Book: Wolverine
Pen: Chris Claremont
Pencil: Frank Miller
I’m Wolverine. I’m the best there is at what I do. But what I do best isn’t very nice.
Of course you have read it before. Even heard it in the movies. But imagine you haven’t. You can imagine. You are a comic book lover, after all. Imagine opening a comic book about a second-rung character who never had a solo series. These are the first lines in the book. Suddenly you get a chill. Am I about to read something spectacular? Is this the kind of book every comic lover dearly loves to discover? A bolt from the blue. A masterpiece without an advance warning. An hour later you put it down. The naked awe on your face says it all.
Wolverine was a popular side character. His propensity to use extreme force at the slightest provocation (or not) was his biggest draw. He was a pint-sized bunch of dynamite, probably as tall as Hugh Jackman’s third rib. After all, the animal he was based on was very small and very dangerous. But this violent streak also made him a pretty one-dimensional character. Not too many writers found him that interesting beyond a point.
It was under such circumstances when comic legend Chris Claremont joined hands with a young artist called Frank Miller to bring out a four-issue miniseries. Yes, that Frank Miller. And no, I didn’t get the names interchanged. Before attaining superhero status himself and rising to (IMHO) the second position on the list of great comic writers, Miller made a name as an artist.
Claremont and Miller did the unthinkable. They took the action to Japan. To take a hot-blooded American superhero to space was fine, but outside the US, only sporadic visits were allowed. Technically, Wolverine is Canadian, but you know how so many Americans think it is the 51st state! But to have a complete story set in another country was just not done. But the co-conspirators had no choice. They were going to treat Wolverine as a ronin, a fallen samurai. And Japan had to be the scene.
Beginning with a primeval encounter with a man-eating bear in the mountains, Wolverine travels to Japan to be with his beloved Mariko Yashida who had run away without an explanation. There he finds that Mariko was forced by her father to marry another man. Wolverine was bested in a duel by Shingen, Yashida’s father, and left for dead. He is saved by Yukio, a mysterious girl highy skilled in the art of warfare. Wolverine and Yukio join hands to escape the group of assassins known as the Hand. Together they find ways to save Mariko from her fate.
Wolverine is an adventure story. It is also a love story. Taking the familiar trappings of a man in search of his woman, Claremont and Miller transport it to another land and culture. With minimum fuss they tell a story and they are done with it. But they do it with such precision that you are not left wondering if anyone could have done it better. You know no one could have.
Claremont would go on to become one of the most prolific writers of Wolverine, but these four issues are probably the best he has conjured up. Miller is prodigiously, no, ridiculously talented. I usually leave discussions on artworks to the experts, but one thing that is stunning about this book is how well it holds up against the ravages of time. You do not feel that it is from a period where most of the artwork today seems silly and dated. There is a sense of motion in each page and the action is choreographed in the truest sense of the word.
The graphic novel should have stopped at four issues. Instead it adds an additional two issues from The Uncanny X-Men to it. This is a continuation of the story with a different artist, but ends on a cliff-hanger. It may work as an extra, but to club it with the Wolverine miniseries is to dilute its effect. But that’s me nitpicking. Wolverine is a game-changer. This is one of those stories that will stand the test of time. A perfect alchemy of a great writer and an amazing artist.
Title: The Ultimates 2 – Vol 2: Grand Theft America
Pen: Mark Millar
Pencil: Bryan Hitch
Hawkeye!
If you want to take out one defining image from Grand Theft America, then it is Hawkeye. A minor character who is always almost a sidekick to the gods and monsters and superhumans in the Ultimates, an interrogation scene in this book shows us Hawkeye like we have never seen him before. He is a human without any steroid-enhancements or explosion-exposures. Just a dude with a particular set of skills. And what skills! If you henceforth cringe at any comic or movie where Hawkeye is part of the scenery, then this book is responsible.
Let’s go back to the beginning. The Middle-Eastern interference in Gods and Monsters caused a lot of after effects. One of it was a young boy who hated Captain America for what he considered an unprovoked attack on him and his country. The boy would become the trump card in Loki’s grand scheme.
