Ultimate Comic Avengers: Mark Millar triumphantly returns to the Ultimate universe

Hopefully, the folks in charge of The Avengers movie are paying attention to guys like Mark Millar and Carlos Pacheco. These two have put together one brain-meltingly awesome comic with Marvel’s Ultimate Comics Avengers. It’s overflowing with cinematic style action that begs to be adapted to the big screen and delivers a package that borders on sensory overload.

Sure, the comic book medium has grown up. There are artists and writers that are composing works of art that rival some the very best literature. This is all fine and dandy, but every once and a while it’s nice to read a comic that’s nothing more than a series of superhero-centric explosions and fast paced, excessive slugfests. Ultimate Comics Avengers is one such comic.

Millar’s script never lets up, leaping back and forth in time from action scene to action scene; it keeps the intensity level high while still telling a compelling story. As you might expect from the guy who wrote Wanted, the dialogue matches the action perfectly. Case in point: Captain America declares that only a girl would get killed by something as trivial as a bomb. (He’s from a different era, people.) He also happens to be driving a motorcycle off a skyscraper into a helicopter full of terrorists at the time. Pure awesomeness.

Longtime Ultimate fans might be concerned by the absence of artist Bryan Hitch, but rest assured that Carlos Pacheco is more than an adequate replacement. His art is smooth and coherent, and he draws what may be the coolest version of the Red Skull to ever grace the paneled page. Pair that with great inking and coloring, and you have one of the best-looking comics on the shelf.

This is what the comic book medium was invented for: high stakes superhero action rolled up and delivered in a blockbuster bundle. It plays out like a widescreen tent-pole summer flick and gives you more than your monies worth month after month. Ultimate Comics Avengers is the book to see – or read, depending on how you look at it.