The Ultimate universe is in such a state at the moment that it’s quite suprising to see a series like Ultimate Human come out – given that it actually fits in much better with the original Bendis/Millar era than it does the current Dark Days Of Loeb, and almost washes the nasty taste of Ultimates 3 out of the mouth. Almost.

After all, while the Ultimate line wasn’t exactly supposed to be “superheroes in the real world” in a Watchmen sense, there was certainly a movie-esque, let’s-attempt-to-justify-the-superhero- weirdness-with-actual-theoretical-science feel to the original triad of Spider-Man, X-Men

and The Ultimates that has sadly been lost amid crossovers with Supreme Power and zombie universes. Warren Ellis later brought quite a lot of it to his run on Ultimate Fantastic Four – a title to which he was far better suited than he’d probably care to admit – as well, and he does exactly the same here. So we finally get to see a Banner/Hulk transformation happen (instead of conveniently cutting away), and we get lots of trademark Ellis technobabble making it all sound as if it might actually be possible, kinda.

A dichotomy that The Ultimates has never really examined in any great deal is thrown up here – Banner and Stark as two geniuses at completely opposing ends of the superhero game – and this should hopefully give a bit of dimension to the eventual slugfest between the two characters that the series is being pushed as. In the meantime, though, there’s not a great deal of action in issue #1, but it builds nicely, and throws in a secondary plot layer involving Ultimate versions of the Leader and Pete Wisdom (er – as the same character). Cary Nord’s art comes off quite like a painted version of Stuart Immonen, but for someone new to Ultimate he does a good job – even if his Bruce Banner is a little inconsistent with and without glasses.

The last Ultimate miniseries to start this promisingly was the ill-fated Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk, a book that shares a lot in common with Ultimate Human – both stories that expand upon Banner’s character and nature, and which feel like they could be actual issues of The Ultimates rather than a spinoff series. Where they differ, though, is that Ellis’ story should at least see it through to the finish – and for an imprint so badly in need of a shot in the arm, that can be no bad thing. It’s not going to rescue the whole mess, not by a long shot, but at least it’s a reminder that good stories can still be told within this framework.