The anticipation for Ultimate X-Men #1 is huge, especially with Peach Momoko at the helm. She’s crafted some of the prettiest covers at Marvel Comics in the last few years, wowed us with an alternate take on Marvel characters in Demon Days, and now plans to do it again all within Jonathan Hickman’s newly relaunched Ultimate Universe. Following in his footsteps after Ultimate Spider-Man and Bryan Hill’s Ultimate Black Panther, can this series change our thoughts about the X-Men proper?
In a word, the answer is yes. When you read Ultimate X-Men #1, you’ll note a few themes, one of which is an undercurrent of horror. There’s also a prominent teenage main character, which suits the legacy of this series. What better way to represent the weird and “other” than with a teenager? Set in the Eastern territory of Hi No Kuni ruled by Sunfire, Viper, and Silver Samurai–characters put in place by The Maker to help rule the world–the story focuses on a young girl named Hisako Ichiki.
This slow-burn story introduces us to Hisako and the realities of the world she lives in, which many young people will likely relate to. She’s bullied at her middle school, and other kids play pranks on her. She soon heads to a temple and meets a strange shadowy figure. It presses her and accuses her of killing her friend. The loss of her fried haunts her and is soon racing away, discovering she has abilities when a car is thwarted by a pink savior looking quite like Armor’s abilities from the 616 Marvel universe.
That face behind the boy is scary!
Credit: Marvel
This issue has a lot to love, especially if your expectations don’t demand a full X-Men team to show up in the first issue. From the cute way Armor waves at Hisako, one can see a playfulness to this universe. There is also a great darkness centered on bullying and how it affects people both directly and indirectly. There’s a real-world message at work here that will connect with readers. Instead of this being a team book, one can see there are rules to figure out regarding mutants and this strange shadowy figure. A mystery worth solving. We already know Sunfire, Viper, and Silver Samurai are out there, so mutants exist. Now, it’s a matter of figuring out how Hisako fits into things.
The art is also gorgeous. The shadowy figure is truly frightening, like something from another world. There’s a few elements that are pretty haunting, ramping up the bullying as a utterly disturbing thing. The translucent effect of Armor is also well done, especially when you know it’s drawn with physical materials. Her watercolors hammer home an endearing quality, capturing the youthfulness of the characters well. There’s also a fun lexicon describing different objects from Japanese culture. Drawn in a cute style, it’s a nice way to learn little details Americans might have missed.
Props should go to Zack Davisson who adapts the script making it easy to read with a nice pace and flow to the dialogue. There’s an almost wistful nature to the placement of captions and Travis Lanham’s lettering keeps things clean and simple.
I do wonder, however, what it all means. The story is so obtuse I’m unsure how mutants function in this world. The shadowy figure is so different from anything we’ve seen that it’s impossible to know how it fits in with the archetypes of X-Men, seeing as this universe can’t stray too far from what we know. The pace is also slow, largely due to Momoko’s framing and layout design.
Fans are in for a truly unique treat with Ultimate X-Men as it feels right at home with its teen main character introducing us to mutants in a brand new way. It doesn’t feel like X-Men per se, but it captures the weirdness of super-powered enemies and the isolation of being a teenager all alone. There may not be a team yet, but it’s a compelling story of a young girl discovering she has powers at an age when outside armor is more needed than ever.
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