Ultimate Comics Avengers vol. 1: Next Generation

Now this is more like it.

God knows I haven’t liked much of what I’ve read from Mark Millar this year.  “Kick-Ass” the movie has the (dubious?) honor of being the first feature film comic book adaptation of this generation to be markedly better than its source material.  While “Old Man Logan” had all the energy of 13-year-old’s fanfiction about the Marvel Universe, it was executed with about the same level of skill.  Now we have his return to the franchise he helped create, and while it may be called “Ultimate Comics Avengers,” it has a lot of what made his work on “The Ultimates” click.

That would include lots of showstopping action sequences, such as Captain America and Hawkeye’s fight across two airborne helicopters against the Red Skull and his A.I.M. cronies that opens the book.  Millar also shows that he still knows how to add a clever twist to the “Ultimate” versions of established Marvel characters, as the Red Skull is quickly revealed to be Captain America’s son.  This sets the plot of the collection in motion as Cap goes rogue to find out the truth about his “son” while Nick Fury is brought back into the fold to start up his own black ops team to capture the man and stop the Skull.

While Millar’s worst tics as a writer, his tin ear for dialogue and the “cooler than thou” attitude of his characters, are still present they’re not as obtrusive as before.  Part of that’s because in “creating” most of this book’s cast he established their baseline personalities — so it’s not unsurprising to see them talk and act like this.  Another reason is that the story doesn’t demand that we take any of this seriously at all, and the over-the-top nature of the Ultimate Universe makes it all the easier to accept.

That’s not to say that the man doesn’t take a few wrong turns in this collection.  The most egregious being the final scenes with the Red Skull at the end of this volume.  Millar’s attempts to forcibly graft a second dimension onto a man who has been relentlessly characterized as a one-dimensional psychopath come off as wretchedly sentimental.  The new characters, including new versions of Ultimate Black Widow and Wasp, the introduction of War Machine and… “Nerd Hulk” really aren’t as interesting as their predecessors in “The Ultimates.”  I’m going to withold judgement on the introduction of Tony Stark’s “brother” since I have a feeling that not all is as it seems with him.  I’d be inclined to do the same for the “Spider-Man” featured in this volume if Millar hadn’t lifted his introductory scene wholesale from Tao’s debut in the pages of Alan Moore’s “Wild C.A.T.S.”

However, I’m far less conflicted when it comes to talking about the book’s artist, Carlos Pacheco.  The man turns in some truly spectacular art with his work in this volume.   He’s not at the level of (former “Ultimates” artist) Bryan Hitch, but the man really makes the action scenes here feel like the blockbuster action movie set-pieces that they strive to be.  The man also handles the quieter dialogue-driven scenes well, but it’s the action that you’ll remember.

So it’s a good return to form for the series, and while Jeph Loeb may have usurped the “Ultimates” title for his books (haven’t read them — when comics as reputedly awful as I’ve heard his are, it tends to dissuade me from checking them out) this series is the real successor to that legacy.  I’m definitely onboard to see where Millar goes from here, though he has a ways to go before I’ll be willing to check out anything else he does in the future.