ultimate sinster six?

[g-man]

BY JENNIFER M. CONTINO

If you can't get enough of Brian Michael Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man, then check out the upcoming spin off miniseries The Six. Drawn by Trevor (Cla$$war, Captain America) Hairsine, this six-part limited series makes its debut this September and features Norman Osborn, Electro, Doctor Octopus, Kraven, Sandman, and a secret sinister sixth member.

 

 

Spidey

The series was inspired by a few different things, especially the previous incarnations of the "Sinister Six" team. "The damn excitement of the original Sinister Six is an inspiration," said scribe Brian Michael Bendis, who quickly added. "We're not even calling it the Sinister Six. That's just for old school comic book fans like myself. It's hard to imagine that intelligent people would refer to themselves as sinister. 'We're sinister! Ha ha!' It kinda defeats the purpose of having intelligent characters. 'I'm sooo eeeeeeevil!' But it is the six of them and it is a group, so we're using the conceit of the Sinister Six and building from there. It's six villains teaming up for a cause."

 

Doctor Octopus

Building from there with an almost potential legion of bad guys to choose from. "Over the course of Ultimate Spider-Man, almost every major villain, Nick Fury and S.H.E.I.L.D. have picked up at the end of it, even though it was Spider-Man who defeated them," said Bendis about the possibilities of other villains who could appear within the course of these six issues. "We got a little hint of that at the end of the Doc Ock arc. We saw where he was placed. We know that Norman was picked up and taken away. But we don't know where, and what happened to Electro at the end of the Kingpin story? And we don't know about a couple other villains, which I'm gonna keep a secret so people can open up the book and go, 'hey cool! I didn't know that!' The sixth one is the big reveal. The sixth one is people going, 'aahh! I didn't see that one comin'!' So what we ended up with is a major chapter in the Ultimate Universe story. We get to see how S.H.I.E.L.D. operates in regards to super villains. What laws does Nick Fury break to keep everything safe and healthy?"

 

 

 

Peter and Nick

 

Green Goblin

Bendis continued, "A lot of these characters have a pretty harsh vendetta against Nick Fury. Norman, from day one, has had it on for Nick Fury. Now, he's got it on for Nick Fury even more so and he's got super powers and intelligence to back it up, Norman wasn't some shlub, he was a player in the field of genetic science. That is the point of the story, all these characters have been illegally mutated into something they aren't supposed to be. And a lot of it stems from super soldier experiments, legal and illegal ones. Makes for some very interesting drama for Nick Fury, Captain America and the others."

 

 

Some people may be wondering why this is its own limited series instead of appearing within the context and pages of Ultimate Spider-Man, as the creators had originally planned. The more the creators worked on the story, the more they felt it was something a little bigger than the scope and design of what could be accomplished within the pages of the regular monthly US-M. "The story was initially going to be in Ultimate Spider-Man," said Bendis. "I was building to it. Then, when I started working on it, I realized that the problem set by attempting this is much bigger than Spider-Man could handle. Spider-Man's only 15 years old. This is an insane amount of trouble. Half of them know who he is. Also, the whole feel of it wasn't a very high school kind of story, which is where we like to keep the Ultimate Spider-Man stories grounded. So, I came to Marvel and said, 'I want to do this big story, I just don't think it fits in Ultimate Spider-Man.' It needs to involve Nick Fury and the Ultimates in a huge way and I brought up how some of the subplots of the Ultimates and the ultimate universe connects to the Six and everyone involved got very excited."

 

 

 

Hawkeye

Bendis likes the opportunity to flesh out these heroes and especially the villains. "To make them a real challenge, to flesh out their motivations and their world view is one of the things I like best about working on this. Norman Osborn's got a real agenda and point of view of the world, and he thinks he is right. And when he says his piece it should be a damn convincing argument. And these are not stupid characters. Norman and Otto are smarter than Nick and the Ultimates. And they've got one up on Spider-Man on every level. It's a pretty big conceit, the whole concept, so making it work. Making it flow without leaving anyone behind is a challenge,

 

 

 

Black Widow, Wasp and Thor

I'm really excited about this because I donut really write big event team-up crossover events, but I've been building towards this."

 

A project like that needed an artist just as big as this could potentially become. Bendis and Marvel checked out several artists, but, in the end, went with Trevor Hairsine. "We went on an artist search and Trevor was my highest choice," said Bendis. "Even though he was on Captain America, I thought he's up there with [bryan] Hitch in my opinion. I think he's great. I thought a gig like this would really let him show off like he hasn't been able to show off before. I whined and cried and carried on and it is my fault he's not on Captain America finishing his art. But there you go. He's been killin'."

