The Ultimates

Written by Bill Sherman
Published February 02, 2003

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Aside from its success as a marketing gimmick ("This ain't your Daddy's Ant-Man, that's for damn sure!"), I remain unconvinced about the viability of the Ultimate books. "Why not simply write good versions of the original characters?" think I. Isn't that what the company's been trying with, to name one example, its current Marvel Knights Daredevil series?

But what do I know? The past few months have seen more Ultimate titles - Ultimate Adventures & Ultimate War (that last now puts the line in the same league as Troma Films) - along w./ an Ultimate Daredevil/Elektra mini-series, clearly demonstrating their comic shoppe cachet. Me, I'm just a cranky ol' critic who, on finishing this book, felt the need to cleanse my mental palate w./ a simple Lee-&-Kirby komic.

Okay, now I've read The Ultimates.

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Bill Sherman is a mostly harmless pop culture nerd who can either be found at the Pop Culture Gadabout blog or in his capacity as Comics & Graphics Novel review editor at this here site. He once wrote a history of underground comix for a Spanish comics encyclopedia - which he can no longer read since he lost the original manscript and can't read Spanish.

Keep reading for information and comments on this article, and add some feedback of your own!

Buy from

The Ultimates Vol. 1: Super-Human
Andrew Currie
Book,

Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers Volume 1 (ComicCraft Cover) (2000)
Stan Lee
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The Ultimates: Published: February 02, 2003; Type:; Section: Books; Filed Under: Books: SF; Writer: Bill Sherman; Bill Sherman's BC Writer page; Bill Sherman's personal site

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Comments

#1 — February 2, 2003 @ 13:31PM — Eric Olsen

I think it's tremendous that we ae seeing such serious consideration of comics here. Any opinions on "American Splendor"? Harvey lives here in Cleveland.

#2 — February 2, 2003 @ 14:18PM — Bill Sherman [URL]

I've long been an American Splendor booster - and I'm heartened by the push that Pekar is receiving due to the movie adaptation's successful opening at Sundance. Yeah, his book deserves Blogcritic consideration . . .

#3 — February 6, 2003 @ 15:46PM — Alex Knapp [URL]

In the comics, the Pyms were a pretty at-odds couple (though not to the point of domestic violence, what with the comics code and all), and the issue after the end of the trade delves more into that.

I think that what's working very well with the Ultimates so far is the notion that it takes more than just superpowers and fighting evil to make you a hero. As the story is progressing, you definitely see some shuffling to that effect. Stark and Cap are definitely heroes. Fury is very ambiguous (and even more so in the other Ultimate lines) as is Thor (anti-globo hero or cult leader?), while Hank Pym and Bruce Banner clearly are clearly not. It's that aspect of the characters that I find interesting, because, face it: much as we admire cops, there are crooked cops out there. And some of them, even though they're crooked, do good things and fight the bad guys. It's a much more realistic take on heroes, and a perfect way to handle the Ultimates since it's an ensemble comic. Solitary comics just can't go that route (well, except maybe Punisher.)