 Marvel's Ultimate line -- consisting of
Ultimate Spider-Man,
Ultimate X-Men, and
The Ultimates -- had proven a big success in
2002, the same year that saw the debut of The Ultimates. Fans clamored for more material,
but Marvel was reluctant to flood the market with new Ultimate titles.
Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra, a four-issue mini-series, debuted in
late 2002. The Ultimate version of both Daredevil and Elektra had already premiered in
Ultimate Marvel Team-Up and
Ultimate Spider-Man Super Special #1,
spin-offs of Ultimate Spider-Man, but this new mini-series was set during Matt Murdock's
and Elektra Natchios's college days, telling of their first meeting. The series had been
designed to take advantage of, and essentially to tie into, the Daredevil movie, set to
premiere in February 2003. As in the film, Elektra's costume was not her classic one of red
fabric but a leather-based outfit reminiscent of bikers. Writer Greg Rucka and his illustrators
had a tough precedent:
Frank Miller had explored the couple's first meeting in
his original run on Daredevil as well as
in his mini-series,
Daredevil: The Man Without Fear.
Rucka's task was to update the story for the new millennium. He accomplished this task --
poorly. On the fifth page of the first issue, Elektra and her black roommate at college
announce themselves to be feminists (as if the whole point of Elektra wasn't counter-feminist),
and the main villain was a stereotypical raping jock of rich parentage. Elektra's roommate even
adds the man's name to a list of rapists in a women's bathroom -- a crime, given the unproven
status of the assertion (we're supposed to believe the victim, despite that the rape is only
implied in the narrative and we never see it). While certain changes, such as making Elektra's
father a simple store owner rather than a rich man, were cosmetic if not actually logical, the
philosophically offensive and ethically problematic plot. A trade paperback of the lackluster
series was rushed to press in time for the movie.
Ultimate Adventures, a six-issue mini-series telling the story of a
Batman-like character's adoption of his Robinesque sidekick and their assumption of adventures,
actually premiered before the Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra mini-series. Written by Ron
Zimmerman with Duncan Fegredo art, the series was launched as part of Marvel's "U-Decide" stunt:
three six-issue mini-series, also including Marville and Captain Marvel, would be
launched simultaneously with the best series continuing and the other two winning cancellation.
Ultimate Adventures, however, quickly became delayed. Issues ran months late, and its
very completion seemed in some doubt. Its quality, however, was quite good: writer Ron
Zimmerman wrote the young boy with great panache, and Duncan Fegredo's art nearly always
pleases. The series was at last completed (absurdly) in late 2003.
|
