Ultimate X-Men
| Ultimate X-Men | |
|---|---|
| File:0504 ULTX045.jpg Cover to Ultimate X-Men #45. Art by David Finch. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Ultimate X-Men #1 |
| Created by | Mark Millar |
| In-story information | |
| Base(s) | Xavier School for Gifted Mutants |
Ultimate X-Men is a superhero comic book published by Marvel Comics. The series is a modernized reimagining of the long-running marvel comic X-Men. This title is set outside of the Marvel Universe continuity in the Ultimate Marvel Universe, and started from scratch with new versions of each character. The series began in 2001 under writer Mark Millar and artist Adam Kubert. Subsequent writers have included Chuck Austen, Brian Michael Bendis and Brian K. Vaughan; Andy Kubert, Kaare Andrews, Chris Bachalo, David Finch, Brandon Peterson have worked as artists since then.
In this version, the X-Men, other than Professor X and Wolverine, are still teenagers. The team originally included these two as well as Cyclops, Jean Grey, Colossus, Iceman, Beast and Storm. "Ultimate" versions of a number of others, including Nightcrawler, Rogue, Shadowcat and Angel have since been introduced. Their enemies have included revised versions of the Hellfire Club, the Sentinels, and Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants.
The Ultimate X-Men
X-Men: senior members
Featured here are X-Men who joined the team prior to/ during the first storyline, "The Tomorrow People".
Professor X, aka Charles Xavier, is the wheelchair-bound founder and patron of the X-Men. He is an idealist and a pacifist, but certainly not above manipulating other's people's minds. For a while, he dreamt of creating a mutant society with Magneto. But then, Magneto had a falling-out with him, shot a steel rod through his back and severed his spinal cord. He is the ex-husband of Dr. Moira MacTaggert and had an estranged son named Kevin with her.
Beast, aka Hank McCoy, had a rough childhood despite his genius IQ. He was turned into a blue, furry beast by the insidious Weapon X project. Storm and he were a long-standing couple until Beast was killed by a Sentinel attack.
Colossus, aka Piotr Rasputin, reluctantly worked as an arms smuggler for the Russian mob before joining the X-Men. He is strongly hinted to be a closet homosexual, a fact confirmed by creator Mark Millar in an interview, and in love with Wolverine.
Cyclops, aka Scott Summers, is the boy scout-like X-Men field leader. Shy and aloof at first, he had to learn to be a leader. Eventually, he became Jean Grey's boyfriend.
Iceman, aka Robert Drake, was the youngest member of the original team. He is a hotheaded puberting youth, but loyal to the X-Men cause.
Marvel Girl, aka Jean Grey, is an outgoing and foxy, but also very responsible young woman. She is hinted to be the reincarnation of a "Phoenix god". After an affair with Wolverine, she hooked up with Cyclops.
Storm, aka Ororo Munroe, is an angry, streetwise Harlem chick who stole cars and was reluctant to join the X-Men. She opened up and was the girlfriend of Beast until his death.
Wolverine, aka "Logan", was turned into an amnesiac, emotionless killer by Weapon X. He resurfaced as the cold-blooded elite assassin of Magneto and infiltrated the X-Men to kill Professor X, but was so impressed by his ideals that he switched sides. Captain America recognized him as James Howlett, a Canadian commando who fought alongside him in World War Two. They called him "Lucky Jim" because he always survived no matter how badly shot up he was. Later Wolverine learned that he was once married, but no more has been revealed.
X-Men: junior members
Featured here are X-Men who joined after the first storyline, "The Tomorrow People".
Angel, aka Warren Worthington III, is the shy but very handsome winged child of the millionaire Worthington family.
Dazzler, aka Alison Blaire, is a tough-as-nails punk rocker covered with tattoos and piercings and notorious for her foul language.
Nightcrawler, the Bavarian mutant Kurt Wagner, was forced into the Weapon X program, just like in the movie X2. But in contrast to other prisoners like Rogue, Sabretooth or Juggernaut, he never gave up his ideals.
Rogue, aka Marian, was also forced into the Weapon X program. When she was liberated, she first joined the Brotherhood of Mutants, but changed sides when Magneto caused a nuclear explosion. Recently, she left the team.
Shadowcat, aka Kitty Pryde, is a very young but dedicated X-Man. She is a bright Jewish girl and always wears a David's star around her neck.
Villains
Magneto, aka Erik Lensherr, is a charismatic mutant supremacist and the X-Men's main nemesis. He is the leader of the mutant supremacist terror group Brotherhood of Mutants. Born a Jew in an extremely anti-semitic Poland, he witnessed the horrors humanity is capable of as he watched all his family get murdered in the Holocaust. Since then, he is convinced that mankind is a savage race destined to be replaced by the mutant "homo superior". Lensherr's rhetoric closely follows principles of militant activist Malcolm X and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The latter is most ironic because it was Hitler who destroyed his family (though while Hitler persecuted minorites, Magneto represents an oppressed minority lashing back at an oppressive majority).
The Brotherhood of Mutants are Magneto's followers of about 500 militant mutants. Magneto's main henchmen were Blob, Mastermind, Toad and his two estranged children, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. They shun humans, live solely under their self-given "mutant name" and use their own mutant alphabet called "Epsilon Omega". Later, the ranks of Brotherhood were strenghened by Unus, Juggernaut, Hard-Drive, Rogue, Sabretooth, Vanisher, Forge and Multiple Man.
