Product Description: As the X-Men embark on their inaugural world tour, they must confront some unsettling truths about their mentor, Professor Charles Xavier. Before founding his school for young mutants, Xavier abandoned his only son, David, a mutant with uncontrollable reality-warping abilities. Now, David has returned, looking to exact revenge on the father who left him - and he's willing to eradicate anyone who stands in his way. Will the X-Men be forced to kill Xavier's son to end his threat against the world? Following the tragedies of their world tour, the X-Men seek the calming protection of Xavier's school - but their suspicions of his methods only increase. Xavier's mental blocks on student Jean Grey's psychic abilities continue to crumble, and she grows increasingly unstable - plagued by visions of a world engulfed in the flames of a fiery phoenix. When the X-Men finally meet Xavier's mysterious financial backers, Jean's hallucinations become reality as the otherworldly Phoenix takes possession of the teenage telepath. Also included in this volume is a bonus tale of Gambit, a Cajun street hustler who must use his mutant gifts to protect a homeless boy in great danger. Collects Ultimate X-Men #13-20.
An improvement over the first 12 issues... Mark Millar strikes again. In these story arcs, he seems to realize that he's stuck on this book for the long haul, so he better take it more seriously than he did during his first 12 issues, which were so bad, I'm sure he was shocked that the book didn't get cancelled.
There are a few noticeable improvements to summarize: the characterizations are more fleshed out (although still very problematic--but at least there's a bit more depth attempted here), the incredible wordiness and verbosity has been eliminated for a leaner, funnier script, and the technology and other "near future" flourishes have been toned way down. (For example, the X-Men no longer fly around in a B-2 Bomber)
The first story arc deals with Professor X, flying high on an ego trip and world-spanning book tour. His travel arrangements, and his visions of philosophic grandeur, are derailed by the escape and murderous rampage of his son (a mash up of Proteus AND Legion from the original series? Comments?)
There's a stupid subplot involving Colossus trying to leave the team, and then, in a Spider-Man "with-great-power..." moment, saving a downed Russian submarine. The only thing that makes sense in this subplot is big C's assessment of Professor X: he's a maniac! That's the problem with the main story--as in the first 12 issues, the character of Professor X remains completely ridiculous. He's browbeating his students with pacifist mumbo-jumbo, he's confessing being a bad parent because he was having a mental love-affair with Magneto...he's a completely unsympathetic, arrogant, naive jerk. Viewed another way, he's a barely credible character, and certainly not one the reader can have any positive feeling for. There's no feeling of jeopardy as he's being thrashed by Proteus, because Proteus is a lot more likeable than Prof X!
The other characters are similarly unlikeable. Jean Gray and Storm are still arrogant, Cyclops is still a prick, Wolverine is still a prick...Beast emerges as a tragic sap, chatting online in search of acceptance, in a hilarious and sad subplot.
The artwork duties get taken over by Chris Bachalo, in a nice change of pace.
The second arc is a bit of a mash up, featuring Wolverine, Kitty Pride, and Cyclops on a trip to the Savage Land, Iceman dealing with a shady politician manipulating him in order to forward his anti-mutant agenda, and Beast continuing his absurd online love-affair with (unbeknown to him) the Blob!
Almost everything clicks in these stories- the satirical nature of them fits very well with the incredible artwork by Kaare Andrews. His work is cartoony, quirky, and eccentric, and genuinely funny. The script is very witty and works perfectly with Andrews' art to create some hysterical moments. The characters, although rendered as biting satires, are given more depth than in previous arcs.
Most enjoyable is the online chat with the Beast and Blob, with the hilarious Prosimian and the Brotherhood running interference. It is just dead-on real and funny, made even more so by the wacky art. The story with Wolverine and Cyclops is also well done, recalling their effective banter in the X-Men movies.
The last story once again brings out the worst in Mr Millar. I certainly understand the satirical impulse to skewer treasured episodes from the X-men's past, in this case, the Jean Grey/Pheonix story. But is it wise to waste such a rich vein of material? And in such a stupid, throw-away story that blows through the Hellfire club, and the Pheonix story in 2 issues?
