Broken Frontier

Forget, if you can, the anger you felt after Ultimatum. Forget, for just a moment, the grief you may have felt for the tragic deaths of your favorite heroes. Forget the hatred you felt towards Jeph Loeb, the evil architect of the cataclysm that shook Marvel’s Ultimate-verse to its very foundations. Forget all of that, because Ultimate X ultimately rocks.

In this second installment, all-star collaborators Jeph Loeb and Art Adams (!) combine their considerable talents to give us an “origin” story full of pathos, humor, tragedy, and hope. This is a story about true heroes. There are no masks or capes or spandex to be found within these pages. There are no madmen bent on genocide. There is only Karen Grant and Dave, the luckiest mall cop in the world.

In a medium rocked by perpetual character reboots and universe-changing events every couple of years, origin stories truly are a dime a dozen. Ultimate X is a prime example of a new series spawned in the aftermath of a catastrophe that altered the landscape of an entire imprint. That’s why Dave, the luckiest mall cop in the world, is so important to this particular origin story.

By choosing to tell Karen Grant’s story from Dave’s perspective, Loeb allows the audience to get a very real sense of her character. His anecdotal asides, his intimate insights into her personality, and his self-deprecating manner, all make Dave the perfect narrative foil for the mysterious and aloof Karen Grant. It never really matters that Dave doesn’t learn Karen’s true identity until it’s too late, that he’s been kept in the dark for what literally felt like years to him. It doesn’t matter, because it doesn’t matter to Dave. His feelings for Karen are no less real, his resolve to love her no less committed, his insights no less truthful when he finally learns her secret. Loeb has realized in Dave, the perfect vehicle in which to rediscover an established, well-loved, though much-changed, heroine.

Loeb takes a fairly big risk by letting a one-off character tell such an important and fundamental story. It’s a gamble he can make with confidence though, thanks to Art Adam’s incredible pencils. For a character like Dave to really work, the world he lives in has to be fully realized and believable. This is where an artist of Adams’ caliber truly excels. His attention to detail is absolutely impeccable and remains as sharp as ever throughout the entire book. Almost every panel has actual backgrounds, something of a rarity in most comics today.

But it isn’t just Adams’ ability to draw realistic malls that helps define Dave’s world. It’s the care and diligence he puts into every character he draws. Each of them possesses their own unique facial features, body language, and even fashion sense. By populating his world with actual people, Adams makes it easier for the audience to relate to Dave and willingly follow his narrative to its tragic conclusion.

So forget Ultimatum. Forget the fact that Loeb did the unthinkable and killed off Wolverine. Forget all of that and remember Dave. Because although Ultimate X #2 may have been about a mysterious, beautiful young woman named Karen Grant, it was sad, heroic Dave, the luckiest mall cop in the world, whose enviable job it was to tell her story.