Ultimate X-Men, vol. 2

I’m actually recording this out of order — I read Ultimate X-Men, vol. 2 well before I picked up the Gene Wolfe book, but I forgot about it until now. Like the Ultimate Spider-Man volumes I talked about last month, this is a clean reboot of the X-Men continuity, updated and de-cheesed. In terms of quality, it’s right up there with Ultimate Spider-Man in the upper echelon of traditional superhero books, though the tone of X-Men is (expectedly) a bit darker than that of Spider-Man.

This second volume does seem to point toward the inevitable problems of infinitely continuing serieses, though. In the first volume, Magneto was dealt with nicely; that should have been that, but a perpetual series can’t ever get rid of a good villain permanently, so now he’s back again. And he’ll probably be defeated again, and return again, et cetera ad infinitum. The lack of conclusion is frustrating and leads to… well, the sort of structural story problems that necessitated these Ultimate reboots in the first place. But, really, what can you do? Making Spider-Man or The X-Men into a limited series a la Sandman isn’t a particularly feasible solution.

At any rate, Ultimate X-Men is very much worth reading for superhero fans, as of now. But keep your eye out for seriesitis.

Comments

erica s. on August 1, 2003:

I found Return to Weapon X a step down from The Tomorrow People. Switching artists midstream also detracted from the story—not all Kubert brother are equal. The scene of Logan on the operating table is both inspired and flawed—the layout artist inadvertantly put word bubbles across the sistene chapel detail. I loved the continued clever use of shadows (best seen in Kurt’s introduction)