Millar to launch Ultimate Avengers, making Ultimates as useless as it is bad

Next year, Marvel will be launching a new title - Ultimate Avengers - written by Mark Millar who is credited by many to be pretty much the co-father of the Ultimate universe, with Brian Bendis (think My Two Dads). According to Millar in a CBR interview, the new title will be six issue stories in which Nick Fury gathers heroes to fight threats to the Ultimate universe.

Now I know what you're thinking - isn't there already an Ultimate Avengers of sorts in The Ultimates? Why yes, yes there is. But don't worry about that book - it's terrible and it looks to remain terrible for the near future.

I find it...intriguing that Marvel would bring back Millar and put him on a book whose concept is so much like an existing title...when that book seems to be losing the direction that originally made it such a hit. I, for one, am excited. After all, I dropped Ultimates 3 after three issues. I would love to get Millar back to the Ultimate U.

And it starts

Don't say I wasn't optimistic of the ability of Fantastic Four to stay on schedule. So sure, creators Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch weren't exactly reknowned for their ability to put out Ultimates in a timely matter, but this is Fantastic Four! One of Marvel's big books!

Okay, so I actually wasn't too optimistic - so when I saw that issue #557 has slipped a week, I chuckled a bit. Let's see how close of a schedule they can keep.

Other books I collect seem to be having some scheduling woes as well. Criminal has been pushed back from the end of April to the beginning of June (not its first slide), and I'm not even going to go into Giant Size Astonishing X-Men. It's still solicited for May 28th. Let's see if that happens.

What surprised me was that the Powers Encyclopedia seemed to have been pushed up a month, from July 5th to June 4th. Then I realized the July 5th date was 2007. Whoops.

Debut Issue

Kick-Ass #1

When I walked into the comic shop this week I had no intention of picking up a new book, even one with as snazzy a title as Kick-Ass. (I actually got two new books, this one and Ed Brubaker's Criminal #1.) But it's action packed cover and bold title caught my eye. When I saw that it was written by Mark Millar and drawn by John Romita Jr., I thought I'd give it a shot. Millar wrote some of my favorite stories including Civil War, Ultimates 1 & 2, and the amazing "Enemy of the State" arc in Wolverine. Romita Jr. has been a Marvel mainstay for years and always done quality work.

Kick-Ass is an Icon book, which is Marvel's creator owned imprint. That means it doesn't take place in the Marvel universe. In fact, it happens in a world not unlike our own. Kick-Ass asks a question: With all the crazies in the world why has there never been anyone to put on a costume and fight crime? In this book, Dave Lizewski does just that.

What's so special about Dave Lizewski? Nothing at all. He's a high school student. He loves comic books. Other than that, he's a pretty nondescript guy, just sort of fading into the background of life. He decides to become a costumed hero not because he has any special ability or anyone to avenge, but just because he's bored. He spends a few weeks in the gym then buys a wet suit and a ski mask and heads out to fight crime. He has no combat training, no name, and no idea what he's getting himself into. Needless to say, it does not end well.

The main character doesn't seem particularly smart or likable, but he's the right kind of crazy to make you wonder what he's going to do next. And when the first issue ends with the hero bleeding to death in the middle of the street after being stabbed in the chest and hit by a car, you have to wonder what issue two will bring. I'll stick around for that, at least.