World Famous Comics: The Ultimates 2, Vol. 2: Grand Theft America
The Ultimates 2, Vol. 2: Grand Theft America
By: Mark Millar Publisher: Marvel Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Marvel Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 232 Publication Date: July 25, 2007
Product Description: Tony and Natasha are on the eve of their wedding... but when Nick Fury makes his move against the mysterious traitor that's been plaguing the team, the team will never be the same! Also, Captain America and Wasp hit a serious snag in their relationship...is this the end for the Ultimate Universe's hottest couple? Is this the beginning of the end for the Ultimates? Collects Ultimates 2 #7-13.
A pedestrian conclusion to a high-flying title Largely, the Ultimate universe avoids Stan Lee camp, in favor of a darker, modern style. Characters are deeper, more modern and more mature.
Ultimates (1 and 2) was leading this charge - not just with the revamped Captain America, but with all the Avengers. They lived in a more 'real' world, facing more 'real' challenges - political, ethical and personal - as well as the traditional super-villain shenanigans. Almost (but not quite) Marvel's The Authority.
Then, in the concluding volume of Ultimates 2, the series lazily reverts into old-school Marvel goofiness: The Axis of Evil makes their own Avengers! Super-bun-fight! NORSE MYTHS invade. What just happened? Real problems suddenly have goofy, supernatural sources and everything is neatly solved with an old-fashioned fist-fight.
Not so much... bad (this is the time-honored Marvel tradition), just a disappointment. The Ultimates series is the flagship for the Ultimate universe, and I wanted to see it become more than 'same as before, plus naughty language'.
A great finale Mark Millar continues to impress with this collection of the Ultimates. The entire Ultimate universe has been a breath of fresh air to Marvel charaters. Don't get me wrong, the originals are still great, but I can see how this might open things up to a new generation. We see in this volume how there really are aliens in this universe, though many have doubted it, as well as the validity of Loki and the gods of Asgard. Very good, and I hope to see more in the future!
A Traitor Is Revealed As The Ultimates Get Busy! This one may be the best since The Ultimates, Vol. 2 - Homeland Security. In this one, Captain America is arrested for the murder of fellow Ultimate teammate Hawkeye and his family!
But all isn't what it seems as both a traitor (its not who you think) and a new player (who was revealed in The Ultimates 2, Vol. 1 - Gods & Monsters) emerge to push America itself to the brink of destruction as SHIELD, The Ultimates and even their versions of The X-Men, Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four are taken prisoners by The Liberators, a group of foreigners who are counterparts to The Ultimates and SHIELD.
Returning to help The Ultimates are The Hulk, Iron-Man and Captain Britian but can even these people free the heroes in time to take back America from The Liberators?
Personal opinion is that this book is worth the $20 or less that you will pay for it! Great story and great art!
Word of warning though! It may be a comic book but this is DEFINITELY NOT FOR KIDS! This is definitely for the adults!
Awesome - a must read for fans! This volume caps the series and is a Must Read for fans of the Ultimates. The artwork is superb,the story exciting with the sort of writing that is new to the world of comics: real emotions and situations, real relationships that span months (not single issues!) all in a sci-fi world that's not all that different from our own. (Well, okay, the whole super powers thing isn't commonplace around here... but other than that...!)
Great fun, very involving - go get it!
Nearly flawless ending to Millar/Hitch's run So after burning through the first 3/4 of the series, I tore through this in a day. It was all leading up to this. So many burning question were resting on this finale to deliver. The team was at its ultimate low, and there is definitely a traitor in their midst. Well as the story unravels, so does the mystery. I didn't think it was incredibly predictable, (although it wasn't too difficult), but it felt like it was wrapped up too easily. There were plenty of red herrings and clues to sort of narrow things down, but when it came down to it, I felt it was sort of a cop out explanation.
The cover depicts The Ultimates going into battle with the likes of the X-Men, FF, and Spider-man which leads you to believe those characters are featured. They are, but very briefly. It's a great cover, but to me it was quite misleading. I enjoyed the fact that they only focus on The Ultimates because I didn't want the flow of the character development to be disrupted, but just goes to show you can't judge a comic book by its cover art, its job is to sell the book. Not trying to spoil anything, just don't go in thinking its a team up book and be dissapointed. I would have rather not known they were going to be in it and be surprised by the cameos.
An otherwise good finale, it ties up loose ends while still not skimping on the action (the group finds themselves in the middle of WWIII) and manages to still leave me wanting more. While I think Millar and Hitch were an awesome team (Hitch's work is so consistently good throughout) I'm even more excited that Jeph Loeb will be taking over for Ultimates 3 along with artist Joe Madureira. Loeb had me at The Long Halloween so I will pretty much read anything he's written and if he can continue with the streak he's been having I have no doubt it will be worth my effort. From what I've seen of the preview art, I can't say grabs me nearly as much as Hitch's series defining artwork, but maybe it'll grow on me.
Not the biggest shocker of an ending that I was psyched up for, but still not a complete disaster and is worth picking up to complete the arc. It's nice to be reading Marvel again after so long and remembering what was so great about it. Congratulations to Millar/Hitch on a job well done.
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