There are a number of comic books that I have enjoyed over the years with intriguing stories and powerful characters. A small number out of these happen to run ahead of the pack. These are the ones that, as I get to the final panel of the story, I’m left feeling an unexplainable certainty. I become inspired and resolved to what my purpose in life is: to tell my own stories that will be equally compelling as the ones that I enjoy. An unexplainable fire inside of me is lit. I’m going to share particular titles and issues that have inspired me in some way over the years from a writers’ perspective. The first title that I will share appeared years before the beginning of the Marvel movie explosion. Lately there has been resurgence within the Marvel universe involving The Avengers, However, this isn’t the first time that Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and the rest of the team were reintroduced to a modern audience with modern origins. These heroes weren’t the characters that audiences have been familiar with over previous decades but instead were edgy new versions with stories filled with explosive action and sophisticated writing. There was a new name for this group of heroes. They were called THE ULTIMATES.
The story was written by Mark Millar who is responsible for titles such as The Authority, Wanted, Kick-Ass and the Marvel story: Civil War, which is the inspiration for storyline in the upcoming Captain America 3 movie. In the first story arc we are introduced to Nick Fury who leads a government strike force that is with individuals of various capabilities. Captain America who has been frozen in ice for almost six decades wakes up to a strange unfamiliar world. Dr. Bruce Banner has been trying to recreate the super-soldier serum that gave Captain America his abilities, but a mistake causes the creation of the Hulk. Tony Stark, Genius and Billionaire, lends Fury his brilliant mind and makes use of his Iron Man technology to be a super-hero. Henry and Janet Pym also known as Giant-Man and the Wasp whose abilities involve shrinking and growing to impossible sizes. Thor may be the Norse god of thunder or an insane person who only believes he is. The team also includes Hawkeye and Black Widow and they must all team up to save the world from an alien threat.
The first story arc feels a lot like the first Avengers movie and it seems that it inspired much of the movies plot. Don’t get me wrong. The Avengers movie is awesome, but The Ultimates is better. It’s gritty and realistic in a way that The Avengers could never be allowed. I enjoy its character development and just how the characters are recreated to adhere to a new audience. When this comic came out, it was something new for me and in essence it changed the way I thought about super-heroes and the realism that could be incorporated into their stories. The second story arc The Ultimates 2 is very much in the same spirit as the first and although the adventures went beyond this point, they were never as powerful as the title was at its beginning. This is due to the writer, Mark Millar, who was able to capture something that has transcended to different incarnations of these same characters and who was able to inspire countless other storytellers including myself.
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