I bought The Ultimates TPB about a month ago; I'm still not sure exactly why I bought it because I have pretty low expectations of anything that Marvel puts out.
The first time I read it, I was astonished by how good it was. I really got drawn into it and now that the dust has settled, I still think it's the best example of its genre that I've read in ages. It makes a lot of the stuff Vertigo and Wildstorm are currently putting on the shelves look like second rate hackwork.
Compare The Ultimates to recent issues of The Authority, it's nearest rival - intitially an intelligent and thought provoking comic that ran out of fresh ideas a long time ago and whose continued existance, I can only assume, is to bring in money for other projects.
Or look at The Ultimates as a attempt to breathe fresh life into tired old characters and then compare it with Grant Morrison's utterly dull and unimaginative New X Men.
One of the strengths of this series, for me, is the characterisation. Millar wrote the first six issues (included in the TPB) and built a compelling narrative, based purely on the relationships between the characters.
At the conclusion of #6, The Ultimate's haven't actually fought anyone (apart from each other). I found the way the argument between Hank Pym and wasp, began as a playful spat and then rapidly degenerated into something much nastier, extremely disturbing. The fact that you could sense that the whole thing was going to turn nasty, before it did, made it even more unsettling. I couldn't believe I was reading it in a mainstream comic.
I've seen attempts to portray domestic violence in comics before and it generally comes off looking rather unrealistic or staged, like the writers have slipped into cliche mode.
Dave,
It's weird that you bring up Captain America and the American flag, because that was the one part of the Ultimates that really jarred for me; I have to agree with your wife on this one - pure cornball patriotism. Reading that against the backdrop of current world events actually made me quite angry. It's also amusing that in recent issues of Stormwatch there's been a character called 'Citizen Soldier' who is clearly modelled on Captain America, and who has become so appalled by the corruption of American values that he has risen up against his own country.
I wonder if my enjoyment of this title isn't down to the fact that I know very little about the Marvel universe and hardly anything about the original characters. I'm also completely unaware of the arguments and the controversy that may have flared up around The Ultimates. My knowledge of Publisher and Fan-based politics is minimal and actually I'd like to keep it that way. I understand, Millar is thought to be a bit of wanker and that may be true but he's still a fucking good writer if he can come up with an intelligent, mainstream comic like this.
