Following the lead of the JMS Spider-Man thread and the Bruce Jones Hulk thread, I’ll be reading my next series here. Ultimate X-men. (I need a Hulk break before launching into Planet Hulk.) I’ll probably read up until the current issues, but if I get tired of it, well, I’ll bail. Like the other threads, I’ve previously read the first trade in this series – didn’t like it – and all else will be new to me.

I think maybe I’ll write all my impressions to the tune of The Beatles’ “A Day In The Life.”

The Millar run has its moments but is unevene..i skipped the Bendis issues...but LOVED the Brian K Vaughan run (issues 47-65 approx).

Eric - if you lose interest..skip to the BKV run and you wont be dissapointed.

Vol. 1 - The Tomorrow People

I read the Ultimate X-Men.
I read the arc that was by Mark Millar.
And though the art was rather good,
Well I just had laugh,
At all those silly gags.

Mark Millar he has a shtick,
One-liners and the catchphrase.
And now it’s getting rather old,
Or now I’ve read too much,
I’m never really sure if it is good or not,
I’d guess I’ll read some more.

(Well, that’s an experiment that begins and ends here.)

I liked this much better the second time around. I’ve never been a big fan of the Bros. Kubert, but I enjoyed the artwork. The BIG, EPIC shots here were well done. The story was BIG. The Ultimate take on some of these characters is already appealing (Iceman and Storm are my favorites thus far). I remember this as being terrible. Turns out, not so bad at all. Pretty good, really.

Millar? He has a way of coaxing big “wow!” moments out of his artists, and certainly knows how to set up major events. It seems like he has two gears: big, and REALLY big. Thing is – and maybe I’ve just read too many of his arcs in the last nine months – I’m starting to recognize a pattern in his work. It builds with the same cadence every time, has its twists in all the same places, gets to the big climactic finale, punctuates that finale in the same way, and is always littered with one-liners that are all in the same voice. I feel like I just read this arc in The Ultimates!

A good start, though. I have a LOT to get through, but with Millar and Bendis writing the first few arcs, no doubt they will read quickly.

Eric-
Please post all future reviews in haiku only.

Thank you.

That's hard! I tried. What did it last, two posts? What if I recorded them all as rap songs and posted mp3s?

You're just not focused enought. But at any rate, the rapping thing would be acceptable if there is scratching included. Of the vinyl variety, or course. Something in the flavor of old Run-DMC.

I'd put them on my iPod.

Ultimate X-Men
It is hard to Haiku it
Goddamn mutie scum

I dig the series
All of the runs and writers
The art sometimes sucks

Was disappointed
By BKV's last few issues
Mainly the art sucked

No body looked right
Especially Kitty Pryde
She looked like a dude

Vol. 2 - Return To Weapon X

I read this before
But I had forgotten it
Which does not speak well

But actually I
Liked it very much you see
New takes on old faves

Nightcrawler was great
And Rogue and the Blob were too
Sabertooth sucked ass

Continuity?
It does not seem to fit well
Or maybe I’m wrong

A Nick Fury tale
An origin we have here
But Ultimate U?

That part threw me off
Fury did not fit real clean
But I should read more

Many great moments
Action that thrilled and chilled me
Big movie moments

Oh but the art here
That I did not like that much
Very busy, yes

Overall quite good
I enjoy what I have read
Magneto ain’t dead

This was made early
In the Ultimate Marvel
Line, it was its own

Any problems in
Continuity are not
Fault of UXM

If anything they're
Fault of the later books not
Keeping in line with it

On this I agree
I just find it very odd
Since Millar wrote both.

Can not Mark Millar
Keep continuity straight
In Ultimate U?

For more reference
Tell me what book you refer to
That Mark Millar wrote

For now I assume
You mean the Ultimates
In that case, I say:

I don't understand
The point you're trying to make
Please be specific

Yes, The Ultimates
Not a major flaw I see
Just feels not the same

The character here
For some reason seems to me
To have a “new” voice

A work in progress
In all fairness is what’s here
Or at least I guess

They are different
Because they're different books
Though Ultimate both

Ultimate X-Men
Is how the line began, this
Must be remembered

Millar knows that not
All titles are the same, so he
Writes them by this rule

Ultimates was (is?)
An epic needing its own feel.
UXM? Not quite

Ultimate Marvel
Has evolved to a new level
And formed its own life

The stories, however,
Are not entirely the same
They are oft-different

Each UM book has
Its own unique feel to it
This was true early

Vol. 3 - World Tour

Fairly solid stuff. Hated the Gambit story, but mostly because I hate Gambit (and because the "Yeargh!" action was utterly incoherent). The story had heart, though, and a nice emotional center. Kudos to Austen for that.

