Ultimate Comics: Avengers Vs. New Ultimates #2 – Review

Ultimate Comics: Avengers Vs. New Ultimates #2

DEATH OF SPIDER-MAN: Part Two

Writer: Mark Millar

Pencils: Leinil Yu & Stephen Segovia
Inkers: Gerry Alanguilan with Jason Paz & Jeff Huet
Colorists: Sunny Gho
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover: Leinil Yu & Frank Martin
Variant Cover: Bryan Hitch, Paul Neary & Paul Mounts

The Mission
The issue continues right where the last one left off with Nick Fury visiting the Punisher at the prison facility he is being kept at. Frank tells him he isn’t interested in working for his “assassination squad” but Fury makes a deal with him. In exchange to work for him Fury will give Frank the keys to all the prisoner cells and get him anything he wants when he “punishes” them. Frank agrees to these terms with a smirk.

Later with Blade, Fury promises to hand over Deacon Frost; the man who bit his mother the moment he was born and screwed up his life; from his custody. After confirming it is in fact Frost, Blade says he’s in. Elsewhere with Hawkeye, after finishing a mission that involved killing a few men he gets a message from Fury needing him on a new mission in Argentina which he’s ready for.

A day later probably to be exact Fury is in South America, sitting in a bar while watching the Spanish version of the “Ultimate Iron Man Cartoon” that Rhodey used to be in which he despises. Blade tells Fury in his com piece that Colonel Sung and his men are right outside as the superhuman arms dealers also enter the bar. The crippled old man informs Colonel Sung that Maximus is in the case and that by the time he’s five he’ll see his primary abilities. By sexual maturity he’ll be the most powerful meta-human on the planet. Fury gives the word and the Punisher; disguised as a server in the bar; shoots down all the thugs except the old man. Soon enough Frank is thrown out of the bar and the old man; who turns into Tyrone Cash, the “First Hulk”; steps out of the building pissed off. War Machine smashes Cash through the ground but is knocked back into the air. Fury, Frank and Hawkeye fire a few rounds of bullets into him before War Machine flies back and goes blow for blow with him until being smashed. Blade walks towards Cash and hypnotizes him into calming down before drawing his sword with Fury and Hawkeye regrouping around him. The old man tells Fury that he’s working for Carol Danvers and tells him that she’s a traitor. Now that they know the truth, she’s going to have to kill them.

The Good
I’ll get it out of the way already and say that Leinil Yu’s artwork is much better so far. If there was any change to the artwork by Stephen Segovia I barely noticed it which is great since I really hate seeing artwork suddenly change in an issue.

I thought it was a bit humorous to see that Frank started listing everything he wanted when he comes back to the prison. Items ranging from a car battery to those trouser presses you get in a hotel to even eighty-five feet of electric cords. I can’t imagine what he has planned in his head or how much this stuff will cost Fury’s company account but the looks on the prisoners’ faces are priceless.

Including the idea of hypnotizing Tyrone Cash into calming down I think was a smart move when it comes to tactics.

The continuity issues with Ultimate Iron Man are addressed in this issue. Even though Miller did say somewhere that everything that happened in both the Ultimate Iron Man and Ultimate Iron Man II minis was a “television series”, I felt it was alright to actually see that it was incorporated into the Ultimate Universe. Funny to see Fury laughing at the thought of Tony having the ability to regrow arms and legs; I barely even got the idea myself. As for the battle itself, I thought it was alright.

And now instead of seeing Fury as the potential enemy, were flipped over our heads when Tyrone Cash says he’s been working for Danvers and that she’s been selling state secrets for years. Last issue I was uneasy about the idea of Fury being “the bad guy” again but with this new twist no one knows for sure who is actually behind this mess. I think there’s one thing for sure though and that it’s someone inside the agency that’s pulling everyone’s strings. Carol will think Fury’s the villain and vice versa. Hence, the two teams will clash… until they realize they’re both being stupid.

The Bad
So the last page I’m unsure if it’s just sort of a montage or if it is currently happening back in America but isn’t Tony Stark suppose to be in the hospital and not suited up in armor? Did he get better? Even though in Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #154 it says it takes place before what’s happening in this mini, the time period is still a bit confusing. So the Prelude to Death of Spider-Man happened before Avengers 3? Yeah, I’m technically not sure about that.

Saying that Tyrone Cash is the first Hulk keeps on feeling like Millar is taking a hammer and pounding it into our heads until we start saying it. That’s just me though since I read the Ultimate Comics: Avengers minis.

One thing I’m glad about 616 Blade or any other vampires that I know of is that they don’t have the ability to “hypnotize” people like the cheesiness that is the vampire genre. It didn’t bug me too much but seeing Blade having the ability to calm down a Hulk sized person… I don’t know. I’m just hoping he doesn’t start flying like some vampires in the last mini… man oh man.

Speaking of Blade, what’s he doing in one of these scenes? War Machine is punched out of the sewers, guns aren’t working and he has the ability to actually take down Tyrone Cash? He could jump in but instead decides to go get a drink and some candy since he has a “sweet tooth”. Okay, that joke was bad but you should get what I mean.

The Ultimate
This is a tie between Blade and the Punisher. Blade being able to take down somebody who has the strength level of the Hulk is pretty cool in my book. I mean who said you needed fists to win a fight? Frank Castle also gets this simply because of the humor he has in the beginning of the issue and I think he’s a pretty cool character when written properly.

Rating
Pretty good artwork, the story continues to get you thinking who’s really behind all this, some great action scenes but still no Spider-Man. Hopefully he makes an appearance next issue, he’s on the cover after all! 3.5 out of 5 bullets to the head by the Punisher. Wait, does that mean that half of a bullet only grazed the guy’s brain? Confusing but makes no difference, he’s dead either way.