On Sale Date: June & July 2010; Cover Date: August & September 2010
Writer: Mark Millar; Artist: Leinil Francis Yu; Inker: Gerry Alanguilan; Letterer: VC's Cory Petit; Colorist: Laura Martin; Assistant Editor: Sana Amanat; Editor: Mark Paniccia' Editor-In-Chief: Joe Quesada; Cover Artist: Leinil Francis Yu
Frank Castle, the Punisher, is on a killing spree - murdering
criminal after criminal over a span of two months. Most of the criminals
he's killed were part of an Eastern European people-trafficking
business, which is led by Joseph Petrenko, a.k.a. Russia's "Red Hammer".
Unwilling to believe that his men are being killed by a lone vigilante,
Petrenko is coming to America to have a sit-down with other mob bosses.
Punisher raids another of Petrenko's outfits and takes one of the men
to "Baby Guantanamo", his own personal torture chamber. Castle finds out
everything he wants to know about the sit-down, including the time and
place. Frank visits the graves of his wife and children, praying to the
cross around his neck, as preparation for what he plans to do.
That night, Castle has taken the place of
Petrenko's limousine driver and is ready to ambush the Russian outside
his hotel. When Castle pulls out his pistol, however, Petrenko easily
disarms him and slams is face into the car window. Petrenko pulls off
his mask and reveals himself as actually being Captain America, who is
arresting the Punisher for the murder of over two hundred people. The
real Joseph Petrenko was arrested by SHIELD the moment he stepped off
his plane.
Later, at SHIELD's hospital one mile beneath the
Bronx, Castle is interrogated by Nick Fury and the Black Widow. When
Castle asks about Petrenko, Fury tells him that the Red Hammer was sent
back to Russia. That, Frank says, is the answer to their question of why
the Punisher does what he does. Fury tells Castle that the only way to
keep him off death row is to join his Avengers, a secret black-ops unit
that handles the job the Ultimates wouldn't touch. Now they're after a
Captain America of their own...and later, Castle is outfitted in a mock
Captain America costume (one that incorporates his own personal skull
image on the chest). Fury and Black Widow then say that War Machine is
en route to meet up with the Hulk - but when Castle asks how they expect
to put the Hulk on a top-secret wetworks team, Fury explains that
they're not recruiting Banner. They're after Banner's mentor, the first Hulk...
In South America, a gangster drug-lord named Tyrone Cash leaves his mansion for a walk on the beach. He thinks back to sixteen years ago, when he was a crippled scientist at Oxford and first met Bruce Banner. Back on the beach, Cash meets with War Machine, who is acting as a representative of Nick Fury's Avengers squad. Rhodes shows Cash a picture of a woman and child who say they miss him very much - SHIELD knows that Cash is really Leonard Williams, Bruce Banners former mentor on the Super Soldier program in England where he first became addicted to murder and destruction, and that he now runs this country since he killed the local gang-lords. Cash attacks Rhodes and the two battle their way up the beach, eventually crashing through Cash's mansion. When he gets War Machine on the ground, Cash leaps into the air and grabs a commuter plane, which he slams into Rhodes. Rhodes tells Cash to stop, to which Tyrone replies that there's nothing they can take away from him that he cares about. Except, Rhodes replies, if he doesn't come back to America with him SHIELD will tell his family that he's still alive. Reluctantly, Cash agrees to hear War Machine's proposition.
Later, at Fury's New Jersey safehouse, the assembled Avengers (Fury, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Punisher, War Machine, and Cash) are debriefed on their next mission. The White House itself has given them a kill-order on a frightening biker called the Ghost Rider!
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| An odd place to execute someone |
THE ROADMAP
Though the covers say "Ultimate Avengers 2 # 1-2", the indicia labels them as "Ultimate Avengers # 7-8".
CHAIN REACTION
This second story-arc of Ultimate Avengers not only introduced Ghost Rider to the Ultimate universe, it also gave Mark Millar his
long-standing wish to write the Spirit of Vengeance. Unfortunately,
neither of those things happen in these issue, which is taken up totally
by the Punisher and Tyrone Cash's recruitments to the squad.
Mark Millar is a writer that I usually avoid, for
the reason that I find his over-the-top, shock tactic writing to be the
opposite of what I consider good storytelling. That being said, though, I
was a big fan of his and Brian Hitch's Ultimates series. I can't really
offer up a reason for liking it, other than being impressed by Hitch's
highly-detailed artwork, but it nevertheless has been the only Millar
project that I've enjoyed on any level. Due to those fond memories of
the Ultimates, I read the first story-arc of his Ultimate Avengers
series and was pleasantly surprised by the story that Millar and Carlos
Pacheco produced. I doubt I would have stuck with the series,
however, until I learned that Ghost Rider was the focal point of the
next arc.
I'm honestly surprised that it took as long as it did for Ghost Rider to be introduced in the Ultimate universe when
seemingly every other Marvel character had already been farmed out by this point. I
wasn't surprised that Millar was the writer responsible for Ghost
Rider's introduction, though, as the writer had expressed his love of
the character in numerous interviews. In fact, every time the Ghost
Rider series was relaunched in this era I expected Millar's name to be
attached. So I was curious to see what Millar was going to do with the character.
These issues are more concerned with the Punisher,
who seems to be the exact same character as his normal Marvel Universe
counterpart. I question the logic behind this, I mean what was the point
of having an Ultimate Punisher if there was no difference between him and
the baseline Marvel version? I also really don't know what to think of Tyrone Cash, I honestly don't. Even though the real Hulk was dead, Millar had just introduced the "Nerd Hulk" in the previous story-arc (in fact, almost all of the characters introduced as Avengers in the first arc have been discarded). It's almost as if Millar wanted to use Luke Cage, but was told at the last minute that he'd already introduced Cage into the Ultimate universe years before as a joke character. Cash has some interesting attributes, particularly how "going Hulk" changed him from a mild-mannered scientist to a violence-addicted killing machine that still possesses his brilliant intellect (unlike Banner's Hulk). But the guy's dialogue is so awful, with every British stereotype you can think of coming out of his mouth.
This does give artist Leinil Yu the opportunity to
show off. I've never really been impressed with Yu's work; I've found
his art to be boring at the best of times and flat-out ugly at the
worst. I'm not sure if it's the presence of inker Gerry Alanguilan or
something else entirely, but Yu's art seems much tighter and
straight-forward than normal. I like this change in style, which fits the characters and the tone of the story very well. The fight sequence between Cash and War Machine in issue 2 is very well done, with the actions drawn clearly and dynamically. The real money shot of these issues, of course, is the final double-page spread that introduces Ghost Rider. Yu draws an amazing interpretation of the character, and I especially love how he draws the Rider's motorcycle. I couldn't help but laugh, though, at his "Captain Punisher" design. If the point was to keep people from knowing the Punisher is an Avenger, why did they put a huge honkin' skull on his chest?
I'm eagerly anticipating the next issue, which will hopefully get the Ghost Rider plot underway after two months of stage-setting.
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| Worth the price of admission! |
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