After almost 10 years, the Ultimates finally have the right name for their group - The Avengers - and a new creative team to guide the title out of the turbulent waters of Ultimatum.Well, part of the team is new - writer Mark Millar returns to the comic he co-created, this time teamed with artist Carlos Pacheco.
The good news is, the comic is much better than the last version of the Ultimates (though one wonders how it could have been much worse).
Of course, I have to admit to having kind of a love/hate relationship with this comic. Some of the elements of the Ultimates stories I enjoyed - the slight retooling of Captain America, character tweaks to Thor and Iron Man were interesting, and the massive scale of the stories was fun - but there were things I didn't like, too, including making the Hulk a mass murderer, turning Henry Pym into a serial wife abuser / murderous thug, and generally making all the heroes less heroic. One friend of mine dropped the book early on, saying he preferred stories about heroes who were actually heroic. I held on, but I often agreed with him.
So here's the latest version of the team. The story re-establishes the characters, sets up a mystery and launches into a huge action sequence that's a lot of fun. There are some shocking moments and a last-page revelation that sets up a heckuva story to follow.
Pacheco's art is quite good, with lots of dynamic sequences and detailed art. His work is strong, and only suffers in comparison to Bryan Hitch's art - but the same could be said of any other artist who took the job.
It's good to see this comic getting back to big story, clear storytelling and the kind of twists and turns you'd hope for.
So far, so good.
Grade: B+
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