I read that Ultimate Punisherr voted for Sarah Palin. I say it's another reason not to read the Ultimate comics.
Clearly you need to stay away from comics when an comic character makes a joke. God forbid you reading mainstream Marvel when Punisher cracks a joke.
So I've been out of the Ultimates game for a while. What's the difference between the Ultimates and Ultimate Avengers?
Avengers is a Black Ops team written by Mark Millar. 2 trades are out so far,
Next Generation introduces the new generaiton heroes ranging from Nerd Hulk, Red Wasp, War Machine, Monica Chang the Black Widow, Gregory Stark and so forth. Red Skull is the villain of the book.
Crime & Punishment is about Nick Fury receiving an order from the white house itself on a top secret black ops mission where he is going to need Tyrone Cash (Ultimate Joe Fixit), Punisher and the rest of the Avengers. The main theme of Avengers is about Nick Fury becoming the director of SHIELD again pretty much, with Monica Chang, Gregory Stark, Hawkeye and War Machine being the regular supporting cast.
3rd Avengers title is ongoing right now, which is about Vampires trying to conquer the world thru turning super powered people into Vampires.
New Ultimates is Loeb doing a decent-Ultimates story, but hes still retconning things and whatnot whatnot. :|