I am – Hercules!!

The first “Ultimate Avengers” straight-to-DVD movie frustrated many! In terms of story and animation, I thought it was way out ahead of “Justice League” and its ilk, but at the same time the thing seemed whorish when compared to its source material, Mark Millar’s perfectly spectacular “Ultimates” comic-book series.

Indulge me a digression, constant reader. There was a fascinating (to me) interview with Millar in an issue of Marvel Spotlight this year in which Millar confirmed that Sam “Black Snake Moan” Jackson was indeed the man he and artist Bryan Hitch had in mind when they created Ultimate Nick Fury. In fact, Millar named in that Marvel Spotlight piece all the real-life people he and Hitch had “cast” in key roles:

* Nick Fury: Samuel L. Jackson
* Steve Rogers: Brad Pitt
* Tony Stark: Johnny Depp
* Hank Pym: Matthew McConaughey
* Janet Pym: Ziyi Zhang
* Wanda Maximoff: Angelina Jolie
* Pietro Maximoff: James Haven Voight
* Bruce Banner: Steve Buscemi
* Clint Barton: Bruce Willis
* Thor: Jesus of Nazareth

Naturally, none of these people do the voices in these “Ultimate Avengers” DVDs. But if the Romans hadn't gone and crucified Jesus, I bet Jesus would have signed on to play Thor. And when he did, I bet Pitt, Depp and a lot of the other big-deal movie stars would have eagerly come aboard just for the opportunity to work with The Christ! I know I would!

Anyway, here’s “Prisoner 2K” with his review of Ultimate Avengers 2, which hits shelves in a few short hours:

Picking up a short time after the events of the first film (which, while helpful in deepening the character motivations and conflicts for UA2, is not required viewing in order to understand what's going on), the film begins in the isolationist country of Wakanda, deep in the African jungle. The Wakandan king, T'Chaka, is publicly welcoming home his son, T'Challa, who has been the first of his people to study away from home (the fact of which has put T'Chaka at odds with the Elders of Wakanda). T'Chaka does not have long to enjoy his son's company before their palace is attacked by the same alien invaders who united the main characters in Ultimate Avengers. As the leader of Wakanda, it is T'Chaka's duty to don the mantle of the Black Panther, and defend his people.

This is the point at which UA2 first caught my attention. As T'Chaka battles Herr Kleiser (another villain returning from the first film) with T'Challa looking on, UA2 demonstrates how it earned its PG-13 rating. While far from gratuitous, the combat between these men is vicious, including stabbing, severing of limbs, and the bloodshed that would naturally accompany these actions. Comic book fans will most likely be delighted to hear that THIS IS NOT A FILM FOR YOUNG CHILDREN. The violence in the film is unflinching, particularly for an animated superhero film. Parents looking for something akin to the 1980s Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends in terms of that program's innocuousness and kiddification of violence should at least screen UA2 before their kids do, and judge for themselves if its content is appropriate. Personally, as a long-time Marvel fan, I appreciated the fact that the filmmakers were willing to establish legitimate stakes for the characters, by showing that the villains were truly villainous, and that there was a very real chance of characters being hurt or worse. Let's face it; for this type of drama to work, we need to know that the life-or-death scenarios that plague our costumed heroes really have the appropriate consequences to go with them.

I have to admit that I have not read the Millar/Hitch Ultimates comics upon which the reinvention of the classic Marvel Avengers is based, having grown up during the original era of their comics' runs (you know, before everyone decided to tweak the origins of every Tom, Dick, or Ben Reilly out there...), so I can't speak to whether or not the characters' backstories holds true to the source material, but I can say that, on their own merits, the two UA films' portrayals of Captain America, Black Widow, Giant-Man, The Wasp, Iron Man, Hulk, and Thor were genuinely compelling and layered.

