The Ultimates by Deniz Camp vol. 1: Fix the World

When it was announced that Camp would be writing this latest version of “The Ultimates,” I was more than a little wary.  The writer had previously given us “20th Century Men” a tiresome and pretentious riff on the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in the 80’s and America’s own global ambitions at the time.  Despite including Soviet mecha-soldiers and a superpowered American president, it was an utter chore to read – convinced that it was saying something important, but just telling us stuff we already knew to be true.

Camp then found his way into the Marvel Universe with “Children of the Vault.”  A “Fall of X” tie-in miniseries that saw Cable and Bishop trying to thwart the ambitions of the titular organization as they made their play for world domination in the wake of Krakoa’s fall.  While it wasn’t a mind-blowingly great miniseries, it was a lot better than what I was expecting with its understanding of the fractious history between the characters and interesting take on the Vault itself.  Maybe this writer could make a new version of “The Ultimates” work if this was what it was going to be like.

Now that I’ve finally read it, this first volume is a lot closer in quality to the former than the latter.  It tries to blend real-world concerns with epic superhero action, and neither winds up making much of an impression.  What we get here in “Fix the World” doesn’t compare favorably to the original run from Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch, or even the good-but-aborted run from Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic.

Not that it doesn’t start from a promising place.  If you’ll recall, this version of the Ultimate Universe was born from The Maker’s efforts to create a world where he controlled the distribution of superpowers.  Nobody in this world became a superhuman without his approval, and those who did were loyal to him.  However, following his timed imprisonment in The City by Kang, The Maker is no longer in control of this world and his council has been running things in his absence.

While this means that the time is right for someone to try and rise up against the established world order, it also means that they’re operating from a significant disadvantage.  That’s the hook for this version of “The Ultimates” as it makes them into genuine underdogs here.  Yes, you’ve got versions of Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man – excuse me, Iron Lad, as we’re dealing with a much younger Tony Stark here – but they’re also being backed up by less-experienced versions of characters like Ant-Man, Wasp, and Hawkeye and a new take on Doom that’s the best part of the entire volume.

Inexperienced heroes coming together to form a team to take out the evil secret rulers of the world sounds like a great setup for a superhero comic.  So where does it all go wrong?  It’s mainly because everything that happens in “Fix the World” isn’t very much fun and what’s actually here isn’t interesting enough to make up for it.  This is to say that we get lots of tired “What is America?” musing from the gold-wearing owner of the White House in issue #2.  We find out the human cost of the Gamma Bomb in issue #3.  We get a lecture on the oppression of Native Americans in issue #5 that’s so tiresome and obvious that the inevitable twist feels more like a relief than anything else.

I’m not saying that you can’t address real-world concerns like these in superhero comics.  The problem is that Camp takes the most on-the-nose approach to them that it feels like the reader is being lectured about them more than anything else.  Worse still is that the characters themselves feel like they’re being used as mouthpieces for the writer rather than being their own individuals.  This version of “The Ultimates” has a sizable cast by the end of the volume, but they’re all either defined by their talking points or their previous characterizations from their Marvel Universe counterparts.

The one exception to this is Doom, who gets a whole issue to spotlight his troubles.  It’s easily the most interesting of the bunch as it’s one long formalist experiment to show how his past and present are existing simultaneously as a result of the trauma he has endured.  This is because every page is made up of four panels showcasing his past to his present as you read them from top to bottom, but with each panel telling more of that era’s story as you connect them from page-to-page.

It feels like less of a stunt as the issue goes on and the depth of Doom’s tragedy and despair becomes clear.  You really get a sense as to what drives this version of the character and will even be able to empathize with him as well.  Though, there’s also the feeling that he’s damaged enough to the point where he may wind up ruining everything that the team is trying to accomplish for the chance at fixing himself.

This issue is illustrated by Phil Noto, whose clean and smooth style helps convey the unconventional structure of this story and get its emotional message across.  This is in contrast to Juan Frigeri who illustrates the majority of this volume as my issues with him are unique.  I think that Frigeri does convey a good level of detail in his work, while also conveying the story well overall.  However, I don’t think that his work elevates the material, and it really doesn’t bring the spectacle that previous “Ultimates” artists brought to it.  That leaves things feeling like more conventional superhero art that gets the job done, but doesn’t a title like this deserve more than that?

You can see more of what I was expecting to see in the “Ultimate Universe” one-shot that was included here.  I still think this should’ve been included as part of the “Ultimate Invasion” miniseries, and that’s doubly true here as writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Stefano Caselli delivered a story that reads better now than when I first encountered it.  It’s just a slickly executed piece of superhero spectacle that achieves what it sets out to do as it sets up this series.

Which is something that I’ll at least be following to vol. 2 against my better instincts after what I’ve read here.  Really, this is a case of the bar being set so low that I can only hope Camp and Frigeri will be able to deliver something more entertaining next time.  There’s also the fact that I still feel committed to seeing how this new Ultimate Universe will turn out, even though there’s only been one unqualified hit amongst its initial batch of titles.  While this series may have had grand ambitions to “Fix the World” it would be better off working on its own house before seeing to anyone else’s.