Ultimate X-Men #1 Reviews/Spoiler

[WeaponX]

Let's try to be objective here and look at the big picture:

a) You've got X-Men 97 coming out soon, which already features a very traditional X-Men team with famous figures and will at least partially adapt classic comic story arcs.

b) You've got the main X-Men comic line re-launching in 2024. While the storytelling content itself will be new, the teaser already suggests two traditional teams.

c) You've got the X-Men coming to the MCU in the future. We don't know much, but it's a fair guess that the shape of the team won't stray too far from the Fox model.

d) Finally, you've got Ultimate X-Men doing something very unique and not limited by the existing orthodoxy, which doesn't even feature a team at the moment.

Frankly...if this isn't the right time to allow some room for freedom, experimentation and flexibility, a different way to play with the concept of mutants and other related themes without simply recycling our already preexisting memories into permanent storytelling expectations, then when could you possibly do that?

It's clear that Hickman himself doesn't want to try to upstage anyone by going: Look at me, folks! I'm here doing the X-Men...again! He's already been there, done that. It's become a part of publishing history. Hell, I can easily imagine that Hickman told CB that repeating himself wasn't remotely part of his plans for the Ultimate line. Which is how I assume CB went looking for someone else with talent and name recognition who could bring an entirely fresh approach. They picked Peach Momoko, who wasn't a hardcore X-Men fan at all and thus isn't psychologically nor emotionally obsessed with the idea of trying to relive the glory days of the past.

Regardless of whatever happens down the road, since I assume we will also continue to see familiar mutant characters pop up in different books such as Black Panther and Spider-Man, among others, I'm willing to stick around and see more of what Peach Momoko is trying to do here. Yes, it's essentially a character study, in practice, but I thought the first issue was well-executed and is a good example of how to bring some actual creativity rather than being held down by the chains of past mutant storylines.

And you just wasted a huge post because not one of those things is like Ultimate X-Men. And if that’s Marvels feeling then don’t use the title Ultimate X-men to prop up their sales.

[WeaponX]

I guess for those that don’t get why people like me are disappointed in this. Imagine you grabbed this book because it had Mokoko’s name on it. Then when it comes out she’s in no way involved. That’s what’s Ultimate X-Men fans are getting. They were promised Ultimate X-Men and they got Manga-verse armor. It’s just false advertising.

[Pantherflash]

This is an entirely rebooted Ultimate universe(And one in Spiderman has alot of Spidey fans happy while dumping the Wells/Lowe ASM tired formula), so those who are disappointed should wait it out till the rest of your traditional favs show up after this run. Anyway, I like how different Hisako's powers work, but it cues heavy to the Susanoo. Since Ororo's on Ult BP, I don't expect the A team to show up until much later after Armor's arc. Please give Peach Momoko a chance guys......

[Kurolegacy]

This is an entirely rebooted Ultimate universe(And one in Spiderman has alot of Spidey fans happy while dumping the Wells/Lowe ASM tired formula), so those who are disappointed should wait it out till the rest of your traditional favs show up after this run. Anyway, I like how different Hisako's powers work, but it cues heavy to the Susanoo. Since Ororo's on Ult BP, I don't expect the A team to show up until much later after Armor's arc. Please give Peach Momoko a chance guys......

Problem is that there’s no guarantee that there will be another run that follows this especially with the volatility of the market. If they see that this isn’t hooking readers, they could very well just cut their losses and cancel it. Just look at what happened with Ultimate FF from the post-Cataclysm relaunch of the previous Ultimate line. It wasn’t making sales and the ended it after just 6 issues. The foundation of a universe that you’re trying to get off the ground is honestly a poor time to be this experimental especially with one of your core titles. I wish those of you who are a fan of this luck but as a fan of both manga and X-Men, this just isn’t my jam as I don’t read X-Men titles for indy horror. As a side book maybe I’d be more open to it, but not as my main source of X-Men in a universe.

[mike627]

Wasn't one of the problems people had with the original Ultimate X-Men run was the retelling of classic stories? Speaking as someone who has been indifferent to Armor this was interesting to me. The pacing didn't bother me, none. If you want a classic X-Men set up you'll have that with the relaunch and X-Men'97 and the sure to come tie-in comics.

[Kurolegacy]

Wasn't one of the problems people had with the original Ultimate X-Men run was the retelling of classic stories? Speaking as someone who has been indifferent to Armor this was interesting to me. The pacing didn't bother me, none. If you want a classic X-Men set up you'll have that with the relaunch and X-Men'97 and the sure to come tie-in comics.

I doubt that that was an issue that people took with the original Ultimate X-Men considering that that was kinda the point of Ultimate Marvel to be a modern retelling of classic stories. It was turning everyone into edgy assholes that people didn’t like. And I hate how this same line keeps getting used of how if you want traditional X-Men you have elsewhere as it completely misses the point of people’s complaints. It’s not that this isn’t a traditional X-Men book, it’s that this doesn’t resemble an X-book period traditional or otherwise. The previous run of Ultimate X-Men threw out most of their A-listers and even sent the X-Men to an entirely different location and took away uniforms, fancy bases, etc but you could look at it blindly and still tell you were reading X-Men. With this, if you take away the cover that tells you it’s X-Men, nothing about the content inside feels like you’re reading an X-Men title much less a Marvel comic. You’d think you were just reading an indy horror book. It’s like going to a restaurant and ordering a steak only for them to bring out a burger. Sure it might be made if the same meat as the steak but it’s not a steak. If something is so radically different that it’s unrecognizable, what’s even the point?

