Ultimate Avengers is part of Marvel Comics’ Ultimate Universe, a line designed to retell classic story arcs and rework established characters in more modern or accessible terms. The Ultimate Universe exists outside of Marvel?s common continuity and the "Ultimate Avengers" movie is no different. It’s a retelling of the classic Avengers origin set in a modern and accessible time and place.

The movie begins with Captain America, who is injected with a super serum designed to turn him into a weapon for the U.S. government during the end of World War II. Soon Captain America is trapped in suspended animation where he sits undiscovered for decades. A lot weighs in the balance in finding Cap, and no one has a more invested interest in this project than Dr. Bruce Banner. After Captain America is discovered, he is awoken in a world entirely unfamiliar to him and is quickly asked to protect his country against a worldly threat.

This is Marvel’s first full-length animated feature film and they couldn’t have picked a better title to start with. Rather than putting out yet another product featuring flagship characters like Spiderman or Wolverine, Marvel chose a film that would feature an entire team of familiar iconic heroes.

One of the great things about the plot of "Ultimate Avengers" is that every action an Avenger takes affects the entire team. This is never more prevalent than in their first mission together, a sequence that stands as one of the more impressive scenes I’ve seen in any animated version of a comic book property.

The most notable performance in the movie is Michael Massee as Bruce Banner. Everything about the way the character is presented is accurately tragic, and Massee’s performance is more defined than any other portrayal of the character I’ve seen outside the comic book. Not even Eric Bana, who physically played Bruce Banner in Oscar-winning director Ang Lee’s ("Broke Back Mountain") live-action Hulk film, was able to capture this character as sharply as Massee. I remind you that Massee’s performance was in a cartoon. Some might find that to be a mean-spirited remark — but let’s be honest, Ang Lee’s Hulk should’ve been called ‘Shrek 3: The Quickening.’ That’s another point entirely, though.

Some of the funnier moments of the film involve Thor, a character I’ve never really liked in the comics. Nick Fury, who is an African American in the Ultimate Universe, perceives Thor as a powerful crackpot who is just deluded enough to think he’s really a Norse god. The first time the audience meets Thor in the film, he’s protesting whale hunters until one of them "aggravates" him and, well, he’s Thor.

The animation is fantastic and the special features on the DVD are equally as enjoyable. There is a terrific mini-documentary called "Avengers Assemble," which chronicles the history of the original comic book. There is also a trivia feature that adds sort of a Pop Up Video quality, which I strongly recommend upon the second viewing. Last but not least is a film collage featuring a ton of fan-boy voice-over auditions, which, all by itself, makes the DVD worth the twenty bucks.

Marvel and Lion’s Gate Studios already have the Avengers sequel in production and set for a July 2006 release. I hope Marvel keeps making these films and applies this same treatment to a lot of their other characters and stories as well.