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The Ultimates Volume 1: Superhuman

Marvel Comics

by Mark Millar, Bryan Hitch

Whoo! Has Marvel's "Ultimates" line gone "mature readers?"

Fine, there may be no warning tag on the cover, but just to be sure, this is one storybook you'll want to be keeping away from little Billy.

My word.

Hell, it shocked me… SHOCKED me to see the Hulk, easily a cultural icon, say "Hulk gonna tear your head off and use it for a toilet bowl…" or how about: "Hulk hornier than a…."

Yeah, I laughed my ass off. Sure. But, sweet Christmas, Mr. Millar, what have you done to the heroes we knew?

Hank Pym is a giant man with a severe inferiority complex. His wife is the Wasp, a brilliant scientist in her own right, a bit of a flirt, and a little something else (the domestic disturbance between them will give you nightmares. Oh so creepy).

Tony Stark, Iron Man, is a bastard playboy who all of a sudden switches gears from greediness to a wanna-be world savior. And Thor, well, Thor's just a new-age fruitcake, a very powerful fruitcake, but a fruitcake none the less. And then, of course, there's this Ultimate Avenger's captain… ahem… America, that is. He is the glue that holds the team together, a glue, while capable of binding a team, is himself falling apart, having just awoken from a sixty-year nap. The real difference between this Captain America, and the traditional Cap is, well, reality. Not just the fact that this Captain carries the emotions of a person being displaced from a world he felt he just left, but the fact that this Captain is, and acts like, an actual military powerhouse. Then there's Nick Fury, who's no longer Clint Eastwood but now Sam Jackson.

The Ultimates plays like the Matrix, an ensemble piece with a clear focus, plenty of character development, and enough action to knock over a cow in Montana.

Millar has really turned the screws on the superhero genre, genuinely reflecting the mindset, attitude, and reality of today's world… man, I had to check the news after reading chapter five to be sure that the Hulk really didn't trash New York.

Bryan Hitch's art is, quite simply, jaw-dropping. The costumes are real, with seams and zippers and wrinkles and everything. The "Saving Private Ryan" that is chapter one is so real it will give you PTS flashbacks in the middle of the night.

Volume One is such a stroke of genius, I fear Volume Two is doomed.