The Ultimates

The Team

• Captain America is Steve Rogers - jingoistic, nationalistic, and prone to violence (as are most of his teammates). He has more of a 1940s attitude than the original version did (even in the 1940s), which often makes him look reactionary. Rogers underwent six months of surgery and steroid treatment during World War II to become America's first Super-Soldier. At the end of the war in 1945, he led a mission to sabotage a prototype hydrogen bomb developed by the Nazis with extraterrestrial technology, and was thrown into the North Atlantic, where he was frozen. He remained in suspended animation until his body was rediscovered in the present day and revived, just in time to take the field leadership of the new government-sponsored superhuman force known as the Ultimates.

• Iron Man is Tony Stark, the world's richest man, a billionaire industrialist, playboy and inventive genius who created the Iron Man powered armor. He joins the team because he has an inoperable brain tumor which will kill him anytime between six months and five years and wants to do something of worth before he dies. He is portrayed as an alcoholic, as he was for a time in the original comics.

• Thor is an ex-nurse who suffered a nervous breakdown, spending 18 months in a mental institution. When he was released, he claimed to be the exiled Son of Odin, building a cult of personality around himself with lecture tours and self-help books. He wields an allegedly magical hammer called Mjolnir which can also teleport objects into other dimensions. He appears to have super-powers, including flight, the ability to control the weather, super-strength and also exhibits a degree of omniscience. However, whether he is a delusional mutant or really the Thor of Norse mythology is still uncertain. He has refused to be an official member of the team, which he considers pawns of the military-industrial complex, but has offered to be on call anytime there is an emergency that requires his help. Mark Millar claims to have based the character loosely on conspiracy theorist David Icke.

• The Hulk is Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, who attempted to rediscover the Super-Soldier Formula that created Captain America. Insecure and neurotic, he used an experimental version of the formula on himself and transformed into the mindless Hulk. In addition to being childlike and violent, the Hulk is shown to be also a perpetually horny maniac with no sense of morality or restraint. In his Hulk form he is also virtually unstoppable, but easily manipulated. Banner was thought cured of his condition, but recreated the Hulk because he was resentful about being surrounded by people with super-powers. Technically not a member of the team, Banner is kept in isolation for safety reasons and is called on as a living weapon only as a last resort. Despite difficulties with his wife Betty Ross (who heads Public Relations for the team), this act seems to have started a reconciliation.

• Giant-Man and The Wasp are Janet and Henry Pym, a married couple as they were in the original comics, but here they are emotionally and physically abusive towards one another. As in the comics, Henry Pym is a world-famous scientist, but the Wasp is secretly a mutant and much more wasp-like than the original. Giant-Man's powers are derived from hers, which was apparently a source of resentment to him.

• The Black Widow and Hawkeye are Natasha Romanova, a former KGB spy and assassin, and Clint Barton, an archer with almost superhuman accuracy. They were originally part of the Ultimates' covert operations ("black ops") team, but were subsequently moved to public status after their backgrounds were falsified for public consumption. The Widow seems to have genetic or cybernetic enhancements, and has set her romantic sights on Tony Stark.

• Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, are Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, a pair of mutant siblings. Pietro has the power of super speed and Wanda can affect probabilities with her powers. Unlike the originals they have not abandoned their ties to Magneto's Brotherhood, and still believe in mutant supremacy. They are and remain (because of their mutant status), part of the black ops section. They are often depicted touching each other intimately, which has led to fan speculation that the two share an incestuous relationship.

The Ultimates

The Ultimates Vol. 1: Super-Human (collecting #1-#6)

• The team is initially formed by General Fury and the national security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. in response to the emergence of supervillains, specifically to Magneto's attack on the White House in Ultimate X-Men. However, amid the publicity of the team's debut, the first enemy comes from within, as Banner recreates the Hulk and goes on the rampage, devastating Manhattan and causing horrific casualties. Thanks to judicious public relations spin, the disaster comes off as a victory for the Ultimates, who are hailed as heroes when they subdue the Hulk. However, tensions between Janet and Henry Pym result in Pym violently assaulting his wife.

The Ultimates Vol. 2: Homeland Security (collecting #7-#13)

• While the Wasp is recovering, the decades-long covert war between the human race and the shape-changing extraterrestrials known as the Chitauri (loosely based on the original Marvel aliens the Skrulls) comes to a head as the Chitauri infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D., sending them and the Ultimates on a wild-goose chase to Micronesia while they secretly conquer the world. When the Ultimates escape the Chitauri's trap, the aliens prepare to set off a device that will obliterate the solar system as alien motherships gather above the city of Phoenix, Arizona. With the battle joined, the last hope may be to turn the Hulk loose again.

The Ultimates 2

1. Gods & Monsters: After Rogers rescues nine hostages in war-torn Iraq and injures a group of muggers back home, Stark tries to give a postitive spin on the use of a "Person of Mass Destruction" to Larry King. Thor's sanity is called into question when he meets with Volstagg the Voluminous at a New York restaurant; Volstagg tells Thor that Loki has escaped the Room Without Doors, and that the Ultimates are pawns of the New World Order; the waiter then tells him that nobody else is at his table (and he's right). Pym meets Banner in his Hulk-proof cell and demonstrates his newest invention, Banner suggesting Pym use the name "Ant-Man" if he gets back on the team. Someone then leaks the Hulk's identity and current whereabouts to national news.
2. Dead Man Walking: Fury recalls the team to the Triskelion. The President wants a televised trial for the Hulk, and Fury believes Thor was the source of the leak. Rogers confronts Thor at a club, where Thor denies being the leak, and claims that Loki, his evil half-brother, has come to Earth.
3. The Trial of the Hulk: Unable to leave the Triskelion, Banner is put on trial via satellite. Matt Murdock tries to defend Banner with a Jekyll-and-Hyde strategy, bringing up the good he's done to avoid the death penalty for over 800 counts of murder. Fury tells Banner that the case has been thrown out and gives him a bottle of champagne which has been doctored by Pym. When Banner awakens, he is on a ship which is then blown up by a nuclear weapon as his eyes go green. Rogers reads Banner's eulogy. Pym returns to his apartment and receives two messages: one regarding the designs for Ultron, and one with a mysterious voice thanking him, as we see who might be Bruce Banner walking away from a payphone.
4. Brothers: While the Ultimates fight mundane crises like drug deals, hostage situations and building fires, Stark builds Natasha an Iron Woman suit and proposes to her, and she accepts. When Italian police start attacking a demonstration against the European Defense Initiative (which is developing super soldiers similar to Captain America), Thor intervenes. EDI scientist Gunnar Golmen reveals to the Ultimates that Thor is his brother and a delusional mental patient who stole the technology Gunnar had developed to replicate the mythical powers of the god of thunder. The Ultimates join the EDI super soldiers and track Thor to Norway, where Thor claims that Gunnar is actually Loki, but the team does not believe him.

Other appearances

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