Ultimate Comics: X-Men, Vol. 2

Ultimate Comics: X-Men (Collected Editions)

by Nick Spencer (Writer), Carlo Barberi (Illustrator), Paco Medina (Illustrator)

Quicksilver's scheme to lord over the world's mutants goes horribly awry when his army of Nimrod sentinels goes rogue and commits mutant genocide. Val Cooper probes S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury for information on the Ultimate X program, and the identity of world's most powerful psychic, Jean Grey, is revealed - but she may not be playing for the right side. And the mutants interned at Camp Angel stage a bloody revolt when they learn the true origin of the X-gene. The ghosts of the Ultimate Universe's past drive the world's mutants toward an explosive confrontation in this thrilling chess match crafted by writer Nick Spencer (Iron Man 2.0)!

Collecting: Ultimate Comics: X-Men 7-12

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, X Men, Comic Book, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics

136 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Nick Spencer is a comic book writer known for his creator-owned titles at Image Comics (Existence 2.0/3.0, Forgetless, Shuddertown, Morning Glories), his work at DC Comics (Action Comics, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents), and for his current work at Marvel Comics (Iron Man 2.0, Ultimate Comics: X-Men).

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume is pretty much four stories in one, the superb Karen Grant machinations and final reveal; the fate of Camp Angel in which Storm and Colossus are held captive; the big forces in the shadows reveal, which I found underwhelming; and all this with rogue Sentinels everywhere! Gotta admit to being not much a fun of Barberi''s art but still a Four Star, 8 out of 12 as the Ultimate X-Men, like the Ultimate Spider-Man continue to fly the flag for the Ultimate brand.

2022 read; 2017 read; 2013 read

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of a mess. The most ill-advised decision in the book was, I think, the chronology. Some of the scenes are presented out of order, but without apparent rhyme or reason. It feels more like Spencer was going back to things he'd forgotten to do instead of any kind of coherent plan. But the art is good, and some of the scenes and dialog are really good, and this might actually be going to an interesting place.

[James DeSantis · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not that I hated it, it just felt empty? It has some great moments. We get to see Storm again and her revolution against the guards at the prison. It shows how some mutants, especially ones beat, decide they won't take it anymore. We mostly focus on them, a little bit of kitty, and then Quicksilver. Honestly it all connects but not in a entertaining way.

What I liked: The moments with certain characters like storm are fun. I also think the art is still pretty solid, never have any horrible images.

What I didn't like: It just felt a ton of set up but with no payoff. The final shot was dull and lifeless, especially when we know nothing will come from it. Also the pacing was so quick that nothing actually stuck.

I felt let down by this one, especially considering the first volume was pretty solid. This gets a 2 out of 5.

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mutants vs. A Guy Violently Against All He Believes To Be Sinners Which May Or May Not Include Mutants

Things you ought to know, that lessened my enjoyment of this volume:
- The guy named above is very confusing.
- Which X-Men / mutants we may or may not have seen before and what they have done - it is unclear who is who.
- There are hidden meanings to people and events from the "original" Marvel universe, that may haunt the consciousness of the perceptive. It's worse if you are unfamiliar with these "other" X-Men.
- There are things that happen "off-screen". Some appear to be contained in other comics. Some may only be a literary technique to advance the plot. both types are distracting.

[Brandon Skanes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, this was GREAT!

[mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

I did enjoy this comic, and seeing why some things were happening and all, but I feel like there's too many storylines at the same time, with different timelines, and it is getting a little confusing. Maybe the next volumes (?) will clear it up?

[Fazun · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5

[Clodagh · Rating 2 out of 5]

okay what

[Holden Attradies · Rating 4 out of 5]

The re-launch of the Ultimate comics line has really impressed me. The scale of the drama has still managed to feel like it is getting bigger and dire, with the mutants feeling like they are teetering on the edge of annihilation. This volume was a real page turner, the pace for the final third of it running a mile a minute.

Yeah, a lot of characters and themes from the past of the Ultimate universe are being revisited, but I don't mind. There was a serious bubble of crap that surrounded Ultimatum on top of what felt like every third story arc from the first run of Ultimate X-men just dropping the ball. So I'm happy to see some of the these themes, stories, and characters have a second go within the comic. Especially the big character reveal on the last few pages! Here's hoping they get handled better this time around with less of an anti-climactic finish.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite simply: the best volume of Ultimate X-Men since its inception. Spencer does a superb job of telling a complex, multi-faceted story, while still giving us intriguing looks into the psyches of different characters. Meanwhile, we suddenly discover that he’s been telling a bigger story than we could have imagined.

