The Ultimates

When the writer Mark Millar and the penciler Bryan Hitch got an offer to work on a serial which would be a reanimation of the most important MARVEL superhero team - The Avengers in The Ultimate Universe, they needed, as Hitch says, only three hours too assemble the group. The enthusiasm of a MARVEL editor, Joe Quesade, was surely contagious, because Millar and Hitch published some of their best work in their careers in the serial 'The Ultimates' in the last six years (the headline was initiated in 2001.)

The Avengers, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the sixty's, was a comic filled with the idealism and foolishness of its time. It had amazing energy, that only a team of the most powerful superheroes could have, and yet, they would act like little baby's, if their ego was to be jeopardized. This combination of spectacular superhero action, naive idealism and childish soap operas still glows with the same shine as it had, almost fifty years ago. But Millars and Hitches cut was much deeper.

Recruiting The Team

Return of Captain America

Nick Fury was put in charge of creating a superhero team for the United States Government. Hank and Janet Pym were responsible for replicating the super soldier serum that was used on Captain America back in World War II. Bruce Banner had a similar task. Tony Stark agreed to use his Iron Man armor for the Ultimates, and Thor agreed to help out on the team. The team however didn't seem complete yet, but that was about to change.

After Captain America fell in battle during World War II, his body was never recovered. But after an expedition through the Arctic Ocean, it was found, perfectly preserved. He was successfully revived, giving the Ultimates their new leader, and giving America their strike force.

Super Human

The team was heavily criticized for the billion dollar budget on the Triskelion, the teams base located off the coast of Manhattan.

Rampage of The Hulk

A lot of stress is being placed on Banner because he was only invited to the team for his work on the super soldier serum, but he has been unable to deliver workable results while Hank Pym has had great strides forward on his own serum. Banner eventually breaks down, injecting a modified super soldier formula, turning into the the rage fueled monster known as the "Hulk".

The Hulk rampages through Manhattan, eventually being stopped and subdued by his teammates. But before they successfully captured him, he had killed 857 civilians.

While Nick Fury works furiously to conceal Banner's dual identity, the team gets gets credit for taking down a rampaging monster.

Banner is held in captivity, but still works for the team. He is drugged at all times so that there aren't any unwanted Hulk breakouts.

Ultimate War

The Ultimates go head to head against the X-Men and recruit Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. While Magneto comes out as still being alive the Ultimates face him and with the knowledge that Xavier and Magneto were friends in the past the go against the X-Men. The X-Men defend themselves and go against each other in an epic battle. It is also seen that the Ultimates know that the Wasp is a mutant. The X-Men and the Ultimates end their battles on bad terms and SHIELD captures the Xavier.

Ultimate Six

The Ultimates have captured the Green Goblin, Kraven the Hunter, Electro, Dr. Octopus, and Sandman. They have them in the SHIELD jails but Osborn breaks them out. Once out Norman threatens Peter that he will hurt his aunt unless he helps the bad guys. The six go and attack the White House including Spider-Man. SHIELD takes May into protective custody and have Mary Jane looked out for. When the Ultimates arrive to defend the White House, they tell Peter that his Aunt is fine. Spidey turns sides against the now five. Nick Fury uses Harry Osborn as bait to make Osborn stop and while distracted they take down the five.

Homeland Security

Nick Fury discovers that there are aliens living throughout the world known as the Chitauri, who wish to enslave the Universe. Their existence has been known since World War II, when they worked with the Nazis. Captain America fought hand to hand with their commander, "Herr Kleiser". To start the annihilation of the Chitauri, Nick Fury integrated two S.H.E.I.L.D. black operatives into the Ultimates, Clint Barton (code name Hawkeye), as well as Natasha Romanova (code name Black Widow). He also recruited the children of Magneto, Pietro Maximoff (code name Quicksilver), and Wanda Maximoff (code name Scarlet Witch). The four of them launch a strike on an office building consisting entirely of Chitauri operatives.

