The following is a review of the
graphic novel “Ultimate X-Men: The Tomorrow People” as presented in Marvel
Ultimate Epic Collection format.
In response to the anti-human terrorist
attacks committed by the mutant terrorist Erik Lensherr/Magneto and his Brotherhood
of Mutants on New York and Washington, the United States government launched
the Sentinel Initiative, giant robots to hunt and kill anyone possessing the
mutant gene. Professor Charles Xavier/Professor X gathered a group of young
mutants to counter Magneto and prevent him from starting a war that could lead
to the extinction of both mutants and regular humans: Scott Summers/Cyclops,
Jean Grey/Marvel Girl, Henry McCoy/Beast, Ororo Munroe/Storm, Piotr
Rasputin/Colossus, and Robert Drake/Iceman. At the Xavier Institute for Gifted
Children, Professor X gave these young mutants a safe haven, an education, and
the training to use their powers to benefit mankind. Magneto and Professor X had
once been the best of friends but had had a bitter falling out, leading Magneto
to believing Professor X dead. After seeing the young mutants called the X-Men
in action on the news, Magneto came to the conclusion that his old friend was
behind the scenes and called in Logan/Wolverine to find Xavier, infiltrate his
camp, and end this potential opposition to Magneto’s plans. Magneto tipped off
the government organization Weapon X of Wolverine’s location. Weapon X was a
program that had abducted Wolverine, erased his memories, given him an
adamantium skeleton, and used him as a killing machine, an organization that only
Wolverine had ever managed to escape from. Weapon X recaptured Wolverine.
Professor X discovered Wolverine using his Cerebro machine, a device that
amplified his telepathic powers and allowed him to locate other mutants and
sent the X-Men to rescue him. The X-Men were successful in their mission, and
Wolverine returned to the Xavier Institute for Gifted Children along with the
X-Men, but he made the youngsters uneasy. Magneto and his Brotherhood of
Mutants, made up of his children Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, also known as
Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, along with Blob, Toad, and Mastermind,
kidnapped the daughter of the President of the United States of America and
brought her to Croatia. The X-Men went on a rescue mission, and while they were
able to successfully rescue the President’s daughter, the Brotherhood escaped,
and Beast was gravely wounded. Professor X and Marvel Girl performed
experimental surgery on Beast to save his life, but this procedure turned his
hair blue. Much to Cyclops’ dismay, Wolverine and Marvel Girl began a romance.
Cyclops had romantic feelings for Marvel Girl but never actually acted upon
them. Feeling neglected by his crush, scared for Beast’s near death, and anger
for Professor X’s willingness to put the X-Men at such great risk just to save
one human, Cyclops left the X-Men and went to the Savage Land, Magneto’s mutant
paradise hidden in a tropical jungle in Antarctica. Cyclops began going on
missions with the Brotherhood but refused to cross the mortality line.
Meanwhile, the X-Men got an invite to the White House to discuss the suspension
of the Sentinel Initiative. The talk was successful, but the Sentinels would be
sent on one final mission: to eliminate Magneto’s camp in the Savage Land,
which the United States government had been able to locate by tracking the X-Men’s
Blackbird Jet landing when Cyclops abandoned the X-Men. After the decimation of
the Savage Land, Magneto reprogrammed the Sentinels to hunt and kill anyone
without the mutant gene and led them on an assault on Washington, D.C. The
X-Men had to fight the Sentinels while Professor X and Wolverine fought Magneto
to prevent his war from threatening the extinction of both humans and mutants. Following
the fight with Magneto, the X-Men had an encounter with Quicksilver and the Scarlet
Witch as they tried to make their escape from Washington, D.C.
Following their battle with Magneto,
Professor X attempted to help Wolverine find Weapon X, but every location they
were able to find was abandoned. Meanwhile, the X-Men gained popularity the
world over. While on a press tour in Japan, a Weapon X asset called Rogue was
able to obtain the X-Men’s location for the organization. Weapon X assets attacked
the Xavier Institute for Gifted Children and abducted Professor X and the
X-Men. Nick Fury, a high-ranking Agent of the government agency S.H.I.E.L.D.
went of a mission to India to uncover an illegal genetic experimentation facility
but was captured during his mission. While in Weapon X captivity, the X-Men
were trained and experimented on, causing Beast to become completely blue and
furry. The X-Men also formed a bond with Weapon X asset Kurt
Wagner/Nightcrawler, a teleporting mutant. The X-Men were split up into two
teams, one to rescue Nick Fury, one to finish the mission Nick Fury had
started. Weapon X forced Marvel Girl the kill the head scientist behind the
illegal genetic experiment to spare Cyclops’ life. Wolverine allowed himself to
be captured by Weapon X, but he had been implanted with a tracking device that
he had arranged with the Brotherhood so they could find the location of Weapon
X and come to the X-Men’s rescue. The United States government was planning to
shut down Weapon X, but Colonel Wraith did every underhanded trick he could to ensure
this did not happen, including trying to use Professor X’s telepathic abilities
to the gain of Weapon X and eliminating high ranking members of the United States
government. The Brotherhood arrived at Weapon X, and the Brotherhood, the
X-Men, and the Weapon X mutants fought back to escape their captors and end the
corrupt agency’s activities towards abusing mutants once and for all.
