Written by Mark Millar, Illustrated by Adam Kubert w/Tom Raney &Tom Derenick.
Issues 7- 12 (one story) of Ultimate X-Men collected into one Trade Paperback.

Apparently this series (still ongoing as I write this) is meant to be the X-Men without all the baggage of over 35 years of convoluted comic history. It's a jazzy, hip, X-Men-movie-style interpretation of our favourite intrepid band of mutants. Even though this book begins with issue #7 I felt I was missing nothing by not having read volume 1. An honestly blatant attempt to draw in the fans of the current spate of comic-licensed-movies. The visual style is trendy and slick and the writing is solid if nothing too innovative. This book presents the six-part story of the Weapon X project, one of Marvel's stock excuses for muddying the past of heroes and villains. Obviously it gets an "Ultimate Universe" makeover here as the X-Men are captured and put to work as soldiers of the secret and unwanted government project.

This was my first real encounter with Mark Millar's work and I was reasonably impressed. In this story arc he doesn't display tremendous writing talent by any stretch of the imagination but that's not really what this book seems to be about. The goal appears to be consistency, accessibility and an acceptable level of quality and Millar's writing fits in perfectly. He draws from a selection of recognisable elements and characters from the "real" Marvel universe and condenses them into a more streamlined representation. As I already mentioned, there's no "40 years of baggage" for him to deal with, instead he gets to take what he wants and discards the rest. Of course to keep it fresh he has to twist things to some degree. Rogue, Iceman & Nightcrawler are all between 14 and 16 rather than late-teens/early 20s and Nick Fury is black (no it's not a major alteration but it illustrates the differences in "importance" between the changes).

Millar's dialogue is slick and competent. Nobody is over-speaking things, nor is it dumbed down, old-school-kiddie super hero talk. As I said about his overall writing, it's nothing special but it's very suitable for this title. His plotting is nicely paced and interesting enough to keep you reading, though it's not especially different from the normal X-Books. The ending is perhaps slightly anti-climactic but I feel that's partly due to this being a collecting taken from part-way through an ongoing comic series. There's some reference to events of the first sox issues and there's some setup for the next story arc in the final chapter. That said, however, the beginning is notably stand alone and you could be forgiven for thinking the series began with this book based on the intro. For people reading the series as it comes out this might be a bad thing but when they're collected into a trade paperback like this it's much appreciated.

The art comes primarily from long-term X-artist Adam Kubert. His style is rather more simplistic than it was several years ago but what its lost in detail its gained in energy and cinematic scope. When its combined with the tremendous (but then aren't they all these days?) colouring you can really enjoy the visual side of this book. However, fitting the trend of all "hot-artists", Adam Kubert appears to be unable to maintain a monthly output on a book so fill-in art is required. An entire issue here is pencilled by Tom Raney (of the now defunct Mutant-X title) who is no slouch in the visuals either. His style is less stylised than Adam's and as a result lacks some of the energy. That's not too much of a problem, however, as the issue he pencils concentrates on the secret-agent antics of Nick Fury, rather than the more extravagant, X-Men encounters. However, the fill-in artist for the final chapter, Tom Derenick, is significantly less impressive. He pencils about half of the issue alongside Kubert which highlights the problems with his art even more. It's too stiff for this kind of title and really flat. I presume the inking isn't solely too blame for the very primitive looking pages that his art produces.

This is a fun, workhorse of a book. There's nothing really new or innovative here, it's just a clean and easy-reading take on your favourite X-characters. I think the apparent goal of creating a title that fans of the movie would be able to leap straight into has been accomplished. It's also the kind of book that might capture a lot of X-fans coming back to the franchise after many years away. There are some nice ideas here and I rather liked the Nick Fury chapter where he is subject to realtime-budgetary constraints on the use of his gadgets. I'm not sure whether I shall be desperately seeking to pick up more volumes of Ultimate X-Men but that's not to say it's not enjoyable. It's not quite what I look for now that I've fallen for a world of comics outside of the standard super-hero fare but it's definitely a good, fun read. If you're a casual fan or someone looking to start then it's probably the best place to turn to. If you're an existing fan then it's defiantly worth picking up this one volume to see if Millar & Kubert's take on the X-Men appeals to you.

Written to Metallica - The Shortest Straw