's hopes that the Ultimates will have an army of Hulks, only for those hopes to be quickly dashed.
She-Hulk agrees to help in exchange for the Ultimates fixing the island (particularly the soil) where her people live under Banner's nose. The team's gotten quite big already and it's only three issues in, though issue 4 switches focus to Doom's backstory.
In it, each page is divided into four panels, showing (from top to bottom) Reed's childhood, the ill-fated launch of the Fantastic Four, a few months prior, and the present day where Doom is locked in a lab and experimenting.
Doom is obsessed over what could have been, and what he lost, though he doesn't realize that the Maker, who's responsible for that loss, is an alternate version of himself. The Maker could have been acting to remove a threat to his power, but it seems more like petty spite - if he can't have the woman he loves or a cherished group of friends, then he'll make sure that this version of him can't have that either.
We see moments from all over the life of this Reed, with many of the panels contrasting each other. We see him meeting the would-be members of the Fantastic Four, along with their sudden and violent deaths. Meanwhile, in the present, he's experimenting with cosmic radiation to try and recreate the accident that would have given them superpowers.
The Maker is insanely petty here, sneaking into the lab of 6160's Reed to change his calculations and torturing that Reed to make him refer to himself as Doom for seemingly no reason beyond giving himself an enemy to fight or a twisted form of self-loathing.
By the time I reached the end of issue 4, I wanted to read more. This was a huge contrast with Mark Millar's Ultimates, where I wanted to quit by issue 4 or so. Despite the dystopian nature of the world, and its disturbing parallels to our own modern day world, I enjoyed reading this, seeing all the twists and turns on familiar Marvel characters. I'm not sure how I feel about this new She-Hulk, and I have very little to go on for this universe's America Chavez (she only said one word), but Hank and Janet are great, and Tony's youthful enthusiasm makes for a nice contrast from other versions of him. The 2024 Ultimates is a massive improvement over the 2002 one in just about every way, and I'm looking forward to reading Ultimate Black Panther and Ultimate X-Men (along with catching up on Ultimate Spider-Man) when I get the chance.
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