Ultimate X-Men (2024)

Ultimate X-Men
Ultimate X-Men #8
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Format	Ongoing series
Genre	HorrorSchool
Publication date	March 2024
Main character(s)	Ultimate X-Men
Creative team
Created by	X-Men by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee
Written by	Peach Momoko
Artist(s)	Peach Momoko
Letterer(s)	Vc Travis Lanham
Editor(s)	Wilson Moss

Ultimate X-Men is a reimagination of the X-Men in the Ultimate Universe, by Peach Momoko.

Editorial history

Ultimate X-Men by Peach Momoko is the third comic released in the Ultimate Universe line, alongside Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate Black Panther. It is a reimagination of the X-Men in general, and the Armor character in particular. The comic also introduces Maystorm, a character that Momoko designed for the variant cover of X-Men #27. That cover was part of a larger project named "New Champions", which produced covers reflecting unexpected sidekicks of other superheroes as the recently created Spider-Boy; Maystorm was the first one to be used in an actual story, while the others would show up in the Spider-Woman comic. Despite being an X-Men comic, the comic has very little in common with the usual products of the franchise. Momoko explained "My Ultimate X-Men isn't directly influenced by classic X-Men stories. I like to believe [Editor-in-Chief] C.B. [Beluski] and Jonathan Hickman chose me because they wanted something completely new and different, so I think sometimes no influences is a good thing".

Plot

Hisako Ichiki attended Kirigaya Minami Middle School in Kirisaki City. She had a close friendship with her classmate Tsubasa, who gifted her an omamori depicting a person inside an armored figure. Unfortunately, Tsubasa was subjected to frequent bullying from both classmates and school staff, eventually committing suicide by hanging. This event led to her developing depression. She receives a note instructing her to go to the nearby temple shrine. There, she encounters a shadowy figure who returns the omamori that Tsubasa had previously given her and proceeds to blame her for Tsubasa's suicide before disappearing. Hisako rides her bike home and collides with a car, but is unharmed due to a psionic exoskeleton that resembled Tsubasa's omamori, seemingly manifested from herself. The local news report the car crash the following day, but her identity remains unknown.

Some days later Hisako is approached by a girl who recognizes her as the one from the car wreck. She introduces herself as Mei Igarashi. Both go to the lab of an abandoned school as Hisako explains some of the previous events. They are confronted by the shadowy figure as Mei reveals her powers, summoning winds as they make the entity disperse. Later, they become classmates at their new school.

When asked about her powers, Mei avoids the question while privately recalling the moment they first came up and how her parents reacted. Hisako introduces her to Nico Minoru, a fellow student whose parents are rumored to be psychics. As she turns to them, Nico claims to know about their powers, calling the two girls "Mutants".

During an encounter with a former bully of Tsubasa that is possessed by the entity, Hisako and Mei use their powers publicly, which is filmed by onlookers. Despite Mei disabling most of the phones with lightning, the footage later gets uploaded on the phone of Noriko Ashida a few days later and becomes viral.

Mei calls on Nico for a meeting with Hisako as she tells her about the shadowy figure. As the omamori is analysed, the entity is summoned and repelled by the Staff of One. Later, Nico tells Mei about the rumors and urban legends regarding the term "Mutant", that a few are cultists who declare themselves superior to the human race and the next step of evolution. Mei suggests that the girls form a team to investigate the cult, which is rumored to be covertly researching their powers and performing blood rituals to trigger them. They settle on the name of "Secret Society X-Men" inspired jokingly by their bad grades.

Nico shares her grandmother's research on the cult with the other girls as she supposes the stalker might be tied to the group, as their friends Natsu and Mori identify it as a secretive religion called the Children of the Atom. They are later attacked by the shadowy figure as Natsu recognizes it as a psychic projection of Shinobu Kageyama, a member of the cult. After Hisako's armored appearance grabs Kageyama's shadow, he's incapacitated at his house and becomes ill. His mother takes him to the cult's Maester. As Kageyama gets nursed back to health, the Maester dismisses his unstable behavior as mere adolescent inbalance, declaring him as still being a true "homo superior".

Reception

Chase Magnett from Comicbook.com points that the comic has little relation with the broader narrative of the Ultimate Universe, the usual X-Men tropes, or even the superhero genre. He thinks that the comic aims to expand the franchise's genre boundaries.

Shaun Corley from Screen Rant points that the comic skips almost all the key characters and elements of X-Men lore, such as the X-Mansion and Sentinels, and characters such as Professor X, Cyclops, Wolverine and Storm. He considers that, by doing so, Momoko focus instead on the core theme of the X-Men, that of people feeling lonely in a world that fears them.

External links

• Official website