Okay, so now that we’ve got the
synopsis out of the way, let’s get to the personal Tim Cubbin part of a Tim
Cubbin review. The first thing I always do is tell you, my readers, my thoughts
on the book. These thoughts on graphic novels pertain to my enjoyment of both the
stories contained within the pages of the book and the artwork. This can often
be a very mixed bag. Sometimes a graphic novel will have a wonderful story but
have terrible art, as some of my regular readers may know, and I am very fussy
about art. But we’re not going to start on the art, of course, we’re going to
start on the stories. So, I will say that I found these stories highly
enjoyable. These actually go back to 2001-2002 when I first started reading
Marvel Comics regularly and this was actually one of my entry points into
X-Men, so this series has some very treasured memories. I am rather partial to
the series. It was perfect for me back then because this was a brand-new
universe where all of Marvel history had been discarded, and this was a fresh start,
and I didn’t know all the history of the X-Men comics. I really had only been
watching “X-Men: Evolution” and the first “X-Men” film, not even the original cartoon
at this point, so my X-Men knowledge was very limited, so a new origin series
was great for me to jump on with and opened the door for more of my foray into
the mainstream X-Men comics. I was also comfortable getting into this at the
time because the writer, Mark Millar, made the decision to set the main cast as
teenagers, close to my actual age at the time, so I found I could relate to the
characters better, more so than to the mainstream X-Men, who were mainly aged
as adults. I liked the choices of the cast of characters, as well, I thought both
the teams of the X-Men and the Brotherhood were extremely well-rounded and
complimented each other perfectly. I also enjoyed how they chose other
well-known characters but made them assets of Weapon X instead of placing them
on either team, I found that to be quite interesting, including Rogue,
Nightcrawler, Sabretooth and Juggernaut. And I liked Mark Millar’s decision to
make Nick Fury African American, I thought that was an interesting choice back
then, and it was a decision that carried through into the future of much Marvel
lore, including film and animation, and as all Marvel Cinematic Universe fans
know, this decision eventually led to the casting of the great Samuel L.
Jackson as the role of Nick Fury in the MCU. I will say that I disliked the
actual shipping of Marvel Girl and Wolverine happening, which was always played
on in several of the other X-Men multiverses, I thought it was wrong of Millar
to do, especially considering the massive age gap of Wolverine being a full-on
adult and Marvel Girl being nineteen. I did, however, enjoy the shipping of
Beast and Storm, I thought that was actually a good pairing in this universe. I
also liked Millar’s decision to give the Scarlet Witch a crush on Cyclops, even
though it never actually went anywhere. I did find his writing of Quicksilver
and Scarlet Witch’s relationship to be a little creepy, however, their
brother/sister relationship can practically come to relate to a comparison to Jaime/Cersei
in “A Song of Ice and Fire,” which is something that I never could get behind.
Granted in this book it was just hinted at, and I am getting a little ahead of
myself here and should be containing myself just to this book in particular as
this is what I am reviewing, and I am sorry, but I cannot help myself, so I’m
going to shift back to this Volume in particular. I also loved Millar’s
decision for Wolverine’s conversion, having him going from working for Magneto,
then going to infiltrate the X-Men for the purpose of eliminating Charles Xavier,
then going on to actually believing in Professor X’s dream, ultimately leading
him to turn on Magneto in the fight in Washington, D.C. And I also loved the
artwork provided by Adam Kubert, I thought their work was brilliant, and it was
consistently pleasing to view while going through the story. I will say I
disliked the decision to give Jean Grey short hair, it made her look like
something I’m not going to say in this blog, but I thought the design was
awful. However, I honestly have no further complaints about the artwork. All-in-all,
I will say that I was highly satisfied with this graphic novel. I will also say
that it has been many years since I last read this, so rediscovering these stories
was a true delight and I’m pleased with Marvel’s decision to make Ultimate Epic
Collections and will continue to purchase and review them if and when Marvel
feels like releasing them. At the moment, there are no further plans for second
volumes of any series in the Ultimate Epic Collection line, but hopefully that
changes soon because this was a period I highly enjoyed and would love
revisiting this age of Marvel Comics.
Next up, we’re going to talk about
accessibility. Now, I know all my regular readers know this by now, I know I have
a few fans who love reading my work, but I also know that some of you have
never read a Tim Cubbin review before and need me to explain the word as I use
it. Simply put, “accessibility” means how easy it is for a person to pick up
and read this book and completely understand what they are reading, no matter
how much previous knowledge they have on the subject matter. Basically, what I’m
saying is, can a person who knows absolutely nothing about Marvel Comics or
X-Men in particular buy this book, read it, and fully comprehend the entire
story as it is written. I will say that this book is completely accessible to
any reader. If you are a person who had heard of the X-Men or are looking into
getting into X-Men comics and don’t know where to start, this book is absolute
perfection for this purpose. I will say any reader can just pick up this book,
having no prior knowledge about Marvel and be able to understand the story as
it is written. This was the launch of a brand-new universe with all-new history
where there was no backstory, and this was a full-on origin story, so if you’re
looking for a place to start reading Marvel with an interest in the X-Men in particular,
this book is a perfect jump-on point and accessible to any new reader.
