“America Strikes Back”
Writer: Mark Millar
Artist: Bryan Hitch (p), Paul Neary (i), Laura Martin (colors)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Average Rating: 
Mark J. Hayman:
Shawn Hill:
Dave Wallace:
Mark J. Hayman
Everyone knows not to judge a book by its cover. When it comes to comics, this is doubly important. This cover would have you believe that Thor, Cap, and Iron Man team-up to lead a patriotic assault on America’s aggressors. It may well happen, but not here.
The story picks up where it left off. Thor broods in his cell, lamenting the state of Man and pleading with the All Father to send him a sign. Cap has been sprung by the Wasp and works out some of his frustration on a platoon of Madrox-inspired/cloned/copied Schizoid Men, while Jan neatly disposes of a handful of supersoldiers. When they check in on Thor, well, that would be telling.
Millar has raised some hackles by injecting what has been perceived as a liberal bias into his stories, particularly Ultimates. Yet his brief treatment of President Bush portrays the Commander-In-Chief as both brave and loyal, where his first thought when faced with what looks like imminent death is of his wife. I doubt that this will be sufficient to redeem Millar in the eyes of his critics, but it might lay the foundation for some bridge building.
The Liberators have gathered in Washington, the sky filled with their airships, and Hank Pym’s Ultron drones keeping the peace on the ground, abetted by a host of those impressive Crimson Dynamo bots. We get a single panel of the major Ultimate players (Iceman, Spidey, the Thing, etc.), manacled and being ferried into detention. This sets up one of Millar’s patented continuity glitches, the arrival of Jan and Cap in Washington; not just in the city but on the grounds of the White House, having not only evaded detection at likely the two most secure facilities in the US but making it from the Triskelion (evidently in a commandeered military helicopter) in what amounts to the blink of an eye. I swear I nearly shredded that page to see if there might be two stuck together to explain things. No such luck.
Tony has dusted off an old Iron Man suit, using it to blast-off into space to retrieve new, presumably the latest, armour. We also get a peek at what’s up with the European superdudes; Braddock the elder makes it clear that any involvement on their part will result in a nuclear first strike, while Braddock the younger has an idea...
The balance of the story involves Cap’s intention to liberate the captured members of the team and the battle that ensues. As with many comics, most of the action is of the aftermath variety, though we do get a not so big Big Moment from the Abomination. I guess he was holding back, else Cap would’ve wound up facing the Colonel with a ruptured spleen and gelatinous goo where his legs used to be.
Hank Pym continues to question Loki and the Colonel’s tactics, finding no more consideration from his new teammates than from his old ones. If Hank thought that beating on Jan landed him in a world of trouble, he should have an inkling as to what's going to happen to him for siding against America once the dust settles. Not even a last minute turnabout is likely to save him from, at best, a savage beating and life behind bars. More likely he’ll take the fool’s way out and fall on a sword.
Of course the real Big Moment comes in the final few pages. To say anything more would be a spoiler of epic proportion. I don’t know if this was what Brian Braddock had in mind; maybe, but probably not.
So there you have it. A little action, buckets of foreshadowing, and a few surprises ranging from “hmm…” to “gosh!”
Hitch, Neary, and Martin contribute their standard perfection. I ran out of adjectives with which to praise them some while back. They am most goodly.
Millar has become the King of Compression, recently, and continues the trend here. Indeed, there’s so much going on that requires resolution that even the double-plus good sized #12 will have to be a mighty busy bit of prose. It’s a little irksome, but better than the painful decompression favoured by some of his peers. You know who they are, and so do they.
The frantic pacing and continuity problems knock a bullet off the rating, but I’ll happily give it back for the illustration. Now get real comfy, keep chanting “patience is a virtue,” and get ready for the final chapter. It oughtta be a hoot.
Shawn Hill Plot: More all-out battle, as things start to go less well for the Chinese-African-Russian axis. Finally.
Comments: The tide has likely turned this issue, though America isn’t home free yet. Already we’ve seen Tony Stark cope with the Black Widow’s betrayal, our first signs that the Ultimates weren’t completely resourceless. There’s finally a hint of hope for the demoralized and symbolically crucified Thor this issue, even as the enemy captures President Bush.
The Wasp apologized to Cap for her disloyalty, and proves effective against her foes at last, not least by freeing Steve. Hawkeye is resilient as well after the death of his family, freeing Wanda, Pietro, Nick and Betty from their captivity in the White House. Loki, in full-on Disney slithery effeminate villain mode, seems unperturbed, reveling in the chaos, though he remains wary of Odin. Yep, Thor really is a god, after all.
The heroes he once controlled have eclipsed Nick in these recent issues, and one wonders if he’ll reconsider his aggressive metahuman policies. Of course, in the simultaneous Ultimate Extinction event, he learned that humans generally, and he specifically, can kick ass on a galactic scale, so probably not.
Bryan Hitch’s artwork continues to be an integral attraction for this series. Flying hordes of villains, airplanes with engines ripped off by hand, blimps and giant robots dominating the skies over hapless human citizens; he does all this and still finds time for subtle facial expressions and the intimacies of human interaction.
When a dangerous and presumed dead ally makes a surprise return, Hitch offers a double-splash page that captures the mix of excitement and dread needed for a great cliffhanger.