Once again Prof X is rendered as a completely naive jerk. The rest of the characters don't get much air-time, although Jean Grey gets a softer treatment and no longer comes off as the bitchy and stuck-up girl from the first 15 issues or so.
The Beast/Blob/Brotherhood storyline culminates in the dramatic return of you-know-who. A very effective subplot which manages to be funny, tragic, and suspenseful, and that leaves readers anticipating the next arc.
To summarize, this book represents and improvement over the first one, largely because Millar takes his characters somewhat more seriously, and because of the much leaner script that is actually funny in many places. Still troublesome are the jerky characterizations, and the throw-away plotlines that make mincemeat of the original, better-plotted stories.
It is illuminating to consider Brian Michael Bendis' work on Ultimate Spider-Man. In that series, Bendis utilizes the original stories, but fleshes them out, creating more effective, deeper, more intricate characterizations and plot lines that result in truly involving and rich re-workings of the classics. Contrast that with Mr Millar's X-Men, in which he strip-mines the original stories to create breezy, satirical, compressed and lazy massacres, revealing his contempt for the original material, and for his own re-imaginings. Bendis' Spider-Man is a lovingly rendered tribute. Millar's X-Men is a facile, hateful and not very effective lampoon.
Not bad Artwork could be a lot better, but not a bad book. If you're already an X fan, it is a refreshing look at the characters. The stories won't WOW you, but it's interesting to see what new turns they try and take with this version.
Good - except for the bonus Gambit story! Another largely excellent Ultimate X-Men trade paperback, collecting the twelve issues in the 2nd year of Mark Millar's take on Marvel's premier mutant team and also featuring a bonus story by Chuck Austen featuring X-Men fave Gambit. The first story arc, `World Tour' has the X-Men up against Xavier's teenage son Legion, who has uncontrollable reality-warping powers and is angry at Xavier for leaving him and his mother - Moira MacTaggert - some years before to set up the X-Men. Legion is a very dangerous and unstable mutant, who does not hesitate to kill and whose aim is to destroy everything that Xavier and his dream stands for - a plan which involves wiping out several of the world's major cities. Will Xavier's X-Men be prepared to use lethal force to stop the insane Legion, in defiance of Xavier's pacifist ideals? In the second story arc, `Hellfire & Brimstone', Xavier and his X-Men prepare to meet the wealthy and mysterious benefactors who have been funding Xavier's school. These benefactors are revealed to be an organization calling themselves The Hellfire Club, and they have a special interest in teenage X-Men telepath Jean Grey, who has been having severe psychotic hallucinations and visions of a fiery Phoenix engulfing the world in flames... Finally we have a bonus tale featuring Cajun street hustler Gambit, using his special gift of being able to charge physical objects with kinetic energy to protect a young homeless girl from gangsters who would harm her.
Comments: I found this to be another largely excellent Ultimate X-Men trade paperback. The first story arc delves into the skeletons in Xavier's closet, as we are introduced to the son and wife he left - or some might say abandoned - in order to found the X-Men, and see the present day consequences of those past actions. The second story arc introduces the classic Phoenix character to the Ultimate universe, with the expectant death and destruction. There are also a number of interesting subplots, such as love rivals Cyclops and Wolverine coming to blows - and almost more - over Jean Grey and Beast inadvertently revealing to The Brotherhood the truth about Magneto's `death' (see `The Tomorrow People'). These two story arcs have excellent artwork from artists including X-Men veteran Andy Kubert, original Generation X title penciller Chris Bachalo and Kaare Andrews (who has a different and distinctive style). However, Chuck Austen's bonus Gambit story is a let-down, with a weak story and poor artwork from artist Esad Ribic, so I feel would have been better not included. Nonetheless, it is only a bonus story, so this trade paperback still elicits 4 stars.
such a tease! The story leaves you hanging for more!!!
The changes in the drawing styles got a little distracting though.
Awsome I've been collecting comic books all my life and I got to tell you not only was this the best series but it was the cheapest too!! You can't beat the price and the space you save when you buy cd like this.Best Buy ever. Nuff said.
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