The Ultimates stand against the Chitauri

After the infiltration and destruction of the office building, the Ultimates learn of a possible full scale invasion, and send all Ultimates operatives, as well as one of the largest assembled armies for a single battle. They were planing on invading and destroying the Chitauri's base of operations located in Micronesia, but when they arrived, it was abandoned. A bomb was discovered in one of the buildings, but it seemed to be too late to evacuate because there were mere seconds before detonation. There was an explosion, and the Ultimates as well as the army assembled outside seemed to have been destroyed.

Meanwhile, the Chitauri had infiltrated the infrastructure of the Triskelion and taken over without a single fight. The Wasp escaped from her hospital room when she discovered that the Chitauri were going to kill her, but she tried to send a message to the Ultimates, only to discover that all communications in the room she had escaped to were shut down. And now she was trapped in the room with no way out. Kleiser entered the room and captured her, revealing his plans for the Universe.

Kleiser stated that the Universe was like an organism, and that freewill and thought were like cancer cells. The Chitauri act as the immune system or white blood cells, Correcting all problems.

The Ultimates were then revealed to have survived the explosion by using Iron Man's force fields, then using Thor's hammer (Mjolnir) to teleport to the true base of the Chitauri's operations which is in the Arizona Desert, 30 miles outside Phoenix.

The Ultimates do well against the Chitauri, but they had a backup plan.... destroy the solar system with a bomb planted in their base.

Wasp tries to disarm it, but the instructions are literally in another language. So she calls in Iron Man who drags the bomb outside, and tells Thor to transport it somewhere safe, so he takes it to a pocket dimension that is empty and allows it to detonate their, doing no damage.

Ultimate Nightmare

Ultimate Nightmare

Strange

Deathlock is on the loose and the Ultimates' job is to capture it. Spider-Man to the rescue. With his help they capture him.

Ultimate Secret

The Fantastic Four and the Ultimates join forces to face a new threat: the Kree. A SHIELD agent is revealed to be an alien. He's from an alien race called the Kree and he's Captain Mar-Vehl. He tells the heroes that his people want to see how Gah Lak Tus destroys earth so that when he does they learn from their mistake. Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Hawkeye and Captain Mar-Vehl go into outer space opening a portal to another dimension so Nick Fury, Human Torch, Thing, Black Widow and Thor stay to defend earth from aliens coming out of the portal. The group that went to outer space destroyed the space ship and went back to earth waiting on the arrival of the World Devourer; Gah lak Tus.

Ultimate Extinction

The world is at it's end and with the help of Vision The Fantastic Four, The X-Men and The Ultimates have to figure out how to save earth. Using some of Reed's plan they figure out how to injure it. Following his plan earth is saved so now it's Vision's job to deliver the plans to other worlds.

Crossover

When the Fantastic Four first go to public their first mission was to go back in time. The Ultimates were on standby in case something went wrong with the process.

Frightful

The FF had gone to another dimension and had faced the Ultimate version of the Frightful Four. They defeated them and then held them captive. Doom had implanted using magic an alien from the N-Zone in Johnny Storm. Using magic again Doom iberated it and at the same time the Frightful Four escaped. The Baxter was being held on quarentine and the Ultimates were ready to save the day but when the alien was free it started to look for the most powerful being at the time, Thor. Reed got rid of the alien and the other Four.

Thor Leaves The Ultimates

Thor left the Ultimates because he believed that they should not be used in international affairs. Thor was against the invasion of another country. He believes that they should only act in matters that put the entire world in danger (the Chitauri incident), or in protecting (Hulk incident).

Trial Of The Hulk

The trial of The Hulk

A "mole" has notified the press of the Hulk's identity, and that Banner is being held in the Triskelion supported by taxpayer's money. This immediately goes pubic, and the country is in outrage. Captain America immediately thinks that it was Thor, and confronts him in a night club. They don't end up fighting and Captain America realizes that Thor was not the mole.

Matthew Murdock (Daredevil) is Bruce Banner's attorney, and does a good job defending Banner, but the D.A. compares Banner's formula to a drug no different that alcohol or marijuana. He states that people who murder while on drugs are still accountable for their actions. Banner is found guilty, but Fury lies to him, making him believe that he at least gets to live a little longer. But Fury drugs him, and leaves him unconscious on an aircraft carrier, and drops a nuclear bomb on it. But just before everything goes white, Banner opens his eyes, revealing that they are completely green, no white.

