Review: Ultimate X-Men #56

Ultimate X-Men #56
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Stuart Immonen

It's no secret that Brian Vaughan is one of my favorite current writers. He's doing great work with Y: The Last Man and Ex-Machina, and this week marks the return of Runaways.

One of the trends in the Ultimate books, is the use of "familiar" names just for the namesake and applying them to brand-new concepts in the Ultimate Universe. The last story included much of that, with Fenris making their appearance. Same goes for the Mr. Sinister appearances, and even during the Bendis storyarcs where a ton of mutants with normal MU counterparts were introduced. I don't like this trend.

At the same time, this is the first part of the story that I've truly enjoyed. The characters are growing and their relationships being tested fairly well within some action sequences. Vaughan has done a fairly strong job of balancing so many different characters. The art by Immonen isn't terrible but it's not as flashy as the art from previous artists, such as the Kuberts or Finch.

This book is pretty strong, but I think I would prefer it if the next story doesn't try to "re-invent" too many previous concepts. At least we haven't seen Ultimate Shi'ar (there seems to be a moratorium on cosmic Ultimate stuff).