Hawkeye’s family gets attacked and there are no remains of anyone. SHIELD checks the secret cameras and discovers, to their horror, who the traitor is. The shattered team has no time to regroup when Loki makes his move. This is the stuff of their worst nightmares and America is going down. With five of their original team either incarcerated, or disgraced or a traitor, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch have a lot to do, especially during the battles. But the battle is never truly over unless it is over.
Millar’s liberal politics play a big part in the plot. And it is actually kind of reassuring to see America pay for their foreign policy decisions! In the end, however, this is an American mainstream comic that would be read mainly by Americans, so the fault cannot be theirs alone. Still, one has to admire the guts and gumption Millar, during his peak, brought to what should have been all-out superhero story.
Bryan Hitch’s art is top-notch throughout. It is very evident why he is such a sought-after artist. The writer and artist tango like rarely done before to create a high quality product that will ensure the one thing you do after completing the book is to start again. Be glad you live in a time when Millar and Hitch’s Ultimates run is over. It means you have the opportunity to read the whole story at one go. I honestly cannot think of waiting months for the next issue.
Grand Theft America is a fabulous climax to The Ultimates saga. It is the single biggest reason to acknowledge that the Ultimate line that Marvel created was not just a gimmick. This is what superhero comics should aspire to. Oftentimes, in the midst of all the pontification and pondering and psychoanalysis, the casualty is fun. Millar and Hitch’s run on The Ultimates never lets that happen.
At the end, though, Grand Theft America still can be encapsulated in one word.
Hawkeye!
Book: The Ultimates 2 – Vol 1: Gods and Monsters
Pen: Mark Millar
Pencil: Bryan Hitch
The Mighty Thor has his day, and more, in Gods and Monsters. All over The Ultimates, Millar has been teasing us how not everyone was buying the whole ‘Thor is a god from Asgard’ line and people still believed he was just a crackpot with his heart in the right place. It is time to settle that.
The American government, as it usually did, decided to interfere in the affairs of a Middle Eastern country. The supposedly global peace-keeping force – the Ultimates – were sent to sort it out. They did. But Thor dissented and pulled out of the team-up. Before you could say “Ultimates Disassemble” the secret about Hulk is leaked out. The public screams for blood and Fury is only too eager to give them a scapegoat. Despite a blind lawyer, one Matt Murdock, defending him, the jury already made up their minds and it is time for one of the most shattering decisions in comics.
While SHIELD was trying to move into damage control mode they received a call from the European Defense Initiative, the guys who created Captains Britain, France, Spain and Italy! They also meet Gunnar Golmen who was heading the Norwegian group and the secret of Thor comes out. It is time to take the so-called God of Thunder down.
On another note, after his loss of face, Hank Pym is not allowed anywhere near the Ultimates. He goes and joins another superhero team up called the Defenders, which doesn’t exactly end well. But then he learns the truth that is going to be the pivot of the Ultimates 2 storyline. There is a traitor in the ranks.
If you are going to have Thor in the limelight, then you should have his main adversary, too. Loki makes his entrance briefly, but you know he has big plans. Gods and Monsters sets up everything for a grand finale, but that is not to say that it is not capable of standing on its own. With, not one, but two catastrophic events, this is an action-packed edition leaving hardly any time to breathe. At the same time, the constant cut to how the world reacts is how Millar grounds his comic.
The four editions of The Ultimates and The Ultimates 2 can be compared to a relay. Gods and Monsters is the under-appreciated third-leg. As any coach would tell you if your third man is not solid, you would be leaving the impossible for the anchor. Gods and Monsters is solid. The Ultimates are shown at their most vulnerable. An opponent smart enough can dismantle them brutally. And they have such an opponent. Doubts are slowly being raised about the position the Ultimates hold, who they report to and when they should stop. We know a storm is coming. And we can’t wait.
Book: The Ultimates – Vol 2: Homeland Security
Pen: Mark Millar
Pencil: Bryan Hitch
The origin story is over. We had intros, adjustment issues, management lessons on teamwork, a threat to a big city, an almost happy ending and an unexpected cliffhanger. Now comes the part where we wrap up Season 1. If the first volume of The Ultimates gave an idea which book vaguely inspired The Avengers movie, then The Ultimates Vol 1 – Homeland Security will almost have you calling Joss Whedon a plagiarist! Relax, folks, it’s all in the family!
