Ultimate X-Men

[IsaacMahomie]

I found the first three years of Ultimate X-Men at my library. I finished the first and am now working on the second year. I know this is old news to most folks, but I've never read them before. I'm surprised by how bold it is. I admire that they're "mainstreaming" the Marvel canon and including the best bits (the Sentinels, Magneto and the Brotherhood, Weapon X, etc). Its almost like reading the storyboard for a set of movies. But are they losing a lot in the process? Weapon X was a cool story, but it goes so big and ends so quickly, I feel like they aren't milking much out of the stories.
Its like 1. Introduce villain/coming crisis. 2. Create tension. 3. Fight/main character is captured 4. AH! ALL OR NOTHING EVERYONE WILL DIE! 5. Resolve crisis.
And thats it. 5 or so issues and that entire plotline is more or less concluded.

[Silv3r]

To be fair though, that kind of pacing is how a lot of the "classic" stories were done, I mean wasn't Phoenix Saga originally like 3 or 4 issues?

That said, I really liked the start of ultimate X-Men, but the second year didn't engage me nearly as much and I basically stopped following it after that. I for one really loved the Weapon X story.

[The REAL Brian]

You know it wasn't THAT long ago that a 3 part story was considered pretty long in comics. Now stories that used to take an issue if that to tell are stretched to four, and 6 parters are very common place.

[cuttingroom]

You know it wasn't THAT long ago that a 3 part story was considered pretty long in comics. Now stories that used to take an issue if that to tell are stretched to four, and 6 parters are very common place.

Right, for awhile they called the "decompression" of comics. That they were giving stories room to breath. In recent years, Warren Ellis has started pushing back--you know, like he does--and re-compressing stories. If you check out Global Frequency or Fell, you'll find a lot of self-contained stories, which I think is pretty damn cool.

I was also a big fan of Ultimate X-Men, but I've got to warn you, Isaac, it gets very different (and in my opinion worse) with each subsequent writer. No one had a handle on the title the way Millar did. When the title wrapped up recently, it had completely lost any sense of itself.

[IsaacMahomie]

I just finished the 3rd year of Ultimate X-Men, (and exhausted what the library has). I thought it was great. Millar wrapped everything up nicely and it was handled well. A few disappointments here and there, but a heck of a lot better than most of the movies (in my opinion).
The highlight for me was the X-Men beating the crap out of the Avengers. That was awesome. But even then, it could've been done better.
I don't think I'll bother buying additional years of it though, thanks for the advice.

[fantasticraig]

I was also a big fan of Ultimate X-Men, but I've got to warn you, Isaac, it gets very different (and in my opinion worse) with each subsequent writer. No one had a handle on the title the way Millar did. When the title wrapped up recently, it had completely lost any sense of itself.

That was what I thought. It starts out really good, but then gradually gets worse until its outright terrible at the end. That story with the power-enhancing drug, especially, was really dumb.

I like the costume designs they use though, they keep everyone in the same black/yellow color scheme while still giving each one individuality. Plus FINALLY, Wolverine wore something that made sense for his character. I never got why he would wear a goofy over-stylized yellow uniform in the regular Marvel universe, it seems like something his character would be embarrassed to be seen in. And why the mask? It's not like he is concealing his identity.

[cuttingroom]

That story with the power-enhancing drug, especially, was really dumb.

Amen, and the requiem issues were some of the worst comics I've ever read.

It's funny with alternate timelines (which the Ultimate universe essentially is), how sometimes they're handled so well and we really care about the characters--like Age of Apocalypse. Other times it feels utterly irrelevant. I haven't yet decided which category the alternate time line in LOST falls into.

[IsaacMahomie]

I picked up Ultimate Spider-Man now. (I think its the first year in one volume). Maybe its the fact that I've seen the movie too many times... but I thought the whole origin / Uncle Ben thing wasn't handled very well. I mean, it was adequate, but is it too much to ask to maybe feel something at some point? Could the death of Uncle Ben thing have been any more... contrived? Its like they put so much effort into not having Uncle Ben literally say the words "with great power comes great responsibility" that he just blabs on for a page or so without saying much of anything. "so like, Peter, responsibility, you should think about it.". Just say the iconic line that everyone is expecting and move on, less is more here.

I've read so many comics where Batman flashbacks to the death of his parents, and good writers keep that meaningful no matter how many times it gets used (and it's about once per story arc). I guess comparing stuff to Batman won't get me much in terms of enjoyment.

Also, Osbourne turns himself into a big green monster? Who flies and uses pyrokinesis? ... what?

[cuttingroom]

Yeah, I hear you. Spidey fighting a mindless monster is sort of par for the course throughout the whole thing. That being said, I always enjoyed reading that title. The witty banter really carried the whole thing for me. If you really want an Ultimate kick in the teeth, you ought to be reading The Ultimates. Under Millar's pen, it was the best of the line--even better than Ultimate X-Men, I think.

[IsaacMahomie]

Yeah... the Library doesn't have the early on Ultimates. Just "New Avengers."

I'll see if one of my Marvel collecting friends has it.

Also, now that Peter Parker is spending more time as Spider-Man, the wit is getting fun.

[opie301]

Ultimate Spidey and Ultimate X-Men are kind of opposites in that X-men is really tight to begin with and then wanders off more or less aimlessly at a certain point. Spider-Man, on the other hand, starts off without much of a point, not really sure what direction to take the title, and then really finds itself later on. Somewhere in the second year, they really start having some fun with reinventing the classic mythology.

[fantasticraig]

Ultimate Spidey was definitely one of the better Ultimate Marvel titles.

The monster Green Goblin was kind of weird, but I think that works better than him flying around on his bat-rocket with all of his Halloween-themed gimmicks.

[The REAL Brian]

I saw the Monster Goblin as a sort of "Fooled you!!!" moment. You expected the Oz formula to just give him powers, and it turns him into a beast. That was actually the running theme of the book for a long time- leading you to believe they were rehashing the original story, then turning that on it's head.

I actually found Ultimates jarring compared to Spiderman, given how traditionally noble the heroes acted in Spiderman, whereas the Ultimates almost seemed to have bloodlust half the time. It didn't synch up very well.

[fantasticraig]

I saw the Monster Goblin as a sort of "Fooled you!!!" moment. You expected the Oz formula to just give him powers, and it turns him into a beast. That was actually the running theme of the book for a long time- leading you to believe they were rehashing the original story, then turning that on it's head.

I actually found Ultimates jarring compared to Spiderman, given how traditionally noble the heroes acted in Spiderman, whereas the Ultimates almost seemed to have bloodlust half the time. It didn't synch up very well.

Thats a lot of why I liked the Ultimate universe, the whole thing is sort of a play between what you know about the characters/stories already and the new directions the writers can take them in.

The Ultimates were all kind of douchebags, the only one that really acted heroically was Thor, and that was just in his hippie activist kind of way.

Speaking of which, I think Thor was my favorite re-imagining in the UU. I loved how everyone thought that he was an escaped mental patient.

[opie301]

I thought they did a pretty good job with the Ultimate Captain America. He was my favorite of the new cats. Though I would have loved to have gotten deeper into the Hawkeye character. But I stopped following before that could become a reality.