Ultimate X-Men #66
Reviewed By: James Hatton
Title: Date Night (1 of 2)
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Penciler: Tom Raney
Inker: Scott Hanna
Colors: Gina Going-Raney
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Production: Omar Otieku
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Publisher: Dan Buckley
I’ve heard from a lot of people that this is the make and break issue for this title. I can’t really blame them since the long run of Brian Vaughan was so damned good (arguably the best run of the series so far), has ended. Taking over this title is a guy who has shown that he has the power to write a great story. The problem is that those stories have never been for Marvel (with the exception of MARVEL ZOMBIES.) Kirkman’s babies of WALKING DEAD and INVINCIBLE have been lauded as incredible. (And who wants to forget BATTLE POPE!)
Some German punk by the name of Benedict XVI? I’m just guessing… Fallen Catholic Editor K.
His other attempts have been received with less fanfare, and each time he touches a Marvel book.. I’ve cringed.
Is Ultimate X-Men the same? Well, I read it.. did you?
STORY!
After the repercussions of the MAGNETIC NORTH story, the X-Men need a break, and it should be noted that the break stories of the X-Men are usually some of the best written, if not a little generic. You figure a school full of teenagers is going to want to go and explore life a bit. In the sexed-up, relationship-craving mutants at Xavier’s (as compared to the sexed-off, relationship-fearing mutants of the 616 universe) there is no difference.
Each pair of mutants is going off to do their own thing, and where I initially assumed it was going to be hard for Kirkman to keep the stories straight with almost five small stories going on at once, it flows quite nicely. We have Cyclops going out with Jean Grey, where Slim’s inability to put a move on the red-haired beauty is met with a move that only a girl with psychic abilities could pull off. (God knows I’d want every one of my girlfriends to have said this to me…)
There is of course the pairing of Kitty and Spider-Man, but they are not as focused as the other groups.
Wolverine and Storm have the same roughneck kind of date you would want. They end up meeting a favorite foe of Wolverine…. Sabertooth.
Colossus and Nightcrawler head off to go see Dazzler, on what isn’t as much a date as an experiment in uncomfortableness and what Nightcrawler wants and can’t have (and we can assume the same of Piotr).
Iceman and Rogue stay home, and seem to rekindle what they had before she left… she can touch him now though. I predict sexiness.
Finally we have Xavier’s date, where he is discussing the financial situation of his school with a mysterious benefactor. I don’t want to ruin who it is, but if you know anything about X-History, this meeting between the two of them is just as much a date as the rest.
None of these stories fit together. They are separate fragments, each pairing of characters with their own story to tell, and Kirkman suprisingly does it with flair as well as giving us enough to feel that each has their own distinct cliffhanger.
ART!
Tom Raney and Scott Hannah are a fine team on this book. I don’t have a lot to say about it other than at times the body proportions seemed off and a tad too comicky, (waspish waists that are too long for the body they are attached to) but the faces are perfect, and the way they draw Sabertooth is just bad-wicked-cool. Yes. Bad-wicked-cool.
I’m gonna have to call a five line penalty for juvenile wordplay on you Hatton. I didn’t read this, and so have no opinion just how Sabertooth looks, but Bad-wicked-cool? Come on now! Editor K.
The penciling is inked with the thinnest line possible, which again seems ideal for the style of the book. I would have possibly hoped for some more creative layouts given the stories of the book are very sedentary/talking heads, but even with the thick black gutters it feels like this book breezes along.
OVERALL!
Kirkman has surprised me. I will admit it. This book fits seamlessly into the Ultimate universe, which is usually what I fear from a new writer coming into the world of the Ultimate characters. It can be easy to forget we are not dealing with the standard Marvel U, but these strange new counterparts… Kirkman takes to it like they were his own creations.
So I’m going to be sticking with the Ultimate kids for as long as my pockets allow. I would also hope that if you weren’t planning on staying, that maybe you give it a shot. The tone of the book is exactly the same, even with those little worries that sometimes the X-Kids aren’t as mature as their former counterparts.
