This was... not great. Especially compared to the fantastic work that was concurrently being done on Ultimate Spidey and Ultimate FF. Not to mention the amazing stuff at the beginning of Ultimate X-Men... Kirkman's rehashing of old 616 plotlines is just... extremely underwhelming. ( )

I really like Robert Kirkman's work on the Walking Dead and Marvel Zombies, but I'm not feeling the love here with his run on Ultimate X-Men. I don't want to peg him as a niche writer, but he seems to excel with the darker aspects (and the dark humor that accompanies such grim situations) of comics. He does try to incorporate something darker in the Ultimate X-Men title (the rise of the Phoenix), but it falls short. I think this title is just a bad fit for his particular style.

Every new writer on a series wants to establish himself and try to tackle the characters in his own way, but I'm really not liking how Kirkman is writing Nightcrawler. Kurt's religious, I see that, and he's not his 616-self, but Kurt is coming off as a creep who thinks his gay friend (Colossus) is an abomination (no, he really calls him that) and talks to a girl in a coma in most of his free time, which is just weird, especially since Ali never had much to do with Kurt when she wasn't in a coma.

This is a mediocre start by a talented writer; I hope his run improves. ( )

collects Ultimate X-men #66-71 ( )