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Magneto's back. Charles Xavier is being held captive by the U.S. government. Cyclops is left for dead in the savage lands. The X-Men are in hiding on their own, trying to find Magneto's people and stop whatever disaster he's planning. Even though there was plenty of stuff going on that should have been exciting, for some reason this volume just didn't grab my attention like some of the other ones have.

This is the first time I've encountered Forge in the comic books (I've only seen him in the X-Men video games before, and he's mostly there for the mechanics of getting the necessary gear)-- he seems like a pretty interesting character, and I like how he's portrayed. I guess the idea of an ability like his-- to see into the workings of things, to be able to create any device that anyone can dream up-- is pretty appealing, and in some ways it seems a little more realistic than others, because there are people who have abilities like that, to a somewhat lesser degree.

Of course, the device that Forge builds in this case is one to augment Magneto's powers-- and he actually plans to flip the magnetic poles of the earth and kill all of humanity. Magneto's logic-- or lack thereof-- bothers me, probably more than it should (although maybe this is why the story didn't grab me). Sometimes Magneto seems to want to rule over humanity, other times he and the other mutants are afraid of them (as if the sheer numbers of regular humans means much against such powerful beings) and want to exterminate them. Maybe that kind of conflicted attitude makes sense for someone who considers himself "Homo Superior" and yet has some love for humans that he's not willing to admit. The thing that makes this second plan seem even crazier is that the mutants are coming out of the regular population, and near the end of this volume even the government officials are admitting that there will be more and more mutants coming out of the general population.

Fairly entertaining, great artwork as always-- but I hope this volume is setup for some better stories.

Title:	Ultimate X-Men: Return of the King (Vol. 6)
Author:	Mark Millar
Date published:	2003
Genre:	Graphic Novel
Series:	Ultimate X-Men
Number of pages:	192

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When Magneto reappears and the U.S. Government finds out that Charles Xavier had faked Magneto's death, they decide that the X-Men must be in collusion with Magneto's mutant Brotherhood-- and they go to war with both, using their own super-elite army, the Ultimates-- which includes folks like Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. The X-Men must go into hiding, and even that eventually doesn't work.

Xavier eventually decides to meet with Magneto-- pretending to make him an offer "he can't refuse," but really to smoke out his hiding place. Of course, Magneto is plenty devious himself and does the same thing, tipping off the Ultimates to the X-Men's safehouse location. This culminates in a huge battle, and the Ultimates almost succeed in capturing several of the X-Men, but Iceman sails in and enables everyone but Xavier to get away-- which is exactly what Magneto was hoping for, since he wants Charles' powerful & well-trained X-Men on his side.

For a book with the X-Men in the title, we don't actually see all that much of them-- particularly in the beginning. It seemed like kind of a slower start to me. I enjoyed the artwork quite a bit in this one-- there is a spectacular image of Wolverine leaping from a building to take on a helicopter (and he takes out four helicopters single-handedly, of course).

Title:	Ultimate X-Men: Ultimate War (Vol. 5)
Author:	Mark Millar
Date published:	2003
Genre:	Graphic Novel
Series:	Ultimate X-Men
Number of pages:	112

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This series of Ultimate X-Men introduces the Hellfire club-- the money behind Xavier's institute, but of course they are funding Xavier for their own dark purposes. This brings in a beginning to Jean Grey's dark Phoenix story, but doesn't take it too far. We also meet Kitty Pryde and Magneto's followers discover that hs is not dead as they had supposed, and work to find and recover him.

I enjoyed meeting Kitty Pryde-- can you imagine being a teenager and not in control of her phase-shifting powers? The writers & artists do a good job of portraying this (she randomly shifts and falls through her apartment floor into the sewers, or another time she accidentally shifts through a moving car). You also get a sense of Beast's loneliness and alienation from the others-- he is the leak about Magneto because he is chatting online with someone who he thinks is a supermodel mutant (of course the other person is nothing of the sort). I was also interested to learn more about the Hellfire Club, since Joss Whedon hinted at them in the end of the last volume of his Astonishing X-Men, and I had no idea who they were.

The artwork in this volume is uneven. Partway through, the style shifts drastically-- and I really did not like the second style. It seemed much more cartoonish, sometimes veering towards what seemed almost like anime (which I usually like-- here it seemed out of place, or poorly done, or something). The worst part of it was that the main characters weren't always recognizable (because they were drawn so differently & inconsistently), which made it more difficult to follow the stories.

Title:	Ultimate X-Men: Hellfire & Brimstone (Volume 4)
Author:	Mark Millar
Date published:	2003
Genre:	Graphic Novel
Series:	Ultimate X-Men
Number of pages:	144

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Xavier takes the X-Men on a world tour to promote his new book on the x-factor mutant phenomenon and how humans don't need to be so afraid of mutants or treat them differently. The last two issues are a standalone Gambit story which was fun (but strangely, it doesn't seem to tie into the rest of the story at all).

The book promotion tour starts out fairly normally-- the X-Men are enjoying travelling, and they even still have assignments (as part of their education) to go out and do something good in the city where they currently are (an interesting idea). But, of course, things go wrong-- we find out that Xavier was once married and has a son with a powerful, dangerous power: his abilities burn up bodies too quickly, so he hops to new bodies when he needs to (killing many in the process). Xavier and the X-Men face off against Proteus (who is seeking revenge against the father who abandoned him), and many lives are lost to Proteus' reality-bending powers.

I continue to enjoy the artwork & engaging stories.

Title:	Ultimate X-Men: World Tour (Volume 3)
Author:	Mark Millar
Date published:	2002
Genre:	Graphic Novel
Series:	Ultimate X-Men
Number of pages:	192

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As far as I can tell, Marvel's "Ultimate" series are re-imaginings of their classic superheroes in a contemporary setting-- probably targetted at people like me, who want to enjoy reading the comic books but don't know where to start. I'm not familiar enough with the X-Men to know if there are any significant departures here from other versions of their beginnings; and, in a way, I don't really care-- because this book is brilliant. It's well-written and engaging, and the artwork is absolutely gorgeous. The story begins with mutants being hunted down by government-sanctioned Sentinels, and Xavier, with the help of a teenaged, punk-looking Jean Grey, rescuing and recruiting the young, powerful mutants who will become his X-Men.

The story does a great job of fitting into a contemporary setting; I particularly liked the idea of Wolverine as a legendary assassin who had been photographed once (maybe, fleetingly) in Kuwait during Desert Storm. The other characters are equally fascinating-- for instance, seeing Hank's progressive transformation into something much bluer and beast-like.

In The Tomorrow People, the team comes together and faces off against Magneto's Brotherhood, trying to live up to Xavier's ideal of protecting the Homo Sapiens despite their hatred towards mutants. In Burial Service, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch mourn the loss of their father, Magneto. In Return to Weapon X, the majority of the X-Men are captured by Weapon X in their attempt to recover Wolverine (their most powerful & successful asset, before they lost him). Nick Fury plays a fairly significant supporting role in this section, and it's fun to see him operate.

Great stories, great writing, fabulous artwork. This book is high at the top of my favorite comic book collections, and I'm delighted to discover that several volumes of Ultimate X-Men are already out, because I can't wait to read more.

Title:	Ultimate X-Men : Ultimate Collection (collects #1 The Tomorrow People, #1/2 Burial Service by Geoff Johns, and #2 Return to Weapon X)
Author:	Mark Millar
Date published:	2006
Genre:	Graphic Novel
Series:	X-Men
Number of pages:	336

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