Ultimate War starts off with a bang as a terrorist attack destroys the Brooklyn Bridge, and definitively puts an end to post-11 September sensitivity to such occurrences. The event recalls Wildstorm's The Authority (which Millar used to write back when it was still worth reading), and firmly establishes the high stakes game that Magneto is playing -- an attack on humanity that quite logically pits the government-sponsored Ultimates against the X-Men, who secretly were harboring Magneto but couldn't manage to keep him in their secret custody.

For the most part, artit Chris Bachalo sets aside his penchant for abstraction, instead adjusting his style to more comfortably complement Millar, who has worked with some of the best and most appealing superhero artists in recent history -- people like Bryan Hitch and Frank Quitely and JG Jones. Any reader comfortable with those styles and endeared to Millar's cynical-but-thrilling storytelling style is almost certainly going to like Ultimate War. Bachalo's style here is especially well-suited to rendering The Ultimates, bring a very different look from Bryan Hitch's but preserving their power and sense of menace.

Bachalo's art is not problem-free, though. While there's a surprisingly effective sequence featuring a conversation between Janet Pym confronting Jean Grey's father as the Wasp tries to get a lead on where the X-Men might be hiding out, the action becomes muddled when it switches to a look at the mutants in their low-rent hideout. When Magneto launches an assault on The Ultimates, the actual full-page shot of Magneto in action starkly portrays Bachalo's worst instincts. The scene is all flash and no substance, and has therefore no impact other than that in the dialogue -- a high crime in a medium made up of equal parts words and pictures, but made all the more egregious given that we're dealing with an action-oriented tale. The rest of the sequence is very well handled, and the moment where Captain America vows to go after both Magneto and the X-Men comes off as dramatic and convincing, a somewhat extraordinary moment for a superhero comic in the 21st century. The impression I am left with is that Bachalo excels in the quiet moments, but sometimes loses his way when drawing scenes of intense action or drama.

As the tale moves into the final confrontation between the Ultimates and the X-Men, it's clear Millar's heart is more in fashioning a complement to Ultimate X-Men than to creating a standalone story that will equally satisfy readers of both titles. That's my polite way of saying the Ultimates kind of get the short shrift, as you might have suspected by the "Ultimate X-Men Volume Five" designation the trade paperback was given. The battle takes too long to get into gear, and is over much too quickly, although it does have some thrilling moments of confrontation between the Ultimates and the X-Men.

If I'd had my way (and I so rarely do with these things), we'd have had a more balanced meeting between the two teams. There's plenty of fodder for high-powered melodrama inherent in the conflict between the government-sponsored Ultimates and the mutants they are forced into conflict with, and of course Millar touches on this, but in the end that's secondary to advancing the plotline of Ultimate X-Men and establishing Magneto's return, and his rage.

So this is not quite the work I had hoped for - but it's still a dynamic action book that should thrill readers of Ultimate X-Men and at least satisfy Ultimates readers looking for something to tide them over in the long, long wait between new issues. Grade: 4/5

-- Alan David Doane

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