Ultimate Comics Avengers vs New Ultimates: Death of Spider-Man HC NM Shrinkwrapped 1st print Millar Yu

Description

Ultimate Comics Avengers vs. New Ultimates Hardcover (Shrinkwrapped)
by Mark Millar (Author), Leinil Yu (Illustrator)

IT. IS. ON! The two most powerful super teams in the Ultimate Universe collide in the brawl of the century! A misunderstanding has brought these two colossal teams to blows and their battle may just spell the end for the Ultimate world! MARK MILLAR and LENIL YU bring you the story that EVERYONE will be talking about. DON’T MISS OUT!

COLLECTING: ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS vs. NEW ULTIMATES 1-6

Publisher- Marvel
Language- English
Hardcover- 144 pages

Ultimate Comics Avengers vs. New Ultimates collects the entire 6 issue miniseries written by veteran writer Mark Millar with some great art by Leinil Yu. It was published under the Death of Spiderman banner, but he only appears briefly in the series.
This series picks up directly where Ultimate Comics Avengers: Blade vs. the Avengers left off. Thor is busy trying to transport the Triskelion back to New York after it was moved to Iran unexpectedly. The New Ultimates are down Iron Man as Stark goes into brain surgery. A train carrying the next generation of Super Soldiers is derailed and are kidnapped. These events set up the entire series, and Millar does a good job of creating a “Blockbuster.”

Here’s the thing with Mark Millar’s run on the Ultimates/Avengers line – if you’ve liked it thus far, you’ll like this also, and vice versa. The only thing I will say is that it’s not as good as previous volumes, I’m thinking of when Ghost Rider was out to assassinate the Vice President or when Cap became a vamp and it was up to Blade to take him down.

The book starts pretty much exactly where Blade vs. the Avengers left off, with S.H.I.E.L.D. in the midst of an international incident in the Iranian desert. What better time to set off a power struggle between Nick Fury (leader of the black-ops Avengers) and Carol Danvers (leader of the public-facing Ultimates) by accusing each of them to the other that they are responsible for the sale of genetic secrets to rogue nations and splinter groups?

And, seriously, whether the struggle was set off by whichever of them is the guilty party or by a mysterious outside agent, the twists and turns are pretty entertaining.

In this final volume we see the death of a couple of characters, one of them major, and if you’ve been paying any attention to comics news recently, you’ll know exactly which big character I’m talking about. This book shows him taking the first hit that will lead to his eventual death in another volume, “The Death of Spiderman” by Brian Michael Bendis, and is pretty unexpected. That said, the guy who instigates it, behaves afterward in a very strange way. I’m a huge fan of the character that takes down Spidey and I read this thinking “he wouldn’t react like this”. But hey this is “Ultimates” so it’s not canon right?

Plus, one of the things that’s made Millar such a polarising figure for Marvel fans is the way he does interesting things with characters – there are a number of instances in the book where I’m certain some readers will be outraged and think Millar’s gone too far, it’s too stupid, but relax, it’s just superheroes doing far out stuff – it’s what the man’s paid to do and he does it well.

If anything, Millar’s made this series revolve around a series of real world politics from post 9/11 policing in America, to blind patriotism, and here we see the Iranian Green Revolution taking place in the Ultimates universe as well as an unlikely revolution in North Korea. Millar’s introduction of a couple of lesser known characters gives him an easy way out for pinning the evil onto them and wrapping things up with everything almost the way it was before (albeit minus Spidey).

It’s a fun, mindless romp with some of the best superheroes ever created. Millar doesn’t hold back and while this isn’t the best book in the series he’s written, it’s far from his worst and is very readable to boot.

Collects Ultimate Comics Avengers vs New Ultimates 1-6. Shrinkwrapped, 1st print.