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The Ultimates

All your favorite Marvel superheroes....only jerkier.

The idea behind The Avengers is that the Marvel Universe's biggest players all get together and fight all the biggest supervillains they can't defeat individually, whereas Ultimates 2 is an exploration of what happens when a bunch of ordinary people are turned into super-soldiers and being groomed to fight the real-life war on terror

—Mark Millar

Marvel Comics reimagining of The Avengers as part of their new Ultimate Marvel continuity, courtesy of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch. The series focuses on the government and SHIELD developing a superhuman army in order to effectively combat the rise of super terrorism and other Persons of Mass Destruction. The Ultimates 3 was penned by Jeph Loeb and Joe Madureira.

After Ultimatum, the concept was rebooted into two series: Ultimate Avengers and New Ultimates. Ultimate Avengers, by Millar and various artists was told over the course of 3 six issue arcs, centering on the returned Ultimate Nick Fury, Hawkeye along with featuring new Ultimate versions of Marvel characters and original creations for the team of Black Ops super heroes. New Ultimates by Loeb and Frank Cho told the story of most of the remaining original Ultimate team, including Captain America as they faced off against another threat.

The two teams would ultimate clash later on in the Ultimate Avengers vs New Ultimates crossover,which tied into the Ultimate line event "The Death of Spider-Man" leading to a line reboot that had The Ultimates get another series titled Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates, as well as giving Ultimate Hawkeye his own mini-series by Jonathan Hickman, until after issue 12, where Sam Humphries takes over as writer of the team.

The comic's main series was made up of the following series:

The Ultimates. 13 issues, from March, 2002 to April, 2004.
The Ultimates 2. 13 issues, from February, 2005 to February, 2007.
The Ultimates 3. 5 issues, from February to November, 2008.
Ultimate Comics: Avengers. 18 issues (over 3 numbered mini series), August 2009 to January 2011.
New Ultimates. 5 issues, from March 2010 to February 2011.
Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates. Ongoing series from August 2011 to present

Tropes in the Ultimates/Ultimate Avengers series include:

Achilles in His Tent: Captain America after the events of Death of Spider-Man.
Affirmative Action Legacy: Played with. After Black Widow I gets killed by Hawkeye she gets replaced by Monica Chang, an Asian woman, who was the original Black Widow. Making I the second one.
A God Am I: Red Skull With the cosmic cube.
Alas, Poor Villain: The Red Skull, of all the people, gets this in his send-off. It turns out all he wanted was to use the Cosmic Cube be go back in time, prevent Cap from freezing, and then his parents (Steve and his then sweetheart, Gail) could marry and raise him themselves (since he utterly loathed his life as a Tykebomb. To his credit, he knew the evils he had committed, but by then, it was too late for him.
- The Colonel too but he wasn't really a villain
The Alcoholic: Tony, even a robot double that impersonates him.
Alien Invasion: Luckily it's an Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion since they were already damaged and on the run.
A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Ultron
All Your Base Are Belong to Us: A lot of villains pull this.
Always Someone Better: Gregory to Tony
America Saves the Day: Deconstructed. The team is American, but other countries start worrying about the Ultimates being used in their countries, whether they like it or not. There's also several European Super-Soldier initiatives including Thor, who is really a Norwegian nutjob who stole the prototype tech for his country's hero. Except in the end he really isn't.
Ancient Conspiracy: the Chitauri
Anti-Hero: Most of the Ultimates members. The Avengers team in particular is a black-ops team meant to handle jobs the Ultimates won't take. They've recruited The Punisher into their ranks...
Anti-Hero Substitute: The Ultimate Avengers are a team of anti-hero substitutes for the, er... anti-heroes of the Ultimates.
Anti-Villain: Frank Simpson (Knonwn in the 616 as Nuke) has shades of this. Made as Captain America's replacement for the Vietnam War he was exposed to the less than glorious part of the war, with Agent Orange, killing children and women not just soldiers. He turned rogue for a reason.
