By Sam Humphries, Billy Tan, Timothy Green II, Luke Ross & Terry Pallot (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-524-6
The Ultimate Comics imprint launched in 2000, upgrading and reformatting hallowed Marvel characters and concepts for a presumed-more sophisticated modern audience: one that mostly comprised older readers rather than the youngsters who had participated in the company’s 1960s rise to glory.
Eventually the alternate, darkly nihilistic new universe became as continuity-constricted as its predecessor, and in 2008 the “Ultimatum†story-arc culminated in a reign of terror which wiped out dozens of the new super-humans and millions of lesser mortals.
The era-ending event was a colossal tsunami triggered by mutant terrorist/messiah Magneto which inundated the superhero-heavy island of Manhattan and utterly devastated the world’s mutant population. Ever since The Deluge, the world has been stumbling from crisis to catastrophe…
This volume, collecting Ultimate Comics: the Ultimates issues #13-18 (September 2012 – January 2013) is part of an imprint-wide crossover which saw America fall into urban chaos and civil war, with the saga affecting and seen from the points of view of a newly blooded Spider-Man, a revitalised team of Ultimates and the last remaining X-Men…
How We Got Here: In the wake of the global inundation, ongoing internecine strife amongst the covert ops community, and deadly brushfire wars all over the planet, ousted spymaster Nick Fury regained control of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s army of secret agents and officially-sanctioned super-squad The Ultimates as well as clandestine task-force The Avengers, just as civilisation was coming apart at the seams…
Metahumans had become the preferred “Weapons of Mass Destruction†and personal superpowers were the focus of a terrifying global arms race. In Asia, emergent nation SEAR (SouthEastAsianRepublic) dissolved into bloody conflict soon after developing a serum which randomly sparked fantastic abilities in ordinary humans. Their plan had been to win the organic arms race but events quickly overtook the leadership when they tried to stack the deck by simultaneously releasing a virus that neutralised genes which triggered natural mutations.
With random metahumans roaming the streets, SEAR collapsed from internal dissent and open warfare…
From the conflict, dual metahuman nations were established and both Celestials and Eternals began offering super-powers to anybody brave or greedy enough to want them…
Meanwhile American hero Spider-Man was murdered, resurrected WWII super soldier Captain America went AWOL and the gods of Asgard, who had been dragged from their heavenly halls and marooned on Earth, were slaughtered by a new fantastic race called the Children of Tomorrow.
The Children were the results of a fantastic experiment by the Maker – disgraced, deranged former superhero Reed Richards – who created a high-tech Dome where enhanced time and ruthless scientific augmentation enabled the inhabitants to hyper-evolve thousands of years in the space of a few days.
The Dome inexorably expanded into a voracious semi-sentient super-city and absorbed much of Western Europe, despite every effort of the region’s superhumans, until vengeful Thor broke into the marauding metropolis and, with the aid of boffin Sam Wilson (AKA the Falcon), Iron Man Tony Stark (and his sentient brain-tumour side-kick), Captain Britain, Hawkeye, Black Widow and the elevated Celestials of Xorn and Eternals of Zorn stopped the incursion by excessive violence and by turning the dome dwellers against their increasingly doctrinaire and draconian leader.
At the same time, corrupt S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Flumm forced Fury out and blackmailed Bruce Banner into attacking the Dome. The Hulk‘s enforced assault went tragically wrong, however, once The Maker convinced the man-monster to switch allegiances and the American President, distracted by one too many crises, allowed anti-mutant activists to turn the southwest into their own hunting preserve…
With Sentinels and militias controlling Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Oklahoma, and other states threatening secession, the President launched the nation’s entire nuclear arsenal at the ever-evolving Dome. To ensure no interference, the Commander-in-Chief also invoked “the Winter Protocols†and ordered S.H.I.E.L.D. to capture or kill all Ultimates and Avengers…
The nuclear fusillade and the metahuman attack could not obliterate the Dome but the component intelligence of the living City was badly damaged. In retaliation Richards unleashed the Hulk and a very special Child of Tomorrow he had cultured without the knowledge of the Dome hive-mind. The child detonated with nuclear force in the Capitol, utterly eradicating WashingtonDC and the entire government…
Stunned by the loss of the entire ruling structure of America, self-promoted Director Flumm was further incensed when Fury, Falcon, Hawkeye and the Widow all escaped capture…
Although the Dome was no longer a credible or urgent threat, President Howard – who only a day previously was the earnest but under-qualified Secretary of Energy – was in over his head. With a nuclear-armed Texas quitting the Union and declaring itself an independent nation, mutant-hunting Sentinels rampaging through the southwest states and militant local militias sparking rebellions all over the country, the last thing he needed to hear was that the Ultimates and Avengers are all free.
Forced to overreact, the President declared martial law as the nation splintered around him. Flumm too was rapidly losing control and could not cope with more bad news…
And then word arrived that Captain America had returned from his self-imposed exile…
(For fuller comprehension the reader is strongly advised to consult companion series Ultimate Comics: X-Men 1 & 2 and previous volumes of this series. These will greatly enhance understanding of the parlous state of this alternate universe in its darkest hours…)
With the Land of the Free ripped apart by numerous small rebellions and full state secessions, this twinned publishing event – designed to create a jumping-on point for new readers – opens with the 2-part ‘Divided We Fall’ (by Sam Humphries, Billy Tan, Timothy Green II & Terry Pallot) as Director Flumm is compelled by President Howard to deploy the hated and unruly Ultimates, overruling the S.H.I.E.L.D. boss’s warning that they cannot be controlled…
Even as the harried leader appoints veteran administrator spy and former White House administrator Carol Danvers his Chief of Staff, news pictures come in of Captain America battling in New Mexico, whilst in New York, Iron Man Stark is galvanised into action again and calls Thor away from the massive graveyard that holds the remains of his entire race. It’s time to put the old band back together…
Cap is on a rampage of indignant patriotic fury: destroying Sentinels and thrashing murderous mutant hunters. When he’s finally joined by his former comrades the revolution of hate swiftly collapses as the heroes forcibly drag the abandoned states back into the Union.
