Written by Nick Spencer
Illustrated by Paco MedinaThe biggest mutant cover-up has gone public as the true history of 
the x-gene is revealed. As an identity crisis rocks the mutant world,
the mistrust between man and x-man gets deeper. But a bigger 
question remains: who are the X-Men? Nick Spencer and Paco 
Medina make their thunderous Ultimate debut in one of the most
 anticipated series yet!
The final piece of Marvel’s rebuilt Ultimate Universe has finally landed, and for this writer it is a lot like coming home again. Way back in 2001, Ultimate X-Men began my existence as a full-time comic fan in earnest. How does this rebirth stack up against what came before?
Click below to find out!
As you may have guessed, the last volume of Ultimate X-Men holds a special place in my heart. However, it is also a bit of a cautionary tale, as over that series’ 100 issues it slowly puttered out and died with the last 30 or so issues paling in comparison to the first 40. That said, in a lot of ways that’s a great thing. The complete deconstruction of the Ultimate X-Universe as a result of Ultimatum gave Nick Spencer almost limitless potential to work with. While some may see the likes of Cyclops, Professor Xavier, Wolverine and Magneto being dead as a hinderance to writing an X-Men story, in a lot of ways it forces the book to be unique right off the bat, and unique it is.
That said, the traditional X-Tropes are still in place, except this time the “hates and fears” part of the mantra has morphed into “shoots on sight” following Magneto’s attack on New York in Ultimatum. Fear of mutants has lead to America becoming a bit of a totalitarian state in regard to its differently genetic brethren, and Spencer spares no quarter in showing just how brutal the situation for mutants has become in this country. Be it the treatment of Colossus and Storm at the hands of the government or the heartbreaking opening scene of the book (proving that Spencer is indeed willing to bring the morbid, shocking slant to his Marvel work so readily present in Morning Glories), it is painfully clear from the first page that things are impossibly bad for the Ultimate Universe mutants.
So what is a writer to do but make things immeasurably worse?
Now, the revelation that mutants in the Ultimate Universe were created as the result of genetic tampering perpetrated by the US government and NOT through natural selection is not a new concept. The idea was first introduced prior to Ultimatum in the noticeably solid Ultimate Origins mini-series, where it was quickly covered up by the government. Despite the gravity of the situation, we didn’t hear much of the concept for a few years until Ultimate Fallout, when we first learned that The Washington Post had uncovered the report via the Freedom of Information Act and was publishing it’s findings. Which brings us to this issue, which takes place slightly after the article is published and the world at large learns the truth about mutants.
Unfortunately, this is where I feel that the book falters a tiny bit. I’m not sure whether or not this was the fault of the story being a little too short or the art not quite sticking the landing, but I feel like the impact of the revelation wasn’t quite given the gravity that it needed. Spencer manages to cover this up a bit with some really great reflective Kitty Pryde dialogue, but by and large nothing within the issue made the revelation as much of an “oh shit!” moment in the eyes of the characters as it should have been. For such a huge a deal, its kind of just laid out there for the cast to start dealing with. We don’t even see any of the immediate reactions to the article, having the majority of the release and initial responses to it recapped by Valerie Cooper during a press conference. To Spencer’s credit (thanks to his time spent working for a Senator), this highly politicized scene read much like a government press conference should. Unfortunately, the parts that tend to dry out in said press conferences remained intact here, but by and large the scene did what it needed to in setting the stage.
Continued belowThat said, where the story really excels are the characters themselves. Spencer picks up the pieces left by Brian Bendis and Jeph Loeb quite well as he merged the somewhat disparat stories of the Ultimate Spider-Man mutants and the Ultimate X team into this new narrative. He clearly shows his love of Kitty through her narration of the entire issue as well as his grasp on her deeply flawed psychological state at the moment. Unfortunately, given the introductory nature of the issue, no one character BUT Kitty is really given much of the spotlight; however, Spencer does begin to take a stab at answering the question many readers have asked since the initial line-up of this book was announced: just how can the Human Torch be on this mutant based team? As it happens, as far as Johnny is concerned, since mutants came about as the result of a lab accident and so did the Fantastic Four, the connection between the two is obvious. Simple logic, indicative of Johnny’s limited understanding of the ways of the world and indicative of Spencer’s near perfect grasp of the character.
On the art side of things, I feel that while Paco Medina did a good job with the book, he is kind of the odd man out when it comes to the current stable of artists working on the Ultimate books. Esad Ribic and Sarah Pichelli, while both having very unique tics with their pencils, both err on the side of “trying to hit close to reality.” Even Rafa Sandoval designs his characters with realistic physiology to them. Medina, however, while certainly at the top of his game, can be very thoroughly placed into the “closer to traditional cartooning” school of comic art, and I’m not sure it really works given the general visual aesthetic that they seem to be building for the line.
In the end, this book is a very solid start despite it’s quirks. Spencer has a seriously solid grasp on these characters and appears to be bringing plenty of the elements that made his previous work so great into this book. He seems completely willing to throw these kids through every single physical and emotional ringer that he can think of, and books where characters exist happily are just not the most entertaining books! Given the strength of the story, I assume I will warm to the idea of Medina drawing it soon enough. Regardless, as one of the few non-DC debut issues this month, it exists as a solid check in the “win” category for Marvel.
Final Verdict: 8.5 – Buy