- The Colonel, who, despite being the leader of the villainous Liberators, is arguably one of the most sympathetic characters in the entire series. His death is surprisingly respectful and almost touching.
Anyone Can Die: Especially after the Creator Breakdown that led to Ultimatum. And in the new series, they killed the whole government sans one minister, who happened to stay away at the time of assassination.
Arms Dealer: Several in human genetics.
- Ghost in Armour Wars.
As The Good Book Says: Cap reads to Frank Simpson in a hospital bed.
Attack Drone: Crimson Dynamo employes these. Later Tony has them as well, Post Ultimatum, named Wasps.
Back from the Dead: Captain America because of Thor's sacrifice. Thor later as well. Subverted with Valkeryie who SEEMS like she's pulling this but instead has to furfil the mythological version.
Bad Ass: Cap, Fury, Hawkeye, Black Widow. Others have their Bad Ass moments (except Giant-Man— the closest he gets is a nude-ass moment).
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Wanda in death.
Big Bad: Herr Kleiser in The Ultimates; Loki in The Ultimates 2; The Maker in the 2011 The Ultimates series.
Big Brother Instinct: Quicksilver is very protective of his sister.
Bishōnen: Loki
Black Comedy: "Giant-Man vs. the Wasp" treats spousal abuse as an Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny.
Black Widow: Black Widow
Boxed Crook: The Spider-Man clone, who comes across like a Hannibal Lecter. Trading personal information that makes people uneasy for his assistance.
Brother-Sister Incest: Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, going from implied to straight up stated. Caused major Squick reactions.
Buttmonkey: Hank Pym
Cain and Abel: Tony Stark and his brother, Gregory. Or at least in the eyes of Gregory, who needs to be the Always Someone Better
Canon Immigrant: Combined with Affirmative Action Legacy—the Nick Fury of the Ultimate Universe who was based on actor Samuel L. Jackson was played by Jackson in the movies and had a Expy introduced into the classic Marvel Universe as the original Nick Fury's black son.
- Monica Chang in also going to make the leap to the classic Marvel Universe.
- Albeit based on the movie versions rather than their incarnations in The Ultimates, the Chitauri will also make the leap to the classic Marvel Universe.
Captain Patriotic: The EU's superheroes are all called Captain Britain, Captain France, Captain Italy, etcetera.
Clock King: Herr Kleiser and Loki
Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Gregory wears all white in contrast with Tony's usually all black suits.
Combat Pragmatist: Basically everyone except Giant-Man.
Composite Character: Ultimate Doctor Faustus is this and part MODOK.
Crystal Dragon Jesus: Ultimate Thor is 21st Century Jesus, even moreso than his Hijacked By Jesus 616 counterpart.
Cult: Thor's followers
Curb-Stomp Battle: Hulk delivers one to most of the team, and to the Abomination.
- Nerd Hulk beats Whistler in an old Iron Man suit in one punch
Darker and Edgier: Darker than The Avengers, Edgiest of Ultimate Marvel
Day Of The Jackboot: The Liberators invade the U.S., for like an hour.
Decompressed Comic
Defictionalization: As mentioned elsewhere on this page, Nick Fury was deliberately modeled after Samuel Jackson and Nick Fury says in comic that Hollywood would most likely cast Jackson to play him. Six years later, Jackson plays Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Depower: Thor after the Asgard is destroyed by the forces of the City. Forcing him to have to use a Powered Armor and weapons to still fight alongside the Ultimates.
Deus ex Machina: At the end of volume 2. Emphasis on the Deus, there. And the awesome.
Distaff Counterpart: Tony feels Black Widow is this for him.
Divided States of America: Following the Sentinels rampaging in the Southwestern states, along with the destruction of Washington D.C. and most of the government, Texas and later other states start to declare independence from the union.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: Fury's empowering in Ultimate Origins is eerily reminiscent of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment.
