randomers #3

glam as fuck.

ultimate comics x-men issue 23

written by brian wood art by carlo barberi

I have no real experience with the mutants and x-men of the ultimate universe. Lets judge them anyway ! I say no real experience. Like I read the very first arc that mark miller wrote. Though that was like over a decade ago now. Though I have read hella ultimate spider-man with kitty pyde in it. Yes I didn't actually learn all that much about ultimate mutant kind from that. But I like to think it counts for something. That said. I also have no actual clue to what's going on in ultimate marvel theses days. The only ultimate book I keep up with is spider-man and that's fairly isolated from the bigger verse. I gather some sort of civil war type dealy happened in America. Not sure how the mutants fit in likes. Now yes I totally just could go look all this up on wiki but randomers is about just blasting threw some comics and seeing how they stand on there own merits. Writing for the trade be dammed.

So you might have gathered from the cover this a storm centric issue. Fair play likes. Don't think iv ever read a solo storm comic in my life. Well. I say solo. Big colossus is cutting about it for the first wee bit. Seems he killed a dude in cold blood. Seams like a dickish move. But the comic dosent give much explanation or context to it so I wont judge him for it. He also seems to be genuinely affected by the murder or at the very least is acting like he's affected by it. So points there. Its a tricky business this judging a charater by a single issue. But storm here seems kind of like a bit of a bad character. Well. To me at least. She seams fairly week willed. I gusse she's still only a teenager ? That really shouldn't be an excuse at this point in the game. At the very least. Its a shock to compare this storm to the proper universes storm. The proper universes yin is kind of your standard strong female character. And fair play to her. Something of a weather god that she is. In this issue ultimate storm just sort of go's with the flow of things. Which. Would be fine. But like it seems like her opinions change basically every other page. Probably not the best thing to compare the two versions at this point but it was something that seemed rather shonky to me.

So it would seam the American government are rounding up mutants and putting them in camps for the crime of being a mutant. Good. Heartless bastard I knows. But mutants are hella dangerous. And I have to Imagen they must have done something to cause this crackdown. And no. I wont give them the benefit of the doubt. Mutants all tend to be utter dicks. Proper universe or not. And yes this is all commentary on terrorism and immigration and Americas reaction to it. That's fine. Or rather that would be fine if mutants didn't rock the deadly combo of being super powered AND being utter dicks. Like. At some point we're going to have to stop calling them mutants and just start calling then villains. Now. Ill give them points. The mutants might not have killed anyone in this particular issue. Maybe if those sentinels were piloted by humans. Maybe. But ill be generous and just Imagen they were only robbits. Humans don't come off any better here. Though that might just have something to do with them being small towner Americans being depicted in media. There some what hickish. And they do sorta turn storm in to the authority's.

We get a page or two of a mutant cure being rolled out. Cools ? Like normally I'm against anything that kills the magic of a given setting. Like in late series star trek the next generation when we learned warp travel was damaging the fabric of the universe. Just. Naw. Pal. Just like. Dinny go near that shite. The mutant cure idea is kind of like that for me. Though at the same time mutants are genuinely dangerous. There just punk ass kids given grate power with no responsibility and on top of that a lot of mutations are hella deformity's or disability's. Like there's a guy in the background here who's like a 1950s B movie blob monster. That cant be fun. Like not all mutants can be as lucky as the mostly glam as fuck x-men. Though I will relent here and say the very idea of a cure for mutants is controversial because of all the persecuted minority's mutants represent in that its not so much a cure for having super powers in that its a cure for who your and what you represent. So in the end Its a pretty good bad idea.

So once again it might not sound like I enjoyed this wee comic. I totes did likes. It was a fast wee read. Readable almost And I bloody loved the the art. A cracking flash back to early 2000s anime inspired art. Magical likes. Weirdly I get the feeling that particular art style still continues to this day in certain corners of x men comics. Cool likes. I didn't know I missed it but this comic made me relies I did. Well played comic. Well played.