World Famous Comics: Ultimate X-Men: Ultimate Collection, Vol. 1
Ultimate X-Men: Ultimate Collection, Vol. 1
By: Mark Millar, Geoff Johns Publisher: Marvel Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Marvel Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 336 Publication Date: April 12, 2006 Reading Level: Young Adult
Product Description: Collecting the first year of Mark Millar's groundbreaking ULTIMATE X-MEN - issues #1-12 - in one colossal trade paperback! Featuring an all-new cover by ULTIMATE HULK VS. WOLVERINE artist Leinil Francis Yu! The world stands on the brink of genetic war. Mankind has made the first move, launching an army of giant, cybernetic executioners called Sentinels - programmed to target and eliminate the mutant DNA strand. Now, Magneto and his mutant terrorist cell are preparing to follow through on their threats of Homo sapien genocide. The only force that can prevent total annihilation: five awkward teenagers and their crippled mentor! Plus: The inexperienced X-Men must rely on the enigmatic and unproven Wolverine when they become pawns of the mysterious Weapon X program. Can Logan go it alone against the shadow-ops organization that transformed him into one of the world's most lethal killing machines? Also featuring the rare ULTIMATE X-MEN #1/2!
Amazon.com Review: The economical paperback Ultimate X-Men Ultimate Collection Vol. 1 represents the first year of the mutant team, issues 1-12 plus issue 1/2 that took place between issues 6 and 7. Ultimate X-Men was created as part of Marvel's Ultimate line, which starting with Ultimate Spider-Man "rebooted" popular series from the beginning so newer readers could dive into them without having to learn 40 years of character backstories. (They also use a more dynamic, cinematic style.) In the case of the X-Men, that meant reconfiguring Professor Xavier's opening roster to include Cyclops, a punk Jean Grey, Beast, Ice Man, Colossus, Storm, and a psychopathic secret weapon named Wolverine. In the first of the two six-issue story arcs, The Tomorrow People, we meet the team and their mission to protect the human race against Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, whose desire to establish homo superior's proper place above normal humanity leads the U.S. President to deploy the mutant killing machines, the Sentinels. The second arc, Return to Weapon X sags a little by deemphasizing the team in favor of the government agents behind the Weapon X project. Written by Mark Millar, with pencils mostly by Adam Kubert and Andy Kubert, with assists from Tom Raney and Thomas Derenick. --David Horiuchi
Bad start for this series... This series does get better, but this first volume is seriously flawed. I refer you to the brilliant review written by Brown Rage from 2006 on the Hardcover edition of this book for his great points on the dialog and artwork, and I'll just skip those elements in my own review.
Mr Millar, the writer, seems to have a fundamentally hard time writing likable characters. It is well known that he hates super-hero comics. Yet, apparently to pay the rent, he keeps writing about them, usually in completely over-the-top reincarnations or re-imaginings in which he gets to transform them into jerky versions of themselves.
Take a look at his work in the Ultimates, Civil War, or Wanted, wherein you can see him writing stories that revolve around self-centered and arrogant people acting out.
Which brings us to his re-work of the X-men. The X-men is no sacred cow for me, mess with them all you want. But the book still needs to have some internal logic, and some compelling characters that you care about (beyond the reference to the mainstream incarnations in other books). But in Ultimate X-men, the characters are all asinine, arrogant, mean, stupid, or just plain irrational.
Most troublesome are the irrational characters, and most troublesome of those is Professor X. His actions and motivations are completely inexplicable, and seem to change from page to page. The only compelling and consistent aspect of his "vision" of mutant/human harmony is the incredible wealth he and his students are able to tap into- the only motivation I can see for any of the X-men joining up with him. (This character only gets worse in the second volume, btw.)
But the other characters fare no better: all get turned into shallow, strutting, and overly verbose bastards at the hands of Mr Millar. There's not one character among them with whom it is possible for the reader to identify.
Besides the characterizations, another absurdity is the way the characters' powers work. In this "Ultimate" incarnation, the characters' powers have apparently been jacked up to ultimate levels.
Why argue with this? Because it robs the narrative of internal logic and dramatic tension when we see: Colossus stop a speeding train by standing on the tracks, Storm easily fry Sentinels with one lightning bolt, Jean and the Professor perform experimental animal-organ to human transplant surgery by telepathically tapping into the minds of some research doctors we are supposed to believe exist somewhere off-screen. At one point, Magneto stops hundreds of Sentinels at once, then simultaneously reprograms them with his powers as they all levitate in the air. I don't care that the original Magneto could never have done that: it is just stupid in and of itself.
The technology that Professor X, SHEILD, and the Weapon X program is supposed to have access to is also ludicrous. I'm sorry but A) there is no way the X-men fly around in a B-2 Bomber. Just not going to happen. And B) the B-2 cannot "beam" people up into it, doesn't have VTOL, can't hold more than 3 people, it cannot turn invisible, it cannot hover, and it certainly cannot hover unseen, and unheard, and without knocking people over, above a crowded city square.
And I don't care if this is the near future, and there are mutants and super-powers, there is no way SHEILD has invented clothing that can allow people to walk through walls and turn invisible.
It is just cheap and easy storytelling to invent preposterous technology like this every time you need an easy plot device or narrative short-cut.
In conclusion, this book is a bloated mess created with a minimum of thought and a maximum of contempt for the characters, coherent dialog, narrative logic, and, I dare say, the human race itself.
Points are given for the artwork, the beautiful format, and the fact that this series improves over time (like when Millar finally stops writing it).
Ultimate x-men Ulitmate x-men is also a great read. You can see the x-men in a differet light. Yes they is some spots of the book i can care less for but for the most part i like the book.
