A new take on the Ultimates has kicked off a firestorm of superhero opportunities. A team that’s basically terrorists in the public’s eyes faces an insurmountable threat as a new world order hidden from the public aims to destroy them. Armed with only a few heroes in a world that has lost the opportunity for most, Captain American, Iron Lad, Giant-Man, and Wasp take the fight directly to the enemy: The White House.
Ultimates #2 opens outside the White House on the Fourth of July. Most of the Ultimates are fighting through guards and they’re looking for something. Captain America makes it quite plain when he says the enemy can go with or through. He means business and his experience is the framing device for the entire issue.
That framing device comes by way of a projection of world events in this universe as viewed by Captain America. Taking place before they storm the White House, one can see he’s fired up after seeing America fall. The Maker has fiddled with history, which ranges from upending leaders to fighting Galactus.
These scenes add context to Captain America’s point of view and give the reader a sense of how The Maker has manipulated the world. The Marvel 616 was the correct path, but we see the Savage Land destroyed or how the Punisher became a terrorist. When Cap hears a little girl asks what the A stands for on his head, his pause says everything: Captain America has lost everything he stands for and will stop at nothing to get it back.
Love Captain America’s reaction.
Credit: Marvel
Chewing up the scenery is a villain the Ultimates encounter who is traditionally an Iron Man villain. He has a different take on America and how it’s all about capitalist ideals. There is no dream but only making the rich richer. It hauntingly sounds familiar in today’s climate, which is yet another example of how this universe plays into current societal queues. He goes on a bit long with his speech–a common trope for villains–but it helps solidify what America is in this universe.
Artist Juan Frigeri makes it clear the Ultimates aren’t overpowered in the slightest, as they take hits and come close to losing more than once. Even Giant-Man is winded at one point. Captain America takes the most brutal hits, and you’ll feel it from the blood dripping from his mouth to the absolute hammering he takes.
As far as where this story goes from here, writer Deniz Camp establishes some interesting angles. One is that Captain America has the context of what America is, but where it all went. How does a person internalize that, and how will this change this version of Captain America? There are also some tidbits about a new hero who enters this issue. While they aren’t in it much, the villain conveys they may have another point of view on what this reality should be. There seems to be a growing theme of how characters want or remember the world to be and fight to change it.
Ultimates #2 reveals snapshots of how America’s history changed while the Ultimates fight to add another hero to their fold. Centered on Captain America, it’s a story that reveals an America that he detests and isn’t too far off from reality.
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