Fall Of Thor

Thor had a meeting with another god from Asgard, who told him that his brother, Loki, had escaped from the "Room with no doors", and was plotting revenge against Asgard and all of it's gods (mainly Thor and Odin). But then the god was gone, and a waiter came to tell Thor that he had been talking to himself for ten minutes, that there was never anyone in the seat across form him.

Thor fights against The Ultimates

Iron Man has recently made a suit for the Black Widow, and immediately following he proposed to her. But while this was going on, people were protesting in Rome, Italy because of news of another super soldier (this time for their country). The police began attacking the protesters, and Thor intervened, attacking (and even killing) Italian police officers.

The Ultimates were called to a meeting with the European Defense Initiative (similar to a European version of the Ultimates). Gunner Golmen, the head of the Norwegian team for the past two years, is the brother of the man calling himself Thor (his real name is Thorlief). Golmen was unable to crack the super serum that gave birth to Captain America, so he instead decided to go for a biomechanical approach. He had done marker research and discovered that the best representative for his country would be Thor. Using Norse iconography, he designed a harness that imbue the wearer with flight, durability, and a level of strength unseen in even the mutant community. But even greater than the harness, was the hammer that they had created, for using it's four-dimensional engine could teleport the user anywhere. It could even ionize the environment and artificially manipulate the weather. The wearer of this Thor suit would have been the leader of the European Defense Initiative, had Thorlief not stolen it.

Somewhere in Norway, Thor's followers are throwing him a party with a large fire, but he is sitting out in the snow, away from everyone. He tells the all to leave because he knows that the Ultimates are coming from him. The Ultimates give them time to leave, then they begin the battle against Thor. Thor held his own on the battle field considering the numbers that he was up against. Captain America and Hawkeye used flamethrowers to set him on fire, burning the hair off of his head. But eventually, Quicksilver got close and fast enough to grab the belt from the harness, rendering him powerless.

The Ultimates locked Thor in Banner's cell, with nothing but a bed until the rest of his stuff arrived. Loki came to visit him, but because he controls reality, no one could see him. He taunted Thor, tried to tell him that he really was going insane. But Thor was not fooled, only depressed by his powerlessness.

Magnetic North

Mystique framed Polaris for murder and SHIELD takes her into custody. Students from the Academy of Tomorrow try to bust her out. The X-Men try to stop them but the Ultimates said that it's their problem so they would deal with it. This makes the X-Men have another feud with the Ultimates. In the end the X-Men arrive at the base where Polaris is being kept and she is proven innocent

Clone Saga

Spider-Man is cloned and SHIELD takes the problem into their own hands. Primary mission: Kill Spider-Man. When is decided to kill him or take away his powers Fury, Cap, Wasp and Shell Head go to this but MJ talks some sense into Nick Fury and it's decided not to do this mission. Mission not accomplished.

Grand Theft America

After several other countries decide that they are against America having a super team, the all ban together, creating their own super team to stand against the Ultimates, and take over America. They have their own operative within the Ultimates.

The Ultimates

They start by killing the family of Hawkeye, and kidnapping Hawkeye himself. They then frame Captain America, making Nick Fury believe that he was the spy, and also not the real Captain (from WWII). Captain America was taken, and locked in a small room with all of his limbs bound to the walls.

With the Ultimates in ruins, the foreign super team believed it to be the best time to begin their strike. So they invade America, and decimate what is left of the Ultimates, with Loki as their leader.

Ironman, was with his wife, the Black Widow, while all of this was happening. She managed to convince him that the rest of The Ultimates would be able to handle whatever was going on, that they were not needed. Then she put a gun to his head as Jarvis walked in. She shot Jarvis, then was going to bring Ironman to the foreigners, so that the Ultimates, as well as many important government officials, could be executed on live television. She then revealed herself to be the traitor within the ranks of The Ultimates. Ironman then pulled a small button from his pocket, he pressed the button, which activated the nanites he had installed in her brain, destroying her brain. He then proceeded to his Ironman armor, which he flew up to his space station. While there he would activate the "Ironman 6" armor. The Ironman 6 armor is the size of a building and has are equally strong.

