Ultimate Adventures

Ultimate Adventures
Cover to Ultimate Adventures #1. Art by Kaare Andrews.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Schedule	monthly
Format	miniseries
Publication date	September 2002 to January 2004
No. of issues	6
Main character(s)	See Characters
Creative team
Written by	Ron Zimmerman
Artist(s)	Duncan Fegredo

Ultimate Adventures was a six-issue comic book, written by Ron Zimmerman and drawn by Duncan Fegredo, and published by Marvel Comics. It starred Hawk-Owl and Woody, two characters who were purposefully designed as blatant parodies of Batman and Robin. At the time of its publication, it was the only Ultimate title to introduce characters who were not explicitly based on pre-existing Marvel characters. (Ultimate Spider-Man followed suit with Geldoff and the series Ultimate X-Men has since added the characters of Syndicate and Magician.)

It is notable for its involvement in the U-Decide campaign, and for being plagued by chronic lateness, taking a year and four months (from September 2002 to January 2004) to complete what was a supposedly monthly series. In contrast, the relaunched Captain Marvel series, which debuted the same week as part of U-Decide, had its eighteenth issue released the same week as Ultimate Adventures #6 finally made it to shops).

Hawk-Owl, the Midnight Avenger/Jack Danner - A Batman pastiche, complete with secret lair ("the Nest") and crime-fighting gadgets. Unlike Bruce Wayne, Danner is far from being any sort of genius. Rather, he's a socially inept middle-aged billionaire with a rather dangerous and expensive hobby. He also lacks the traumatic murder experience of his DC counterpart, making him less "severe" in some respects, but also lacks a certain personal element to his own mission, however, it is implied by his Aunt Ruth and others that the death of his parents and uncle may not have been accidents as he claims, but in fact murders.

Woody/Hank Kipple - The Robin to Hawk-Owl's Batman. In some ways the actual main character of the story in Ultimate Adventures, which is largely about the creation and advent of the Woody character (which only appears in proper in that last issue of the series). Brash and assertive, well past the point of obnoxiousness, Hank seems to fear both making lasting connections (by rejecting nearly everybody) but also being ruthless.