Ultimate Comics: Avengers, Vol. 2: Crime and Punishment

Ultimate Comics: Avengers (Collected Editions)

by Mark Millar, Leinil Francis Yu (Illustrator)

Some jobs are just too dirty for the Ultimates. For these, Nick Fury must gather the Avengers, a black-ops team willing to do the missions that others won't. What role will an infamous mass killer play in Fury's plans? Find out here, as the Punisher returns to the Ultimate Universe! The blockbuster team of Mark Millar (The Ultimates) and Leinil Francis Yu (Secret Invasion) present this explosive story that can only be called Crime and Punishment.

Collecting: Ultimate Comics Avengers 2 1-6

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Comic Book

144 pages, Hardcover

First published October 20, 2010

About the author

Mark Millar is the New York Times best-selling writer of Wanted, the Kick-Ass series, The Secret Service, Jupiter’s Legacy, Jupiter’s Circle, Nemesis, Superior, Super Crooks, American Jesus, MPH, Starlight, and Chrononauts. Wanted, Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass 2, and The Secret Service (as Kingsman: The Secret Service) have been adapted into feature films, and Nemesis, Superior, Starlight, War Heroes, Jupiter’s Legacy and Chrononauts are in development at major studios.

His DC Comics work includes the seminal Superman: Red Son, and at Marvel Comics he created The Ultimates – selected by Time magazine as the comic book of the decade, Wolverine: Old Man Logan, and Civil War – the industry’s biggest-selling superhero series in almost two decades.

Mark has been an Executive Producer on all his movie adaptations and is currently creative consultant to Fox Studios on their Marvel slate of movies.

Reviews

[Kemper · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Marvel‘s Ultimate line of comics, the team called the Ultimates is what a long time fan would consider the traditional Avengers with the likes of Captain America, Iron Man and Thor making up the team. However, the Avengers in this reality are a covert black-ops wet work group that gets the jobs that are too dirty for the more public Ultimates. Since they’re doing the bloody work, Nick Fury needs a bullet-happy maniac on the payroll so naturally he captures Punisher and forces him on the team by implanting a device in his skull that will give him painful jolts if he doesn’t stick to killing only the people that Fury wants dead.

The Avengers are also made up of War Machine, Hawkeye, Black Widow and a new character named Tyrone Cash who was the beta version of The Hulk, and their first assignment together is a doozy. Some freak with a flaming skull and a motorcycle with fire for wheels has been killing several rich men connected to the White House. Since politicians can’t have their biggest campaign donors getting ganked, the order has come down to find and kill the guy everyone assumes is a mutant or some other super-powered weirdo. The Avengers don’t realize that they’re going up against a genuine spirit of vengeance from hell called Ghost Rider.

I usually like Millar’s darker style with superheroes and the way he manages to ground his stories in a recognizable and more realistic world. He actually managed to get me interested in this Punisher (Who I generally don’t care for.), and I was excited to get the Ultimate version of Ghost Rider.

The problem was that there’s some apple and orange mixing going on here. There’s a lot of set-up with the background and capture of Punisher and the recruitment of Cash and that had a lot of promise, but making their target be a supernatural entity just doesn’t work well. There’s a bit of common ground in motivation between Punisher and Ghost Rider, and the Ultimate version of Hawkeye, but having a team that’s primarily about big guns and punching stuff really hard fighting a demon from hell just doesn’t work very well. It’s too out of balance.

Still kind of fun and with some decent character work, I would have liked a villain that was more closely matched to the heroes of the story.

[Nicolo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Millar returned to the Ultimates to save it from the fiasco that was Ultimatum. Still, I'd rather he made Ultimates 2 his defining moment; he had nothing left to prove by returning to the Marvel Ultimate Universe. His collaboration with Bryan Hitch was career defining and he risked watering down his legacy here. His comeback just isn't as good this time without Hitch. It has none of the cinematic widescreen experience Hitch brought to the table.

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the Ultimate universe, the public team of heroes are The Ultimates. But there is a non-public team now, for real dirty work, and Nick Fury is demoted to running these behind-the-scenes "Avengers". Fury, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and War Machine recruit the Punisher and the First Hulk to attempt to defeat the demonic Ghost Rider.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow, sometimes I forgot how silly and stupid Millar dialogue can be.

