Ultimate Avengers

This February, Marvel Comics will be taking their Ultimate universe to the next level with the release of Ultimate Avengers, a direct-to-DVD, animated movie featuring the government sponsored team of super-heroes.

For those of you who don't know about Ultimate Marvel, lemme learn you som'fin, foo'. Sometime in the late 90's, Marvel got the idea that some of its titles could use a little work. Their main books featured now aging super-heroes whose continuity was complicated continuity tended frustrating to potential new readers. Their solution was a reboot of their most popular characters whose stories would run in a separate, parallel universe. So, in 2000, they launched Ultimate SpiderMan, followed soon after by Ultimate X-Men and the Ultimates (read: Ultimate Avengers). This continuity wiped the slate clean and most of the heroes making their initial debut in the new millennia. These titles were also a bit edgier and featured characters dealing with situations and circumstances that similar, if not virtually identical, to events happening in the real world.

In short, a great move by Marvel.

My only gripe here is that they reverted back to the original name for the team. As a kid, I never much cared for The Avengers; partly because of the name. Sure, I dug Iron Man and Captain America, but the team, compared to the X-Men, anyway, seemed like a bunch of pansies who fought the goofiest bad guys. They reminded me of Marvel's version of The Superfriends.

The new name fits the team much better and I'm sad to see that they didn't stick with it, but I guess their going with what they think they can market better. Afterall, I actually had to read The Ultimates to figure out that it was the Ultimate version of The Avengers.

Anyway, read more about it here.