Marvel Comics' Ultimate line has revamped Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, Daredevil, Elektra and more. With the company's list of characters to ultimize growing, no doubt, short, someone decided to dip into another well: Batman.

Sure, Batman belongs to the Other Guys, but Marvel got around that by transforming the bat motif into owls. Otherwise, it's fairly standard stuff: a millionaire orphan with no powers but lots of gadgets and a really mean attitude, a butler who's in on the secret and is a valuable ally when the going gets tough, a mansion, a secret hideout and a really cool car. All that's missing is a colorful sidekick, and Hawk-Owl, as millionaire Jack Danner is awkwardly known, finds one in loudmouth orphan Hank Kipple.

I was prepared to hate this book. The Ultimate line is one of the best things going down on the Marvel side of town, and I hated to see the company dilute its success by bastardizing DC's top product. But writer Ron Zimmerman proved his potential by writing an entertaining, occasionally challenging story without turning it into the wink-and-grin Batman spoof I expected. There's even a surprisingly good side bit when the Ultimates try to recruit Hawk-Owl onto their team -- with predictable results.

OK, the main villain of the story -- a school principal gone bad, with a secretary-turned-cheerleader sidekick and an arsenal hidden in his paddle o' infamy -- is entirely corny. Danner, who is both bland and socially inept, is no Bruce Wayne, and Kipple is assuredly a poor man's Robin. I don't see the Hawk-Owl and Woody team having much of a shelf life on the monthly book racks -- the poor sales of this book make that pretty clear. But as a stand-alone tale, One Tin Soldier cheerfully exceeded my low expectations.