Reviewing Ted Adams’ ‘Marvel Age Of Comics: The Ultimates’
by Olly MacNamee
While the first batch of Marvel Age books looked back at classic storylines and sagas from Marvel’s Silver and Bronze Ages, Marvel Age of Comics: The Ultimates takes reader back to the turn of the century, with Ted Adams recounting The Ultimates by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch. A rather contemporary comic book, but one that exploded onto the scene at a time when Marvel was looking to stave off bankruptcy.
As with previous books in this series, such as Marvel Age of Comics – Daredevil: Born Again, it is a detailed and admiring review of the two series Millar and Hitch delivered, but unlike other installments in this series, it meticulously paints a backdrop onto which this highly original and inventive series was born. As well as paving the way by summarizing the birth of the Ultimate line of comics, and focusing on Ultimate Team-Up, where Ultimate Hulk and Ultimate Black Widow were first introduced, Adams leaves out nothing. It’s one of the most interesting parts of the paperback, as it provides an insider’s eye onto the whole affair, providing vital new and forgotten information about why this new line fo comics came about in the first place.
He also addressed the state of the American collective psyche at that time too. The birth of a new century offered so much promise … and then America suffered the atrocities of 9/11. This was the fevered, jingoistic America Millar and Hitch took their lead from. A realistic Avengers team that, for once, felt a part of our own world far more than the 616 ever did.
Author and co-founder of IDW Publishing, Adams is another authoritative voice from within the comic book industry and the perfect person to write this highly engaging book, with comments and asides added to the retelling of every issue that shed new light on the thinking and creation of this two-volume series that both reminds you of interviews from the time and adds more details to this iconic series that went on to inspire the cinematic MCU, even to this day.
Like the other books in this series, it’s a relatively quick read, but this one was so engaging and so informative that I’ve ended up digging out my old The Ultimates comics for a second read-through. And I think you will too.
A knowledgeable and entertaining book from cover to cover.
Marvel Age of Comics: The Ultimates is out now from Bloomsbury Academic.
