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‘Ultimatum’ is Fridging at its Finest

In a sentence, Ultimatum is the superhero comic that will make you hate superhero comics and will have you reading nothing but Harvey Pekar, R. Crumb, and Daniel Clowes for the rest of your comics reading career. (My apologies to Fantagraphics.) Jeph Loeb really should have apologized to Mark Millar and Brian Michael Bendis for destroying their carefully crafted, simultaneously optimistic and nihilistic universe with all the skill of a child knocking over sand castles and then pulling its pants down to take a piss on the wretched ruins.

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‘Ultimate X-Men #4-6- Cyclops, Politics, and the Kubert Bros

With a dose of political satire, some soaring team-up action grounded in character moments (Storm struggling with her power; Quicksilver’s daddy issues; Wolverine the reformed assassin), and a robust arc for Cyclops, Ultimate X-Men #4-6 is definitely an improvement over the preceding three issues. The “death” of Beast is a cheap storytelling ploy, and I am still skeezed out from Wolverine’s sexual liaison with Jean Grey, but Millar and the Kuberts end this first arc on a triumphant, if dark note albeit with some skeletons in the closet waiting to be brought out for the following “Return to Weapon X” storyline.

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‘Ultimate X-Men’ #1-3 is an adequate, action heavy intro to the X-Men

Mark Millar and Adam Kubert’s work on Ultimate X-Men #1-3 really is the blockbuster action take on the X-Men, but there is enough flashes of characterization, pretty layouts (Not so much those ugly leather costumes.), and clever twists like Wolverine being a bona fide villain and Colossus’ old crime boss supplying Magneto with a nuke. It’s not a particularly deep comic and scratches the surface of the idea of “post-humanism”, but Ultimate X-Men #1-3 is adequate popcorn entertainment, which led to it selling like hotcakes. (Ultimate X-Men #1 was the number one book in December 2000 with 117,085 copies, and issues 2 and 3 stayed in the top 3 with numbers around the 90,000 range.)

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I Liked Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch More When They Were Magneto’s Bastards

By this point, there’s a mound of evidence to support this theory, most of which have been analyzed and theorized about ad nasueam. There’s been the death of Wolverine, the slow and quiet cancelation of (literally) dozens of X-books, the hiring of Brian Michael Bendis (the ultimate Marvel company man), the lack of marketing and promotion of any X-book, and finally the completely unnecessary and suspicious delay of Uncanny X-Men #600. The most overt act of corporate terrorism waged against the X-Men ,however, has been the retconning of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch’s origin, an origin which was originally a retcon in itself.

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To Better Know A Villain: Magneto

Real Name Max Eisenhardt First Appearance X-Men #1, Sept. 1963 Nicknames and Alias Erik Magnus Lensherr, Master of Magnetism, Erik the Red, Michael Xavier, Creator, Grey King, Buckethead Powers and Abilities Magneto has the ability to manipulate electromagnetic energy, principally magnetism, allowing him to move and control magnetic metals from small (the iron in blood) …

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The Master of Magnetism Makes a Big Return in Magneto #1

Magneto #1 Written by Cullen Bunn Pencils by Gabriel Walta Colors by Jordie Bellaire Published by Marvel Comics “The past often plo’s the course of one’s future” and so it is about time that the true Magneto, the mutant Malcolm X, bubbles back to the surface in Cullen Bunn’s new series. This issue is a …

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