So this is basically a hunt for Ghost Rider. But first the Ultimate Avengers need to do some recruiting. First they take in Punisher after he's killed about 200+ people. Then they get Cash, who in this universe is basically like the first Hulk. All together, Black Widow, Cash, Warmachine, Punisher, and Hawkeye go and try to hunt down Ghost Rider. But soon into it we learn Ghost Rider isn't the real bad guy here.

The plot is simple. Chase, fight, chase, fight, and so on. This whole entire book is one big chase and fight scene. Sure, the fights are over the top and stupid fun. At one point Cash grabs a fucking plane and smashes it into Warmachine. So yeah, this is just mostly insanity, little racism, and plenty of sexism, sprinkled on top of everything. Stupid? Yes. Entertaining? yes.

A 3 out of 5.

[Michael J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A better than average superhero saga by the team of writer Mark Millar and artist Leniul Yu.
Things take place in the former Ultimate Universe, an alternate version of the Marvel Universe featuring the same characters but in sometimes different roles and always (at least the books that Millar wrote) grittier, and more violent with a sprinkling of cynicism for seasoning.
The Ultimate Avengers are the team assigned to take on the dirtier assignments the more wholesome Ultimates Team would prefer not to handle. Both teams are directed by Nick Fury, and he's not beyond a little manipulation or blackmail in order to coerce participation, in this case Frank Castle The Punisher and the Ultimate version of the very first Hulk (a crippled intellectual who gets the Gamma Ray treatment courtesy of Bruce Banner, turning him into a muscular but more handsome Hulk that acts like a pimp a la the Max version of Luke Cage).
Along with the Black Widow, War Machine, and Hawkeye their assignment this time is to take down the Ghost Rider, who's been exterminating a long list of people who've wronged him as his sights now turn to the Vice President. This rendition of Ghost Rider is extremely powerful and the bike has flight capabilities. Things get crazy when a second Ghost Rider enters the fray.
This story arc is long on action and short on commentary, although there are many amusing exchanges between the characters, especially between Punisher and Hawkeye. I was entertained. Yu's artwork is expressive and his action scenes burst off the page, although some of the panels are a bit confusing because of the clutter.

[J.M. Giovine · Rating 4 out of 5]

