The Ultimates: 1 Paperback – ADPCM, January 1, 2006

This book is a collection of 13 comic books originally published by Marvel in 2004. The concept was to take a popular superhero team and revision them in a reality-based context as CIA -or in this case, SHIELD- agents. This was a dream-come-true for longtime fans who had grown up with Stan Lee's Marvel Bullpen and desired the material grow up as well. Hence, you get a grey-skinned Hulk who morphs out of a scientist with severe masculinity issues; a billionaire industrialist who stays drunk in order to don his Iron Man armor; Thor, the 'thunder-god' who may actually be a nutcase wielding electricity; an insect-inspired husband and wife team - Giant Man & the Wasp - with a history of domestic violence; and Captain America, the finest soldier of the 1940's thawed out in the hardcore 21st century. Add in Nick Fury, the SHIELD agency director remade as a badass, one-eyed 'Superfly', to corral them all, throw in the media, modern politics, sex, and alien invaders walking among us...and you have the 'Ultimates', the 'Avengers' of the 2000's. Writer Mark Millar has just the right pitch of gray morals, satire and Hitchcockian suspense to pull this material off. His dialogue and characterizations are spot-on and refreshing as if Paddy Chayefsky wrote comic books; a nod to the originals without being simple rehash. Artist Bryan Hitch brings just enough realism to his vibrant, thrilling artwork to make it all believable...yet still 'marvelous'. His action sequences are super-heroic, yet cause true reprocussions - bruises, blood, broken bones, and even death. 'The Ultimates' is a rivetting, entertaining piece that spawned an equally potent sequel and set the stage for the recent rage of Marvel motion pictures like "Iron Man". It is also a clever look of what the reality may be if superheroes really existed and fought our wars for us.

In the beginning, there was a global altercation that became known as World War II, an altercation that plunged sons into a similar bloody chaos that had enveloped their fathers only twenty years ago. During this second World War, though, a choice was made to create a new hero and wrap him in the red, white and blue of the flag of the United States-a living, breathing, battling embodiment of strong-willed freedom. They named him Captain America, and he was every bit the symbol that those far-thinking men had hoped he would be. Only one day they lost him. The loss came as they had thought it would, in the heat of battle, warring against impossible odds for the highest stakes imaginable. Even in tragedy, Captain America still succeeded. Years later, with the future of the world in question and stakes rising around the globe, another decision has been put into play regarding the invention of not one, but several super-powered beings-and all of these heroes would come together under the close-knit supervision of General Nicholas Fury, one-eyed leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. Fury has talked the American government into reactivating the Super-Soldier program that created Captain America. Unfortunately, under its first incarnation, Dr. Bruce Banner created a rampaging entity that came to be known as the Hulk and all but got the program cancelled. Banner takes the number two spot on the new program, and the lead designer role goes to Dr. Henry Pym, who has already begun experimenting with communication with ants and size-changing powers, calling himself first Ant-Man then Giant-Man. His lovely wife Jan, hiding dark secrets of her own, is the Wasp. Tony Stark, known throughout the world also as Iron Man, has also agreed to join the team for reasons of his own. Even as the new Super-Soldier program goes on-line, Captain America turns up in suspended animation, a combination of the freezing waters of the North Atlantic Ocean and the super-soldier drug in his system. At the same time, General Fury opens negotiations with Thor, a self-proclaimed deity, environmental activist, and New Age guru, resides in Norway but has powers over the weather that no one can explain. A considerable amount of political jockeying has to take place before the team of super-powered individuals begin to assemble-and that cohesion also takes the reappearance of the Hulk, bigger and badder than ever, and way past control. If Fury's Ultimates aren't careful, they could only be singing the opening stanza of their swan song.Mark Millar, author of THE ULTIMATES, has also written THE AUTHORITY, ULTIMATE X-MEN, THE FLASH, SUPERMAN ADVENTURES, VAMPIRELLA, and THE COLUMN for Comic Book Resources. Bryan Hitch has drawn for JLA, THE AUTHORITY, MARTIAN MANHUNTER, and WILDCATS.Anyone who has read comics, especially Marvel Comics, is familiar with the genesis material for this Ultimate Marvel series. The original Avengers (Thor, the Hulk, Iron Man, Ant-Man, and the Wondrous Wasp) gathered to defeat the menace of Thor's evil half-brother Loki in the 1960s. Comic books have never been the same since. THE ULTIMATES: SUPER-HUMAN is clearly a 21st century relaunch on that comic. Mark Millar brings darkness and a razor-edged thrill to the series. All of the characters have been made over in his or her own image, but with new oddities and twists that increase long-time readers' interest with a new look at favorite heroes, and offer an organic history of very real characters for the uninitiated. In some ways, the flow of the story seems very familiar: the Hulk is a rampaging monster trapped inside weak Bruce Banner, Captain America is rescued from a frozen wasteland after being preserved in suspended animation, Hank and Janet Pym are married, Thor was an emergency medical technician till something changed him into a Norse god (or revealed that aspect of himself), and Tony Stark/Iron Man is a rich playboy. But the spins that Millar brings to the characters and to the stories are unique and the stuff from which successful series spring from and run for years. Bryan Hitch's artwork is jaw-droppingly beautiful, panels and splash pages of action and character interplay that seizes the eye and just won't let go. Even after a reader has finished the graphic novel, he or she will probably find himself or herself wandering back through the pages just admiring the art. The decision to set the first issue back during World War II was dead-on. Seeing Captain America in action, especially dressed in Hitch's take on the familiar red, white and blue uniform (complete with pistol, ammo belt, and helmet) draws the reader into the story with the urgency of an all-or-nothing mission in the final days of the war. The final couple pages showcasing Tony Star atop a snow-covered mountain peak, knowing he is Iron Man, whets the appetite for the next issue. Each of the six issues of the monthly comic gathered in this graphic novel lends itself to the next, building on the action and sharp character byplay of the previous issue.THE ULTIMATES is recommended to regular AVENGERS fans and to anyone who is only now discovering the breathtaking world of the graphic novel. Readers that have learned to enjoy the graphic novel medium can't afford to pass up on a book that is definitely going to be an award contender.

