There’s a strong argument to be made that The Ultimates #2 by Deniz Camp, Juan Frigeri, Federico Blee and Travis Lanham is the best single issue Marvel has put out this year (so far). Before we get into that though, let’s talk about Captain America.
Captain America’s an interesting character to me. He’s one that I used to really love, and now I still like, to various degrees, but one that I’ve been disillusioned by. A big part of that comes from the fact that he keeps representing this “American Dream,” a concept that only exists as wish fulfillment, one that tells you that whoever keeps bringing that up isn’t particularly interested in trying to deconstruct what the American Dream really means, or what it’s built on.
It’s gotten to a point where I don’t think Captain America as a title, as a mantle, really works anymore, considering what he’s representing. To me, the obvious evolution is to throw that mantle away, and for someone like Steve Rogers to adopt the identity of Nomad, because I find it hard to believe that the Steve Rogers we “know” (based on the amalgamation of various creatives that have breathed life into him) that he would still be wearing the stars and stripes and representing a tyrannical empire. But of course, Marvel Comics is ultimately an American corporation owned by Disney, and that means that they would never really do anything that radical with the character, or ever make radical statements like that.
And then The Ultimates #2 enters the scene.
I remember when emailing Deniz Camp about how much I loved The Ultimates #1, he told me that The Ultimates #2 is very, in his own terms, “20th Century Men-ish”. It’s a very bold statement considering the subject matter of that book and what that book says both about global politics but also about the concept of the superhero. The Ultimates #1 certainly does take its bold swings by placing our heroes as revolutionaries, who other people see as “terrorists”, but where do they go from there?
This issue juxtaposes Steve learning about the history of America since he got stuck in the ice to the present alongside the Ultimates breaking into the White House to stop whatever Midas is doing underneath it. The reason why this issue is so bold, and why to me it’s in the conversation of being the best issue Marvel has published this year is exactly because this issue isn’t afraid to really dig into what the United States truly is, what it represents, and what it’s built on. It’s stuff that I would expect from Camp certainly, but not from a Marvel comic, and yet here we are, and it’s absolutely phenomenal.
There’s certainly been a trend lately, mainly over at DC, of writers building on a lot of Grant Morrison’s work, and to me the best ones are the ones that are engaging with Morrison’s work on a thematic level (which is a big part of why Ram V’s Detective Comics is phenomenal, it’s actively in conversation with that book). On the Marvel end, the new X-Men #1 certainly references that stuff, but The Ultimates #2 is absolutely in conversation with Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones’ Marvel Boy and what that book was about, and building on that further.
The book also remains in conversation with the original Ultimates title by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch, but also by extension, the MCU in a way. Regardless of whether or not it succeeded, the original Ultimates placing the team as American supercops was less of them saying “this is a good thing” and more of them using that as satire, being the “corporate” version of The Authority. The MCU, on the other hand, took the team being American supercops at face value and never really dug into the heart of what that’s supposed to mean beyond “we should operate on our own jurisdiction,” which even then wasn’t something ever really discussed in length. The new Ultimates, on the other hand, continues to really reposition the team as revolutionaries, and with this issue, it certainly goes deeper by exploring modern “America” for what it truly is, and doing so effectively.
With that too, it solves the Steve Rogers problem I explained earlier. You can’t really have Captain America keep on believing in something like the “American Dream,” so instead, the book manages to successfully finally frame that in a way that works, by making it an extension of what the heroes are already fighting for – freedom.
There’s also a lot of great use of art here. Juan Frigeri absolutely knocks it out of the park, with Federico Blee killing it on the colours. I love that the pages of Steve going through history have more muted colours and no dialogue, letting the art really do the talking, and it shows a level of trust within the team that I really love. Travis Lanham’s lettering is also really good, as per usual.
If you still aren’t reading Ultimates, and the Ultimate Universe at large, what are you doing? Go pick up the first issue and then this, you won’t regret it.