After stopping the forces of A.I.M., as well as Red Skull from shifting the reality, now, a new threat has appeared, and the Secret Operative of Nick Fury now has a new task, and to complete the team, new members must be selected. Enters Frank Castle ‘The Punisher’, a former police officer dedicated to decimating crime after his family was brutally murdered by the Mafia, and who is now under S.H.I.E.L.D. custody after being captured by ‘Captain America’. ‘War Machine’, ‘Black Widow’, and ‘Hawkeye’ are back in business, but a replacement of ‘Nerd Hulk’ must be added, so Nick Fury is bringing back Bruce Banner’s former mentor, Doctor Leonard Williams, a.k.a. ‘Tyrone Cash’, the original ‘Hulk’. A new team is built to contain an assassin of some of the richest people in North America, and the team eventually tracks the killings to a- supposed- mutant who’s apparently riding a motorcycle and has a flaming head: enter Johnny Blaze’s ‘Ghost Rider’.
It occurred to me that I never wondered if there was an “Ultimate” version of the ‘Ghost Rider’, but well, now that we’re at a very advanced stage of that universe, Mark Millar finally gave us what- I’d like to imagine- a lot of people waited for. This version of the ‘Spirit of Vengeance’ is essentially Marvel’s version of ‘The Crow’, or even ‘Spawn’ for all that matters, although visually it is being kept the same, stylistically speaking. Having this in mind, I believe it was the wisest decision to change the artist. Nothing against Carlos Pacheco, he is a very talented and competent penciller, but we’re talking about gruesome and violent territories here. Unlike what I’ve said about titles such as ‘Ultimatum’, where the excessive usage of these elements was misguided and gratuitous, here, the characters mainly utilized for this plot are ideal for that kind of tone and getting Leinil Francis Yu as the main artist for not only the interiors, but also the covers was the perfect choice for this. As far as I can recall, Yu only worked on another ‘Ultimate’ title, ‘Ultimate Wolverine VS Hulk’, which looked amazing from start to finish. Here, he has the same number of issues to illustrate, and he excels in each one. Not only that, but Yu shares credits with the colorist, Dave McCaig, in their second contribution in the ‘Ultimate Universe’, and suffice to say, this is one of the best artistic combos in the industry, easily.
The art department is what delivers in this series. For starters, there’s an initial series of panels where Frank is on a killing spree for criminals, and there is no dialogue. It looks brutal, but it feels proper for the character, which makes me wonder if Yu has already drawn another Punisher comic before. Which leads me to ‘Ghost Rider’ himself. He looks fantastic with Yu’s pencils, and McCaig’s colors are just the perfect dose of creepiness and coolness. Don’t get me wrong, the other characters look splendid, but Castle and Blaze are simply the show stealers in this volume. If I must complain about one single nitpick in the art department, it has to be Castle’s new costume design; S.H.I.E.L.D. basically gave him an augmented suit, just like Black Widow, but it has aspects of the captain America suit, it looks like a cheap imitation. What I wanted was to see Frank with his classic ‘Punisher’ outfit, just like in the beginning of the first issue. I guess I’d settle for ‘Ghost Rider’, who’s basically the design of Earth-616.
As for the story, it isn’t as complicated; S.H.I.E.L.D. special operatives need to hunt down ‘Ghost Rider’ before he gets revenge on the people involved in his own murder, and his girlfriend, Roxanne. Have to say, the final victim truly got me by surprise, but I guess I should’ve seen it coming. Basically, the gang that murdered Johnny and Roxanne made a deal with the devil by offering them as sacrifices, so that granted them a successful and wealthy life, but Johnny manages to make a deal by himself as well; in order for Roxanne to be revived, and have a happy life, he will become the devil’s soul-collector, allowing him to hunt down the worshippers that got him in this very situation, one by one.
There is an interesting comparison with ‘Punisher’ in this version of the character, and the backstory of Johnny Blaze has the right dose of brutality, and tragedy I’d expect out of an alternative version of the ‘Rider. It respects the character’s original roots, while also re-inventing and re-imagining his origins in the expected way, which is a Millar typical signature in these comics. Again, perhaps, the best element would be the art department, but it is simply an amazing duo. Makes me wonder why no one ever thought about continuing the adventures of Johnny Blaze, with Millar writing, or at the very least, having Yu’s pencils back.
The story is a simple “revenge tale”, but it uses characters proper enough for that sort of themes and plots. The confrontation between the ‘Avengers’ and ‘Ghost Rider’ looks fantastic, and unlike the previous volume, the resolution in here feels satisfactory as a conclusion. Overall, this isn’t the best title in the ‘Ultimate’ library, but it is a welcomed one, introducing new and heavily anticipated faces, offering great visuals, and continuing the story with enough “crowd-pleasing” material, this volume an incredibly enjoyable one, specially for any fan of Marvel’s deadliest anti-heroes.

[Keegan Schueler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Punisher becoming a black ops captain America in the ultimate universe is amazing. Basically made the avengers the suicide squad to the ultimates which is dope.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nick Fury continues recruiting for a new Avengers team, a black ops squad, as an opposite to the Ultimates to do the stuff that would sully their good image. Enter Tyrone Cash, a Hulk-type beast, who apparently taught Banner everything he knew (!) being enormous and hyper-intelligent, and Frank Castle the Punisher, who is "captured" by the new Avengers and suited up in a Punisher/Captain America crossover costume and urged to fight for them.

This new team is suddenly called into action when a series of strange murders start happening and the suspect is sighted - a leather clad biker with a flaming skull and a kickass bike. That's right, Ultimate Avengers 2 is new Avengers vs. Ghost Rider, with the Vice President's life at stake!

It's a pretty good read for the most part. I think some of the characterisation was a bit off for Cash and War Machine (underused here and made to seem completely ineffectual in combat) but on the plus side Millar gives Ghost Rider his balls back after such poor treatment in the movie version (thanks Nic Cage!) and the targets in the book are so unsympathetic that you're rooting for the Rider to bring justice every step of the way.

