$12.99

An exciting reimagining of the Silver Age superteam known as the Avengers. Think of it like a movie adaptation, complete with updated pop-culture references and bigscreen explosions. Highly recommended for action/adventure fans.

tags: avengers marvel superhero ultimate

The start of the Ultimate-verse reimagining of the Avengers.

A combination of bad timing in terms of my interest in modern superheroes, a general disinterest in "retooling" concepts, and no real taste for the work of Millar or Bendis means I'd never bothered with Ultimate anything. Still when I saw this at the library the Avengers fan in me thought "what the hell" and I checked it out. I was pleasantly surprised. Millar actually devotes significant page space to character development and has one or two characters that aren't total pricks, both of which are nice departures from every other comic of his I'd ever read. There is, however, no plot here whatsoever... maybe that changes in future issues, but this is all about action and establishing characters. The real draw is Hitch's gorgeous artwork, which is amazing throughout... except for his character redesigns. A lot of them, especially Iron Man, look cornier than the "old" version, which makes me wonder why bother updating if you can't make it better? This is a total "style over substance" book, but the style is very good and most of the major changes from original Marvel reality are intriguing. Good enough for me to recommend, and for me to check the library for other Ultimate titles in the future.

tags: superhero ultimate_marvel

This a great re-imagining of the Avengers, in a parallel universe. For my money, this is a more attractive and interesting treatment of this bunch of characters than anything I've seen for at least 20 years (maybe 30 years).

One of the few "reboots" that doesn't completely suck. Interesting updates on a few of the characters, but feels a little like a Tv show where they've had to bow to the studio execs. Be prepared, Thor fans, for what they've done to him. I don't know why they can be okay with aliens and not with asgardians, but whatever. And why is it so fashionable to hate the norse these days?

I thought I was going to hate this series, being a lifelong Avengers nut who was sensitive to wholesale change. Ultimate Spider-man and X-men hadn't grabbed me, so I figured this would probably just be another retelling of classic storylines veiled in a modern setting. Boy, was I wrong! I came to regard this as the 'real' Avengers during the time it was being published. The excellent Hitch art doesn't hurt, either.