Ultimate X-Men #93 - Mobile Edition

Marvel Comics
Ultimate X-Men #93
By Zak Edwards
May 12, 2008 - 13:42

Marvel Comics
Writer(s): Robert Kirkman
Penciller(s): Harvey Tolibao
Colourist(s): Jay David Ramos
Letterer(s): Joe Carmagna
Cover Artist(s): Salvador Larroca & Stephane Peru

I must say, Ultimate X-Men is finally on a good path for many reasons. The most prominent of these reasons is, because this issue is so terrible, there is no place left to go but up. Another would be this is the last issue of Ultimate X-Men Robert Kirkman is writing and so a new creative team may bring something new and half-decent to a dead series. The final reason would be because Kirkman has hit the reset button on his incredibly convoluted story lines, leaving the new team freedom to not attempt to figure out what he was doing for the past 27 issues, considering he is probably the only one who knows anyway.

The issue concludes Kirkman’s Apocalypse arc which has seen the appearance and disappearance of the majority of the Ultimate Universe who appeared and subsequently disappeared the next issue only to turn up again now. What happens in this issue is Phoenix defeats Apocalypse by flying naked with him and surrounding him with fire. Pretty much the entire cast stands around spectating or gawking, making for a very boring end to a multiple issue fight sequence that possessed little to no entertainment value anyway. The dialogue between Phoenix and Apocalypse is flat, dragging out a short conversation into an issue-long dialogue reminiscent of cavemen comparing club size. Kirkman finally proves Phoenix to have the bigger club, as if there was any doubt, and, after a single white panel, resets all of the potential damage he has caused to this series. The Ultimate X-Men are back at square one, almost as if none of Kirkman’s run actually happened, and that is probably for the best.

The art, a sudden change from Salvador Larroca to Harvey Tolibao, is actually quite good; not to take away from Larroca's art, which was very good, bringing a familiarity to the Ultimate X-Men while keeping them looking separate from their mainstream counterparts. Tolibao can draw fire, and this issue is all Phoenix, so being able to draw fire is paramount. The other characters watch in disbelief and worry, which he nails with good facial expressions. There is really nothing to complain about with this art, it suited the story better than the story itself. Besides the male X-Men wearing impossibly tight t-shirts, the characters are drawn in a similar way to the previous artists. The new artist is not jarring or distracting, which can be difficult to accomplish.

3/10 If the art was bad, this issue would have gotten a zero.