He’s back! – review of the comic book “Ultimate X-Men”, vol. 3

Ultimates! Assemble!

Recall that in the previous volume of Ultimate X-Men it was revealed that the good-natured Charles Xavier did not kill his friend Erik, but only wiped his memory and “uploaded” a new one in which he was a good man, without mutant powers. However, the Brotherhood of Mutants made their leader Magneto again and is now leading the group to slay the H omo sapiens species and replace him with H omo superior. So the X-Men have to stop them, but that’s not their only problem. The US government states that the professor’s misdemeanor was against humanity and issues a prison sentence to all members of both opposing groups. To have a chance of capturing them, General Nick Fury sends them on the trail of Ultimates, the local counterpart of the Avengers, led by Captain America, Thor and Iron Man. To make matters worse, it turns out that Cyclops died during the action on the Savage Lands. How will the heroes handle this situation?

Take cover, it’s X-Men!

Note, the paragraph contains spoilers about the ending. Without them, it would be difficult to explain why the notebook is not perfect.

I remember the Ultimate X-Men comic book from the times when several notebooks appeared on our market thanks to the TM-Semic publishing house. Even then, I really liked their adventures. Their return through Egmont made me happy and I read more volumes with pleasure. The first two certainly did not disappoint and can confidently compete with the best stories about mutants played on Earth-616. The third volume, written entirely by Mark Millar – one of the most famous comic book writers, also begins with a bang. The war that breaks out between the X-Men and Ultimates is thrilling and fought with superhero panache. Clashes between members of both groups can make the reader’s jaw drop. Later in the notebook, we move on to the events during which our H.omo superior are trying to stop their kin, headed by Magneto. And here it is necessary to pay tribute to the main antagonist of the comic. His plan is not only audacious, but also elaborate and thoughtful. Using a machine created by Forge, he intends to remove all living creatures from the Earth. Only those people with gene X who decide to join it will remain alive. Moreover, it intends to spare only a few pairs of each animal species so that they can reproduce again over time. He is also so “generous” that he even protects a few H omo sapiensthat they may serve him and that they can show future generations representatives of the “inferior species.” This diabolical plan is almost accomplished. Unfortunately, the ending of the adventure spoils everything Millar has prepared for us. It is underdeveloped, simple, and even quite irrational. As you might guess, the X-Men hold him back, but they do it too easily. In addition, an army of more than two thousand, amassed by the master of magnetism, is fleeing, seeing only seven of the main heroes. Nobody but Sabertoh even tries to fight them. The whole situation is saved a bit by being included in the Rogue line-up, a school party or a conversation between Charles and Eric in prison, but it remains unsatisfied and it is difficult to explain why such a good screenwriter missed the ending of a great story. I guess he just ran out of ideas.

It didn’t all work out here

As with the script, there are also some problems with the graphic side. As already mentioned, the third volume of Ultimate X-Menare clashes of the title characters with two different groups. Chris Bachalo is responsible for the illustrations for the war with the local Avengers. And it is his works that constitute the problem of the notebook. They are indistinct and are made either forcibly or casually. While the ideas for the script and the adventure itself are great, the graphics spoil the whole effect. The sloppy appearance of the characters, the lack of background, and skipping some fragments can be discouraging. In many cases, when individual heroes are fighting each other, instead of combat scenes we see explosions or piles of flying objects stretched over the entire frame. There are even moments when we are not even sure what we are looking at, and only the dialogues in the clouds brighten the situation a bit. Here we could get a really epic duel between Wolverin and Iron Man or between Thor and Storm, Meanwhile, we have to imagine it ourselves, because the artist probably had no idea how to present it. Pity.

Fortunately, the fight against Ultimates is only about 1/3 of the notebook. David Finch and Adam Kubert are responsible for the sequel. And here everything returns to normal, the line is clear and we know exactly what is happening in the history. There may still be no “wow effect” and going beyond certain comic book frames, but the adventure presented in the standard way is perfectly fine and you cannot have any further comments here. By the way, a plus goes to the other artist, who put a pretty funny easter-egg on the last page. What? Check it out!

It is also worth adding that at the end of the album we will also find sketches made by individual artists. In this way, we can see how the process of creating an album is going. This is certainly an interesting thing, especially for those who would like to create comics themselves.

Could be better…

The third volume of Ultimate X-Men is primarily a very interesting clash between groups controlled by Nick Fury and Charles Xavier, as well as Magneto’s diabolical plan, which messed up quite a bit on Earth-1610. Unfortunately, the artist probably ran out of creative inspiration and the ending itself leaves a lot to be desired. One can also complain about the graphic page of the first part of the notebook, which is sloppy and not readable. Ultimately, there is no tragedy and the story should appeal to X-Men fans. Especially the relationship between the professor and Eric, as well as the very nature of the latter, are presented here in a very interesting way. In addition, it opens a thread for the next volume, for which the new writer is responsible, namely Brian Michael Bendis. So let’s hope that after reading it, there will be no comments!