The story moves at a fast pace and I never found myself bored. The artwork is pretty awesome too, Leinil Francis Yu did some outstanding work and the set pieces look fantastic. Overall, a satisfying, fun read for an excellent ongoing series.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A steady improvement over the first but still not great especially considering what Millar used to bring to the table on Earth 1610. One thing I found fascinating was a similarity I found between this volume and the last. Both volumes open up with a terrific hook that left me wanting more. In the first volume it was Hawkeye’s story of a mission with Captain America where he went rogue. In this one, The Punisher is arrested by SHIELD and forced to work for them where he will go up against Ghost Rider.
In both cases neither comic lives up to its potential. While Next Generation was much worse, this one still left a decent bit to be desired.
Punisher being forced to work for SHIELD as part of a Suicide Squad type deal? Punisher vs. Ghost Rider? Ghost Rider hunting and killing the rich and powerful? SHIELD being convinced that Ghost Rider is a mutant because he’s killing powerful and influential humans? The Vice President Of The United States being the last one on Ghost Rider’s list?

But the best this comic can offer is
- Putting Punisher in an over-designed Captain America-Punisher hybrid costume that gives him superpowers (and is essentially those awful knock off iron man suits from GI Joe: Rise Of Cobra).
- Not to mention that Matt Fraction’s Punisher already wore this costume in 616 after Civil War (as a joke btw).
- also, the reason they put him in this super suit is so that no one will know that SHIELD is working with a known murderer and vigilante. Fair enough but then why does he have the giant skull logo on his chest? It’s genuinely one of the ugliest designs I’ve seen in a while.
- Getting yet another Hulk but not Hulk character who reads like Mr. Hyde from League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the movie) mixed with Idris Elba if his career was getting desperate.
- And the best one: having it all end with a literal Ghost Rider vs. An evil bigger scarier ghost rider who’s taller probably and wears red and has bigger spikes on his shoulders.

The book would be two stars if not for a few moments that were genuinely great and interesting. Mostly Punisher’s interactions with Hawkeye and Johnny Blaze. As well as a moment where War Machine is asked as to what the team should refer to the new Hulk / Tyrone Cash as. If Black was good or if African-English worked. I genuinely got a chuckle out of that.

Lenil Yu’s pencils are great here. I think some of his best work. As such a detailed artist, I feel he gets distracted and makes certain parts of his panels overly detailed whereas other parts end up completely neglected. Here tho he applies just the right amount of sauce to everything and I loved it.
And I would not mind at all if Punisher became the main character in this series. I feel like the awful edginess would be easier to swallow if it was an awful edgy character (not an insult) like Punisher leading the series.

But with Punisher seemingly gone and Steve Dillon on pencils in the next volume, I’m not gonna rush to read it. But we’ll see.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nick Fury recruits a new team of black ops Avengers to take down a super-powered killer who is hunting down some of America's wealthiest and most influential men. However, the Avengers find themselves unprepared to face the supernatural power of the Ghost Rider.

Millar's Ultimate universe work tends to be characterised by unnecessary violence and characters who are such awful people that it's very hard to get behind them as protagonists. To begin with this book was very much following that mould, opening with no fewer than eight straight pages of the Punisher just brutally murdering people.
It gets worse with the introduction of Tyrone Cash, who's not just a bad person, but it a terrible character in general. Seriously, we're supposed to buy the concept that not only did Bruce Banner have a British mentor who also became a Hulk but also that, despite being a scientific genius, he then became a psychotic Cockney gangster. The fact that he's a horrible homophobe didn't help matters either.

So, it felt like business as usual for Millar; introducing us to alternate versions of familiar character who are just all horrible and then have them going around being graphically violent for no reason.
However, when Ghost Rider actually enters the story it actually suddenly becomes much better. Rather than simply senseless violence, the stories behind Ghost Rider and the Punisher actually twist the tone to righteous vengeance in the tail end of the book and it's a tone much more in keeping with those characters.

My biggest criticism of Millar has always been that he makes beloved heroes into something they shouldn't be, but here he finally seems to have found some heroes who fit his idiom and it makes for a better book as a result.
Still not enough to redeem the front half of the book, but at least it shows potential.

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.com *

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book features crass, bloody action as the Ultimate Universe Punisher is recruited to a Nick Fury-led hit squad to take on Ultimate Ghost Rider. There's plenty of macho posing and straight-up executions as two vengeance-themed anti-heroes aim to get back at those who've wronged them.

