Ultimate X-Men #1. . . . Opps! Its Ultimate Comics X-Men now.

Ultimate Comics X-Men #1 

Writer: Nick Spencer

Penciler: Paco Medina

Inker:  Juan Vlasco

Colorist: Marte Gracia

Cover Artist: Kaare Anderws

When the Ultimate Marvel first came out i was all for it. A new modern telling of our old favorite Marvel Super-Heroes. I loved what Brian Bendis & Mark Bagley did with Ultimate Spider-Man. But wasn't to keen on Ultimate X-Men & didn't really know WHO, (My Fan Boy cred is slowly dropping yet again), Mark Millar was. So Ultimates was just not the Avengers i wanted to read. Then there was Ultimate Fanatics Four, which i did enjoy. But this is not about the Ultimate Marvel line. This is about the Ultimate Comics (Why did they change the name to that anyway? . . . ) X-Men #1 & how i'm now wanting more Ultimate X-Men.

As i said before i didn't really read X-Men. I did pick up the first story arc & liked it. Then years later started reading them in TPB.  So i'm not that much up to date with who or whats happened to the mutants. And haven't read Ultimate X. . . . So maybe you're asking yourself "Why then did i pick up Ultimate X-Men any?". Two words: Nick Spencer. I love what he & Joe Eisma are doing with Morning Glories (printed out from Image Comics). So with a price tag of $3.99 & a writer i'm truly enjoy, i gave it a shot & was very pleased that i did. After reading it my first thought was to hunt down the Ultimate X issues. Just to find out more about Wolverine's son. Still shocked to know that Logan is still dead (from Magneto ripping out his amadmenton skeleton in Ultimatum)

So the mutants are pretty much back to square one. Humanity hates & fears them again. Mutants are on the run (What is/had happened to Colossus?) & Kitty Pryde has turned into a true leader. That's something i didn't see coming. But those first couple of pages. . . That got me hooked. Just the storytelling of the old married couple that had a mutant daughter, having the sadness in Miss. Pleasant face before her husband killed their child. . . Was very moving. You truly felt their sadness in Paco Medina & Juan Vlasco art work. And that's what's making me come back for the next issue. The great storytelling that this creative team had done in this first issue. Didn't know what i was getting into, but now. . . . Now i can't wait for more.

-Joseph (AliasJoeG)-

Moon Knighting in Hollywood

Moon Knight #1

Brian Michael Bendis writer

Alex Maleev artist

Matthew Wilson colorist

VC's Cory Petit letters

Marvel Comics publisher

Price $3.99

Warning Spoiler Ahead Warning Spoiler Ahead Warning Spoiler Ahead Warning Spoiler Ahead Warning Spoiler Ahead Warning Spoiler Ahead Warning Spoiler Ahead Warning Spoiler Ahead

The second I heard that Bendis & Maleev were going to bring back Moon Knight in his own title I was on cloud nine.  I loved what they did with Daredevil for so many years, that's were I found Brian Michael Bendis & fell in love with his writing.  And Alex Maleev's art was . . . was so astonishing.  His pages where truly works of art.  So with them taking control of Moon Knight one would have to say "THIS ISSUE WAS TOTALY AWESOME!” but for some odd reason. . . it wasn't to me.

Now the story, I like it I really did.  Having Marc Spector kind of like Tony Stark (money, fame, women, just minus the drinking problems. . . . .so far) was a cool idea.  And the shocking revelation at the end too.  Having Marc talking to Caption America, Spider-Man, & Wolverine with Ultron's head, as they're trying to find out who wanted Ultron's head.  The last page showing Marc alone, just standing in the same room with three Avengers but talking to no one.  Knowing Marc having three or four different personality, this was a nice touch.

 

So if I enjoyed the story, why wasn't it a great read to me?  I hate to say it but the art seemed off.  Maybe it was the way Maleev did his inking/shadowing?  Or maybe it was the way Matthew Wilson worked on the coloring?  I really don't know.  But whatever it was, it turned me off to this issue.  So for a $3.99 comic, for me a great story & an ok art. . . . sad to say I don't think I’ll be coming back for issue two.  Or maybe I’ll look for the future issues in the quarter boxes at Comic Con.

-Joseph (JMG)-

Nobody puts Jubilee in a corner

Wolverine and Jubilee #1 (of 4)

 “Cursed Part 1”

Kathryn Immonen writer

Phil Noto artist

Clayton Cowles letters

Olivier Coipel cover

Marvel Comics Limited Series

Price $2.99

I was big into the X titles in the 90’s.  With all of the characters, the relationships, the history and for somebody like me who started reading / collecting at that time I just fell head first into the mutant universe. When I think X-Men I still have Chris Claremont, Scott Lobdell, and Fabian Nicieza on the top of my list as favorite runs.  Somewhere after those guys I moved on from the X-titles only checking in sporadically to see what was going on in the books.  What I always liked about Jubilee being paired with Wolverine was she was more then just a sidekick.  Outside of the blue and yellow costumes there was still that surrogate father daughter link that I’m happy to see is still going strong in this new mini-series.

As I mentioned I’m not that up to speed on the current storylines going on in the X-titles, I was aware that Jubilee lost her powers during M-Day but was completely surprised to find out she was turned into a vampire during the last crossover.  I do like seeing lasting effects spinning out of crossovers and have made a note to find out what comics this happened in, I do miss the astric (*) comments that’d give us issues number info while reading.  The “Previously…” page that starts the issue does provide a nice overview of the who, what, and where for Jubilee.  And Wolverine….. at this point I’m pretty sure everybody knows who Wolverine is.

The series starts off with Jubilee being held in a containment lab not only for the protection of people living on Utopia Island but for herself as well.  Infusing Wolverine’s healing factor blood into her system appears to working but this treatment is still in the testing stage.  Even though Jubilee may be all doom and gloom not knowing what is happening to her right now we do see that there's a positive support network besides Wolverine that wants to see her come out of this.

 Page from Wolverine & Jubilee #1

In addition to old favorites Cyclops and Emma Frost there’s some new X-Men that I haven’t seen before; Armor, Rockslide, and Pixie who Jubilee attacked leading to her escape from the island.  This is where the story kicked into another gear.  Jubilee meets a mysterious woman in a San Francisco bar that seems to know more about her then she does herself.  I don’t want to give the cliffhanger away that ends the issue but it does leave us with some exciting questions of where this story’s going.

Wolverine had the last line here to close out the issue, “it’s time to do this my way”, and things are going to get interesting.

Couple of quick notes on the creative team behind this comic, I haven’t read much of Kathryn Immonen’s work but I’ve enjoyed her interviews from the Word Balloon podcast. I do have a partial run of the Patsy Walker Hellcat mini she wrote, haven’t read it yet because I want to get all of the issues before jumping into it.  Phil Noto’s art was very impressive, great facial expressions really captured the emotion.  He’s a triple threat really by penciling, inking, and coloring his own work he has complete control of the art. 

panel from Wolverine # 75 by Larry Hama & Adam Kubert