The core story - the "World Tour" arc - was a solid reimagining of one of my least favorite X-Men stories, the whole Proteus thing. Never did like Proteus and was not a big fan of his original story, so I wasn't particularly inclined to like this one. I did, though ... more the non-Proteus stuff (Colossus in Russia, the Timesweek issue, etc.), but I liked it nonetheless. Not a lot, but I liked it.

Wolverine's going to be on the cover of every damn trade, isn't he?

Vol. 4: Hellfire & Brimstone

Simply outstanding. Nothing about this arc I didn’t like. It all worked. Even the cartoony work of the fill-in artist (didn’t catch his name) totally worked for me. The sad and frustrating manipulation of Beast, the re-imagining of the Hellfire Club, the return of Magneto, the introduction of Kitty Pryde. Loved all of it. Really looking forward to Ultimate War now.

Hellfire & Brimstone
Was one of my favorite
Arcs too, it's good stuff

Vol. 5 - Ultimate War

The miniseries
That should not be a mini
Is Ultimate War

I’m not sure why this was a miniseries. All it is, is a four-issue prelude or sorts to an Ultimate X-Men arc, with no real resolution to the proceedings. Magneto does bad stuff, X-Men get blamed, too, the Ultimates try to capture them, they fight, X-men escape. The end. And this without a real story to tell. In a way, it's kind of empty. Errrrr … couldn’t this have been done in the main book? And in, like, two issues?

That said, this was pretty decent. Mark Millar and the whole “terrorism” thing is way overplayed in his books, but this was good nonetheless. He has continued to expand upon these characters throughout his run, fleshing them out in fits and starts. Really liked the artwork. Thought the confrontation with the Ultimates was great. It may not have worked (in my eyes) as a small “event” miniseries - again, it didn't do anything other than set up an UXM arc - but as a short arc featuring a clash between two high-powered teams, this was decent.

Quite flawed but a decent setup with some solid "wow!" moments.

Enjoyed reading this,
And liked what it did set up.
I will read some more.

Vol. 6: Return of The King

A true winner here,
Great comics to end the run.
I can’t say enough.

Wow. A home run. Millar knocks one out of the park in his final arc on Ultimate X-Men. In a lot of ways, this feels like the end of a series to me, offering closure to a great many of the plots and subplots Millar threw out there from the very first issue. Some HUGE moments. Strong drama. “Oh my GOD!” action. Great character growth. Excellent closure to some subplots. The subtle start of some new plots for future writers to run with. Good art. Explosive finish.

All in all, really quite fantastic. Together with the first arc, this is a wonderful bookend to the Ultimate X-Men saga. I feel like it all went somewhere. As a reader, that’s very satisfying.

My few niggles are minor: I’m not a fan of the maniacal Ultimate Magneto. No sympathy for the guy. One of the strengths of “normal” Magneto since the 1980s has been, in my opinion, that you could almost buy into his cause if he didn’t do such nasty things. He was a villain, yes, but not always your typical “I WANT POWER!” guys,

Also, I often like “wrap-up” issues during which we get lots of talk and closure and things settle down a bit before all hell breaks loose again in the next story. They’re a good opportunity to reflect on what came before and put the pieces in place for what comes next. Here, though, there are two such issues closing out the arc. A bit lengthy, that. Not necessary.

Both those are truly minor nits to pick in the grand scheme of things, because this was a great arc, probably the best to date. It delivered in every way it needed to deliver and closed the book on the Millar run in the best of ways. The ride was up and down along the way, but when you cap things off this well, the Big Picture looks pretty damn good.

Millar is now done,
Who can top this, I wonder?
I am pleased with this.

Vol. 7 - Blockbuster

Wait … is this Marvel Team-Up: Starring Wolverine or Ultimate X-men?

I kid, I kid.

Better than I expected – but then, I have a low opinion of Bendis on team books, so my expectations were low. He does small casts of characters very well, but I’ve never been quite satisfied with his team stuff. Blockbuster was a pretty good read, though. He picks up where Millar left off and runs with some of Millar’s lingering plots, but the tone is markedly different. Loved Spider-Man’s humor. Did not love entire pages with “Argh!” as the only text. Liked Finch’s art. Did not like entire pages of Finch’s art with “Argh!” as the only text.

You know, I’m really liking Ultimate X-men a lot more than I expected to. This is really good stuff. Astonishing X-men aside, so far this is the best X-Men material I’ve read in years.

That said, I think I may have to take a break after Bendis’ last arc, start fresh with BKV’s run after reading something else for a while. What, I do not know, but I think I may need to get out of the MU (Ultimate or otherwise) for a spell to mix things up.