At this point in the Ultimate Universe's life cycle, the creators are sort of scraping the bottom of the barrel for "alternate" versions of heroes to get. This volume foists on us a "rude-boy" proto Hulk with lots of chains and "oi" patter. We also get a frankly ridiculous origin story for Ghost Rider, complete with a blood sacrifice and a confusing series of Satanic double crosses.

The art by Leinil Franic Wu isn't terrible, and writer Mark Millar does a passable job building a team dynamic among a group of randos who've basically been thrown together under pain of prosecution. But the villain is ridiculous, and the outcome, gonzo as it is, doesn't really pay off.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

Put the Punisher and Ghost Rider in the same story and I'm probably going to like it. So the Ulimate Avengers are a black ops group that gets called in for jobs the Ultimates can't be seen doing. (Think about when Cyclops started his secret X-Force team to do things the X-men couldn't or wouldn't do.)

In this case, the Punisher is "recruited" into the team in order to take down Ghost Rider, who has been targeting some very rich and powerful men. This story also has echoes of the Suicide Squad as the Punisher is given and implant in his head in order to keep him in line.

There's a big story behind the story, and things get pretty crazy. It really didn't feel like the most original story, but at least the tropes were put together in new ways.

[Jameson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Even Mark Millar couldn’t clean up the catastrophic mess that was Ultimatum. The train is well off the tracks now. From here on out it just gets worse. Talk about a case of diminishing returns. Now, if Millar and Hitch’s The Ultimates 1 & 2 had never existed, maybe this would read better. The last volume with Red Skull was actually decent but Ultimatum destroyed the line and the cast too effectively to recover from it. Though depending on how much you like Punisher, Ghost Rider, and Blade, your mileage may vary. I never cared for any of them.

[Christian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember a little while seeing an advertisement for the Black Adam movie that made a big deal out of the way that he kills, unlike Superman, which is a weird choice since Superman kills in those movies. Which brings me to my actual point, what's the point of the punisher in Ultimate marvel? Pretty much everyone kills here except Spidey. Honestly, at this point I'm just wondering if their world is becoming dangerously underpopululated....

Anyway, this book is boring and pointless.

[Smitty · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was almost fun but too dumb to take seriously. Punisher has to wear a Captain America facemask so no one knows he's the Punisher and a criminal -- even though his chest has a giant Punisher skull on it? The characters have Millar's trademark unlikableness and joylessness. The opening few pages of Punisher killing people was a gratuitous waste of space. Hawkeye has a brief moment of dimensionality at the very end, too little too late.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm pretty convinced this was largely a laugh for Millar. He didn't have anything to prove after he left Ultimates 2. So, I feel these series were him making some points at the expense of Marvel.

I think that Ultimate Comics: Avengers reads best as a criticism of modern superhero comics books without the nastiness of Kick-Ass/Nemesis.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally, a good Ultimates volume without dumb cringe stuff like the previous one.

Punisher: Why do I have to wear this stupid costume?
Black Widdow: As long as you wear it nobody knows we're fraternizing with the Punisher.
*costume has a big Punisher skull logo on the chest and team calls him Punisher in the field*

[Ian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't put it down... because I wanted it to be over. This has just about everything I hate about Millar's handling of the Ultimate Universe. Shallow, macho "heroes", shoot-em-up storylines, $*@%, and booby girls. From The Punisher to First Hulk, just about every character they bring in to this is deplorable.

[Jennifer Juffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

For not being very familiar with all the characters of the Marvel world or all of the plot lines that brought me to this book, I was pleasantly surprised at how easily I fell into the story.
The art was good. The writing was even better.
Definitely a keeper!

[Brannigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hate the regular Ultimates title as it turns good guys into jerks. This one I enjoyed because it takes the anti-hero’s and keeps them jerky. I enjoyed it and will look to read the other books in the series.

[GooglyEye Superman · Rating 1 out of 5]

In this comic, Mark Millar used a Black character to say it's ok to say "Black" instead of "African American". He spent 1 full page for this thesis.

Also, I'm 100% sure he worship the sexuality of black men. He learned that from Garth Ennis. What is wrong with these people?

