Ultimate X-Men

Originally, I was just going to write about issue 77, but as I sat thinking about the issue, I realized that my problems with this issue are endemic to the whole series since Millar left way back when.

The biggest problem is that since he left the longest time a writer has been on the book was Vaughan for twenty issues, so there hasn't been a long, consistent voice on the book for a while. (This has been an even bigger problem with Ultimate Fantastic Four, and many comics out there as a whole.) A long term, consistent voice can once again add to the characterizations of the team. Every time a new writer comes onto the series they pick certain bits out of the last one's run and drastically change others.

One of the things that I really liked about Millar's run was that the book wasn't just about the X-Men, but it was about the place of mutants in the world. Millar never forgot that the X-Men and Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants were how the world saw all mutants. He showed them being violent. Even the good ones, the ones, supposedly, trying to promote understand between the two species, were out there smashing property and getting people killed. Who, in the eyes of the public, are the heroes? Millar also showed explored the mob mentality of the scared normal people through out the Sentinel and the public's reaction to learning that Magneto wasn't dead.

There were big ideas about the world and about the different people who live there in Millar's run along with some great characterization.

Then came Bendis and what should have been an Ultimate Wolverine mini, rather than a run in this book. Bendis took away the focus on the big ideas and wanted to focus on the characters during his ten issue (I think) run. That's a decent goal, but after him, the larger world was forgotten. What happened to the regular humans? Where were they? What happened to the consequences of the fighting? Gone, to the best of my recollection.

For me, Vaughan's run had the highest point since Millar with the Longshot story because it showed, as opposed to just telling me, that normal humans hate mutants. Still he seemed to want to focus on the people on the team rather than the team’s purpose in the world.

And now there's Kirkman and I'm still not sure about his stuff on this book. It's been merely okay. Nothing's wowed me. The "Phoenix?" storyline just sort of petered out. Who are right? Lilandra's people of the Hellfire club? I still don't know. I hope it get's better soon because I don't know how much longer I want to hold on to lackluster just because I used to like this book.