Fenris are Andreas and Andrea von Strucker, two androgynous mutant business tycoons of german origin. Their agenda is the infiltration of global economies for the benefit of mutantkind. Although their motives seem honourable, they use unscrupulous means to achieve their goals.
The Hellfire Club, led by Sebastian Shaw, is an inner circle of very rich businessmen who believe in a pagan "Phoenix god". They believed it was reborn in the body of X-Man Jean Grey and secretly funded Charles Xavier to nurture her until the right time came. The Hellfire Club's membership includes Alan Greenspan and Arnold Schwarzenegger
Sinister, aka Nathaniel Essex, is an ex-scientist of Oscorp, the firm of Spider-Man villain Norman Osborn. After experimenting on himself, he acquired superhuman powers (hypnotic powers and he's invisible to anything but the naked eye) and went insane, seeing visions of "Lord Apocalypse".
Proteus is Kevin MacTaggart, the son of Charles Xavier and Moira MacTaggart. He was born with reality-warping powers. It allowed him to possess other people, but sent him into epileptic spasms and drove him eventually insane. He fled his mother's keep on Muir island, possessed Betsy Braddock and defeated the X-Men. But when Braddock temporarily regained the control of her mind, Colossus was able to kill Kevin.
Weapon X was a concentration camp for mutants in Finland, trained to turn them into mindless killers. It was officially sanctioned project by S.H.I.E.L.D. which went awry. It was run by John Wraith and Doctor Cornelius. Weapon X prisoners included Juggernaut, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Sabretooth and the X-Men.
Other characters
Elisabeth "Betsy" Braddock started as a colonel for the British secret service. She was possessed by Kevin MacTaggert (Proteus) and seemingly killed. But her conscience survived, floating into the comatose body of an Asian girl called Kwannon. Currently she is building up STRIKE, the British division of S.H.I.E.L.D..
Emma Frost is a teacher from Chicago. She is even more pacifistic than Professor X and was his one-time lover.
General Nick Fury is the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the X-Men's link to the US government. He shares a love-hate-relationship with Charles Xavier.
Gambit, aka Remy LeBeau, is a homeless bum from Louisiana, performing card tricks to make a living. After his powers spun out of control, he was picked up and cured by the Fenris twins. Also, he was partly responsible for Rogue's leaving the team.
Dr. Moira MacTaggert is a Scottish mutant expert and runs her secret mutant shelter on Muir island in the very north of Scotland. She was married to Charles Xavier, gave birth to her child Kevin MacTaggert (Proteus) and divorced him after he left her.
Other mutants which appeared in cameos are Karma (as an aspiring member of the Ultimates), Havok (as one of Emma Frost's recruits), Northstar (as a student attacked by Sinister), Sunspot (as a member of a neighborhood watch) and Wolfsbane (as a sideshow attraction).
Trivia
Ultimate X-Men #1 starts with Magneto's Brotherhood committing gigantic bombings which destroy much of Washington and New York. The events of the issue, published in February 2001, contain chilling similarities with the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Mark Millar stated that he wrote his first stories with practically no deeper knowledge of the X-Men. Additionally, he revealed that he was suffering from great pain while writing the groundbreaking Return to Weapon X, due to a potentially deadly kidney disease which kept him in hospital for months. This explains why there is so much gruesome suffering during this storyline. [1]
As a running gag, some vehicles have the license plate "FLHRCI" which is an acronym for a Harley-Davidson bike.
World Tour, the third arc, takes place in the UK and is labelled as the story with the most mistakes. The London Eye is on the wrong side of the Thames, the Union Flag on Colossus' shirt has the wrong colours and the 15 year-old Iceman is let into a pub. In addition, when Wolverine is run over by a truck, the vehicle's steering wheel is on the left side, but vehicles in the UK have their steering wheels on the right. This scene, which takes place in Scotland, is witnessed by Jean Grey, although the next page depicts her in Russia at that time.
Part 7 of Return of the King mirrors the final conversation in the first X-Men movie between Professor X and Magneto in the famous "plastic jail cell".
Story Arcs
- Ultimate X-Men Vol. 1 (writer: Millar/ artist: Kubert): The Tomorrow People #1-6
- Ultimate X-Men Vol. 2 (Millar/ Kubert): Return to Weapon X #7-12
- Ultimate X-Men Vol. 3 (Millar+Austen/ Bachalo+Kubert+Ribic): World Tour #13-20
- Ultimate X-Men Vol. 4 (Millar/ Andrews+Kubert): Hellfire & Brimstone #21-25
- Ultimate X-Men Vol. 5 (Millar/ Bachalo): Ultimate War (Ultimate War #1-4)
- Ultimate X-Men Vol. 6 (Millar/ Kubert): Return of the King #26-33
- Ultimate X-Men Vol. 7 (Bendis/ Finch): Blockbuster #34-39
- Ultimate X-Men Vol. 8 (Bendis/ Finch): New Mutants #40-45
- Ultimate X-Men Vol. 9 (Vaughan/ Peterson): The Tempest #46-49
- Ultimate X-Men Vol.10 (Vaughan/ Kubert): Cry Wolf #50-53
- Ultimate X-Men Vol.11 (Vaughn/ Immonen): The Most Dangerous Game #54-57
For a plot description, see Ultimate X-Men (story arcs)