The Ultimates 2 Vol. 2: Grand Theft America

Title: The Ultimates 2 Vol. 2: Grand Theft America

ISBN: 9780785117902
Price: $19.99
Publisher/Year: Marvel, 2010
Artist: Bryan Hitch
Writer: Mark Millar
Collects: The Ultimates 2 #7-13

Rating: 2.5/5

Well, this book finishes up the story where Gods and Monsters left off and to be honest with you, I could use a bit of a break from The Ultimates so it will be a while before I check out The Ultimates 3.  So does this book do justice to the series?  In my humble opinion, no.  I’ve mentioned before that the normal pace for The Ultimates books tends to be a bit slow, but this book isn’t slow at all.  In fact it moves so fast at times it seems frantic, like we’ve missed a panel or two.

Basically the bottom falls out on The Ultimates in this book, which could have worked out very nicely, but I feel that Marvel took the wrong path on this one.  I see what they were doing, I get the fact that Marvel likes to tie issues in the real world into their stories:  Mutant/Super-hero registration, segregation, the Legacy virus… I get it.  I normally enjoy the way Marvel intertwines issues between the real world and the created one, but sometimes it gets in the way.  In fact, I think this could have been a much better book had they just removed the politics and just told the story.  It felt very contrived and rushed the way it is.

There was some great action in this book, so if you pick it up just for that reason then you’ll probably enjoy the tale, but if you are looking for story that feels honest you may be left a bit disappointed like I was.