Pocket Books (2006)
Michael Jan Friedman, writer
This is another Marvel prose novel, but from a later set than the previous ones I've discussed. This set of novels, released in the mid-2000s, has a slightly different cover style than the previous series of novels in the 1970s and 1990s. The 2000 books all have a solid color strip on the left side of the front cover that matches the spine and back cover color. The title of the book and author are printed sideways on this solid color strip.
The Ultimates is the first book from this series that I have read, and if it is any indication of the quality of the overall series, it is a step up from the 1990s prose novel series. Not that those books were bad, but this one just reads a little better, one of the better comic-book novelizations I've read to date.
The Ultimates as a concept is basically a modern retelling of the Avengers, but for Marvel Comics' Ultimate Universe. While the Avengers have often worked with Col. Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. in the regular Marvel Universe, in the Ultimate Universe, the team is assembled by Gen. Nick Fury specifically to be a super-powered S.H.I.E.L.D. strike team. In the first twelve issues of the comic-book series, the team is assembled with the newly revived Captain America, Iron Man, Wasp, Giant Man/Ant Man and scientist Bruce Banner. Their first mission is to bring in Banner after he accidentally turns himself into a monster called the Hulk. And then, the team -- joined by Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch -- must repel an alien invasion.
This novel, according to notes in the book by Friedman, is meant to bridge the gap between that first 12-issue Ultimates comic series and the second. The novel begins when a group of intruders suddenly appears inside the Triskelion, the Ultimates' island base of operations. Iron Man is the first to arrive and manages to fight the intruders to a stand-off until the arrival of Captain America and the Wasp causes the invaders to suddenly surrender. Once the fighting stops, Gen. Fury and the rest of the Ultimates question the intruders who claim to be time travelers from the future on a mission to benefit mankind. The Tomorrow Men, as they call themselves, have come back in time to stop the growth of a vast criminal empire that will eventually seize control of the world and dominate humanity in the future. They are hoping to enlist the aid of the Ultimates in their mission.
Several references are made to the first 12-issue series of The Ultimates comics, but everything needed to follow this story is presented in these pages, making the novel reader friendly. The bulk of the action focuses on Iron Man, Captain America, the Wasp, Thor and the Black Widow, although the other characters are also present. And again, this was a very good read.
I do find it curious however that Captain America alone is so prominent on the cover of the book. Iron Man and another character -- possibly the Black Widow -- are suggested behind Cap, and I realize cover space is limited with that title strip taking up some of the room, but that still seems an odd choice for a team book. But oh well, can't have it all.
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