Reviews - Ultimates 2 #12

The Avengers

Finally another issue of Ultimates is out. The second series has really taken a long time and the fault is primarily on Bryan Hitch and his "artistic perfection". I know that lots of people would prefer to have great art than crappy art...but there is a line to be drawn for late books.

The second-last issue for Millar and Hitch's run on the Ultimates has the Ultimates and America's heroes looking to fight back against the alliance of countries that had secretly co-opted Shield's technology via the Black Widow.

Captain America is fighting the Arabian version of himself. The Hulk is taking on his counterpart and so forth. There are some great fight scenes in here and the Millar has some great dialog. Loved it when Hulk starts spewing off information while he kicks the crap out of the Abomination. Iron Man 6 was a little dumbass though. Something so large and bulky does not have the capacity to shoot at all those little targets.

One by one the invaders fall to the Ultimates. Each of the invaders dies a gruesome death (with funny one-liners included). Millar doesn't hold back on the violence and gives us some Authority-style cruelty. Even Captain America gets in on the killing as he disposes of Abdul al-Rahman.

Hitch's artwork is beautiful. It better be after all the delays this book has been having. Hitch himself has said that he is a perfectionist and that is why the books are late. The detail and storytelling that Hitch puts into the book is amazing. Was it worth the wait? Yes and No. If this was originally a bi-monthly, no problem. But trying to keep a monthly schedule with all these delays has really hurt the momentum of the story. I had to pull out my old Ultimates 2 books to remember some of the details.

Still, I'm sad to see Millar and Hitch leave the series. They both fit the series well and it definitely shows with this latest issue. Let's wait and see how they finish it off with #13.

DRAGONCRYPT Sunday, October 22, 2006