Ultimate Comics: Avengers Vs. New Ultimates #3 – Review

Ultimate Comics: Avengers Vs. New Ultimates #3

DEATH OF SPIDER-MAN: Part Three

Writer: Mark Millar

Layouts: Leinil Yu
Finishes: Stephen Segovia & Leinil Yu
Inkers: Gerry Alanguilan with Jason Paz & Jeff Huet
Colorists: Sunny Gho
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover: Leinil Yu & Frank Martin
Variant Cover: Frank Cho & Brandon Peterson

The Mission
Thor comes back to his and Jane’s apartment and as he gets into bed with her he tells her that Nick Fury has been behind this entire mess. The next day Tony Stark wakes up. Later that very day Director Carol Danvers and Gregory Stark contact Captain Britain with the situation involving the Triskelion in Iran which their still doing the best they can. After speaking to Captain Britain; to everyone’s surprise; Nick Fury is sitting in one of the chairs. Gregory and Carol fire their guns at Fury but an invisible War Machine remains in front of the former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Iron Man arrives on the scene and the two armored men start their brawl.

Blade appears from behind one of Carol’s agents and takes them out before knocking out the Director and running off with her. He lands on Hawkeye’s vehicle which Clint hits the gas pedal and drives off with Blade still standing on the vehicle. Fury starts running down the Brooklyn Bridge while the Punisher informs him that the new Giant Man has arrived on the scene. As Fury runs he gets a shield thrown into the back of his head, knocking him into a car next to him. Once the shield rebounds back to Captain America, Cap bashes it against his head again. Mean while Giant Man pushes a bus into Hawkeye’s path and his car crashes into it, but that doesn’t stop Blade who leaps over the bus and starts running with the unconscious Carol Danvers. As he runs he gets a right hook from the new Black Widow; Blade dropping Carol and starts getting a beating from her.

Cap continues to beat on Fury even when he tries to tell the star spangled Ultimate that Carol is setting him up. Punisher climbs to the near top of the Brooklyn Bridge while he checks in if anyone can assist him on saving Fury. Hawkeye is crunched up in his own car while being held by Giant Man, War Machine is still dealing with Iron Man but informs Castle that he just tapped a call saying that Thor is on his way and that if he doesn’t act fast it’s game over for the Ultimate Avengers. Frank makes the decision that he’ll shoot out Cap’s kneecaps, maiming him but not life threatening. Just as the Punisher fires the bullet, Spider-Man swings down towards Cap and Fury, tackling Cap but getting shot by the bullet.

The Good
I really like that were now picking up the pace in this mini. I was beginning to worry when and how this mini would tie into Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man and if I was wasting my time reviewing this. Now I see that I’m not. The art continues to be very well done and I believe this is Leinil Yu’s best work yet. The writing is especially well done and I like how Mark Millar brings in each character into this issue.

Seeing Thor’s new status after his return was nice to see and seeing him living with Jane made sense. I do have one gripe about it but I’ll mention that under “The Bad”. I liked seeing Captain Britain, haven’t seen him since the Ultimate Thor mini by Jonathan Hickman (I’d pick it up if you’re an Ultimate Universe fan, it’s really good). One other thing I really liked and that was seeing Nick Fury being a mother f#%!in badass. I can’t really explain it but my inner child shouts that he’s awesome.

The title of this book is “Avengers Vs. New Ultimates” for a reason and we get it here. We see almost everyone fighting and each one of them knows that there is something on the line for both teams. Their ready to do whatever it takes to win. And with this being the Death of Spider-Man we finally see young Peter Parker swoop into action… and get shot. I’m looking forward to how this will affect both the Ultimate books story wise.

The Bad
Whatever happened to Jane Foster’s hair in Ultimates 2? While rereading this at first I thought they got rid of her look and replaced it with Natalie Portman because of the upcoming Thor movie but I noticed the nose piercing that she still has. I can see that their trying to add the movie look here yet keep elements from the original so that people don’t get confused. I’m just nitpicking about that, it didn’t turn me away from how good this issue was.

The Crossover
I think with this issue and UC Spider-Man #157, it’s important to see where both sides of the stories are coming from. For instance, in UC Spider-Man Peter is dealing with the return of the Ultimate Six and when he swings back to the bridge to find Cap about to pummel Fury again; it may just be me; but I sense that Peter may have been trying to stop Cap instead of saving his life. Remember back in the Ultimate Clone Saga story that in a way Peter does look up to Fury so what else would he do in that situation? On the other hand he could have seen Frank Castle aiming at Cap thinking he’s about to put a bullet in his head.

Story wise I think it is crucial to be reading both of these titles to get what will transpire in Death of Spider-Man. You see where Cap goes off to after #156, you see Frank’s intentions on maiming Cap in this issue but in #157 you see a different point of view. I believe you won’t get the whole story unless your reading both titles is where I’m getting at.

The Ultimate
There is a lot that goes on in this issue but I’m going to give it to two things that happened in this issue. 1) Cap beating the crap out of Fury even when Fury tries to tell him Carol is setting them up. 2) The shot on Spider-Man. It may be the one bullet that changes everything.

Rating
Great writing, great artwork, and a pretty action packed issue. 4.5 out of 5 beat downs. That .5 bullet goes to Spidey… for obvious reasons.