Retrospection

[Ricky]

Tomorrow People
One of the better arcs, yet. I didn't like it much, though, for various reasons:
1. I hate Kubert's "dots instead of eyes"-art
2. I knew too much of the "real" X-Men, so I constantly got feelings of "falseness"
3. The other Ultimate books started in the "real world" and slowly developed into SciFi-Fantasy-Hero-tales. The presence of the sentinels from page 1 negates that.
4. Too few X-Men for my liking

Return to Weapon X
Quite nice. Nick Fury makes his first appearance (in UXM), General Ross bites it, Nightcrawler (one of my favorite characters) gets introduced. The final conclussion is a bit fishy, though, since we never find out HOW Scarlett Witch got those little implants out.

Thief in the Night
Absolutely unnecessary. GAmbit is introduced for the sake of it. Nothing of any value for the book itself.

World Tour (including "News Week")
Would have been a nice Idea, but it didn't quite work, at least for me. Bacallo's art certainly did its part in this. Better forget about it!
There were some nice ideas, though. Had potential.

Hellfire & Brimstone
No story in itself, in my opinion, but rather the groundwork for the next Arc. At first I had hoped this might turn out into Ultimate Dark Phoenix Saga, but there was no real conclussion. The fill-in artist was nearly as bad as Bachallo had been before, and a few plotlines stank (especially the huge robot under savage land. FAR from any sense of "real world").

Ultimate War
Actually no story in itself, again, but rather the second act in Millars epic Return of Magneto. What ruined the story completely and utterly for me was the art by Bachello again. It was so bad, neither I nor my girl-friend couldn't even look at the pictures, much less sympathize with the characters.

Return of the King
The final act in Millars big Magneto drama. In my memory, it was the best arc Ultimate X-Men had had so far. I haven't read it again for quite a while, though.

Blockbuster
The big "Wolverine-Daredevil-Spiderman-SalesIncrease-MonsterTeamUp".
Blockbuster actually had a few good parts, but the overall impression was pretty weak.

New Mutants
Bendis proved once and for all he can't do a team book properly. He's great with indiviual characters, but just like in Blockbuster, most team-members fade into the background, without even one line.
Once one accepts this major flaw, though, the arc has rewards.

Tempest
The best Ultimate X-Men arc so far. Peterson may be pretty lame, but the writing is superb. Vaughan seems to be a garant for a new era of glory for Ultimate X-Men



*******************************
Objections? Opinions?

 

[Dark_Images]

I like this. We should do this with Spiderman when we're done. I can't comment yet, I gotta go to work. But trust me, I have my say. 8)

 

[Dark_Images]

Thief in the Night
Absolutely unnecessary. GAmbit is introduced for the sake of it. Nothing of any value for the book itself.

This could pay off with the upcoming "Cry Wolf" arc.

Hellfire & Brimstone
No story in itself, in my opinion, but rather the groundwork for the next Arc. At first I had hoped this might turn out into Ultimate Dark Phoenix Saga, but there was no real conclussion. The fill-in artist was nearly as bad as Bachallo had been before, and a few plotlines stank (especially the huge robot under savage land. FAR from any sense of "real world").

I think the robot is meant to be menacing, but the intrusion by Kitty I thought was hilarious.

Tempest
The best Ultimate X-Men arc so far. Peterson may be pretty lame, but the writing is superb. Vaughan seems to be a garant for a new era of glory for Ultimate X-Men

I actually didn't think that the art missed a beat with Peterson on board. He's no Finch, but the way he draws Iceman and Colossus, is mesmerizing. And I can't complain with his new makeover for Storm.

 

[Goodwill]

Tomorrow People...

A good way to start off something that was bound to be a cash cow. Perfectly constructed to feel and look like a movie. It got its point across.

Weapon X...

I liked it, but I was extremely confused throughout the arc. It, again, served as a movie which was great, however, there were some missing plot lines that could have been better placed, I think. Nightcrawler and Sabertooth were awesome.

Thief in the Night...

Entertaining, yet, I thought it could have been a bit more relevant.

World Tour...

The story was great and I loved it... I could tell that Ultimate X-Men was getting better as it went along. Problem with that was, indeed, the art. It just seemed a little abrupt with Kubert's grace and onto Bachello's grit.

Hellfire and Brimstone...

Where Ultimate X-Men's flame had been extinguished. Millar did this for the sake of getting everything in place for...

Ultimate War...

Entertaining 1st and last issue. Sadly the same couldn't be said for anything in between.

ROTK...

Great movie arc, AGAIN. The flame rekindled and Millar's run perfectly wrapped up, I could honestly say I loved it.

Blockbuster...

Served it's purpose to introduce a more political edge to Ultimate X-Men. Cool characterization with Wolverine

New Mutants...

I loved this, too, but something was wrong with it... Probably Bendis' inability to write books that follow a monthly basis as opposed to a bi-monthly. Not bad, just a little distastful.

Tempest...

