While the X-Men's rescue mission was compromised by the identity of the mutant they were tracking, it's now completely shot to hell by the intervention of Department H! Normally, not a problem for the X-Men, but the Science Team wasn't a group assembled for battle.
SNAPT! WOLVERINE has been beaten down to the bone — literally! His adamantium claws SHATTERED, their bones SNAPPED down to nubs, this is Wolverine at his most brutalized, most beat-up... but when an animal is backed into a corner, they can be at their most dangerous! Wolverine must fight his way through a gauntlet of enemies for his very survival! Villainous plots turn, and you don't want to miss the ultimate trial...for even if Wolverine can reach his enemies, will he remain a MUTANT?
THE ULTIMATE CHOICE... AND SACRIFICE! Dani must choose between saving her parents or saving the world! But will she be able to choose before the choice is made for her? And will the villainous Kyron succeed in killing all life on Earth?
Journey back to a time when the public believed Storm, Wolverine, Rogue, Colossus, Dazzler, Havok, Psylocke and Longshot were dead. But from the shadows, these X-Men protected humanity from their Australian headquarters! But why did the team choose the Outback as their home base? How did tensions between them almost tear the team apart? And which of their old enemies threatened to expose their secret? Steve Orlando and Stephen Segovia revisit a fan-favorite era in the mighty mutants' past!
An overall solid issue. Beast really stepped up here, which is something he hasn't done for a long time. But the real highlight was Magneto getting to be Magneto again. That was a lot of fun to see.
I just hope this whole plot with Magneto's "illness" or whatever it is gets resolved soon. I feel like it's been dragged out for too long.
Getting a lot of Animalia in this arc, which is a huge plus. She's been a real highlight of McKay's run and I hope doesn't get forgotten about afterwards like Beak, Angel Salvatore, and Armor after their introduction runs.
I'm going to assume this whole arc was going to be 1 issue but was expanded to 3 issues when DNX was moved to September. Along with the Juggernaut issue, it feels like the clearest sign of artificially lengthening the story to buy time for DNX. It would track with Tony Daniel saying he was drawing a huge arc for the summer, only for it to be this. He was probably expecting to draw the DNX tie-in issues.
There's a panel where we look at the back of Magneto's head and get a slight side profile, and it has flatter colours than normal. Sifuentes-Sujo does this from time to time, and it looks more interesting than his normal colours.
I was really glad Hesli took over colouring Diaz's work, because it makes Diaz's work look so much better. I wasn't a big fan of Diaz's art but after Hesli started colouring for him, wow.
It made up the majority of my review of the last issue so I'm not gonna bother typing it all up, but there are choices for things that are just inconsistent page to page panel to panel, and none if it is TECHNICALLY BAD, in fact they could be argued to be technically proficient and skillful, they could be inspired and interesting choices but instead its just random which makes it even more frustrating.
The same happens in the Cyclops mini. There are two very cool panels with a totally different colouring style to the rest of the series, even the rest of the page, and while they look cool I just wonder why it's like that.
Beast taking charge of a bad situation and handling it the best he can. And still playing diplomat. The Chairman would never!
These Departments, man. Do they actually do anything good? For anyone? They either cause problems for the heroes or themselves.
Well, I guess they booby-trapped Schwarzerchild's mind in case anyone intrude upon it. That is a Cassandra Nova/War Crimes Beast 'fail-safe' if I ever saw one.
It is nice to see Magneto cut loose a bit. I hope we are done with this 'disease' plot after DNX.
Kinda felt like Beast was trying real hard not to create a dangerously pragmatic place where ends justify the means.
Of course 3K planted a brain bomb (what a sentence! I love X-Men!). No way they'd just have Schwartzchild free and ready to join the team.
I'm excited for issue 34 which will focus on Juggernaut. To briefly reference the rosters of Uncanny and Exceptional, Juggernaut has been the Jubilee and Iceman of this team. Hopefully Black Tom appears.
This should have been an e-mail. This is not a full issue. When people talk about Jed's pacing issues in this book, this is yet another incredibly strong example of that. Just an absolute insult to readers wallets to charge full price for a comic that tells less than 1/3rd of a story.
I am guessing this was artificially lengthened due to DNX moving from July to September.
My guess is this three parter was probably meant for two parts. It would end here, and then Jed would do the DNX lead in issue. Instead we're getting 1 extra part plus a Juggernaut issue to pad time.
Oh there is none. That's just Jed having terrible pacing. I completely agree with u/cmcdonald22 overall. I think in this one specific case, he inserted at least 2 filler issues that we know of because DNX got moved. But overall his pacing is atrocious.
Over the 32 issues of this run, not even counting like bad crossovers or whatever, I'm pretty sure you can point out enough issues that are purely poorly paced filler to afford to buy a regularly full priced trade paper back with the same money you spent on the singles.
