So… what are you reading?
I’ve been reading The Ultimates. I never really clicked with Mark Millar until Kick-Ass came out… and even then, I thought that he stumbled across a story that worked with what I assumed his one-trick pony style was (he takes a catchphrase and then turns it on its head… “With Great Power Comes Something Something” became “With No Power Comes Something Something” in Kick-Ass, for example).
Either I mis-judged him or he’s becoming very good at finding characters that work when their catchphrases get flipped. This is the Ultimates version of The Avengers (that is to say, it’s a secondary continuity where writers have pressed the reset button and can start over and clean up the canon to make history a little less messy). If you’re not particularly familiar with the Ultimate Universe (I wasn’t), this is as good an entry point as any… but, be advised, if you read comics for “modern mythologies” more than “soap operas in tights”, you’re probably better off picking up DC collection. If, however, you want to see how modern Marvel has refined its Super People having Normal Problems formula, this will have you surprised at how the book is able to tackle such things as domestic violence, repressed emotional problems, and being an open-minded 1945 kinda guy in a closed-minded 2010 kinda world.
Check it out.
There’s apparently an “Avengers” movie coming out at some point in the future.
These comics are better than that movie will be. I guarantee it.
“You shouldn’t have made me feel small, Jan.”
Also, the movie is being written and directed by Joss Whedon. I have high hopes.
The Third Reich In Power by Richard J Evans. Second book in a three-part history of the Third Reich. This volume covers 1933-1939. Good stuff.
Fish has won the prize for being the first person to bring up Nazis on my blog.
Well done!
I’m honored.
Hey, it’s worth a bottle of something.
I’m not a huge fan of the Ultimates: I find it less “Super People having Normal Problems”, something I quite enjoy, and more “Super People having Tabloid Celebrity Problems”, and I’m no more interested in that than I am in actual tabloid celebrities.
I really recommend Ultimate Spider Man– It’s consistently good, has more down-to-earth plots, with characters that I care more about. Bendis is a master of dialog, and Bagley’s art is fantastic. And best of all, the best part of the Ultimates–the superhero arms-race theme, gets a surprising amout of play for a book about a teenager from queens.
As far a Millar goes, the only work of his that I really liked was “Red Son”
I read it for Captain America more than for, say, Giant Man… and Thor’s story was, I thought, awesome. (Though I’d very much enjoy reading a story about old Gods trying to deal with the modern world… what would Thor think about abortion? The five-day work week? Amon Amarth?)