Welcome back True Believers to another edition of The Marvel Rundown! This week our main review focuses Ultimate X-Men #12. There’s mild spoilers so scroll down if you only want to see our verdict. Additionally, the Rapid Rundown looks at the return of the Red Hulk in Red Hulk #1 and the end of a crossover between the hero of Nebula M78 and Earth’s mightiest heroes in Ultraman X Avengers #4. So strap in folks for our in-depth look at this week’s Marvel releases!
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Ultimate X-Men#12
Writer/Artist: Peach Momoko
Translation: Zack Davisson
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
Of the current Ultimate Marvel line, Ultimate X-Men by Peach Momoko might be the most the most frustrating of the bunch. The first issue showed a lot of promise in its radical rethinking of X-Men as a Junji Ito influenced high school drama with no actual X-Men team. Momoko’s fluid illustrations, exagerrated figures, and painterly instincts placed her work in line with X-Men artists as varied as Bill Sienkiewicz, Chris Bachalo, and Jae Lee. Simply put this promised to be a book about strange teens banding together with even stranger visuals.
And for the most part that’s what this book is about. Momoko’s art continues to be the main draw because nothing at Marvel or even on the rest of the comic book stands looks like it. But the plot of this book also unfolds as slowly as possible. This second story arc revolving around investigating the Children of the Atom cult though has read as a series of scattered subplots without any real focus. Mutants are becoming more of a thing in this version of Japan, which is interesting! Storylines about social media exposure of mutants, the cult’s experiments to create mutants, or even the forming of a mutant sub-culture in this new universe also interesting! Any of these stories would be enough to carry a story arc.
But this second arc has been ALL of those things. The lack of focus and the disappointingly thin characters makes reading this book on a monthly basis a slog. Issue 12 then doesn’t really bring any of these plot threads together nor does. The psychic Shadow King confronts Maystorm’s gathering of mutants for reasons. Yukiko continues to spy on mutants. Nico and Mori look for Natsu and then Shadow King shows up again. Finally he shows up where’s he’s really been going, Hisako. For a psychic mutant with an obsession on this character who previously had no issue locating her, he’s really bad at finding the object of his desire now.
These various stories work more like places on a game board. Momoko continues placing her characters where they should be instead of allowing motivations and personalities to move story. However, that would require these characters to be fully fleshed out individuals than achetypes. If after 12 issues someone can still describe the leads as the gloomy one, the punk one, and the goth one, and not describe anything else about them, you’re in trouble.
The one plot line that it does close is the lingering subplot of Tsubasa, Hisako’s friend who committed suicide. Resolving that the Shadow King had a hand in that death, fact that’s seemed obvious since the beginning, has some satisfaction. Yet there is frustration that Hisako doesn’t get to have any kind of emotional experience to this revelation in this issue. They barely learn about it before they’re shuffled off to another plot beat that will probably get resolved next issue. And that’s the biggest frustration with Ultimate X-Men, plot trumps the characters who exist only in reaction to it. – D. Morris
Verdict: BROWSE
Rapid Rundown!
- Ultraman X Avengers #4
- From the start, Ultraman X Avengers has been the most fun franchise crossover I’ve read in a while. Writers Kyle Higgins & Mat Groom follow up their previous Ultraman series by creating a scenario that blends the super-hero world with giant monster fights and the stakes couldn’t be higher with the fate of two universes on the line as the eater of worlds, Galactus, looks to make Ultraman’s homeworld next on his list to consume. Artist Francesco Manna and color artist Matt Milla give our eyes a visual feast to compliment the tight action, smart plot, and spot-on characterizations that Higgins & Groom write up. This creative team knows how to walk the tightrope of fan service with creative storytelling and stellar artwork, they do some really cool bits that will knock your spider-socks off. If you haven’t read any of the previous issues I’m sure the collected edition will be out soon and if not it is worth tracking down the individual issues. – GC3
- Red Hulk #1
- Trapped and forced into a Think Tank to serve the ruler of the world DOOM, General Thunderbolt Ross begins to maneuver and plot his escape. Red Hulk #1 is obviously an attempt at corporate synergy by releasing a new Red Hulk series at the same time as the character’s big screen debut in Captain America: Brave New World. The decision to tie this comic into One World Under DOOM is an interesting choice assuming you are trying to capture renewed interest in Red Hulk but tying the series into this new event may make it a bit inaccessible. Luckily for the book, writer Ben Percy does a stellar job making this comic focus largely on its own merit. Percy has an eye for that meticulous military mindset, evident with his lengthy X-Force and Wolverine runs. His characterization of Thunderbolt Ross falls in line with his Wolverine. The addition of a rag tag team of characters like Deathklok and Machine Man, gives this book promise. Artist Geoff Shaw does his best with the drab locale of a secret military gulag under a mountain. Shaw puts a lot of emphasis on the body language of Ross, which is essential as this comic is largely a solo piece for the character as he wrestles with is imprisonment and plots an escape. The facial expressions are strained at times, but Shaw does wonders with showing the real body horror aspects of hulking out. Overall, this issue is a decent start to the series. Percy and Shaw are talented and they produce a well-made comic, but feels unessential to the larger One World Under DOOM event. Though, if the goal was to capture that interest in Thunderbolt Ross and the Red Hulk, but somewhat agnostic of the event, it succeeded. Given that it will not be for everyone and it feels superfluous my final verdict is Browse this series and check it out on Unlimited or the Trade -JJ
Next week Ben Grimm gets a solo book again with Thing #1, more Spider-Verse in Web of Spider-Verse, and the X-Manhunt begins!
- Trapped and forced into a Think Tank to serve the ruler of the world DOOM, General Thunderbolt Ross begins to maneuver and plot his escape. Red Hulk #1 is obviously an attempt at corporate synergy by releasing a new Red Hulk series at the same time as the character’s big screen debut in Captain America: Brave New World. The decision to tie this comic into One World Under DOOM is an interesting choice assuming you are trying to capture renewed interest in Red Hulk but tying the series into this new event may make it a bit inaccessible. Luckily for the book, writer Ben Percy does a stellar job making this comic focus largely on its own merit. Percy has an eye for that meticulous military mindset, evident with his lengthy X-Force and Wolverine runs. His characterization of Thunderbolt Ross falls in line with his Wolverine. The addition of a rag tag team of characters like Deathklok and Machine Man, gives this book promise. Artist Geoff Shaw does his best with the drab locale of a secret military gulag under a mountain. Shaw puts a lot of emphasis on the body language of Ross, which is essential as this comic is largely a solo piece for the character as he wrestles with is imprisonment and plots an escape. The facial expressions are strained at times, but Shaw does wonders with showing the real body horror aspects of hulking out. Overall, this issue is a decent start to the series. Percy and Shaw are talented and they produce a well-made comic, but feels unessential to the larger One World Under DOOM event. Though, if the goal was to capture that interest in Thunderbolt Ross and the Red Hulk, but somewhat agnostic of the event, it succeeded. Given that it will not be for everyone and it feels superfluous my final verdict is Browse this series and check it out on Unlimited or the Trade -JJ
I agree on the pacing of Ultimate X-Men. Peach is a great talent, but it is a monthly on the edge of my cancellation list due to the story not progressing very well. To be fair to Peach, the pacing on the other Ultimate titles has been methodical at times and it makes me wonder if a mandate from Hickman’s countdown timer for the Ultimate Universe is causing the challenges with Ultimate X-Men.
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