[MarvelMaster616]

This is an entirely rebooted Ultimate universe(And one in Spiderman has alot of Spidey fans happy while dumping the Wells/Lowe ASM tired formula), so those who are disappointed should wait it out till the rest of your traditional favs show up after this run. Anyway, I like how different Hisako's powers work, but it cues heavy to the Susanoo. Since Ororo's on Ult BP, I don't expect the A team to show up until much later after Armor's arc. Please give Peach Momoko a chance guys......

It's strange how many people are saying "Give Momoko a chance" or "let it cook" or "it's just the first issue."

Those are all bad excuses to ignore the fairly glaring flaws in this issue. None of these excuses were made for any of the other Ultimate titles. Sure, those books had their critics, but nobody claimed they worked because they were radically different. That's not really a selling point. If an issue is so slow and so lacking that you'd never know it was an Ultimate X-Men comic unless you looked at the title, then maybe that's a sign the book just sucked.

[MarvelMaster616]

Wasn't one of the problems people had with the original Ultimate X-Men run was the retelling of classic stories? Speaking as someone who has been indifferent to Armor this was interesting to me. The pacing didn't bother me, none. If you want a classic X-Men set up you'll have that with the relaunch and X-Men'97 and the sure to come tie-in comics.

No, that wasn't the problem at all. In fact, Ultimate X-Men was at its best in terms of sales and critical acclaim when it was re-telling and re-imagining classic stories and concepts for both X-Men and the Avengers/Ultimates.

The biggest problem with Ultimate X-Men, in particular, is that Marvel decided to kill off 80 percent of the characters that they had spent 100 issues building up, effectively rendering every one of those stories they told pointless. And then, they tried to build a new series around a bunch of poor replacement characters like Jimmy Hudson and Teddy Allen. As for the X-Men characters that remained, they basically became flat and boring at best and horribly OOC at worst.

Plus, there was the whole "mutants being failed super soldier experiments" gimmick that basically rendered the entire concept of mutants being metaphor for minorities moot. So, that didn't help.

Bottom line...Ultimate X-Men had a lot of problems that led to its downfall and cancellation. But retelling classic stories was NOT one of them.

[MarvelMaster616]

It’s like going to a restaurant and ordering a steak only for them to bring out a burger. Sure it might be made if the same meat as the steak but it’s not a steak. If something is so radically different that it’s unrecognizable, what’s even the point?

I would argue it's even worse than that. Ultimate X-Men #1 is like ordering a pizza and then being delivered a pair of boxers.

[Kurolegacy]

It's strange how many people are saying "Give Momoko a chance" or "let it cook" or "it's just the first issue."

Those are all bad excuses to ignore the fairly glaring flaws in this issue. None of these excuses were made for any of the other Ultimate titles. Sure, those books had their critics, but nobody claimed they worked because they were radically different. That's not really a selling point. If an issue is so slow and so lacking that you'd never know it was an Ultimate X-Men comic unless you looked at the title, then maybe that's a sign the book just sucked.

Hell if anything, the main difference with Ultimate Spider-Man helped it considering it gave readers what they had been asking for with a mature Peter who was married with kids. It didn’t need any radical differences.

[cranger]

I guess for those that don’t get why people like me are disappointed in this. Imagine you grabbed this book because it had Mokoko’s name on it. Then when it comes out she’s in no way involved. That’s what’s Ultimate X-Men fans are getting. They were promised Ultimate X-Men and they got Manga-verse armor. It’s just false advertising.

Trust me, everyone gets it. We got it on the first page. We got it every other post that has been saying this. It just does not impact my opinion on the book. So if you are worried people have not understood you, then know that you can move on, we get it.

[juffuj5]

I would argue it's even worse than that. Ultimate X-Men #1 is like ordering a pizza and then being delivered a pair of boxers.

When the Ultimate Universe line up was revealed, Peach was open about how this wasn’t going to be a traditional X-book:
https://www.ign.com/articles/marvel-...comic-con-2023

[MarvelMaster616]

When the Ultimate Universe line up was revealed, Peach was open about how this wasn’t going to be a traditional X-book:
https://www.ign.com/articles/marvel-...comic-con-2023

That's all well and good. I didn't expect it to be a traditional X-Book, given the unique circumstances of this Ultimate universe.

But it's one thing to not be traditional. It's quite another to be so wildly different that the story makes no references to X-Men, mutants, or even the Ultimate universe in which it resides. In fact, the word "mutant" isn't even mentioned once. That's not just unorthodox. It's entirely unrelated.

If someone told you a book was a horror story, but the book had no horror in it whatsoever, would you call that just a not-so-traditional horror story? Or would you simply call that false advertising?

[Kingdom X]

Trust me, everyone gets it. We got it on the first page. We got it every other post that has been saying this. It just does not impact my opinion on the book. So if you are worried people have not understood you, then know that you can move on, we get it.

This part. Some folks liked it and some folks didn’t. That’s OKAY y’all! We don’t need to convince people to give something they don’t like an extra try and we don’t need to convince people who liked it to rethink their enjoyment.

[juffuj5]

That's all well and good. I didn't expect it to be a traditional X-Book, given the unique circumstances of this Ultimate universe.

But it's one thing to not be traditional. It's quite another to be so wildly different that the story makes no references to X-Men, mutants, or even the Ultimate universe in which it resides. In fact, the word "mutant" isn't even mentioned once. That's not just unorthodox. It's entirely unrelated.

If someone told you a book was a horror story, but the book had no horror in it whatsoever, would you call that just a not-so-traditional horror story? Or would you simply call that false advertising?

Isn’t it consistent with the rest of the ultimate universe books so far that no one mentions the word “mutant?” I don’t think even in Ultimate Invasion it’s said at all despite their presence in the story. We just know that there’s not as many mutants around at the moment.