The third and final book in the U-Decide stunt (which, by the way, isn't actually mentioned anywhere in any of the books) is Ron Zimmerman's Ultimate Adventures, a comic which practically screamed "I am a bad idea" from the moment it was announced.  As Ron Zimmerman comics will tend to do.

Number one, it diluted the U-Decide concept by shoving a third comic into the feud which had no real point in being there.  Number two, it diluted the Ultimate imprint by using it for a gimmick miniseries.  Number three, it was a Batman and Robin pastiche, and boy, we've never seen that before.  And number four, it was by Ron Zimmerman, which promised yet more thrilling internet discussions here 99% of readers say the book is crap, and Joe Quesada responds by sounding hurt, posting Zimmerman's CV again, and telling us all to be more appreciative of Howard Stern's friends in future.

But you know what?  The book's not bad.

Yes, it's a U-Decide book, but so is Captain Marvel.  Ultimate Adventures isn't a point scoring exercise and the content has nothing to do with the gimmick.  Yes, it's an Ultimate book, and it probably shouldn't be, but that's not really material for present purposes.

Yes, it's a glaring Batman & Robin reference.  And making it so blatant is probably a mistake.  The story is about Hank Kipple, who's been in an orphanage since birth, who gets adopted by local superhero Hawk-Owl.  The twist is that Hank is your typical Zimmerman smart-ass protagonist, and Hawk-Owl is a nice chap who doesn't seem all that vengeful at all and has no real clue what he's going to do with an orphan once he's adopted one.

In fact, they're not really much like Batman and Robin when you take away the costumes, and the riff seems to be more on the general concept of kid sidekicks (some twenty years after everyone but Batman stopped using them, admittedly).  The book doesn't seem to be intended as an outright parody of Batman and Robin, and it does itself no favours by making the parallels to those specific characters so obvious.  Believe me, everyone would have got the point anyway.

The thing is, this isn't a parody book at all, even though it looks like one.  It's not even really a comedy book.  It has the standard Zimmerman protagonist, but this time round he's unpopular with his peers and vulnerable at the core.  If I was into pop psychology, I'd suggest that other Zimmerman lead characters are obnoxious bastards whom all of his other characters worship because that's how Zimmerman likes to see himself.  But this is about Zimmerman's self-doubt and recognition that he adopts this persona as a defence mechanism.  Or maybe not.  It doesn't matter in the slightest, but it's certainly an obvious reading of his stories.

It certainly makes Hank a more attractive character than most of Zimmerman's protagonists, who seem to be universally adored by all around them.  He's still a bit of a whining bastard, mind you.  Zimmerman stories are notable for having very, very similar lead characters who all stand around delivering rants about the injustice of the world in a way that suggests he's using them as an outlet for stand-up material.  This is a definite improvement, but the lack of diversity is still notable.

Making a somewhat incongruous appearance on art is Duncan Fegredo, who hasn't been on a regular title in a while.  You can't really go wrong with Fegredo, even when he's saddled with a god-awful character design for one of the leads.  His orphanage is a bit on the nineteenth century side, but it's generally the usual good work.  To be honest, I'd really rather see Fegredo working on something more offbeat, but he's a good choice nonetheless.

Even so, this is a story with broadly likeable characters who work taken at face value, without needing the Batman and Robin stuff to prop them up.  It's really not bad, despite its flaws, and it could conceivably work as an ongoing title.  At the very least, it should finally give Ron Zimmerman a reasonably well-received comic and go some way towards explaining why Quesada is so keen on him.

Rating: B+

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