This is the only other comic I’ve read that feels like Spencer’s Morning Glories, so I’m sad this is as far as he goes. I hope that Brian Wood can maintain the quality (and the interesting plot structure!).

[Jeff Raymond · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think my problem is that I don't like my X-Men dark, and this is a much darker, less fun version than I'm used to. I don't have much of anything to say about it except that the direction and such are not working for me.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yet more of the same. Please, please, please...someone do something different with mutants in the Marvel universe?

[Ian]

The political tidal wave of the revelation about the origins of mutants continues to spread, followed closely by an army of Nimrod Sentinels out of government control and on a mission to eradicate mutants across the USA.

Picking up where Vol. 1 left off, we start here with Quicksilver trying to cope with the ramifications of his role in giving Cerebra to the Sentinels. This story line was fine as far as it went, which I'll get back to in a moment, but I have to admit was spoiled a bit for me by how Scarlet Witch is drawn. The massive-boobs/half-naked outfit she appears in feels like it's from an earlier age in comics history and wasn't something I was happy to see return.

After Pietro's story there's a brief interlude about how Nick Fury is using Jean Grey as an operative. It's not fleshed out and doesn't go anywhere at all, which leads me to this book's biggest flaw; nothing gets resolved.
This is a book completely unable to stand alone due to following so closely from the first book and then failing to round out any storylines thereafter. For example, instead of addressing the last-page character reveal from Vol. 1, that plotline gets totally dropped and we instead get no less than two more 'bombshell' character reveals that also go nowhere. It's fine to set up plotlines for later books, but this book feels like that's about all it does, having almost no plot of its own.

Things do briefly get much better when the story moves on to a mutant internment camp already on the verge of boiling over when the news that the US government created mutants breaks. Here we get to see the divisions within the mutant community as some hold to the hope of coexistence with the humans and other call for violent revolutions.
This is this book's strongest moment and reminded me (positively) a great deal of David Hine's 'Decimation: The 198', which dealt with a similar theme in the mainstream Marvel Universe.

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.com *

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nick Spencer's run on the new Ultimate Comics: X-Men series comes to a close with this collection, which features artwork by Paco Medina and Carlo Barberi. Spencer introduced a radically different group of X-Men in the last collection and put them through a "God Loves, Man Kills" style trial by fire. Now we see the consequences of what was unleashed at the end of Ultimate Comics X-Men by Nick Spencer - Volume 1, and it's not pretty.

This story is kind of a mess actually, which is a shame given the promise Spencer showed in the first collection. We barely see the characters from that first arc, and the X-Men we do see don't act like the same characters from the original Ultimate X-Men series. You get hints at the larger Nimrod/Sentinel agenda, another tease involving Apocalypse (maybe) and yet another "back from the dead" moment that really shouldn't happen in this Universe. And the X-Men have always been at their best when they're a team. There's no chemistry when all of the members are scattered like this.

Paco Medina and Carlo Barberi's artwork is at least consistent. Neither artist is particularly flashy, but they both do a very solid job with the characters and action sequences. The artwork reminds me a bit of Cary Nord's pencils from the original series.

I have to say I was let down by this one. As glad as I am to have a regular Ultimate X-Men series again, this one fails to deliver on its initial promise, and leaves a lot of loose ends for the next guy to tie up. I'm not ready to walk away just yet though. I need at least one X-Men series to follow.

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last night, the world told us that we're not the next step in evolution. That we weren't improvements, that we weren't God's chosen. That we were abnormalities. Freaks. But I say that's for us to decide. I say that no matter how we were created, we can still inherit the future. But not because of our powers - because of our choices! Because we rejected the fear and violence and hatred of what came before us. If we do that, then we'll have a true revolution on our hands!

Before the world learned mutants were created by the US government, and before the nimrods were set loose on mutant kind, we check in on what the others were doing with stories about Havok stuck in a mental institution, Jean Grey Karen Grant playing several factions against each other, and Storm leading an uprising in a mutant concentration camp.

It doesn't so much continue from the last volume, as it shows the immediate consequences and continues to build up the various factions and parties involved.

Really, the only part I didn't like was the explanation of who's been working in the shadows, which is partially because it's a character whose ultimate version has been extremely underwhelming so far. Then again, this is the kind of situation that usually causes him to show up.

