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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This is more of a delaying action that a full out war, June 19, 2003
You would think that a showdown between the Ultimate X-Men and the Ultimates (the Nuevo Avengers) would offer an epic battle, but instead "Ultimate War" is pretty much a holding action. This trade paperback which is Volume 5 in the "Ultimate X-Men" series collects the four issue mini-series, which follows up on the conclusion of Volume 4 "Hellfire & Brimstone" where Magneto remembers himself and prepares to put humanity in its proper place. In the wake of the revelation that the Mutant Master of Magnetism was not killed and that Charles Xavier had lied about Magneto's true fate, the X-Men join the Brotherhood of Mutants on the government's hit list and the Ultimates are sent to bring them down.Of course the lineups of the two groups is substantially different from the first time they fought in "The Avengers" #53, with Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and the Black Widow added on one side and Wolverine, Storm, and Colossus on the other. More importantly, it takes the Ultimates until issue #4 to track down the X-Men, although the Ultimates do get to tangle with Magneto when Daddy Dearest comes looking for Pietro and Wanda (I do hope that Magneto really is their father this time around because that would be a pretty good change from the first time through the Marvel Universe). Writer Mark Millar and artist Chris Bachalo reduce the "war" to a series of one-on-one battles: Iron Man vs. Colossus, Thor vs. Storm, Captain America vs. Wolverine, and the Wasp vs. Professor X. The problem is that they all take place in one issue, which means we only get a couple of pages for each confrontation. To quote Xander: "Big overture, little show." The biggest problem with "Ultimate War" is that the mini-series is hamstrung from the beginning: not much can actually happen because the big showdown with Magneto has to be with the X-Men. The end effect is not a complete reset to where we started, but its is close all things considered. There are also some implications for down the road, such as when Captain America recalls Wolverine as Corporal James Howlett of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion (of all of the new and improved Marvel Superheroes in this Ultimate book the one I like the most is Cap; the living legend is now much more of a pragmatist than an idealist, which makes perfect sense for somebody who fought Hitler and the Nazis during World War II). Consequently, it is not like you can skip this without being at something of a disadvantage when the story continues in "The Ultimate X-Men," which is precisely the point of such mini-series.
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by Brian Michael Bendis
by Mark Millar
by Brian Michael Bendis
by Brian K. Vaughan
by Mark Millar
