Ultimate Comics Avengers #4 - Marvel

I don't know how many people out there read the Ultimate Universe books. I thought it was a pretty popular line, but . . basically, they reinvented it about a year ago. I'm not sure of the decision process behind that. I don't know if it was out of economic necessity, or they just wanted to re-image the brand. But to me . . these books seem as strong or stronger than they were before that decision. This book, which is obviously the next incarnation of the Ultimates, is fantastic. Of course, I'm sure, some of that is due to the fact that Mark Millar is writing the book. But, so far it's been much more action packed, and presented far more original ideas than the 3 previous series. This one started out with the idea that Steve Rogers had a son. In the absence of a father . . or because he was experimented upon incessantly by the government, that boy has turned out to be a real bastard. In fact . . he went so far as to pull the skin off his face and now goes by the name the Red Skull. This is part of what I like so much about the Ultimate Universe. They have the same basic characters as the Marvel Universe, but it seems like the writers can do whatever they want with them. They don't have the constraints of the regular Marvel Universe. In this chapter, Nick and his team have cornered Steve in Paris. They put Steve through his paces, but . . it's really all they can do to keep up with him. They end up taking him down because Wasp swarms him with bugs and he jumps in the river. They're about to lose him to the sewers of Paris when Rhodey electrocutes the river. The War Machine character is simply incredible. There's so much potential here. On top of that we have Nerd Hulk, as he's being called by his creators, and . . Gregory Stark . . Tony's smarter brother. This whole story has come down to the fact that AIM has stolen the blueprints for the Cosmic Cube. They're working to build it, and Nick and Co. are racing to stop them. The wrench in the mix is the Red Skull. At the end of this issue we see that he's killed the man in charge and has taken over the project as his own. That is not a good combination. There's 48 hours before the project is complete, and 2 more issues in this story-arc. Mark's doing a great job here, and Carlos Pacheco is equally impressive on the art. Of course . . maybe it's exciting because it's just nice to see Cap back in action. Anyways, I think it's a book to watch. There's a ton of potential here.