Dave Wallace: Getting hold of an issue of Ultimates always feels like a special occasion. With the series heading for a conclusion to rival the excitement of anything that has come in the series before, the book is always first on my pile to be read when it does come out - but sadly, that’s not as often as most of us would like. For a book of such high quality, the inevitable wait for the next issue always takes the shine off things a little, but when it does eventually arrive, you can usually bank on a solid read for your $2.99. Whilst this issue doesn’t exactly let you down on the entertainment front, there’s a definite feeling that it’ll read better once Millar’s story is complete and we can see it as just one chapter of a larger book. Despite these reservations, however, it’s still nice to see that all the elements which make the title such a great read are all present and correct, and it certainly hasn’t dampened my enthusiasm to see what comes next for the Ultimate Universe’s most dysfunctional super-team.
Bryan Hitch’s artwork seems to get better and better with every issue, and although I’m sure I’ll run out of things to say about it soon, I can’t help but feel that his name deserves to be shouted from the rooftops for the amazing contribution that he’s made to the success of this book. I don’t know how much photo-reference Hitch uses when making his art, but his command of body language and realistic anatomy is second-to-none: from the opening splash of a dejected and despondent Thor in his Triskelion cell, to Hawkeye’s over-confident and self-assured posing, to Loki’s beguiling and seductive posturing later in the issue, Hitch’s pencils nail the emotion and character that Millar’s script brings out for every one of the book’s distinctive personalities. When you couple this with the religious detail that the artist brings to his work (check out the tiny bandages on Hawkeye’s fingernails after the events of last issue) and the strong sense of real-world atmosphere that he brings to the wider shots of Washington and New York that we see in this issue, you’re looking at the artist who has everything you could want for a comic-book penciller.
What’s more, the man can choreograph an action sequence with the best of them, and that’s becoming more and more important as the series heads for its action-packed conclusion. Exciting sequences like the takedown of Air Force One or the fight between Captain America and his multiplying enemy in the first few pages just wouldn’t feel the same under a different artist, and I’m firmly in the camp of giving Hitch as much time as he needs to complete his work, even when that does come at the expense of a real sense of momentum for the constantly delayed book. I would also be remiss to ignore the contribution of inker Paul Neary, who solidifies the realism of Hitch’s linework with finesse and gives the characters a real weight and substance. Along with the superior colours of Laura Martin, which manage to be as vibrant and bright as super-hero books should be without compromising the grounded tone of the title (why isn’t her name on the cover?), it’s a team which is without parallel in super-hero books today. Ultimates simply wouldn’t work in anything like the same way without the input of these artists, and the realisation that we’ve got only two more issues to look forward to after this one is making me savour the visuals of the book’s closing chapters even more than usual. I can only hope that the group tackles another project together in future; I’ll be reading it if they do.
Unfortunately, this particular issue suffers in story terms for being a transitional chapter which has to tie up a few loose ends, set up some future developments and get the team back on its feet whilst still being an entertaining read in its own right. To a certain extent, Millar pulls off this balancing act, but there are points in the book which provide bridges between last issue and the next, but fail to provide a satisfying reading experience in their own right. It’s interesting to see Tony Stark dig out his old Iron Man suit to rejoin the battle after taking out the Black Widow last issue (and it gives the book some continuity with Orson Scott Card’s recent Ultimate Iron Man miniseries), but the story thread doesn’t go anywhere yet; equally, Thor’s opening escape is a great set-up for his long-overdue return to the team, but for the moment it provides only a flicker of intrigue which isn’t going to be addressed until at least the next issue – and at the usual rate, that might not be for a few months. There are other elements which come off as unusually simplistic writing for the title (Captain America’s rapid escape to Washington with the Wasp, and their ability to sneak into the White House unnoticed) and moments when more concentration on the characters would be preferable to a slew of action sequences, as we’ve yet to really understand how characters like Nick Fury, the Scarlet Witch or Quicksilver have even responded to the dire situation facing the United States. That said, Millar drops enough hints as to some big story developments next issue (Iron Man’s secret weapon; the response of Europe to the fall of America; and the smackdown between Cap and the leader of the Liberators) that fans of the title are going to be foaming at the mouth for the next instalment – and I can’t honestly blame them, as I have a sneaking feeling that it’s going to be simply spectacular. The issue’s final pages see a long-absent character return to the book with a new-and-improved command of his powers, and although Millar lingers on the moment a little too long for it to have the show-stopping impact that a good cliffhanger should, it promises enough action next issue to equal the scale of the anything that the Ultimate Universe has seen so far – even if it is a little too close to the way Millar handled the wrap-up of Ultimates V.1 to stand as truly shocking or original.
It’s an odd feeling to read an issue of such a great ongoing title which doesn’ t quite work as a standalone comic in its own right - but which will obviously fit in to the overall picture beautifully come the inevitable hardcover collection - and it gives me difficulties when trying to come up with a bullet rating for Ultimates 2 #11. I can’t find fault with the artwork, and it’s not even as if the problems of this particular issue really lie with Millar’s pacing, as it’s undoubtedly the scheduling of the book rather than the structure of his writing which has sapped some of the energy from these closing issues of Millar & Hitch’s grand opus. On its own terms, it’s a merely very good issue of a book which, when taken as a whole, is far greater than the sum of its parts - and this issue at least provides just enough teases as to where the story is going that the three month wait for this instalment doesn’t feel like a total waste of anticipation. Issue #12 is undoubtedly going to be a fantastic climax to the “Grand Theft America” storyline which has dominated the second half of this volume, and regular readers won’t be put off by a slightly empty-feeling issue like this which nevertheless provides a great set-up for the book’s finale, but with such a long wait between issues it’s fortunate that the creative team behind Ultimates have built up such a relationship of trust with their audience. Let’s hope we’re not disappointed.
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