- Sweet Christmas! It sure looks a lot like Luke Cage/Power Man's origin.
- The Chitauri, Shapeshifting reptiles clearly culled from popular conspiracy theories, especially those of David Icke — who was a key influence on Ultimate Thor.
- Black Widow and Hawkeye's black-coated lobby entrance is the same scene from The Matrix with arrows instead of bullets; Widow's building jump was also taken from the same film.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: Wasp. So much.
Dysfunction Junction: How do they function? ... Well, at times, they don't.
Enemy Mine: The Ultimates try to pull this with Xorn and Zorn on the City. It doesn't work, Xorn extends them an olive branch. Reed burns that bridge, and incurs the wrath of Zorn, who attacks him with a black hole.
Evil Counterpart: Everybody on the Communistic team in Ultimates 2 is a parallel to one of the Ultimates.
Expy: Ultimate Thor is somewhat reminiscent of Technoviking.
Face Heel Turn: Black Widow (Natasha), Nerd Hulk (via vampirism), Gregory Stark and Reed Richards.
Faked Rip Van Winkle: Cap suspects this upon his awakening, only discover that no, its a real Rip Van Winkle.
Fantastic Racism: Deconstructed. If it is possible, humanity is more harsh with mutants in the Ultimate Universe, than in the original 616. So, when a new country emerges as a mutant haven, almost every mutant from the United States leaves for their own good. Even if the government suddenly realizes, that a few more superhuman individuals would be handy against the imposing threat of the City.
Fire-Forged Friends: Cap, Thor and Iron Man.
Fish Out of Temporal Water: Cap.
Flanderization: In some ways, the Ultimates are the original Avengers with each of their most noted personality aspects amplified to eleven though Millar managed to keep them interesting. The trope was fully unleashed, however, when Loeb took over.
From Bad to Worse: In the 2011 Hickman series. Hoo, boy. Asgard has been destroyed by Reed Richards and the City, with all the souls of the gods now existing solely in Thor's head. The S.E.A.R. has been taken over by the superhuman Celestials and Eternals. Germany has been completely absorbed by the City. A nuclear crisis is brewing in South America. Nick Fury just cannot catch a break.
Gambit Pileup: Fury pretty much says flat out in the first Annual that that's the way his world is.
Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: The Ultimate Marvel buzzword is Person of Mass Destruction.
Genre Savvy: When having captured Hawkeye, strap him down so he can't pick up anything to use as a lethal weapon!
Hawkeye: " Should've taken my fingernails, you bastards!"
Giant Mook: After Giant Man leaves, his powerset gets copied to a team of them.
Groin Attack: For all his old school ethics, Cap's not above kicking The Hulk in the stones.
- Not above kicking Valkyrie that way either.
Gone Horribly Right: The Spider-Man clone.
Hard Gay: Jarvis was this trope, for as far as a 50, 60 year old man could be it. Guy took no shit from anybody except Tony (and who wouldn't).
Hell-Bent for Leather: Giant Man and the Giant Men, Giant Women.
Heroic Sacrifice: Ultimate Spider-Man, Peter Parker takes a bullet meant for Captain America. He possibly could have survived had he not had to then go face off against a group of his own rogues that were attacking his family.
Heroic Sociopath: Hulk
Hive Mind: The Chitauri worker caste (Officers have a bit more free will as a result of absorbing alien minds). Also, Ultimate Galactus.
Hope Spot: Fury says Banner is acquitted of 852 counts of murder as the Hulk, since the other Ultimates testified on his behalf about how he saved the world. Fury gives him champagne so they can celebrate. Bruce blacks out from the drugged champagne, and they take him and put him on an abandoned aircraft carrier next to a one-megaton nuclear bomb...
- The conclusion to the Hydra arc, United We Stand has the final issue open this way. Cap reads a speech he wrote, and Tony scoffs saying it's a good thing he didn't have to read the downer speech because they won. Peter Parker then asks what is wrong, in a room filled with Scarlet Witch and Giant Man (And others) and Cap replies "No. This isn't what we fought for." and it bursts.
