Broken Frontier

Juggernaut returns in search of the power of love and an even more powerful crystal. But he’ll have to go through the prince of thieves and get past his unrequited love for a rogue X-Man to get it.

As The X-Men hone their skills during a Danger Room session, Charles Xavier receives an urgent communiqué from S.H.I.E.L.D Director Nick Fury. Rogue needs protection after turning state’s evidence against Magneto’s Brotherhood. But Xavier has no idea where Rogue is. Cut to Vegas—Rouge and Gambit pulling a Mission: Impossible caper on the Fenris Resort and Casino, owned by the billionaire who manipulated Rogue in the past. Since leaving Xavier’s school to find her own path, Rogue has teamed up with Gambit, both of them lovers and thieves now after the Gem of Cyttorak. But Juggernaut wants it, too, and Rogue as well. Hell hath no fury like a homo superior scorned, and when the fight is over, what happens in Vegas will definitely stay with one of these mutants for a very long time.

I’ve liked Ultimate X-Men, but not enough during Brian K. Vaughan’s run that it’s a monthly must read. The story arcs seem paced more for character than plot development; and while I tend to prefer the latter over the former (though it’s always a close call), over the last year or so Vaughn’s X-Men reads better once six issues have built up in my unread pile. However, after reading the first two issues of "Magnetic North" and now "Ultimate Sacrifice," I just might go back to reading it monthly. Perhaps it’s because his run is winding down that Vaughan has shifted into a higher gear and is producing Ultimate X-Men stories with some real bite to them.

After opening with a Danger Room session that sets the plot up with just the barest bones of exposition, Vaughn flips in media res to Rogue and Gambit’s caper, and instantly we feel a spark of tension beneath their passion. Millions around them, Gambit thinks only of the score itself, Rogue only of the Crystal and what it means for her. Though Gambit has evolved into one of Marvel’s best anti-heroes, Rogue, because her powers have such a deep psychological effect, is even better. As dangerous as she is fragile, she’ll always be an outsider, and yet she wants to make up for the bad things she’s done. More than Gambit, she wants to be a hero but can’t make it work, a poignant note of irony on Vaughan’s part considering the conclusion of the story. Throughout Vaughan portrays the subtext of their relationship with finesse. We don’t know if they’re doomed, but each brings so much baggage to the relationship (they could put a bellhop’s kid through college) that whether fate or random chance will get in the way is just a matter of time. And that time comes when Juggernaut shows up looking for the Crystal, but perhaps looking for Rogue more. It’s classic "Beauty and The Beast" type stuff, but Vaughan plays it well while also scripting a noteworthy extended fight sequence. Vaughan gets it—a fight scene is a story in itself with a beginning, middle, end, and definite beats throughout. The story of this fight is love, sacrifice, and redemption, and as it rushes to its cinematic climax, though the final page gives some hint, we wonder how any of the players will survive it.

One look at the cover—a very mature Rogue and a very demonic Gambit—and a reader might be tempted to expect a down-and-dirty realism within the pages of Ultimate X-Men Annual #1. Perish the thought. The artistic sensibility brought by Tom Raney on pencils, Scott Hanna on inks, and Gina Going-Raney coloring is predictably "Ultimate"—slick and dynamic. Though Raney’s long shots lack detail and there’s a lack of consistency portraying Rogue’s face throughout, he conveys movement well and steps his game up in the important panels. His strength in this issue is body movement and posture. Rogue, Gambit, and Juggernaut are all introduced and depicted in a manner that enhances Vaughan’s characterizations, and the script’s well-choreographed fight scene has an artistic punch that rivals anything Juggernaut could produce with his fists. But it’s towards the end that the art team as a whole does the most in making Ultimate X-Men Annual #1 a highly recommended read. Going-Raney deftly plays blue off fuscia as the fight scene ends, then lets fuscia itself say more than words can on a two-page spread that Raney and Hanna turn into a crescendo of the big three in this issue—love, sacrifice, and redemption.

If you haven’t taken a look at the Ultimate X-Men in a while, in Ultimate X-Men Annual #1 there’s an excellent chance to get reacquainted with a title that just might be headed for great things.