I feel like a bit of a
fool. I had been looking forward to this for some time, I have been nothing but
impressed by Millar’s return to the Ultimate universe and on the whole, his two
Avengers arcs have been some of the most entertaining buys each month. After
the latest Ghost Rider/Punisher arc wrapped up I was excited to see where this
was heading, so naturally I dived straight into this vampire themed story
without taking note of the artists.

As I began to read
through I began to get confused, the last two arcs have featured stunning, jaw
dropping art that brings the feel of the Hollywood blockbuster to the page –
this however is dark, brooding and carried a very Punisher MAX feel to it. That
is of course around the time I realised that Steve Dillion (Preacher/Punisher
MAX) was on art, a move I’m not sure fits the overall tone of the book. While
it’s plain to see that Millar is going for the B-movie horror vibe, the art –
which I must also point out at this juncture is usually some of my favourite
around – seems a bit out of place. Everything is very simple and frank about it’s
intentions, but the similarities to Preacher and the latest Punisher MAX series
are just too great… the Avengers book looses it’s identity somewhat.

The writing sadly
doesn’t fare much better this issue. It’s rather dull. Blade is introduced as
the standard black macho guy stereotype and this new Daredevil sadly doesn’t
really differ much from the one that was slain during Ultimatium.

Red Skull had a unyielding
menace to him, Johnny Blaze and Frank Castle were kept intriguing through their
dynamic together –hopefully Millar will find a way to put any form of interest
into these two new characters.

The violence in this
book is also noteworthy, it’s very
MAX. That is to say it is fairly bloody, gory and savage – I can only see more
to come as they delve deeper into the vampire fight, but it was rather
unexpected for a ‘Ultimate’ book to carry such content.

While this is going to
be a much darker, horror themed story I don’t see why this means we have to compromise
on the suave, quietly funny style that this book has carried for two arcs
already. Hopefully Superheroes fighting vampires and… well, superhero’s
fighting superhero vampires will keep the pace and interest we have come to
expect, I’m not holding out high hopes.

Josh “origami kid” West
twitter.com/origamikid

www.origamikid.wordpress.com