It continues to be pretty good, I hope it keeps up the quality with the change in creatives.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nick Spencer's Ultimate X-Men takes a somewhat strange swerve from the last volume to not involve most the characters from the last volume. Spencer continues the high stakes but the volume seems more more disjointed than the last. The art, mostly by Carlo Barberi, was a letdown from the previous arc as well. The book wasn't bad but it is heading the wrong direction plus its an impossible read for new readers.

[Frans Kempe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sentinels are unleashed when Stryker died and the different factions of mutants takes a stand

[Lilli W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25. I liked it, but I'm disappointed we didn't follow up on the characters from vol. 1. The end was a bit weird too. I'm interested to see where this is going!

[Ethan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Basically all just yapping and mindless revolts/robot fighting, all to set up for a bunch of other big enemies in the conclusion. Disappointing

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Tian/Ultimates crossover is some fun. We get to see things operating on a scale outside the myopic US-centric view, and understand a little more about how the Fury/Xorn/Grant dynamic is playing out.

OTOH, it really emphasises how much Spencer likes to lecture. Either that or he doesn't have an active editor, or he has no interest in how to move the plot along without pages of dialogue summarising the state of things.

I'm re-reading Hickman's Ultimates chrono-simultaneously with Spencer's X-Men, to get a feel for the larger story in context. They were written fairly integrated into one world of extreme actions, so it's an interesting contrast. Compared with this X-book, Hickman's moves much more quickly and has a lot more interesting & new things to offer. Even just Richards *talking* Hulk into stopping a rampage is awesome. Compared to that, Colossus...doing what he did (while rare) is pretty depressing - and Storm cutting her hair? Um, wow was that all you got?

Fun climax to this book - kinda outta nowhere (tho I could well have forgotten or overlooked some earlier hints), but again it feels like retread rather than fresh new stories in what should be an unfettered new universe. Instead it's like the Ultimate universe has no choice but to resurrect old 616 stories.

[Des Fox · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you felt lost during Spencer's first volume, you're really in for it here in the second. Kitty, Johnny and Bobby are all pushed aside in exchange for a scatterbrained, incoherent, time-skipping narrative starring a whole grip of characters I'm not sure if I'm supposed to know or not. It's safe to say that Spencer's Ultimate X-Men fails as a new-reader friendly reboot, and I still have no idea how it stands up to the previous volume, but man is this difficult to absorb coming in fresh. The plot also unfortunately goes nowhere in this volume, opting instead to focus on a handful of 'meanwhiles' that won't mean much to new readers. All of this culminates in an absolutely bizarre 'reveal' that will probably baffle just about everyone.

It's still pretty to look at, and Spencer's dialogue is buttery. The craft here is strong, but the substance leaves a lot to be desired by anyone entering post Ultimatum.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, the Ultimate universe is falling into the standard trap of the regular Marvel U -- no one really dies. At the end of volume 1, we have the return of Prof. X. In the first story of volume 2, Magneto is alive and well. Now, these could be hallucinations -- the Scarlet Witch is heavily involved, but I doubt it is. Some how, they are back. And just in time for mutant kind as a Genosha level genocide is progress. I know this all comes into play with Divided We Fall -- in which America has been ripped apart by explosions and Sentinels -- but I don't think this will end with the X-Men back in business. I expect we will have more Xavier vs Magneto ideology.

Overall, some good stories.

[Ryan Viergutz]

Jean Grey aka Karen Grant is an enigma to everyone and altering the minds of a WORLD. Quicksilver has an odd relationship with his sister, Wanda. Storm and Stacy X revolt in Camp Angel and Colossus reaches the final decision. The Sentinels blow up the world.

Not bad, but where was Kitty Pryde? She dominated the first volume.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wasted opportunity not giving Storm a Mohawk when she decides to become a revolutionary. Grand wasted.

This really does jump all over the place and is completely unfriendly to people who aren't reading other books or the previous volumes of Ultimate X-Men and I am okay with that. This doesn't have to be.

[John White · Rating 4 out of 5]

This might not be to everyone's cup of tea and the ground that is being trodden on is not exactly new but it builds suspense well and is a fun enjoyable story the writers are making the distopic world work for them.

Art is again very good.

[Viridian5 · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's all right, but it's yet another version of the anti-mutant apocalypse featuring the same players in slighly different roles.

[Michael Dillon · Rating 3 out of 5]

No resolution to anything, they need to package storylines better. Also need to bring more differences to the Ult universe, not just minor rehashes of regular storylines.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent enough, but really feels like setup for about 3 other storylines!

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

The prelude to something big and dark.

[Rogue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty good, although not the best. Nice art through most of it; Storm had the most interesting plot going on, and really cool to see the return of the mohawk!