Ultimate Comics X-Men #24 – Review

By: Brian Wood (Writer), Mahmud Asra (Penciler), Juan Vlasco (Inker), Jordie Bellaire (Colorist), VC’s Joe Sabino (Lettering & Production)

Review: Great Odin’s Raven…I did not see this coming. This issue of Brian Wood’s Ultimate Comics X-Men is nearly everything I was hoping the series would be. Like the planets, every plot point has swung nebulously in its slow, laborious orbit, finally correlating in a revelatory alignment. The effect is invigorating. The terraforming, the missing post-cure mutants, Karen Grant in Tian, Kitty’s leadership and the opposition to it – it’s all culminated in one of most important changes the Ultimate Universe has made in a while. Utopia finally feels like a real thing, one worth caring about. I never thought I’d be writing those words.

After last month’s issue (a brilliant ‘done-in-one’ focusing on Storm’s recent history) I was expecting Wood to embark on a couple more self-contained detours before getting back to the barren landscapes and sullen soliloquies. What a difference a month makes. All that talk’s finally translated into action with Blackheath’s Sentient Seed having born startling results. A massive stretch of overgrown jungle wilderness has sprung up in the midst of Utopia with Kitty’s pioneers building houses in the tress. Mutants from all over the country, once forced into hiding, now make their way to Utopia’s borders seeking refuge and a home free from persecution.