Brave New X-World – Review Of Ultimate X-Men #1

This week, Marvel’s Ultimate line reboots its X-Men franchise with Ultimate X-Men #1 written by Nick Spencer with pencils by Paco Medina and inks by Juan Vlasco. We’re dropped into a world that is still mourning the death of Peter Parker, and is now rocked by the revelation that mutants aren’t a natural occurrence, but instead are the by-product of decades of bio-engineering experimentation. The general public has orders to shoot any mutant that has not turned itself over to a containment camp. Also, Santa Claus isn’t real and your mom never loved you. It’s a beautiful day in the fucking neighborhood.

Warning – spoilers below the fold!

Jean Grey has dyed her hair brown and is going by the name Karen Grant. She is still working with Charles Xavier to provide a safe haven for mutants:

Yes, yes. This is all well and good but, why did you dye your hair? Is there an anti-ginger agenda in addition to the anti-mutant one?

But, in the current atmosphere of fear and distrust of mutants, she doesn’t always get to them in time:

If it is an anti-ginger thing, wifey better dye her hair tout suite.

That scene was just brutal and it’s what sealed the deal for me to keep it in my weekly pull list. Spencer engages in some raw storytelling and his work is complimented by Medina’s expressive pencil work. I fall in and out of love with the work on the Ultimate storylines, and I admit to being leery of coming back after The Death Of Peter Parker. However, the Ultimate universe is moving in a pretty compelling direction right now – one that is also not bogged down by all of the various Major Event hammering that is going on in the 616 universe. Between Fear Itself, Spider Island, Legacy and Schism, not to mention Children’s Crusade and the new stuff about to happen with the Hulk, I can barely keep my head above water let alone afford to purchase all the titles that I’d need to to keep up – at least not without dipping into my beer money, and that’s not going to happen.

I’m enjoying the Ultimate books right now if only for the simple fact that it looks like all the writers are working together to map out a continuity that makes sense. And, if that’s not a reason enough to get you to try this book, how about this:

This is why you should stay in school, kids.