The Wasp, in all of the confusion, managed to free Captain America. Hawkeye also managed to free himself from his captors, just before he was to be killed. Then all of the Ultimates (but Thor, who is M.I.A.) reversed the flow of the battle.

The foreign team incapacitated, Loki decided it would be a good time to begin using his power (which he hadn't been using for the fear that it would alert Odin of his position). The Scarlet Witch stood, and altered the probability that "someone would come to kick (Loki's) @$$". Just then, Thor appeared, ready to stop Loki and finish everything.

Loki attempted to trap Thor in an illusion, but Loki was to weak and Thor broke free and smahed him into the ground with his hammer. However Loki flew up into the air and began to summon creatures out of Norse mythology, such as Fenrir Wolves, trolls and a giant serpent very much like Jörmungandr. Thor was eaten by Jörmungandr, but soon flew through Jörmungandr to get his way out and then he and soon began to fight Loki. Loki was winning,he asked Thor if he really thought he could beat him alone, Thor replied with do really think I was alone. Soon a rainbow appeared and landed on the ground and an army of vikings appeared and the Ultimates and vikings fought Loki and his army. Loki pleadied with Thor, but Thor hit Loki with his hammer and released a massive amount of energy sending Loki and his army to Asgard for punishment. Captain America informed Nick Fury that they were going to be independent heroes and stop working with S.H.I.E.L.D.

They will be funded by Tony Stark who has began turning his building into a headquarters for the group. He admitts to Pepper that Black Widow's betraying the team has really hurt him, but he soon gets over it when he sees a hot blonde walking down the street. Haweye finds Balck Widow in a hospital and pins her to the wall with his arrwos and then shots her in the head. Hank Pym is currently being held in the same cell Banner was in and asks do they all have to spend time in there. The comic ends with a flash back to before Steve became Captain America and he was saying goodbye to Gail after she gave him a photo of herself.

Ultimate Power

The Ultimates, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and the X-Men face the Squadron Supreme because of an experiment of Mr. Fantastic. At first they go against each other then as punishment of what happened and all Nick Fury is taken to another dimension.

Death of a Goblin

The Green Goblin escapes from SHIELD and along comes the rest of the villains. The Ultimates then started to go after the escaped prisoners

The Return of Thanos

When Thanos tries to get his revenge he takes over Earth for himself. The Ultimates see something is wrong when they go to Manhattan and its not there. Then Thanos appears with two heralds: The Human Torch and The Invisble Girl. They try to fight them off but the team goes under the control of Thanos and Thor is made ito a tree.

Thor mentions meeting with this wannabe od before.

When Reed defeats Thanos The Ultimates and the world goes back into place.

Sex, Lies and DVD

A sex tape depicting Tony Stark and the Black Widow that has been leaked to the media and on the Internet causing a PR problem for the team and Tony has become an alcoholic as a result. The Wasp is now team leader. Thor has started a live-in relationship with Valkyrie. Venom attacks Stark's mansion, and demands to know where "she" is, much to the confusion of the Ultimates, who defeat him. Later, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are shot at as they stroll pass by Radio City Music Hall and Wanda is shot in the chest. Despite attempts at CPR by a doctor ( who bears a striking resemblance to the Earth-616 Donald Blake a.k.a Thor, and carries a wooden walking stick), he pronounced her dead.

Later Hawkeye is searching for Black Panther who was lost in the fight with Venom. He ran into Spider-man and attacked him thinking he had something to do with him. However he was called back by Captain America after he stunned Spider-man. The mansion was attacked by the Brotherhood of Mutant Supremacy and with help from Quicksilver left with Wanda's body. After they left Wolverine showed up telling them they have bigger problems. After a short fight with Hawkeye Wolverine reveals that he had a short fling with Magda, Wanda's mother and may have been her true father. He also revealed that years later Magneto asked him to join the Brotherhood and kill Pietro for being weak and pathetic, but he was stopped by Wanda. As the Ultimates and Wolverine decide to split up and search for the Brotherhood, Black Panther and Iron Man show up. Tony has discovered the bullet that killed Wanda was made only to kill her and built by Stark Enterprises. Meanwhile the Brotherhood has teamed up with Ka-Zar, Shanna and Zabu.

The Heroes