 

 

 

"I've a fair size pile of old Spidey comics in my collection, so brushing up wasn't too hard," said Hairsine of how he prepared himself for drawing this series. "Although being an Ultimate title, I pretty much had to set aside all I'd read before. I've the lion's share of the Ultimate Spider-Man issues and that's pretty much it. All the characters are already established, so there's little room for redesigning. Although I guess I have played around with them a little. I can't help it. Force of habit."

 

When asked why readers should give The Six a twirl, Bendis replied, "Because this is just big fun Marvel Comics by creators who care and I think the art is gorgeous. It's the next big chapter of the Ultimate books and if you read USM or the Ultimates, well them you just gotta."

 

[chrisco37]

I'll be picking this up. Sounds really good! I like that Bendis wanted to keep it out of USM and focus more on the SHEILD aspect. I really like the Bendis take on Nick Fury. Thanks for the head's up G!

 

Chris

[500Club]

You know, I don't really like the idea.... but Bendis writes so well, that I have high expectations for this. Any guesses on the mystery sixth villain?

[HeroDreamer]

I like the idea except for Kraven, unless he gets some powers. I can see Norman and Otto manipulating Electro and Sandman. As for the mystery villian...no pun intended but I'd like to see an Ultimate Mysterio although i think his introduction would be better in a storyline of his own. I dunno...as long as they don't have Venom I think I'll be happy!

[Ares]

You know, I don't really like the idea.... but Bendis writes so well, that I have high expectations for this. Any guesses on the mystery sixth villain?

 

Geldof?

[chrisco37]

Geldof?

 

Gawd, I hope not. That storyline is really ticking me off. So lame. Bendis's only really bad arc to date.

 

Chris

[Zonker]

Prompts a couple of questions--

 

First, where I'm coming from: I'm an avid reader of The Ultimates, and managed to pick up a run of Ultimate Marvel Team-up cheap, but for reasons that form a long story, just never got in to USM.

 

Question 1: In one of the Team-up arcs, Nick Fury is shown, and though he is in the shadows, he seems to look very similar to the Caucasian Nick of the main Marvel Universe. Yet we know in The Ultimates he's Samuel L. Jackson, right? Has this been explained in the Ultimate universe?

 

Question 2: Lighthouse predicted recently, and I overheard in the local comics shop this week, that The Ultimates has been cancelled as of later this year. So is this true, or has anyone else heard this? If so, why? (Since when has the inability of a creative team to keep to schedule been reason enough to cancel a money-making title?)

 

Thanks in advance...

Z.

[chrisco37]

Z -

 

Answer #1. In USM, Nick Fury is "Sam Jackson". I really like what Bendis has done w/ the character. He "knows" everything - secret identities, powers, origins...everything. He's saved Spidey's @$$ a few times. He's behind the scenes, pulling strings, so when he shows up, you know it's important.

 

Answer #2: No idea. I don't read Ultimates, so I don't follow the title. Sorry.

 

Chris

[500Club]

Question 1: In one of the Team-up arcs, Nick Fury is shown, and though he is in the shadows, he seems to look very similar to the Caucasian Nick of the main Marvel Universe. Yet we know in The Ultimates he's Samuel L. Jackson, right? Has this been explained in the Ultimate universe?

 

I think that was a retcon... he was briefly drawn that way in the early Ultimate Team-Up story, then Marvel/Millar called an audible and went with the Samuel L Jackson look.

[Zonker]

Thanks Doc! I suspected that was the case.

 

Since the purpose of the Ultimate U. is to free itself from past continuity, it's probably appropriate that they're less hung up about being 100% consistent.

 

Cheers,

Z.

[Jagull]

what's a "retcon"?

[blowout]

Any guesses on the mystery sixth villain?

 

I would bet on Venom, his inclusion is sure to bring in the fanboys.

[Zonker]

what's a "retcon"?

 

Google search says...

 

But I say that it had its beginnings in Roy Thomas' All-Star Squadron in the early 1980s, where he would do whole story arcs that took place between issues of the 1940s All-Star Comics he loved as a kid. Roy called these stories "continuity implants" or "retroactive continuity."

 

In 1990 when I first came across Usenet and rec.arts.comics (as mentioned above) the term "retcon" was in wide use, and everyone knew what it meant. I can believe it came from the way everything was/is abbreviated in email-- but the term is clearly a comics term (not computer hacker lingo per se as the above attempts to claim).

 

A potentially fun exercise: find the first use of "retroactive continuity" in the letters pages of All-Star Squadron, and you'll likely find the first prototype of the "retcon" term. For extra credit, see if any fan was abbreviating it to retcon in print that long ago!