Psyche, Just Kidding Guys!
March 15th, 2010 by david brothers | Tags: carlos pacheco, mark millar, nick fury, red skull, ultimate avengersMark Millar on the opening scene of Ultimate Avengers #5:
PS Wasp wasn’t raped. These guys were political torturers, but it wasn’t sexual. Sexual violence in Marvel books is a bit weird and I’ve avoided since I started (as far as I recall) as this stuff is all available to kids.
from ultimate avengers #5, words by millar, art by pacheco, inks by dexter vines
Political torture? What did they do, tie her to a chair and read her some Glenn Beck quotes? Did they get into a really, really heated debate over healthcare? Maybe diss her for voting Perot? Did they make fun of her for thinking that dead prez’s (bounce to this…) socialist movement was going anywhere?
Did they make her cry when they carefully explained that no one will ever spend as much on education as they do on war?
C’mon, son.
We don’t believe you, you need more people.
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DUDE RED SKULL IS SUCH A TOTAL BADASS NOW, NOT LIKE THE WIMPY RED SKULL THAT MY DAD USED TO READ. FUCK MY DAD AND HIS WIMPY COMICS.
“[. . .] this stuff is all available to kids.”
“So here you go, kids! Joe Strummer in a skull mask hurling a baby like a frisbee!”
Don’t downplay how scarring Glenn Beck can be >_>
also this is essentially what Van Lente did a few months back
Millar writes some fun comics, but stuff like this seriously creeps me out.
Same thing happened with reading Alan Moore’s works.
It wasn’t Red Skull’s fault. Earthworm Jim was supposed to catch the baby with a trampoline and propel him over to Peter Puppy.
Hey, remember in the Grell run of Green Arrow, when Dinah went into therapy with a woman who had been abducted as a child? And the woman said, “They used to say, ‘At least you weren’t raped. Like that was the worst thing that could happen to you.'”
Yeah.
Mark Millar confuses me.
I loved his JLA-quits-dicking-around approach to the Authority.
Hated the Ultimates with their fresh, new direction of everyone being a possibly insane man-child, lecherous drunk, raging asshole, or some combination of those three.
Enjoyed (most of) Wanted and Chosen a good bit because of the “ok, what would you REALLY do if you could do this kind of stuff” factor.
Wolverine:Enemy of the State/Agent of SHIELD was balls-to-the-wall crazy fun, and I understand Old Man Logan was the same.
Kick-Ass, while I won’t be reading another volume of it, was funny enough in a 10 year old wish-fulfillment kind of way.
His run on FF was one of the few things I’ve ever stopped buying part way through.
Enjoyable as some of his stuff is, I personally don’t think the word “subtlety” is in his vocabulary, and I can’t believe he’d actually think people would believe the most obvious interpretation of those couple captions aren’t the right one. Hard as it might be to insult the intelligence of some that consider things like Kick-Ass and Wanted great comics, as opposed to stupid fun, Mark is really swinging for the fences here.
Out of curiosity, did Fury go on to imply the Skull killed JFK? I found the tease intriguing, so sue me.
This is Dark Knight influenced ‘chaos’ reality. Folks asked for it – they got it. It’s lazy writing, but apparently folks demanded it and now there’s confusion by some that it’s coming out? This crap will be the good stuff come a few months from now.
Hell, I’ve been waiting for Blackest Knight: Daffy Duck
Shitty writers are thanking gawd for zombies and chaos villains these days.
[…] I even didn’t mind anything about the infamous Red Skull flashback in Ultimate Avengers #5 until Millar pussied out about how even though Skull forced a woman to horrifically murder her husband and then tossed a […]
@Lou: There are people who hated Ultimates? :psyduck:
also don’t forget the utterly delightful Superman Adventures series, and his surprisingly intriguing Red Son and work on the Flash and Aztek (morrison co-wrote but admits it was mainly millar)
also not implied, it was outright shown (jfk bit)
@ Nathan: I think I actually own the first and third issue of the first series, and that’s it. I know I’ve read both trades I borrowed off someone, and while some of the ideas were interesting, I just couldn’t stand the characters. I’m not saying it was bad, no one can possibly like it, it just wasn’t for me. For a line that was supposed to totally reinvent the universe, all the Ultimate books seemed to re-hash old storylines or be content with turning their characters into pricks, and that was about it. And of course, there isn’t a Hank Pym in the multiverse that isn’t a wife-beater. Hitch’s art is also hit-or-miss for me.
I’ve never read Red Son or Aztek, but both are on a long list of trades to get to eventually, and I can’t remember hearing anything negative about either. Didn’t know he did any work on Flash, but would be up for reading it after I track down the last trade of Johns’ run.
And that’s what bothers me, little touches like the JFK bit (the 100 bullets issue about it is my favorite of the series, yet I’m not a conspiracy nut about the event itself. Weird.) and the Skull as Cap’s son backstory interest me, but I quickly get tired of reading about a team full of d-bags, as opposed to a team with just one (Hawkeye), like the normal MU.
Observation fail: I never got that the woman was supposed to Red Wasp. I just assumed it was an unrelated babykilling and gang-rape to reinforce that Red Skull was badass.
D’oh.
@Lou: Also definitely check those out when you can. Red Son is up there with Man of Steel as the greatest portrayal of Lex Luthor, Millar got what the character was all about, and the alternate history was fun. Also Aztek was a neat little spin on the “fish out of water” messiah story as Aztek becomes a hero simply to pass time until the apocalypse. Sadly cut short though Morrison did give Aztek his destiny in the finale of his JLA.
also Morrison/Millar did a few issues during one of Mark Waid’s breaks on the title. Morrison did a very interesting story that focused on Jay Garrick, then Millar took the helm for the rest of their “run”. Millar came up with stuff like the Black Flash and speed force superhero costumes. they got rereleased in TPB recently but with Morrison receiving top billing.
@AlLoggins: Red Wasp flat out told Rhodey it was her
@Nathan: There’s a whole lot of reasons to dislike Ultimates.
@Lou: I agree- Millar’s lack of subtlety is a real problem, and hurts what would otherwise be quality plotting.
@david brothers: I was being humorous hence the :psyduck:
I personally loved the hell out of everything Ultimates related Millar did, was real fun comic book experience. But I can see why some people wouldn’t like them.
also the thing with Millar that is so weird is that he is capable of subtlety, he simply makes a conscious effort to avoid it.
Don’t forget Millar’s tenure as the last writer of the Alan Moore era Swamp Thing. It was decently thoughtful, a storyline about Swamp Thing running a sort of metaphysical gauntlet against the other elements. I remember lots of fun things, like a story where Swamp Thing became an animating spirit for a Golem in another world, and appearances by characters like the fantasy swordsman Nightmaster. It was his earliest work in American comics. Then there’s his 2000 AD stuff, such as Red Razors, a semi-satirical take on the Judge Dredd concept, set in a Russian Mega-City. I remember it being pretty fun too.
All this stuff, including things that have been mentioned above like Superman Adventures, were quite different from what he’s become known for. I think it’s due to the success of Wanted. Yeah, his Authority run and the Ultimates obviously share in the blame, but I think it’s mostly Wanted.