When we catch up with our band of Avengers, they're all trying to go on with what they were doing in their lives before they answered S.H.I.E.L.D. commander Nick Fury's call to unite. For Dr. Hank Pym (Giant Man) and his wife, Janet (The Wasp), this means continuing their experiments to test the limits of Hank's ability to grow and shrink, which Hank seems determined to exceed, regardless of the risks to his health. Pym's depiction as an egocentric jerk is, in its own way, refreshing, since those of us who grew up with the Super Friends had to live with a group of people who never bickered, always did the right thing without reservation, and generally acted like...no real human beings ever would. Steve Rogers (Captain America) is suffering from post-traumatic stress, having been awakened from a 60-year deep freeze in the first film, and finding that although his life as America's first Super-Soldier during World War II still has purpose as the leader of the Avengers, everything he knew from his old life has gone by without him. He is played as the walking anachronism that befits the reality of his character, and when we see Captain America on the field of battle alongside Black Widow, he puts himself in harm's way with no regard for his own safety, as if his circumstances have given him a death wish, which makes him infinitely more interesting than if he had just been portrayed as an overgrown boy scout. Billionaire inventor Tony Stark (Iron Man) is the playboy that Bruce Wayne could never let go enough to be, and is played with equal amounts of charm and smugness by Marc Worden. Thor, without even needing a secret identity, is in this continuity a tree-hugger, who uses his powers to defend the Earth's land and creatures (despite his father, Odin's disapproval). Dr. Bruce Banner (The Hulk) is played here as an anti-social, almost wormy character, who is just off-putting enough to make it creepy that he has within him the power of the Hulk. When we see at the beginning of the film that he has been incarcerated by Fury, we're almost glad.

The group is once again called together to face the alien threat, when T'Challa comes to Captain America for help in thwarting them. Whereas in the first UA film, most of the conflict was amongst the Avengers themselves, this time we see the individual characters' internal conflicts get in the way of their ability to function smoothly. We see that Cap is too close to the situation when he learns that Kleiser, a man he thought he had killed during the WWII mission that caused him to freeze, is behind the invasion of Wakanda, which skews his judgment. Further complicating things is the isolationist nature of the Wakandan people, who will not only refuse to consider allowing outsiders to help them, but will use lethal force to deny them so much as entry into Wakanda. How will Earth's mightiest heroes defend the planet, when they not only have to fight their true enemy, but the people they're trying to save? What secret, known only to Banner, a man considered not trustworthy enough to be free, let alone listened to, might hold the key to the aliens' defeat? And how can Captain America finally lay to rest a villain that he has already "killed" twice before? The good news is that Ultimate Avengers 2 serves up answers to these questions with a well-written (if sometimes too predictable a manner for an adult viewer) script, interesting characters, and a film that plays much better than the somewhat cheap-looking animation might suggest.

And I haven't even gotten to the extras yet!! These alone are worth the cost of the UA2 DVD.

First up is a featurette called "The Ultimates," which was of great benefit to me, since as I said earlier, I hadn't read the Ultimates comics. The featurette provides a solid history of the reboot of the characters, and at 24 minutes, gets into just enough detail through its interviews with writers Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch, and Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada to be interesting, without going overboard.

Next is what's listed as "The Ultimate Gag Reel." Now, before you roll your eyes at how often this has been done in recent animation, just check it out for yourselves. If you don't think that a gag reel covering "Owner of a Lonely Heart," Superman: the Movie, rib joints, random Ms. Marvel candids, and Boba Fett hauling Han Solo's carbonite-frozen body aboard Slave I, all told through animation from the two UA films is funny, then check your pulse; you might be dead.

Finally, and maybe coolest of all the extras, are two "First Look" featurettes, covering projects in the pipeline from the UA animation teams: Iron Man and one of my personal favorites from the 70s: Dr. Strange. Yep, the master of the mystic arts is getting his own animated feature, and by the look of things, it's gonna be great fun when it hits. Say it with me: Dormammu...mmmm...Dormammu...

Here's my review of UA2 in a nutshell: The film - ***1/2 out of five The DVD - **** out of five