Super-Human ended with a freak attack, the true story of which never reached the common man. As a result, the Ultimates suddenly became heroes. While New York was grieving for its dead, the Ultimates suddenly had to deal with a rogue element within the team. As I said before, The Ultimates showed Captain America in a new, exciting light. In this volume he has a bigger role and you see how a man who believes in simple things like right and wrong goes about his business. The values he stood for should seem silly and out-of-place in these times. Yet you root for him. It doesn’t hurt that Millar saves some of the best one-liners he has ever written for Captain America.
The second volume brings to the fore two major characters – Hawkeye and Black Widow – and introduces two minor, seemingly useless members – Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch – to the team. In the first mission starring Hawkeye aka Clint Barton and Widow aka Natasha Romanoff, we are introduced to the major villains – the Chitauri. Since we have established that the Ultimates are pretty out-of-this-world, it is only natural that the villains are aliens. Their agenda cupboard may be pretty threadbare, but it certainly needs all the Ultimates to band together to stop them.
The most striking thing about Homeland Security is the way action sequences are captured. Rarely has action seemed so fluid. It is almost like the pictures are moving. I don’t mean there are many panels of the same scene with minute differences. But it is evident that a lot of thought went into these. Millar, as he always does, wisely lets the artist come up front and centre during the violence and mayhem.
A horny Hulk is both hilarious and scary. That was one of the revelations of the first volume and it continues here. Hulk’s personality may suffer a bit here as he is not shown as anything but a big, stupid brute who comes across as being unintentionally funny. But there is lot of sympathy for Banner. Iron Man in the comics is definitely not as prominent as Robert Downey Jr in Avengers. But he does have his moments. Thor continues to be a bit of mystery with his eco-warrior avatar while being an ex-nurse who had spent time in a lunatic asylum. This would have been a good sub-plot were it not for the fact that Thor has publically saved a lot of people, so the fact that he has a lot of powers should not be a matter of question at all.
Homeland Security may not have the deafening impact of Super-Human. But it is a very solid conclusion to the Ultimates saga. We are left with a Samuel L Jacksonesque smirk feeling very satisfied with the read. That is something we cannot say about a lot of comics. I heartily recommend both volumes of The Ultimates. Just don’t expect me to lend them to you!
Book: The Ultimates – Vol 1: Super-Human
Pen: Mark Millar
Pencil: Bryan Hitch
At the turn of the millennium Marvel comics was coming out of a tough phase where it had filed for bankruptcy. They made a decision to ‘go Hollywood’ with their main titles. The term didn’t stand for adapting their comics into movies, but changing the comics in a way that they appealed directly to most of new generation, not just the few that read comics. Like Hollywood, they decided the only people that mattered were the 18-to-25-years age-set and the comics were to reflect that.
Enter the Ultimate Marvel imprint. By basing their comics in another one of the infinite alternate universes in the Marvel Multiverse.(Essentially, a lazy excuse to churn out stories that did not fit into the continuity of the characters.A devise like ‘warp speed’ in sci fi!) All the major characters – Spider-man, X-Men, Fantastic Four – underwent the Ultimate treatment, which meant that almost all the characters became of high school age! When it came to the Avengers they realized they couldn’t just reduce the ages. A more thorough re-imagining was necessary. Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch were the people in charge and they were also asked to rename the Avengers as the Ultimates.
Nick Fury, the eye-patch-wearing boss of SHIELD, decided to get a team of highly capable individuals together in order to deal with threats that could not be handled by the military alone. He gets Dr Bruce Banner, who was holed up in a dingy research facility trying to recreate the super soldier serum that was responsible for turning puny Steve Rogers into Captain America almost 60 years ago. Also joining were Dr Hank Pym, who was researching how he could change size into a 60-feet giant, called Giant-Man, and also how he could control ants.His wife Jan, aka the Wasp, could size-shift into the size of a wasp. (Don’t you like it when the superhero names are accurate to the point!)
