So I went into this with no idea what the "Ultimate" titles were all about. If you're not aware these are basically the Marvel universe restarted for the teens of the 21st century. This is a good thing if you're new to Marvel because you're kind of "getting in on the ground floor" as opposed to trying to catch up on 45+ years of X-men/marvel comics. According to the afterword it worked well because the ultimates are huge sellers.

But...
If you're an old guy like me and have been reading Marvel comics (although sporadically) for 30+ of those 45 years you may (and I did) get the "been there done that" feeling while reading this. It really doesn't add anything new to the x-men cannon and you already know the story line so you're already worrying about Jean Grey from page 1 (actually she first appears on page 10 but you know what I mean).

The art was really nice but this is one of the first comics I've read where I liked the interior art better than the cover art (which just looks kind of cheesy and photoshopy IMO).

Like the "Ultimate Spider-Man" books, this is a re-telling of the X-Men saga, compiling the first 12 books of the series. The X-Men's origins and characters have been modernized in different and sometimes subtle ways, but at heart this is still a story of the tendency of humans to fear and mistrust those who are different, and the capacity of man to grow beyond his prejudices. The writing and artwork are fine, although neither is quite up to the level of the creators of "Ultimate Spider-Man". Still, this is a fine retelling of a venerable comic book saga. ( )

For an X-Men reboot aimed at younger readers, it doesn't look like it is aimed at kids. Professor Xavier is as much of a smartarse as his teenaged students, and is more than willing to do a bit of mindwiping and mind controlling, even of his own charges, when it suits him.

The US government has a Sentinel fleet that slaughters mutants in the street, and doesn't mind if a few humans die in the process.

Magneto is not a big fan of this, and runs terrorist bombings as a counter, kidnapping the President's daughter, which the X-Men expose.

In a final battle, Magneto, wounded, looks to launch every nuclear weapon in the world, and the X-Men have to try and stop him. Pretty hardcore.

http://graphicsf.blogspot.com/2006/12... ( )