Human Weapon: Ultimates 2 has the rest of the world fearing that the US Goverment would start ultilizing them in politically-motivated conflicts after Cap saved some hostages in the Middle East.
Hypothetical Casting: At one point, they sit around while being transported via cargo plane talking about who would play them in the movie of their lives. Naturally, Nick Fury says Samuel L. Jackson (on whom Ultimate Nick Fury was based).
Improbable Aiming Skills: This is explicitly part of Black Widow's powers, and Hawkeye's only power.
I'm a Humanitarian: Well, not human, but Hulk eats Kleiser. And the poop is collected by SHIELD just in case.
- He'll eat humans too. One early issue, after a black out, has a character mention that when the power dropped, Bruce hulked out and he ate several of the doctors and nurses. He also eats a number of people in Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk as well. All There in the Manual says that it's just part of the Hulk's rebellion against the limits Bruce Banner sets — Banner refuses to eat meat at all, the Hulk pushes this beyond the bursting point by eating human beings.
Intangible Man: The Ghost, just like his 616 counterpart. Except He's got Iron Man armour.
In The Style Of: The Authority, another series that Millar and Hitch worked on.
Island Base: The Triskelion.
Jerk Ass: On a team consisting mostly of ~~jerks~~ strongly aggressive personalities, Henry Pym stands out.
- The second miniseries seemed to be trying to turn him into a Jerkass Woobie. He's basically kicked off the Ultimates, replaced with guys who can grow even bigger than he did (and it took him decades to get that big), the Wasp finalizes his divorce, Fury won't even take his ideas for free, he ends up on the D-list superteam The Defenders, and the only friend he can make is Bruce Banner, who is permanantly imprisoned for his crimes as the Hulk. And then killed. He survives, though.
Killed Off for Real: It might be easier to list who isn't.
Legacy Character: Doctor Strange from the start, Wasp and Hulk as of Ultimate Comics Avengers.
- Monica Chang aka the second Black Widow
- Giant Man (Even before he leaves the team proper) gets replaced by a squadron of Giant Men, and later Giant Women.
- Hulk as well, via Retcon, turns out to be the second Hulk.
Lensman Arms Race: With genetics.
Luke, You Are My Father: Ultimate Red Skull is Cap's illegitimate son.
Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Justin[spoiler:e]] Hammer
Magic Pants Subverted. The Hulk's pants often don't survive battle. Cue Scenery Censor. In volume 1 he steals the pants from a dead fat guy.
- The Wasp's usually nude before or after a size-change, too, as does Giant Man if he doesn't have his supersuit.
Manipulative Bastard: Loki. Nick Fury, especially in the Ultimate Power miniseries.
Masquerade: The Chitauri, Captain ~~Marvel~~ Mahr Vehl.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The series began with an unclear origin for the powers of Thor. Is he a real God from Asgard, attacked by a rival god with reality-warping powers? Or just a madman with dellusions of grandeur, who stole high-tech weapons produced in Europe? In the first two story arcs, both options seemed plausible to the reader. The final answer only came at the end of the second arc.
The Messiah: Thor.
Mind Control: Most of Hydra.
Mind Screw: For a while there, the reader isn't sure if Thor is just a crazy Norwegian nurse with a big scary hammer, or actually what he claims. Thanks to Loki, neither is SHIELD.
The Mole: Black Widow
- Also, SHIELD's Psi Division
Monumental Damage
Mythology Gag: Nick Fury has a Full Body Disguise that is identical to his standard Marvel Universe appearance.
- He seemingly later uses it under the guise of Scorpio to work for Hydra. The name Scorpio itself being a nod to the original Nick Fury's sometimes evil twin brother using that title several times.
The Movie: The Direct to DVD Ultimate Avengers and its sequel were based off this series. One snarky fan pointed out that there had been more Ultimates Movies put out in a year than actual issues of the series.