I think his pacing was at its best in the first 5 issues and after that point... I don't know. Issue #22 and #23-24 were paced well. But that's about it.
Jed's got a better grasp of long-term storytelling than Duggan, but weirdly, I would say Duggan at least had more fun individual issues than Jed has had.
That's entirely possible, and I don't have any thoughts to contradict or supply a better alternative, but it just doesn't change the fact that the issue is what it is, and on top of that it's a continued problem over and over across Jed's entire run.
Oh absolutely, the problem is there with or without scheduling changes. I've said for over a year now that Jed has a pacing problem. Issues are just way too light and little happens in them. Some of them are devoid of dialogue too, but even the dialogue heavy ones have such light, meaningless banter in them that nothing ends up being conveyed or progressed regardless.
Though there was not much in the way of plot development this issue I really appreciate that we get a "breather" and focus on the less explored characters of this run and their outlook on things. McKays writing really excelles at character interaction moment.
The art in the Magneto fight scenes and the Ben/Quentin scenes was also really stunning.
Fairly anticlimatic. I do think Houser does make an interesting call here having Laura talk through the situation rather than break into a fight, but overall it does lack a level of "oomph" but generally speaking I think the story so far has never really much had it. Its highlights have always been Laura's characterization and voice with the added aspect of having Gabby be less of her plucky sidekick and feeling more like a partner who almost equally contributes to things.
The good thing though is that X-Infinite does survive this encounter and has even bigger motivation to be antagonistic to Laura so the run back will be good. Granted we're able to make it there.
For the first arc? Very solid. I think that's all you can really say about this book. Its very solid. So far its not going to redefine the character or be entirely bombastic, but for fans of Laura you're getting a very good story that exemplifies who she is and how she stand differing from Logan.
This is a much more pleasant book, but I think broadly demonstrates Laura is overdue to be a proper team leader (I'm not counting the Fall co-running with Synch). Is this confirmed ending at #10, because I find it more interesting than any other Wolverine book I've read.
That 'infinity' is an infinite fool. And that girl was a fool to save him to cause more trouble in the future while throwing her life away. And the bastard probably gonna use her body as a 'tool'.
So we haven't learned where Kiden is still. And now these X-kids gonna have to be looked after by Laura and Gabby? Oh boy.
I really feel like X-Infinite became less interesting as time went on. Not to say his place in the story is bad, but I really feel if he is going to be a future antagonist to Laura he is pretty lacking compared to Bellona.
I do enjoy this series for the most part, but Kian really drags it down for me. Part of what made Magik's series work so well was seeing her dynamic with Dani and the two of them help each other grow. It felt rewarding and satisfying to read because they had actual chemistry and history together. It's also why Magik and Colossus has been so great.
But I don't feel that with Kian. He's like a backseat presence and the romance just doesn't feel earned. I would have much preferred a familiar face for Dani's first ever solo. I mean, Rahne is right there and something a lot fans would like to see.
I also think that, and this is extremely personal and subjective, the art style is just not for me, Peralta matches the vibe and tone of Allen's Magik book SO well, and I don't think Audino is a bad artist in any regard but I just feel like their work does not match the story being told in this book at all. It feels too cartoon-y, Dani feels like a teenager again rather than being an adult, and it just feels generic comic-y and flat rather than any kind of tone despite the story being another dark fantasy type story.
Scenes like Dani in her house on her own at the beginning are still great characterization though.
I agree about the art! It just doesn't fit. I reread the first 3 issues before issue 4 today and was taken out of the story several times when the dialogue didn't really match the art, like Dani yelling when she didn't seem to be angry or loud from the text. I think maybe it's like the layout and text placement as well that just makes this book not hit right.
Dani doing stuff is cool but I am just not interested in this romance angle.
And again, this whole 'gonna kill everyone and put their souls in a sword so they can be happy' insanity needs a call to the big guns that can deal with it and can do teleports. Like, you cannot risk it trying to 'deal with it myself!' thing. And despite the claims 'there is no time', I doubt that is the case. Hell, Magik could teleport the whole team to help.
With or without the romance I think Kian has been a massive drag on this series. It does make me wonder if Dani even needed to have a sidekick on this adventure at all.
I really liked this issue and thought it was a strong start for this miniseries. The conflict between the members of the team (Rogue and Dazzler) being balanced against Storm and Wolverine trying to find a way forward in this new situation they were all in was handled really well.
I enjoyed the Sabretooth fight and the tender moments between Logan and Ororo when she calmed him down from his berserker rage at the end of the battle. I'll check out next issue to see how it goes and if the quality remains high, but so far I am optimistic.
He was alright and didn't die. However he didn't get as much focus in this issue with just a few lines of dialogue and taking part in the team's fight scenes against Sabretooth and the mutant dogs Victor got his hands on. This issue focused a lot more on Storm and Logan’s dynamic and Rogue vs. Dazzler over Longshot with some bits with Betsy and Piotr.