An excellent start to the series This graphic novel collects the 12 issues in the first year of Mark Millar's Ultimate X-Men and covers two story arcs: 1) `The Tomorrow People' and 2) `Return to Weapon X'.
In the first story arc, `The Tomorrow People', the world is on the brink of genetic war after the emergence of mutants, humans who possess special abilities due to an activated X-gene in their DNA. In fear of mutantkind, mankind has created Sentinels, giant robots that can identify the mutant gene and are programmed with one directive: identify mutants and terminate them. We are introduced to two opposing mutant groups: the world's most powerful telepath Professor Xavier and his X-Men, who have a vision of a world in which humans and mutants can live together in peace and harmony, and terrorist master of magnetism Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants, who believe that mutantkind are the next stage of evolution, and are meant to replace mankind, not live in harmony with them. Magneto wants to bring about the all-out genetic war that he believes will result in mutantkind finally destroying humankind and inheriting the earth that he feels is rightfully theirs, whereas Xavier believes that such an all-out war would inevitably mean the extinction of all, man and mutant. But when the US government discover the whereabouts of Magneto's secret base - the Savage Land - and dispatch a fleet of Sentinels there to kill Magneto and all his followers, the life of every human man, woman and child in America is in danger, because Magneto will respond to this attack with terrible wrath, and determine to kill every non-mutant in America in one stroke. Can Xavier's X-Men stop this genocide, and the madman that is Magneto?
In the second story arc, `Return to Weapon X', Xavier's school is ambushed by Weapon X, a covert black-ops unit funded by the US government that uses mutants as living weapons against their will, brainwashing them and inserting neural implants into their brains to compel them to obey. Xavier and his X-Men are all kidnapped and taken to the secret Weapon X base in Finland. The X-Men are then sent on missions as operatives of Weapon X and are forced by Colonel Wraith - the head of Weapon X - to do terrible things. But when Weapon X attacked Xavier's school, they failed to capture Wolverine, a mutant with a healing factor that means he can recover from any injury. Wolverine was a former operative of Weapon X, who was kidnapped by them, brainwashed and routinely tortured for many years. He is the world's most lethal killing machine and he has a plan to rescue his fellow X-Men from the clutches of Weapon X, a plan that involves his former team-mates, Magnetos' Brotherhood of Mutants...
Comments: I found this to be a most enjoyable trade paperback, with two great stories, the first of which introduces us to the world of Ultimate X-Men and the second of which takes us deeper into their world. The characters are different from in the main Marvel universe (primarily because they are mainly teenagers) and this new start gives readers new to the X-Men and also former X-title readers like myself the opportunity to get back into the X-Men world without having to worry about continuity. The first story is competently told, with good guy Xavier and bad guy Magneto's opposing viewpoints on the place of mutants in the world, the horrors of the Sentinels and the X-Men doing their best to protect a world that fears and loathes them. The second story is even better, with the X-Men and Xavier pawns of Weapon X and its evil leader Colonel Wraith, the story being so compelling because of the terrible sufferings of the X-Men and other mutants as prisoners of Weapon X and Colonel Wraith, a villain who is even worse than Magneto. This trade paperback is a fine start to the Ultimate X-Men series, with well plotted stories by Mark Millar and largely excellent artwork by Adam and Andy Kubert, Tom Raney and Thomas Derenick. I intend to carry on reading.
Not Bad X-Men in 'Ultimate' universe. Although this is the first volume, there is not much origin in this book. It goes into a few details, not a lot, on Wolverine, but everyone else just exist as mutants from the get-go. There is no backstory or anything. This book contains two stories, each spans several issues. The book collects issues #1-12.
First story, the X-Men fights Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants, each opposing group with a different view of their place in society. The X-Men believe they can co-exist with humans and live in harmony, whereas the Brotherhood believes in mutants being the next race to succeed humans. This is a pretty interesting fight and would make a great movie. In the movies we see these groups fight but they left out the humans which are crucial to the story as they fight against the mutants with giant robots called Sentinels. This is an exciting battle and the artwork really comes alive in the story.
The second story is about a government agency known as Weapon-X whose purpose is to enslave mutants to do man's bidding. It is this story where we learn of Wolverine's past. There are some exciting battles here as well, but the only exciting part is the battle between Wolverine and Sabertooth which is way too short.
I felt the stories are lacking somewhat and the dialogue pretty bland. The book does a good job in explaining everyone's powers so even if you're not an X-Men fan, you will come out knowing all the heroes and villains pretty well. If you don't already know, there is always favoritism toward certain characters in X-Men comics. They love Wolverine and he is almost the main character that comes and saves the day. Jean Grey would be second most popular character since she is Wolverine's love interest. Villains vary from Sentinels, to notable humans, to Magneto.
The artwork is ok. Nothing really awesome that stands out. It is clean-looking and serious. One nod is they make everyone look proportional like real people as opposed to caricatures or too cartoon-like like in Ultimate Spider-Man series. The artwork is also not as glossy and plastic looking as in Ultimate Spider-Man which is another nod, but is also the reason why the artwork doesn't stand out as much and look quite bland as the writing. But ulimately (no pun intended), it was a good and quick read and will give you a nice superhero fix.
Incredible. Great Stories here, and for a price that you can't beat. I hadn't read any of the Ultimate stuff from Marvel, except for Daredevil and Elektra, but the X-Men have always been my favorite, and I was intrigued by the way that they were "reborn" here. I would have to say that my favorite highlight would be what the Weapon-X program did to Beast. Peace and Love, Jake
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