Near Villain Victory: Repeatedly. The Ultimates always seem to manage to snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat.
No Badass to His Valet: Tony's antics have no effect on Jarvis the first
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.
- Freddie Prinze Jr. appears, but his face is obscured, and when we say "No Celebrities Were Harmed" we mean that literally in his case.
Hulk: HULK SMASH FREDDIE PRINZE JUNIOR!
Norse Mythology: Boy are they surprised when it turns out to be Real After All.
Nuke 'em: The way the government tries to kill off the Hulk
- Also, they send everything they've got against the city it gets all politicians killed. ALL.
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Monica Chang, aka Black Widow II, taking on a Giant-Man squad after getting pinned underneath one's hand, next time we see her she is standing on on of them before leaping into the battle with the remaining troops sent against her by SHIELD.
Oh Crap: A recurring motif.
Older Than They Look: Fury, Cap, Herr Kleiser. If Thor is who he believes, he's Really 700 Years Old, as is Loki, later Thor's son After he comes back from the worldtree.
Palette Swap: Tony's brother Gregory is a blonde version of Tony who prefers white suits.
Piet� Plagiarism: Thor cradling his son
Piggybacking On Hitler: Herr Kleiser was Captain America's chief nemesis during the Second World War, but was actually an alien known as a Chitauri (aka a Skrull) that ate the real Kleiser and impersonated him, backing Hitler by giving the Nazis advanced weaponry. Really, this was just a scheme to soften the Earth up for a full-scale invasion.
Polar Opposite Twins: Gregory Stark and Tony Stark in Ultimate Comics: Avengers. Becomes a case of Cain and Abel.
Powered Armor: Iron Man
Power Trio: After Ultimates 3, Ultimatum and the first 5 issues of Ultimate Comics: Ultimates, Thor, Cap and Iron Man have truly bonded and become Fire-Forged Friends.
President Badass: President Captain America, as of Ultimate Comics Ultimates #15.
Pretty in Mink: Wanda wears a fur-lined coat just before she is tragically shot.
Psycho Serum: Banner's Hulk Serum. Later, at the brink of despair, he takes it up another notch by combining it with the Super Soldier serum.
Race Lift: Nick Fury is black (and a dead ringer for Samuel L. Jackson), and Wasp is Asian.
- Also Crimson Dynamo and Abomination are Chinese, Hurricane is Korean and Swarm is Syrian.
Real After All: Thor really IS the Norse God of Thunder.
Reality Warper: Loki
Reconstruction: After having been deconstructed for so many books, the arc United We Stand is followed by one called Reconstruction, trying to make the Ultimates more heroic than they've been in the past.
Redshirt Army: 20,000 SHIELD elite troops go into the bag when the Chitauri nuke their own base in Micronesia. Also, most of the Ultimate Reserves are killed in the beginning of the Liberators attack.
Reed Richards Is Useless: Deconstructed. Plus points, that they did it with the Trope Namer itself. Because what happens, when you are the most brilliant mind in the planet, full of well intention, and the world just would not change, if you play according to the rules? You will go nuts, that is what happens. You definitely go nuts, buddy!
Relationship Reveal: Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.
Replacement Goldfish: After Jarvis Gets shot, Tony replaces him with a new guy who's name he quickly forgets and calls Jarvis. Later still he's replaced (without noted reason) by an half-asian woman. Whom he also names Jarvis.
Ridiculously Human Robots: The Ultron units in Volume 3.
Rich Bitch: Natasha Romanov, after becoming engaged to Tony Stark.
Schedule Slip: It's had a few problems with this.
Secret Relationship: Kept secret from everyone, including the readers, but Word Of God says Nick Fury and Betty Ross were in a romance during The Ultimates 2.
Shout Out: Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen appear, unnamed, as part of a 60 Minutes interview staff.
- Jarvis also hangs out with a butler's club in his spare time - and a guy named Alfred is mentioned to be amongst the members.
