eat.sleep.geek.

I won’t mince words; I know that some people hate the Ultimate Marvel universe. For the most part, I could take it or leave it (I’m leaning toward the latter in the case of Ultimates vol. 3 and Ultimatum), but I’ve always absolutely adored Mark Millar’s Ultimates vol. 1 and 2. It surprises most people to know that the very first superhero comic I ever read back in the ’90s when I was a tween was an issue of volume 1 of Iron Man (#138, to be exact, where Iron Man fights the Hulk) and yet I didn’t pick up an Avengers comic until 2004. Why is this? Well, I always loved my hunky drunkard Cool Exec With A Heart of Steel, but I was never really interested in the Avengers. Until the Ultimates. Mark Millar made the Avengers fresh and exciting, gave them all more “realistic” personalities. It was darker, grittier, and I loved it.

Of course, this means that when Ultimate Avengers #1 came out last month, it was the very first comic I picked up. The idea of Mark Millar writing Ultimates again was like [insert holiday of your choice] arriving early. It was as if Millar had never stopped writing about the Ultimate!Marvel Avengers, and the story was just what I expected: fast-paced, action-packed, with twists and turns and a cliff-hanger ending. Needless to say, because of all of this, Ultimate Avengers #2 was the very first comic I read today. Don’t get me wrong, there are some fantastic things that came out today, but this comic is, by far, my pick of the week.

The rest of this article contains mild spoilers.

Setting up the explanation of the cliff-hanger from the end of issue one, this month’s issue starts out with a flashback to 1945, approximately four months before Captain America goes missing and is assumed dead. I want to start by saying that I love Carlos Pacheco’s artwork; he does of a fantastic job of keeping the characters looking consistent panel to panel, never mind issue to issue. He does a great job with small background details (like Gail’s high heels next to her bed) and his figures look natural, with comfortable and realistic movement to them.

Okay, now that I’ve gushed about the art, back to the story. There are a few different flash-back scenes within the entirety of the comic, giving us a little more detail about what was learned in the previous issue. Carol Danvers and Nick Fury apparently hate each other’s guts, but that won’t stop them from teaming up when Cap goes AWOL to find out the truth for himself. There’s less action and more back-story in this issue than in the previous one, but it works very well. All of the discussion about the Red Skull gives the reader a lot of insight, as well as helps to set up Cap’s reaction to everything he discovers.

This also helps Fury convince Danvers to reactivate Project Avengers so that he can call in the big guns — namely, Tony Stark’s older brother. Of course, Millar is a huge tease, and so we only get to see the older Stark sibling at the very end of the issue. Seriously, we don’t get to see him until the very last page of the issue, and even then, all we get is a glimpse; from just that tiny glimpse, however, we can tell that this is definitely a Stark. Thanks to Pacheco’s consistency in character articulation, he’s managed to make even this sliver of a quarter-view of face look like someone related to Tony Stark.

As an aside, since I praised Pacheco’s artwork, I just wanted to say what a lovely and fantastic job Justin Ponsor does with the colors. He is absolutely amazing not only with the color itself, but with details, like patterns on fabric and accurate and consistent lighting. The art is very aesthetically pleasing.

Overall, I enjoyed this comic quite a bit. I haven’t really spilled much of the story or the information given in the back-story from this issue, but that’s because I feel like it’s something that most comic readers can enjoy. If you were a fan of the Ultimates vol. 1 and 2, then this is most certainly worth checking out. I can’t wait for the next issue to find out more about Tony’s older brother and what Cap plans to do now that he’s found out the truth!