Broken Frontier

Magneto welcomes a new, younger cellmate, and a familiar villain is formally introduced to the Ultimate Universe.

Of the on-going Ultimate titles, Ultimate X-Men has consistently been the weakest regardless of which creators are on it. That’s not to say it has been bad by any stretch of the imagination, but such a vast and storied team as the X-Men has been in regular continuity through the years has mostly seemed diluted by having a shifted character focus from arc to arc. However, Vaughan seems to be bringing everything together here for the sort of sweeping epic an X-fan can usually only dream of.

Magneto is back, and he’s being a bastard, you just know it. The way Vaughan presents him in the story, though, is very subtle in the "evil mastermind" aspect of his character. In fact, Magneto comes off as likable when he is seen here, mostly conversing with his new cellmate, Polaris. Magneto is calmly calculating (he is symbolically playing a chess game throughout his scenes) his liberation, and Vaughan effortlessly exudes this cool confidence in the character.

Vaughan also does a tremendous job of making the most of a multitude of characters in such a small space of storytelling. There is very little, if any, throw away dialogue in this book. Each and every utterance has a purpose whether it is to bring humor, express graveness or deepen a personality of character. Vaughan wastes nothing. I suppose this along with his deliberate yet brisk pacing is what makes him a top writer in my view.

Honestly, I’ve seen better work from Stuart Immonen in the past. I respect that he has changed styles to reflect the lighter side of superhero storytelling in the Ultimate books, but his work on more recent projects like Superman: Secret Identity and even The Incredible Hulk had more depth and richness to them. That’s not to say that this style looks terrible, and Ponser’s coloring is suitably dynamic, but it is a tad distracting when you know the artist can give so much more.

Unless you’re a stickler for art, there is no reason not to pick up this title right now. As showcased in his other books, Vaughan knows how to tell a story with large scope and a multitude of interesting characters. If you haven’t been reading Ultimate X-Men or dropped it awhile back for whatever reason, this is the time to pick it up (again).