All your favorite Marvel superheroes....only jerkier.
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.The original run was made up of three miniseries
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.
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.
Tropes in the Ultimates/Ultimate Avengers series include:
Aborted Arc: Apparently Tony Stark is dying. You'd never know it because they only mention it once and he never does.
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.
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.
Canon Immigrant: Combined with Affirmative Action Legacy—the Ultimate Universe of Nick Fury was recently introduced into the classic Marvel Universe as the original Nick Fury's son.
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.
De-power: 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.
Sweet Christmas! It sure looks a lot like Luke Cage/Power Man's origin.
The Chitauri, Shapeshiftingreptiles 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.
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.
Gambit Pileup: Fury pretty much says flat out in the first Annual that that's the way his world is.
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.
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.
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...
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.
It Got 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.
Jerkass: 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.
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 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.
Palette Swap: Tony's brother Gregory is a blonde version of Tony who prefers white suits.
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.
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.
Shout Out: Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen appear, unnamed, as part of a 60 Minutes interview staff.
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.
Super Soldier: The basic premise, and the origin of most, actually all—except Thor, superhumans.
You forgot the Fantastic Four, and Captain Mar-Vell, and Doctor Strange, and Blade, and Daredevil...
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 while Reed was expanding it generations pass with the outer edges closer to normal time. While the deeper inside, the farther into the future it was meant to be 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.
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".
Too Happy to Live: Pietro and Wanda being incestuous wasn't a bad sign. It was being so joyful about it.
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.
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