Next up, we’re going to get to the
most important part (in my opinion) of a Tim Cubbin review: the numeric score. My
scoring system is extremely simple: I score on a scale of one to ten. One is
the lowest score I can possibly give, and it means that this book should be
avoided at all costs. Ten is the best score, and that means that it should be
bought by anyone who has the money to afford this book because it is one of the
best things I have ever read. Now, it takes a lot to get a ten from me. That
has to be sheer perfection, and I very rarely feel that that is possible, so
basically when I review anything, it starts sitting at a score of a nine with
very little possibility of going higher and a most like possibility to go
lower, and even giving a book a nine is something that I very rarely do. That
said, this book was extremely good, well-written and well-illustrated, but I
still did have my gripes. Automatically, this book wasn’t getting a ten, and
with my complaints, I do have to deduct from the score. Again, though, these
gripes don’t seriously harm my opinion of this graphic novel. So, taking
everything into account, the well-written story and the illustrations that I
thought were sheerly brilliant, throwing them all in my figurative blender,
then turning it on to the highest setting and leaving it on until everything is
fully blended, then pouring out this score into my figurative cup, we are looking
at… an eight! I just don’t feel like I can give a score higher than that, but
at the same time, I feel no reason to give it anything lower, so an eight is,
in my opinion, the perfect score I can give.
Next up, we’re going to go to my
recommendation section. This comes with two components. The first is: do I
actually personally recommend this book to you? The second is: regardless of
the fact that I like it or not, for whom do I think this book is best? To the
first matter, as you can probably guess, the answer is yes, I recommend this
book personally. As to the second, like I mentioned previously, if you are
looking into getting into Marvel or X-Men and don’t know where to start, I’m
telling you that you should get your hands on this book, it is the perfect
place to start. And if you are an X-Men fan from just the movies or cartoons or
video games and are interested in starting to read comics, again, read this
book as soon as you can, particularly if you liked games like the “X-Men Legends”
or “Marvel Ultimate Alliance” series, these are a great compliment to those. If
you’re already a fan of X-Men and have never read this series or the first
twelve issues of the original “Ultimate X-Men” series, I highly recommend this
book to you. And finally, even if you’ve already read it, if you liked it, I
recommend you read the series in this format, I found it to be highly enjoyable
reading it in this presentation, especially with the bonus features included at
the end, especially Millar’s original pitch for the series. In general, I’d
just recommend this to anyone who reads Marvel Comics with a particular interest
in X-Men.
Well, we’re finally at the point
where we’re going to wrap things up because I’ve been going on for quite some
time now and we all need to get on with our lives. I will start by saying that
this blog site has over 150 posts, with over three dozen of them being of
reviews just like this one, so if you enjoyed this post, check out
timcubbin.blogspot.com for more content. Particularly check out “Ultimate
Spider-Man: Learning Curve,” that is my best companion piece at the moment. I’ve
also written other things, like short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and
editorials, so there’s still plenty more other kinds of things you can read on
this website if you want to see more of my work. I have a bachelor’s degree in
English with a concentration in journalism, so if these posts seem highly
professional, that’s why, and while they are written in a professional style, I
don’t actually currently write these posts professionally, but I have been
considering rectifying that. Right now, I’m at a bit of a crossroads in my life,
I’m getting things together, I work in a grocery store, but writing is my passion
and I hope I’ll actually be able to use my degree for something someday. I post
on this blog very frequently; I currently collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic
Collection and Marvel Ultimate Epic Collection as they are released and review
them as soon as I possibly can. I do have a few in my collection I have not
reviewed due to conditions such as not having a device to blog with or in one case
because I spent too much time between reading a graphic novel I had difficulty
comprehending and actually sitting down to draft a review that I just couldn’t
actually get a coherent review due to lack of understanding and memory loss because
of the time passed between those periods, but someday that might be rectified. You
can probably expect another review coming up within the next three weeks as
there is another Modern Era Epic Collection coming out in less than a week from
the point of me drafting this post, so I need to purchase it, read it, then
find a free day to draft a review, but it should come up within the specified
time period. Keep checking back regularly, there’s always going to be more
content unless I suddenly drop dead, which is not likely to happen anytime
soon, so expect more to keep coming. If you made it all the way to this point
of my review, you are THE BEST and I really appreciate you taking the time to
read this as I worked really long and hard on this particular post, and I hope
you come back for more. So, all I have to say until next time is, Tim Cubbin…
out!
