Broken Frontier

The Ultimates are just the beginning. S.H.I.E.L.D.’s next wave of super-soldiers are the brainchild of Director Nick Fury. But can S.H.I.E.L.D. keep all these super-people under control?

"We didn’t stop the atom bomb with Robert Oppenheimer, so why stop super-soldiers with The Ultimates?" With this Nick Fury introduces The Reserves, military-trained metahumans who back up The Ultimates, and, in Fury’s words, "have been in the cards from the beginning." The Giant Men, Rocketmen One, Two, and Three, The Four Seasons, Thunderbolt and Intagi-Girl, and a back-up for the greatest hero of them all. From an initial roster of nine, the super-soldiers under Fury’s command have increased to twenty-six, capable to projecting American power anywhere in the world at any time. Not everyone is happy about it, though, particularly a pencil-pushing general concerned about the United Nations, fifty years of treaties, and the sovereignty of other nation states. But he’s not the only one worried that Fury is poised to plunge the world into another arms race. Other forces are at work against the S.H.I.E.L.D. Director, going so far as hiring Mr. Nix, the world’s greatest assassin to take him out. Can Fury avoid a shot to the head while also avoiding being cut off at the knees?

More a stand-alone Nick Fury story than an Ultimates story, The Ultimates 2 Annual, in taking a peek behind the S.H.I.E.L.D. super soldiers program and the man who runs it, is an interesting and entertaining diversion from the title’s current storylines. Mark Millar’s script is spot on with all the things that have made him a top comics writer—deftly interwoven plotlines, the crisp pacing, and strong characterization. And is there anything funnier than The Ultimate Defenders in Marvel Comics right now? Hell no. But Millar, since he first reloaded Nick Fury in Ultimate X-Men, has always shown a special affinity for a character who has always been one of my favorites, and he delivers yet again, depicting him as the consummate man with a plan inside a plan. Whether black or white, in the hands of Stan Lee, Jim Steranko, or Mark Millar, Fury remains one of the most enigmatic characters in any Marvel Universe.

But after reading The Ultimates 2 Annual, it becomes a little more clear that what’s most important in the Ultimates 2 story is the story behind the story.

Consider the Ultimate Universe as a whole. The Ultimate X-Men came out of the gate with Magneto as their primary adversary. And it took The Ultimate Fantastic Four nearly a year, but eventually Doom made his entrance into the Ultimate Universe with all the vainglorious treachery a villain of his caliber could possess at the beginning of the 21st century. But over two seasons of The Ultimates, Millar has opted for a different approach—not yet have we seen anyone even approaching a classic Avengers villain. As fresh an approach as it can be frustrating, anyone familiar with Millar’s work must have known that he was up to something. Hinted at through the second season of The Ultimates, in The Ultimates 2 Annual the picture gains a startling and frightening clarity. In short, Millar’s Ultimates are his Authority turned inside out. While both the Ultimates and The Authority seriously call into question the function and meaning of superhumans in a world that can transform them as much as it can be transformed by them, with The Ultimates, because they are as inside the system as The Authority are outside, the narrative possibilities their title presents are perhaps more relevant. Nick Fury, as if he were Henry Bendix with a conscience, has ushered in the age of the Metahuman Industrial Complex, in which hegemony might be achieved with just a handful of superhumans. If only foreign policy were as easy in the real world.

The Ultimate Defenders scene that Steve Dillon illustrates hilariously captures just how clueless this bunch of losers is, but unfortunately it doesn’t really fit the weight of the rest of the story. I can get past the extent to which Brian Hitch has defined The Ultimates "look" and won’t even try to compare Dillon’s work to his. But on his own, Dillon’s images are flat and lifeless, lacking depth and dimension. Lacking as well is a cinematographer’s eye for interesting angles. The washed-out colors don’t help either.

Still, The Ultimates 2 Annual #1 is a strong issue worth the read.