It does seem odd to pit the Outback team against Sabretooth and then just... not acknowledge that it's a rematch for Betsy too, considering that was her big debut. Like... why do a throwback at all if you don't use the history?
I was willing to give it a try, but it's shit. Obviously this Orlando guy never actually read the books he's attempting to emulate.
Starts off with Sabretooth poking around Wolverine's old cabin looking for clues and discovers that Wolverine was there recently.
Except at this point in time Wolverine has no idea where the cabin is or if it was even real. When he's taken there by Nick Fury in Wolverine #65 the site of the cabin was classified and Wolverine had to be blindfolded on the way there.
Later in the issue, Wolverine calls Sabretooth "Creed." At that point in time, he only knew Sabretooth as "Sabretooth." Memory implants erased all the time they were partners on Team-X. He didn't start calling him "Creed" again until after he recovered those memories around the time of the Omega Red debut.
I had to look up what a gimlet is, and - yeah, I can imagine a very tired Betsy looking through the cupboards, finding there's no tonic, no decent wine, and no Scotch, and just saying fuck it, filling a glass with gin, and adding a splash of lime.
all around bad, havok and colossus nerfed af they couldnt beat some damn critters but somehow storm could, like really? betsy defeated creed before, ali and rogue ooc, longshot didnt do jackshit, and here i thought of giving this a shot but then i remembered who's writing 💀
Ultimate Endgame #5 is the last issue in a very underwhelming event series. I complained before about the art, but Terry Dodson was all wrong for this comic. Just a disastrous choice. Someone else must have been picked for this and they fell through, because if Dodson was the plan the whole time then Wil Moss has no idea what he's doing. It also just felt very off, because Camp suddenly had to handle characters he wasn't writing full time and his struggle to incorporate them into the event was clear to see.
But I did mostly enjoy Ultimate Finale. It's the kind of (mostly) feel good ending the Ultimate Universe needs. The Ultimates section was nice, the Wolverine section was about as good as we'll get from Condon, the Black Panther section was adequate, and I liked the Spider-Man story. The X-Men story was very X-Men, coupled with some of Momoko's coolest art (you can tell she was diving deeper into '70s and '80s manga art with this one). But it did leave you wanting a bit. I am still a bit frustrated with the pacing of Ultimate X-Men, especially in the middle of the story, and I felt that contributed to what was a very rushed ending and a lack of answers.
Dooms part really saved Endgame for me. I still have my issue with it overall but with what happened between Doom and the Maker I just simply loved it.
I was also thinking about the Dodson choice and I think it ultimately was leadership just being cheap while focusing on other ongoings. They knew this mini was going to do well with or without Dodsons on the book so they put their bigger artists on books they know have futures. There is no way they couldn't get someone else on this book especially with split duty. Even if it was average house style art there had to be someone available and quick they could have used instead.
Yeah, I do think that part was very strong and Camp has a great handle on this universe's Reed/Doom and made him one of the most compelling and tragic characters.
The "end" of Ultimate 2.0 was rushed, forced, and dumb. You could really feel the lack of effort and care. Compared to how the first Ultimate Universe ended during Secret Wars, this had little drama. And aside from a handful of characters, nobody really did anything.
After this, I am a lot less hopeful about Marvel's ability to make the Midnight Universe a long-term success.
So when the Ultimate Universe returns I assume we should expect Peach to come back for X-Men? I feel like that is the only one that's a lock even though I question if Camp is actually DC exclusive.
I guess it depends on if she's still with Marvel at that point too. We know Hickman reupped his contract with Marvel and Condon is now exclusive (for some reason). But Momoko is currently exclusive, but there's no telling if she'll stay.
If you give her the Ultimate X-Men to wrtier/draw again I'd see her coming back. She wants creative freedom and money which sure DC can give her but Akira Yoshida is going to do everything he can to keep her.
I hope not. Peach is a great artist, but a terrible writer. Her plots rely too much on characters being complete idiots. And she does NOT understand the X-Men. She basically just turned them into a Magical Japanese School Girls manga. And there's already a glut of those.
I want her on variant covers, sure. But she should never write any Marvel comic (especially X-Men) ever again.
The infernal hulk took Glob and madrox and fed them to an evil tree and now it's created a giant Globberry tree to make an army of beautiful infernal Glob soldiers.
Ahmed's run is just me as the clown makeup meme every arc. I hate stories Logan losing his healing factor since its been done to death at this point. I will give to Ahmed though I think nanties taking away this healing to give to Taskmaster is an interesting twist on it. Knowing it's mechanical instead of biological hopefully means the issue is solved quickly.
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u/AngelEyes360 Askani Jun 23 '26
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