Pick of the Week
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Story by Brian K. Vaughan
Art by Stuart Immonen
Inks by Wade Von Grawbadger
Colors by Justin Ponsor
Letters by Chris Eliopoulos
Published by Marvel Comics | $2.25
It’s been years now and I know we’re all sick of the pros and cons of the Ultimate line of books from Marvel. Admittedly I was originally against it, but I’ve bought every issue, pretty much (with the exception of the Ultimate Elektra books). And every few months there’s been a new reason to enjoy or hate these books. Bendis, obviously, has won me over with Ultimate Spider-Man. But I attribute that to the lack of a child-like love for the character and stories of Spider-Man. Sure I’ve read it over the years but I never felt the blind allegiance that I feel toward, oh what’s the name of that book again? Oh right – The Uncanny X-Men.
Naturally, I’ve been skeptical, critical and downright annoyed at times by Ultimate X-Men. It started with the Wolverine goatee (remember that godawful thing?) and continued over the past few years. Ultimate X-Men was obviously a gimme for Marvel, yet the book has suffered from the lack of consistency of the creative team in the same way that Ultimate Spider-Man has benefitted from the continued run of Bendis and Bagley. Writers have cycled through Ultimate X-Men left and right and it’s yet to have a solid feel to it at all, despite the consistency of Andy Kubert’s art. But now, even Kubert has moved on.
But I have hope. Brian K. Vaughan (of Y: The Last Man, Runaways and Ex-Machina fame) has been writing Ultimate X-Men and so far its been pretty good, despite Gambit’s perm. But it hasn’t been until this issue, issue #54, that I felt the warm and fuzzies about Vaughan’s writing. And it all came in one word:
Longshot.
Longshot has long been one of my random favorite characters from the X-Men pantheon. Not really over-used, and the victim of a mullet in the 80’s, Longshot always had a bit of mystery to him. It must be hard to actually write one of these Ultimate stories, by drawing from the themes & established characters of the original X-Men comic stories and putting the Ultimate spin on them. There have been hits and misses, but with this first issue of this new story arc, so far at least, we have a hit.
Did you read Ultimate X-Men #54? Add a comment and tell everyone what you think about this week’s comics!
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I think I’ve said it before on this site, and I’ll say it again. I hate the hurriedness with which they introduce all these beloved characters. The new Gambit is lame. The new Mr. Sinister was the worst thing I’ve ever seen, and I saw the Daredevil movie. I had the same problem with Ultimate Spidey and Venom and Carnage being introduced so quickly, but I hear that Bendis was against it originally.
That being said, I haven’t read this issue and I love to spout off sometimes. Carry on.
You know, I hated Immonen’s art work for a long time – I didn’t read his Thor run, I hated his Hulk stuff and I could only bring myself to read one issue of Secret Identity. But damn. Since his Ultimate FF stuff . . . I can’t get enough. His old stuff was murky everything was a shadow – it was all black. But now everything looks clean. Check out the page where Jean tells Scott about the airline bathrooms – his facial expression is great.
Immonen did something with Busiek a while ago on the Gorilla imprint, Shock Rockets I think, and the art on that was spectacular.