None of them are aware of the long-term role played by an enigmatic rabble-rouser and power-broker named Morez, who slips away to one of the other areas where he’s successfully fomented dissent, even as the Sentinel-held territories fall to resurgent American Forces …
Forced out of the shadows, Morez reappears in Texas, convincing the businessmen and corporate heads that run the New Republic to fire their prized solitary nuke at New York City. Instantly apprised, Iron Man, Thor and the Sentinel of Liberty join the other Ultimates in invading the Lone Star Nation, with less than fifteen minutes to find the missile’s abort code and avert another bloodbath…
Meanwhile Morez has contacted the head of the Senate Emergency Powers Committee and convinced ambitious Senator Underwood to have the government look the other way whilst the manipulator facilitates Wyoming becoming an independent militia-run nation…
As the heroes rip Dallas apart in their successful attempt to stop the missile, Thor notices an odd symbol on the gold used by the Republic’s ex-movers and shakers and begins to suspect that another Asgardian escaped the extermination… the Evil One…
Howard too feels the rug ripped out from under him when Underwood finds a dubious legal precedent and claims the new President has no official mandate to rule. In the middle of the Civil War there’s going to be an emergency Recall Election…
And on the West Coast, the constantly moving Morez offers deadly weaponised WASP security drone technology to the radical hippies, free thinkers and Silicon Valley entrepre-nerds who have assumed control of Washington State, Oregon and California: decent dudes whose freedom loving new country is currently being swamped by American refugees and Internally Displaced Persons from the embattled USA…
The hard-fought war of reunification occurs in the 4-part ‘United We Stand’ (illustrated by Luke Ross) and sees the well-meaning free thinkers of the West Coast Nation become accidental mass-murderers when Morez assumes control of the WASPs and lets them loose upon the refuges flooding across the new border. With the election and the genocide both filling the media airwaves, Howard orders Captain America not to intervene in California, but the Star-Spangled legend decides to listen to the higher authority of his conscience…
Following a surprise meeting with Fury, Captain America goes west, linking up with Hawkeye and Black Widow to spectacularly save victims live on TV. As Morez switches his attention to Wyoming, all over the country voters begin exercising their mandate with a surprise “Write-in candidateâ€â€¦
When Thor and Iron Man destroy the automated system unleashed by Morez, the grateful West Coasters are happy to rejoin the nation just as the Sentinel of Liberty receives a call and is informed that he’s the new President…
Rapidly sworn in, Steven Rogers remains in costume and appoints Carol Danvers his political operative as he stays in the field dragging his America out of Civil War. As she navigates the stormy waters stirred up by the infuriated Senator Underwood, the Ultimates are ending the bloody feud between North and South Carolina and forcing them both back into the United States. Thor, suspecting Asgardian influence, heads to top secret Project Pegasus in Wyoming as Cap ends weeks of urban anarchy and territorial tumult by the Great Lakes Liberation Front in Michigan by sheer presence and charisma…
With their influence impossibly slipping away, Flumm and Underwood finally go too far when they try to assassinate their Red, White and Blue Commander-in-Chief, leaving the assembled Ultimates free to concentrate on their true foe at last.
In Wyoming, Morez’s true identity is finally revealed and the evil Asgardian makes his play at last using the secret of Pegasus to enslave the state and turn terrified citizens into willing warriors in his army of rebellion: a Hydra of hate aimed at America’s heart…
Moreover there will be no help from Thor: guilt and the villain’s new weapon have made the Thunderer a helpless slave of the malign manipulator…
In Wyoming, as the ensorcelled Hydra forces clash with S.H.I.E.L.D. and a small force of loyal metahumans including the new Spider-Man, Giant-Woman Cassie Lang and Invisible Woman Sue Richards – last survivor of the legendary Fantastic Four – the real battle for Liberty is only won when Iron Man, Thor and President America defeat the Evil One in the skies above the embattled, sundered nation…
This bombastic battle for life, liberty and honour is designed to be read independently of the other strands (in Ultimate Comics X-Men and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man) if desired, so I’m not going to spoil the manner in which new President of the forcibly re-United States moves forward after the victory, but of course such a dictatorial beginning isn’t to everyone’s taste and naturally there’s more trouble brewing in the wings…
The darkly trenchant, nihilistically cynical Ultimate fare, with its signature post-modernity and bleakly brutal action, still delivers the grim ‘n’ gritty punch fans crave, but successfully surmounts those limits here by offering a powerfully uplifting message of hope for the determinedly worthy that is both satisfying and keenly tantalising. However for maximum impact you really should read those other two collections in this triptych of comics delights…
As usual the volume also contains a gallery of covers and variants – by Michael Komarck and Adi Granov – and this so-contemporary saga also incorporates a 21st century extra for all those tech-savvy consumers with added value in mind, as many chapters contain an AR icon (Marvel Augmented Reality App) which gives access to all sorts of story bonuses once you download the little dickens – for free – from marvel.com onto your iPhone or Android-enabled device.
Don’t touch that dial yet, fans, there’s still more to come…
™ & © 2013 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd. All rights reserved.