Broken Frontier

The events of Ultimatum have left New York a mess, Nick Fury jobless, and Carol Danvers in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D. Now, Captain America has gone rogue and in an effort to get a black ops team together, Hawkeye gets to tell Fury how.

Ultimates 3 and Ultimatum were just about enough to make anyone give up on the Ultimate Universe. Fortunately it was the end of the Ultimate Universe. Wait, well, what is this book then?

If we’re being perfectly honest, there isn’t much story here and if I were to talk about what goes on, there wouldn’t be much impetus for you to go get the comic. Now, I can’t really just end things there, so I will talk a little bit.

Seems A.I.M. has entered into the Ultimate picture and has chosen the chaos of a devastated New York to rob the Baxter Building. Fortunately Hawkeye and Cap are there to save the day. A high flying battle ensues that would make John Woo jealous. While fighting a new enemy, Cap finds out a secret. That’s how we get to the beginning of the book.

Millar doesn’t play around here. There is no need to acknowledge the mess that was the last run of Ultimates, merely to acknowledge that Magneto did his damnedest and move on. What characterization is here is done deftly. In between all the action there isn’t time for long monologues or heartfelt conversations... Captain America is a real American Hero, Hawkeye is bravado personified and Tony, well, he drinks. Carol gets the role of den mother. You get the broad strokes, but not any in depth analysis.... kind of like Michael Mann’s Ali.

The action though is top notch. Millar shows some serious Hollywood chops here. He is, of course, ably assisted by Pacheco and company. Pacheco captures the insane action and makes it pop and move. You get a sense of gravity’s effect on velocity. Shards of glass fly across the page. There is a danger to the leaps and bounds that just shouldn’t be present in drawings. He makes up for the odd pose of a character here or there by making you feel Steve Rogers' veins pulse with adrenaline. It is all high octane comic art here. 

This is not the revolutionary take on the Avengers that made The Ultimates a critical darling. What it is, is good popcorn fun. You can hear the soundtrack in your head... Beastie Boys and edgy metal pumping around your stadium seats. Bright lights and swiftly moving bodies on the screen doing the improbable above the skyscrapers of a metropolitan area.

Turns out the big blockbuster action movie isn’t coming to a theater near you this summer. It’s in your local comic shop.