Addendum: The writer of the following article regrets the oversights that were made while writing this post - both comic book and political related.  The writer intends to be more careful in the future to adhere to the core subject of Comix 411, which is comic books, and not personal political opinion. Thank you.

Rating: *** 1/2*

The relaunch of the Ultimate Universe continues with Ultimate Comics Avengers.  There have been three separate Ultimate Avengers series (then known just as The Ultimates).  I read and enjoyed the first series, which was written by Mark Millar, who is also the writer of this new series.  Since the premiere of that first series and the recent mini-series Ultimatum, numerous characters have died including: Wasp, Hank Pym, Black Widow, the Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver.  The remaining members of the team will make up the current team: Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Thor, and Nick Fury.

Before I give my review of this issue, I want to give a little back story on my feelings about Mark Millar.  I made a conscious decision not to pick up The Ultimates after the second series.  Why?  Because of Mark Millar’s political beliefs.  Many creators within the comic book world are liberal - which is fine, but I think that Mr. Millar leans more to the left than a liberal.  I think he’s a communist.

In 2003, Mark Millar wrote a mini-series entitled Superman: Red Son.  This was an Elseworlds title in which instead of Superman landing in the US, he landed in the USSR and became a communist.  An interesting concept and I was going to read it until I read an interview with Mr. Millar in Wizard magazine about the upcoming Red Son series.  In the interview he talked about being raised a communist in Scotland and how he and his family “kind of” rooted against the US during the Cold War - which I take as that they did fully root against the US and he doesn’t want to admit that.  If you were a communist back then, you hated America because of our capitalist system.  I took great offense to that statement and made a conscious effort since then to not buy Mr. Millar’s work as a personal protest.

So why am I reviewing this book?  Well, I have a job to do and Ultimate Comics Avengers is a hot new book.  I almost didn’t buy the book because of an image promoting the new Ultimate Universe.  This image shows some of the remaining super-heroes in the Ultimate universe, in particular, we see Thor in the background now carrying a hammer and sickle - the two tools that make up the old flag used by the Soviet Union.  Again this offended me and which is why I won’t be collecting this title even though I liked this first issue.

So politics aside, how good is Ultimate Comics Avengers?  I think it’s very good.  The story is more of a set up to the larger tale that will be taking place in the series.  As I said, numerous members are dead and the team is reforming under the guidance of Hawkeye and Nick Fury.  Hawkeye informs Nick Fury of the team’s new mission: capture Captain America.  It seems that Captain America has gone rogue.  The story then flashes back to the reason why this probably happened as we see Cap and Hawkeye battling the Ultimate version of A.I.M.  The Ultimate version of A.I.M. looks a hell of a lot more cooler than the regular Marvel Universe version.  They don’t wear that ridiculous head gear. 

Cap is battling them in a helicopter when the pilot steps out and joins the fight.  The pilot is the Red Skull!  This Ultimate version of the Red Skull does not wear a mask, but instead his face is a red skull and he has tattoos all over his body which you can see more of on the villain variant cover.  He begins fighting Cap and whispers something in his ear before he pushes him out of the copter.  Hawkeye ends up saving him and on the last page it’s revealed that the Red Skull whispered to Cap that he is his son!  I like this twist and I’m interested in seeing where Millar takes the relationship of Cap and the Red Skull, but I won’t be reading this book any further.

As per the beginning of this post, I won’t be collecting this title out of protest.  Although Mark Millar denies being a communist today, he obviously still holds some feelings of admiration if he has Thor waving a hammer and sickle around.  Communism is evil.  As evil as Nazism ever was.  Would it be “cool” if you had a super-hero wearing a swastika?  Unlike Nazism, Communism still has some power.  Look at North Korea and the two journalists that were sentenced to 12 years hard labor.  Had former President Bill Clinton not intervened,  do you think those two women would have survived?

Mr. Millar has every right to believe whatever he wants, but I also have the right to my beliefs and I won’t be using my money to support him and his work.  He does do good work.  His work in the Ultimate Universe is great.  So if you don’t care about politics I recommend this book.  It’s a fun quick read and the artwork is amazing.  Carlos Pacheco is one of the best in the business today.  Check out his work in JLA/JSA: Vice and Virtue.  The book is a one-shot hardcover graphic novel.  It’s probably out of print, but I’m sure you can get a copy somewhere.  See ya soon.

(Check out another Comix 411 review of this issue here!)