- In Ultimate Armour Wars: one of the heads on the wall is of Nayland Smith, a main character in the Fu Manchu books.
Slave to PR: The team itself. As a government supersoldier program with a tremendous budget they were constantly threatened by public scrutiny and for a while had to justify their budget in spite of the lack of an immediate threat. This lead to a major plot point that stretched through two volumes when Bruce Banner hulked out and the ultimates stopped him, SHIELD covered up the connection between Banner and Hulk turning a story about the team cleaning up it's own mess into their first public success.
Smug Snake: Herr Kleiser
- Reed Richards after his Face Heel Turn following the events of Ultimatum and especially once he becomes leader of the City.
Sour Supporter: Many of the team.
Splash Panel
Super Soldier: The basic premise, and the origin of most, superhumans.
Squick: Kessler reveals he's going to take Wasp's form.
Technopath: Tony Stark Via his latest brain tumor.
Temporal Paradox: The City that Reed Richards designs in the latest series is one big ball of paradox, while it exists in the present, within its walls generations pass while Reed was expanding it with the outer edges closer to normal time. While inside its walls, time moved at an accelerated rate the closer one got to the Core, so as one moved within the City's limits the further into the future it traveled until the City stopped expanding. Which it wound up taking out Germany and a good chunk of Europe when they reach its current size.
Tempting Fate: Goes hand in hand with Oh Crap. Honestly, if someone tries to say that Thor isn't the god of thunder, and is instead a deranged scientist, they will proved wrong mere moments later.
There Are No Therapists: Nobody seems to do anything about Hawkeye's obvious PTSD.
This Cannot Be!: Smug Snake Kleiser's repeated reaction to any event he hasn't planned for is a blank stare and a stunned "...What?" which is apparently Chitauri for "Oh Crap".
Tomorrowland: The Maker ( Reed Richards) turns Western Europe into one of these.
Too Happy to Live: Pietro and Wanda being incestuous wasn't a bad sign. It was being so joyful about it.
Turned Against Their Masters: Ultron, surprising absolutely no one — except, once again, Giant-Man.
- Zorn and Xorn, twin super mutants who were created by the South East Asian Republic, S.E.A.R, as part of a project aimed at wiping out mutants and later took over the entire nation and turned it into a mutant haven for any that wish to join them.
Twincest: Quicksilver And The Scarlet Witch. Funnily enough, they're the happiest, most stable, reliable and least asshole-ish of the team members. All through the series, Quicksilver has been claiming to have been running around behind the scenes saving people's asses, while this has never been actually shown to be true. Ultimates 2 reveals that he really has been doing so, as he goes into an Unstoppable Rage at the threat to his friends posed by another Fragile Speedster.
Unpleasable Fanbase: In-universe. During Ultimates 2, people are worried about the Ultimates intervening in the affairs of other nations, They are simultaneously pissed off about them spending their billions of dollars of taxpayer money saving people from fires. Basically, they only want the Avengers to fight only major superhero threats, operate only on American soil, and to do it on less money. Yes, they're actually more stupid than their 616 counterpart.
- The 616 Avengers are funded by a non-profit charitable organization, which is likely the only reason the public hasn't raked them over the coals regarding expenses.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Bruce was already well on his way to losing it, but it was overhearing his colleagues mocking him that drove him to re-inject himself with the serum that turned him into the Hulk.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: The Chitauri
Western Terrorists: Hydra, initially introduced as a small Right Wing Militia Fanatic group, after Modi's defeat they have since began stealing S.H.I.E.L.D. tech and apparently under the guise of a man called Scorpio.
Who Shot JFK?: It was Red Skull.
Who Would Want to Watch Us?: The team discusses who would play themselves in a film adaptation.
Why Won't You Die?: Heroic example, Cap says it about Kleiser.
You Are Who You Eat: This is how Chitauri shape shifting works.
Zerg Rush: The vampires attack on the Triskellion.