Fury was thrilled, but suspicious, when billionaire inventor Tony Stark decided to join in along with his entire Iron Man tech. He also tried to recruit a charismatic hippie eco-messiah called Thor who was leading a bunch of activists against consumerism and capitalism. Thor was widely known to be an ex-nurse who had spent time in a lunatic asylum. But he was also known to possess some powers. Unfortunately, Thor had no intention in joining up, definitely not when America still had a president called George W Bush! And then, they suddenly fish someone up from the Atlantic Ocean!
The Ultimates is extremely fast-paced. It also explores real-world issues, and also very convincingly. Captain America was always supposed to be a fish out of water, having woken up decades later. But few comics have explored that theme with such pathos. The characters are well-rounded, not just Nick Fury, who was actually modeled after Samuel L Jackson, with his permission. And this was before the movies.
It is a thrill-a-minute ride that leaves you stunned with its audaciousness. Millar reinvents the classic characters, in imaginative ways, but at no time does it seem forced. While remaining true to the spirit of the Avengers, the Ultimates end up being different. Complementing the story is the incredibly detailed art of Bryan Hitch. You end up staring for minutes at each single panel, even if you are artistically challenged like yours truly!
Of all my comics, The Ultimates is the one I have read most times. It is likely to continue being so. This is what superhero comics should be. Incredible situations, crackling wit, memorable characters, just enough gratuitousness, and, above all, lots of fun. In that way, this is a comic that is worthy of its name.
Book: Iron Man: Extremis
Pen: Warren Ellis
Pencils: Adi Granov
We have all heard about how Marvel took a bet on a second-string superhero and made a movie that set them on the path to recovery from bankruptcy and established them as a major player in Hollywood. Well, everyone has seen the Iron Man movies, but few knew him before he became Robert Downey Jr. (No, I didn't mean to write “before Robert Downey Jr. became Iron Man”.) In comics, Iron Man is a major player in the Avengers, but his own comics are known only to ardent fans.
In 2005 Warren Ellis (he who brought us Transmetropolitan) sat down with artist Adi Granov for a small six-issue limited series. In the early comics, before the whole “I am Iron Man” declaration, Iron Man was not known as a superhero with a secret identity, but rather a suit wore by an employee of Tony Stark.
In such a scenario Tony Stark gets a call from an old friend Maya Hansen. Maya’s boss at Futurepharm Coorporation, Dr Killian, commits suicide leaving a suicide note in which he takes responsibility for the loss of the Extremis serum that the company was developing. Extremis turns out to be another copycat of the Super-soldier serum that created Captain America. It is now in the hands of a man named Mallen who is wreaking havoc and proving unstoppable.
Iron Man tries to stop Mallen, but is unable to do so and is seriously injured. He gets back to Maya and they embark on a dangerous experiment in an attempt to stop Mallen. Will he be successful? Clue: Have you heard of a super-anything called Mallen?
Extremis was actually the first Iron Man comic that I read. Afterwards, I found that it is one of the most popular and famous standalone Iron Man titles. That is a dampener, because, you see, Extremis is not very good. There is a plot that is worthy of development and the decision to stick to just six issues is admirable, but it feels like a patch-up job.
Part of the blame should lie with the artist. Remember the initial days of motion capture in animated cinema where the faces were wooden and eyes were scary? Well, Adi Granov’s art is a bit like that. It is moved away from the kitschy comic style, but has not reached the stylized photo realist style. I am the first to admit my knowledge of art is zilch. But as a common reader, I think it neither felt neither realistic nor stylistic.
Ellis also has to shoulder some blame for not developing either Mallen or Iron Man. There is an obligatory reference to Iron Man’s origins, a part philosophical part political rambling with Stark and Maya’s guru, a bit of contrived introspection by Stark, all of which could have been avoided. While there are enough action sequences, there is not much happening plot-wise. A good editor could have condensed the whole story into one issue and made it more interesting.
What was supposed to be a definitive milestone in Iron Man’s continuity instead reads like a manufactured event. Which is sad because Extremis was a premise with potential. Unfortunately, like the movie that took its theme, Extremis remains half-baked.