GREATEST ARC EVER...! Iceman is actually a character in the title, Colossus is getting fleshed out, Cyclops as well as Wolverine is a tragic hero, the littluns are getting some quality time with Xavier... AND SINISTER!!! He's an awesome villain so far, I only wish the next issue will shed some light on his real motives!

 

[Bludd_Rush]

The scenes involving The Sentinels throughout The Tomorrow People arc do seem a bit out of place with what we now consider the Ultimate Universe to be (a more realistic version of Marvel's heroes), but when I first read it I though the arc was awesome. Written in typical Millar fashion (as problematic as that may sometimes be), we were introduced to the characters who, in my opinion, provide the best variety in abilities and who best represent the team.

Sure it was flawed but it was still great, and it set up what would be a running thread throughout Millar's entire run - that of Magneto and Xavier's fued. Millar's story started with Magneto and Xavier way before the start of The Tomorrow People, and it ends with Magneto and Xavier in the last pages of Return of the King.

The biggest problem with Millar's run (other than that horrible little sub-plot with the Savage Land in Hellfire and Brimstone - although that lead into a really enjoyable sub-plot) was that he introduced characters and didn't give us the full low-down on what they could do!

I mean, I think we saw enough of Toad to know what he was capable of, but what about Scarlet Witch? She can fly and fire "Hex-Bolts"!? That's it? What the hell is a Hex-Bolt to a new reader? And The Blob, all we ever saw him do was eat. Is that his mutant power? Because if it is, I can do it too. Mastermind's powers were briefly touched in #5, and better explained in #27. What about Rogue? Sure, she used her powers enough for the long-time reader to see exactly what she was doing, but her power is quite complicated to a new reader without a decent explanation - especially since when she touched Colossus, she only took some information from his head. And who the hell was Sabretooth? All we know about him is that he was this big Wolverine-esque guy, who didn't like Wolverine, and now he doesn't have a head. Wow. Great character development, there.
Overall, though, I really did like Millar's run. He wanted to tell the story of Magneto and Xavier, which he did well, and everything in between was mostly enjoyable.

Well, after the big bad guy has been taken down, the comic calls for a change of direction. Enter Brian Bendis, and enter the world of government conspiracies. A good change of pace, I thought. I didn't mind that Blockbuster prominently (well, only, really) featured Wolverine. Not every story has to feature every X-Man, but I suppose when the story goes on for 6 months you start to miss some faces. And, ofcourse, New Mutants was pretty vague on a lot of characters as well, so we went for a year without seeing the likes of Iceman, Rogue, Nightcrawler and Colossus do anything other than try to fit into a panel. Story was still good, though. Strange of Bendis to introduce half a dozen new characters that he wasn't going to get to write again, but whatever...

I've been enjoying Vaughan's run on the title, although he's only 3 issues in and a rotten conclusion would ruin the whole arc, but I know he's got something good in store. Vaughan makes the best use of using all the characters (and there are a lot of characters to use) out of any other writer in the series, and I'm looking forward to the rest of his run.

So, despite screwing my face up a few times throughout the series, it's been a really good thing from the get-go. Hopefully, Singer won't screw that up...

 

[Goodwill]

You know he will... Especially with Apocolypse around the corner... That'll be something. Expect a rehash of 616 bull from him... Also, Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing has been the theme of Wizard's magazine for a few issues since he's been said to do it, however, in an issue where his Wolverine is leaping at us, there is an article about Singer and his run. They said it might be a 12 issue maxi and that he is doing things that are bound by physical limitations... Things he couldn't do in the movie. HOWEVER, he is referencing the movie and the comic as one, as if he doesn't get that the Ultimate X-Men is far different than what he's doing in the movies.

 

[E]

Especially with Apocolypse around the corner

See, I'm not convinced that Apoc is right around the corner. Of course I haven't read Ult. X-Men #50 online so don't know if he appears in it (and please don't spoil it by saying if he is or not), but I thought the last page of #49 where Apoc appears was just like a look into what Sinister is seeing in his head...one of the voices that is so real to Sinister that he can "see" him.

 

[Dark_Images]

Why go to the trouble of making such a wicked looking redux if you're not gonna get a chance to show it off?

 

[E]

Why go to the trouble of making such a wicked looking redux if you're not gonna get a chance to show it off?

Because maybe that's just what the Ultimate version is like. There are a lot of characters who have played major roles in 616 Marvel whose Ultimate version is almost an afterthought...Rhino comes to mind.

 

[Goodwill]

Well, having read #50 I vow to not tell you what I know...

You are right about that Rhino thing but that isn't to say that those characters won't pop up again.

 

[Dark_Images]

It would be funny to see Rhino and Wolfsbane and Shocker and other cameo-characters make an impact later down the road and play out to be returning villains, such as the Punisher in USM and then there first appearances in the Ultimate go up in value. Okay, maybe they won't be that big but it would be nice to see how they fare out.

 

[Goodwill]

Well, I would like them to have a significant role... Northstar, Sunspot, and others will probably be thrown into the limbo line and probably more will follow. I do know more will follow, not only because I've read #50 (And apparently, D.I. has, too...), but because there are just so many that writers can't keep up with. That goes for Spidey villains, too.