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Punisher, Hawkeye, Rhodes & more take down the 'Ghost Rider'. Overall good short stand alone story. Recurring themes of loss and revenge link three major characters well. (Great bargain at $5)

[Frans Kempe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Ultimates, Punisher and Ghost Rider

[roberto ortiz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Solo tengo los dos últimos números de esta serie pero cumple con mostrarnos un buen Ghost Rider que no se aleja en espíritu tanto al original.

[Gargoris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dibujo hiperrealista, color saturado, historia autoconclusiva contada para adultos. En serio, ¿hace falta más?

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yikes. My weak stomach is glad Mark Millar doesn't write an ongoing Punisher book.

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

While not perfect, and certainly with some things going against it, this particular volume of Mark Millar's Ultimate Avengers still manages to score 3 stars with this reader. Here's my review, broken down in 3 points:

The good: (1)The Punisher joins the Avengers (albeit against his will), (2)a scene reminiscent of "The silence of the lambs" in which the Spider trades iformation with the Black Widow, and (3)the way Hawkeye "frees" the Punisher from the Avengers' control. That was cool.
Further back stories of different members of the team, and typical Millar action and dialogue keep this book entertaining (although I lost count of how many times characters used the words "idiot" and "moron").

The bad: Tyrone Cash (probably one the worst characters ever invented - one-dimensional and an obvious Hulk stand-in, but I guess that's the point) and the way the coloring is done in the book. Everybody's got that plastic-y sheen, as if they're all oiled-up or something. Ugh. And it must be noted that once the Avengers get the Punisher, he doesn't really do much.

The ugly: The final throw-down between Ghost Rider and Blackthorne. As if one Ghost Rider isn't enough, now we have two. The fight itself is a bit messy in the sense that it's confusing and I found my interest in this part of the story to be practically non-existent.

So, to sum things up: an entertaining but also forgettable story, and ultimately non-essential reading. 3 stars.

[JP · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this review or all of my reviews on my site!

In the Ultimates universe, the Avengers are the team that takes the dirty jobs.

Like, apparently, teaming up with the Punisher (temporarily) and a proto Hulk gang boss (not sure why) against Ghost Rider?

That’s certainly a thing.

It’s the kind of story where no one wins and I’m not really sure the point.

Onward!

Notes. Spoilers.

The Punisher.

As …

Where do they find these people.

Other than that, another Hulk. Ish.

And ‘The Spider’.

So how do you kill whatever Ghost Rider is?

Well, I wouldn’t try fire…

See?

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the second volume of Mark Millar's post-Ultimatum Ultimate Avengers series, we get another look at some of the darker characters introduced in Ultimate Comics Avengers Vol. 1: The Next Generation. This time around, the Punisher is recruited to help the team take down the Ultimate Universe version of Ghost Rider.

Story - Mark Millar is obviously enjoying spending time on the darker side of the Ultimate Universe. This is a dark, violent tale without much in the way of "pure" heroics or clear lines between good and evil. Millar tells a good tale, and his dialogue is brilliant as always.

Art - I've been a fan of Leinil Francis Yu's style since his `90s X-Men work, and he does not disappoint here. I'm not keen on some of the character designs, but Yu has a great style, and his keen sense of storytelling certainly helps. The inking and coloring are also first rate.

As much as I enjoyed Crime and Punishment, I'm at the point where I'm ready for Millar to get these secondary stories out of his system and serve up a "real" Ultimate Avengers saga. I want Thor, Captain America, Hulk and Iron Man in action again, and a proper follow-up to the legendary The Ultimates: Ultimate Collection, Vol. 1 and Ultimates II Ultimate Collection. Hopefully he won't keep us waiting too long.

[Holden Attradies]

I felt a little let down by this one. After reading Ultimate Comics Avengers: Next Generation I felt like the line was starting to re-gain it's footing after the bubble of shitiness that surrounds Ultimatum. But this volume, as much as I enjoyed reading it, felt too much like a main stream marvel comic. I didn't feel like Ultimate ghost rider or Punisher was all that different from the main stream one, and the inclusion of overtly supernatural beings took away from the realism that was present (well, by super-hero standards)in the Ultimate universe.

Those complaints aside, it was a good read. and I REALLY liked getting to see the Spider some more and was left REALLY REALLY wanting to know more about him. also, the little added touch of Ultimate Nick fury slowly sleeping with EVERY woman his wife knows, multiple times was fitting. The character seems hell bent at having the crown of royal high douchebag.