Weekly Comic Book Review.com

By Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), Butch Guice (Artist), and Justin Posner (Colorist)

The early years of the “real” Marvel Universe can be seen as a series of accidents. Random cosmic storms, unpredictable gamma bombs, peevish irradiated arthropods… life as an insurance adjuster there must be nerve-wracking. In the “Ultimate” Marvel Universe, on the other hand, writers have usually taken advantage of the opportunity to start fresh by linking the causality of events. For example, most of Ultimate Spider-Man’s enemies had their origins in Oscorp, instead of a series of unrelated accidents. In The Ultimates, everyone’s trying to replicate the super-soldier formula. This might not make things more realistic, but at least it would no longer take a theoretical physicist and a networks of supercomputers to calculate exactly how improbable it all is.

In Ultimate Origins, Bendis is taking things to the next level, tying together the origins of the X-Men, The Ultimates, Spider-Man, the Hulk, and Nick Fury. We don’t often think of Nick Fury as a superhero, but don’t forget he was dosed with the “Infinity Formula” (Marvel Spotlight #31, footnote fans), which has kept him alive since World War II. I always assumed the Ultimate Nick Fury was born, say, the exact same day as Samuel L. Jackson, but it turns out he too is an octogenarian super-soldier, and unlike Cap he wasn’t part of an iceberg for sixty years.

The action starts (after a brief Spider-prologue), in the middle of the Guadalcanal campaign (beautifully illustrated by Guice, who clearly has been studying his Joe Kubert) and an unfortunate event that convinces FDR of the need for a true super-soldier. We then jump to the invasion of Sicily where James Howlett, Nick Fury, and a guy named Fisk are taking advantage of the chaos to crack a safe in someone’s home and liberate their jewelry. Howlett and Fury are caught and handed over to the MPs, who in turn send him to Project Rebirth. The next few pages are a parody of Captain America’s origin as written by Josef Mengele. We also get a revisionist recap of Weapon X, and am I crazy or is that the handle of Thor’s hammer sticking out of the snow?

It’s too soon to tell if the book going to be great or merely good, but things look promising. In fact, my only complaint is a nit-pick of Guice’s art: Butch, if you could make Fisk look like DeNiro in Taxi Driver, why couldn’t you make Fury look more like Jackson? (Grade: B)

- Andrew C. Murphy

A Second Opinion

I’m not going to say this book’s light on story - quite the contrary, but it is a quick read. In many ways, Brian Bendis has crafted a clever tale that, if executed as advertised, will connect all the major players in the Ultimate Universe. It reminds me of the TV show “Lost” in a way - how none of the characters are drawn together by happenstance - everything has happened for a reason.

With Ultimate Origins we’re thrusted back in time where Bruce Banner has an epiphany of how everyone’s connected. But before he can explain, he’s forced to flee the scene. From there, Bendis takes us back to the World War II where Allied Forces suffer a humiliating defeat to the Japanese. This battle marks the first U.S. attempt at creating a living symbol in the form of Captain America. But the attempt fails when the soldier is quickly killed in a humiliating fashion. Thus begins the research for a better symbol - one that cannot be killed so easily. Project Rebirth is given the green light and the rest, as they say, is history.

But, not really.

What I love about this book is how deep Bendis goes into Marvel lore. He not only connects the dots, but he takes concepts well established in the Marvel 616 Universe and implements them here as well. There’s references to series like Captain America: Red, White and Black, Origin (the Wolverine mini-series), and much more. Marvel fans will surely appreciate the work Bendis has done here. I, personally, like this concept so much that I almost wish this was somehow implemented into the 616 Universe. For casual readers or neophytes, they may miss the nuances and references, but the groundwork and the characters can’t be ignored.

I’ve been enjoying Butch Guice’s work more and more - especially his recent work on Captain America. Here, he does a very good job, carrying the “Steve Epting” style he’s recently adopted. But the whole “Invasion of Italy” scene had me really confused. The storytelling is muddled during this event and I found it hard to follow who was who and what was going on. Throwing Nick Fury into a cell of similar looking black guys didn’t help either.

Other than that, this book is a stark reminder that the Ultimate Universe shouldn’t be written off. If we can continue to get stories tight in continuity and high quality in the core books (I think Marvel’s committed to doing this), then we may yet see a new emergence of fans returning to these books. When the Ultimate Universe debuted, it was tight knit, fresh, and full of talent while the 616 Universe languished behind. These days, the 616 Universe has reclaimed much of its old glory, leaving the Ultimate Universe as a “creator’s playground” (Ultimates 3 is a good example of this). Hopefully, Ultimate Origins is the spark that will turn things around. (Grade: B+)

- J. Montes

A Third Opinion

I am going to start this second opinion off by admitting that I do not have a whole lot of experience with the Ultimate Universe. I have read the Mark Millar Ultimates stories, as well as a few others here and there, but as a whole I tend to stick to the main Marvel Universe. I mention this because I want readers to know that I have little emotional investment in the Ultimate Universe and others may have a different perspective on what takes place within the first part tale.

As Jason mentioned in the main review, Ultimate Origins is a quick, but satisfying read. Bendis has managed to make me truly interested in the Ultimate Universe beyond The Ultimates series and for that reason alone I could consider Origins to be a success. The promotional materials promise that everything is connected and, so far, it seems as though Bendis is going to make good on that promise. Bendis’ writing does a nice job keeping the reader filled in on what he or she needs to know. I can’t wait to see how the rest of the pieces fit together and I could see myself getting up to date on some Ultimate continuity in order to get a better grip on the story.

I really enjoyed Butch Guice’s artwork for the most part. His style fits the tone of the story extremely well. As Jason mentioned, some of the action is a bit confusing and the main characters aren’t distinct enough to stand out during those scenes. That said, I think all will be well once these regular people become the characters we have come to know and love. Guice has been quite great on Captain America and I see no reason why Ultimate Origins will be any different once more characters begin to appear.

Overall, this series is off to a pretty great start. The art is solid, the storytelling is brisk, but friendly for new or casual readers, and the storyline seems as though it is going to make good on the promises made on the hype. Good stuff all around. (Grade B+)

-Kyle Posluszny