Peach Momoko’s Ultimate X-Men is a radical re-imagining of the X-Men mythos – as boundary-breaking a debut as Mark Millar and Adam Kubert’s inaugural issue over twenty years ago, albeit one that trades explosive, vein-popping overindulgence for something much more haunting and intimate.
Ultimate X-Men #1
Zack Davisson (script adaptation), VC’s Travis Lanham (letterer), Peach Momoko (writer and artist)
Marvel Comics
March 6, 2024
What makes an X-Men comic, well, an X-Men comic? Does it need Jim Lee costumes, a school in Westchester, or a hairy guy with metal claws and a fondness for redheads? Marvel has published X-Men comics without any of those elements, of course, but Peach Momoko breaks the concept down to its little irradiated atoms – you won’t even find the words “mutant” or “X-Men” in this book. But as a story of teenage transformation and self-discovery, where the tough outer shell you’ve constructed to protect yourself from tragedy suddenly manifests as a car-crushing suit of ruby-red armor? Yeah, this is Ultimate X-Men.
Hisako Ichiki is graduating from middle school in Kirisaki City, part of the new Ultimate Universe’s Eastern region of Hi No Kuni controlled by Sunfire, Siver Samurai, and Viper. (An opening paragraph handily explains the status quo – no prior experience with Ultimate Invasion is needed.) But despite the blooming cherry blossoms and giggling classmates, Hisako’s graduation ceremony is hardly a happy occasion – she’s barely been to school since her best friend Tsubasa (whose name means “Wing”) committed suicide. A new “friend” draws Hisako to a secluded temple, where a shadowy presence (longtime X-Men fans: note that adjective) taunts her with what appears to be Tsubasa’s ghost. Then, at a critical moment, a mysterious suit of psionic red armor saves Hisako’s life.
Written, drawn, and painted in stunning watercolors by Peach Momoko, Ultimate X-Men offers a singular artistic vision rarely found in modern superhero comics. As with Demon Days, her mesmerizing fantasy makeover of the Marvel Universe, she breaks the deadlock of the superhero formula and conjures something colorful and new from its bits and pieces. There isn’t much of the typical action we expect in an X-Men comic, but there is drama – gossiping schoolgirls, tragic deaths, and metric tons of teenage trauma. You know, the good stuff.
Fittingly for an artist who works with watercolor, Momoko’s characters have a remarkable fluidity, with Hisako’s features nearly popping off her face in saucer-eyed shock when her armored protector appears. The villain of the issue is drawn as a malevolent mass of ink blots and squiggly pencil marks, with two bloodshot eyes floating in the darkness like a thing from a nightmare. Terrifying, but amazing.
Momoko’s use of color is also critical to the tone and flow of the story. During the scene where the strange specter accosts Hisako at the temple, Momoko paints in increasingly oppressive pigments of gray and black. When the armored suit finally materializes across a two-page spread, its vibrant red and pink form is a heroic shock to the senses.
Our protagonist, Hisako, is cute and charming, and her guilt over her failure to protect Tsubasa adds a dark and intriguing layer to her psyche. It’s one of the book’s greatest strengths that it centers Hisako (better known in mainstream Marvel continuity as perpetual X-Student Armor) over telling Wolverine or Cyclops’ origin stories yet again – and it’s also a relief that the Japanese elements of the story don’t appear sanded off to appeal to western readers.
Ultimate X-Men is, in its own unique way, the most audacious first issue of a Marvel comic since House of X #1. It stands apart from Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate Black Panther, though the fact that the first three books of this new publishing line take place in America, Wakanda, and Hi No Kuni emphasizes that this really is a universe, not just one block in downtown Manhattan. (Interestingly, X-Men takes place in “March,” the month it was first published in, following Spider-Man #1 and #2 set in January and February – is the Ultimate Universe eschewing a sliding timescale and unfolding in real time?)
As of this writing, the Krakoa era is wrapping up in the “Fall of X” event, and X-Men ’97, the nostalgia-inducing sequel to the 90s animated series, is just over a week away. At a time of massive transition for the X-Men franchise on page and screen, it is reassuring that Marvel is publishing something as unique and surprising as Ultimate X-Men #1. It may not be the Ultimate X-Men you know, but it’s the Ultimate X-Men you need to read.
