Review by Tim Sheridan
“Magnetic North” The End
Story: Brian K Vaughn
Pencils: Stuart Immonen
Inks: Wade Von Grawbadger
Colors: Justin Posner
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Production: Jacob Chabot
Asst Editor: Nicole Wiley
Asst Editor: John Barber
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Published by Marvel Comics
So here it is, the end of the road for this creative team. Writer Brian Vaughn has attempted to tie up all the stories he’s done since the beginning of his run. Is he successful? To some degree. We have appearances from just about everyone he’s used in his time on the book, but some of those appearances seem a bit wasted because they are so brief.
One thing that Vaughn did so well was make the world of Ultimate X-Men bigger. He introduced us to a lot of characters such as Longshot, Mojo, Mr. Sinister, and many more. He gave this X-universe a much bigger stage than Millar or Bendis did during their run.
However, this came at a bit of a price. We see the whole X-Men team here, but it doesn’t really feel cohesive. It’s almost as if there were too many loose ends to tie up in this one arc.
But I can’t hate on him too much. Vaughn, along with artists Stuart Immonen and Wade Von Grawbadger have given us an immensely entertaining story, and while it is a bit cluttered, that doesn’t take anything away from the fun. They also end the story with some new doors open, with a new role for Warren Worthington, and the return of Magneto as a big threat. We also have a little more of a soap opera for Nightcrawler and Colossus, which should prove to be very interesting indeed.
So to end things, I have to point out what Vaughn did best during his tenure on Ultimate X-Men, and that was really let us know who these characters are. He spent a lot of time on character development, and never sacrificing the story at the same time. While his run started out as somewhat of a fill-in before Bryan Singer started here (still waiting for that!), Vaughn has given us the definitive take on the Ultimate X-Men.