We all know about the MCU, right? It was the movie project that helped bring superheroes further into the mainstream and turned them into icons. But what about Ultimate Marvel?To summarize things quickly, Ultimate Marvel was an imprint started in 2000 separate to the mainline comics as a solution to introduce new readers to Marvel's most popular characters without them having to read through around 40 years of lore. Many heroes got revamped: Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and, of course, the Avengers.The Ultimates is a much more modern and realistic take of Earth's Mightiest Heroes. It takes away the more fantastic elements of the mainline comics and putting in a more grittier, militaristic, and political twist on them. Believe it or not, the MCU used this book as a basis. Only the MCU wasn't afraid to keep all of the colorful and fun elements of mainline comics.Let me clear like others who left a review, this story is NOT for kids. Instead of the Avengers being a band of independent do-gooders who teamed up to face bigger threats that no hero could tango with alone, the Ultimates are basically a superpowered spec-ops unit put on a leash by the US government to take on threats to the country.Not only that, each member has been taken in a much different direction. And by that, I mean most of them are jerks. Captain America acts like your old WWII veteran grandpa with 1940s conservative values, Thor is portrayed as an unstable mental patient with godlike power, and Hank Pym is a straight up domestic abuser with an inferiority complex. Plus, the less we say about the Hulk, the better.Does all of this stop it from being a decent story? No. But could it be much better? Yes, it absolutely could.Don't get me wrong, it's definitely dated in some areas, politics and pop-culture wise. But it's still a really interesting take on Marvel's flagship team. It has great artwork and the fight with the Hulk is a good finale. I'd say pick this book up if you're the morbidly curious type and can get past all the edginess.

Mark Millar reinventa a los antiguos Vengadores para darles un toque más moderno con gran éxito.A Joss Whedon le gustó tanto que usó muchas ideas de esta novela gráfica para la primera película de Los Vengadores.

The one marvel comic which adapted The 2012 Marvel's The Avengers.Can't wait to buy the 2nd book.

I'll Admit I Read the First half of this series when Hatchette Partworks released their 'MARVEL Ultimate Graphic Novel Collection' and was less than impressed - not because it was not the Avengers I was used to (which admittedly I knew very little about - i had only read a few stories of X-Men and Spider-Man with apearances from them) and had not seen The Avengers Movie...The in May 2015 My Mother and I saw 'AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON' in the cinema (which I loved), and when reading from the cast and crew that the Mark Millar/Bryan Hitch runs of 'The Ulimates' were among the inspirations for the look and development for many of the characters in the MCU. Most notably when it was revealed that the family bond was deeper for Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, i had to add Jeph Loeb's 'The Ultimates 3: Who Killed the Scarlet Witch?' to learn more, it made the story much more heartbreaking...But Back to 'The Ultimates (Series 1)' review.The First arc, "Super-Human", Begins with a whole issue (minus the last two pages, which features Tony Stark talking about his next big venture) dedicated to showing a scene from World War 2, where Captain America is leading a full fledged attack on a German missile complex, which ends with him stopping the missile but being lost to the ocean, the captions reading the Letter he left his Fiancee, Gail, in case of his death...After this is a few issues of set-up, introducing a more real-world introduction to Nick Fury (Whose look is based on Samuel L. Jackson and was a nice thing that years later these guys must have had some credit for the casting decision when Sam, in all his Fury-ous Glory, appears at the endof 'Iron Man' (2008).) Bruce Banner, recently recovering from a Hulk Incident (as seen in the Ultimate Spider-Man Comic series) which is more explained as a steroid addiction that a radiation accident, Ant-Man, more mentally unstable than his Mainstream Marvel Universe counterpart, the Wasp, Now a Mutant, trying to hide her truth due to the Ultimate Universe's problems with the Mutant Population, and Iron-Man - no-longer the victim of his own weaponry, but instead, diagnosed with a brain tumor, that has allowed him to take more risks. round that up with Thor who, as the Blurb explains it best: 'A New Age Guru whomay either be the living son of a Norse God... or a lunatic with a big hammer!'Issue Six, deals with the team going against the Hulk (Bruce doing this, due to the needof the Ultimates to have an enemy to prove themselves against.) this is followedby theimmediate fallout as theteam recover and talk about what they should do next, and Ant-Man brutally attacking his wife - proving that, wether or not it's egular folks or super-powered ones,Domestic Violence is still apowerful issue to deal with.theres a bit of a dip with issue 07 as the gang scramble topickupthe pieces as Wasp struggles with here injuries,and Captain America sets out to teach Hank a lesson that it isn't right to just let that abuse on anyone...The Rest of Volume 2 (titled 'Homeland Security') deals with an alien invasion from the Chitauri (originally intended to be the Skrulls but due to conflicts of licensing they had tomake a new species) that began in World War 2 and sees the introductions of Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye and Black Widow... and sees the Return of the Hulk (best scene is after Cap tells him that the crews of the alien armada just called hima Sissy-Boy, Hulk launches himself at ships, shouting "HULK STRAIGHT!!!!).It is a great take on the Avengers and is really beautifully drawn and the story in it's entirety is miles better.

Un tomo imprescidible si te gustan los vengadores y MARK Millar en general

Oh the condition of the book was A+Now coming to the content its a big no from me. Characters are straight up arrogant and edgy. The art is amazing through out. Yeah but the book itsetis very short, ypu can complete its in an hour.