Ultimate X-Men, Vol. 3: The Realm of the Mind

Ultimate X-Men (2024)

by Peach Momoko, Zack Davisson

The startling reimagination of mutantkind in the Ultimate Universe enters its second year! Chaos erupts as former Children of the Atom rise up against the society that used and abused them just as tension between Armor and Maystorm comes to a head in an explosive confrontation! And when the Shadow King returns - more powerful than ever - will Armor be the first to fall? Witness how Hisako's journey through her inner darkness wreaks havoc on her fellow mutants - and reality itself! Nico's undercover sleuthing finally yields results! But the Church of the Children of the Atom is ready for a fight. What dangers await our young X-Men in the Astral Plane? Collecting Ultimate X-Men (2024) #13-18.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, X Men, Fiction, Horror, Graphic Novels Comics

Kindle Edition

First published November 11, 2025

Reviews

[Oscar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the art. Story was confusing. 2.7 🌟

[Mike Reiff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Momoko finally sticks the landing here with amazing artwork, a balance of her robust cast, a good smattering of X-character riffs, and a multi-tiered narrative. This feels like her first really complete volume, as we come up to the end of the series (as PM intended).

[Frédéric · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m definitely losing patience with this series. Six episodes confusing like you wouldn’t believe, only to end up in a situation that’s even less clear than at the start.
I really do appreciate Peach Momoko as an artist, but the scriptwriter bores me to no end.

[Jedidiah Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a huge bummer that such scrumptious art and designs are dedicated to telling such a blah story. I thought the first volume was setting up for a really focused story about recovering from ostracism and survivors guilt, but volume 2 and on has felt really uneven and scattershot. Still makes me wanna draw tho, and anything that does that is still mostly good in my book. Besides, it’s not like the story is offensive or anything, just not very effective.

[Odo · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10

[Joey Nardinelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like I’m reading a bit grumpy right now, so what might normally be a rounded up 2.5 is feeling like it dropped down this time. This volume in particular never really gets anywhere — it had a few small action beats but otherwise spins a lot of wheels to just have all the characters be together again? But not all of them? But most of them? And then looking ahead, issue #19 is actually the one that feels like an “ending” to the current Children of the Atom storyline, so that being left off here just feels like a poor decision for the purposes of storytelling. It’s also been too many issues now with Maester and Akihiro and Kageyama and NO sense of progression or end goals or reveals beyond “Shadow King wants Armor.” The isolation of this story from the rest of the Ultimate line has gone from feeling like a thoughtful choice to ultimately creating a detached, underserved story. I’m all about the isolation and loneliness factor, but the ball needs to pick up momentum at some point.

[MannyLikesPie · Rating 4 out of 5]

So sad this was cancelled, Peach a genius and I hope she’s allowed to do more X-men in the future

[Zachary Palmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the art in this series so much! Peach Momoko’s art is incredible!

Story can be a little confusing, but I partially wonder if it’s just with so many characters it would be easier to read when all the books are out! Definitely a stronger series for the Ultimate line, and worth reading for the jaw dropping art alone.

[poier · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's a solid series. the story is confusing as all get-out, but it's got a ton of personality in the art.

[Raul Reyes · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
Sad to see that me reading this immediately after finishing volume 2 didn’t help since there’s a time skip.

I’m happy we have a clear objective now, but the volume still read very choppy to me, and I don’t understand what the ending with Hisako is supposed to signify.

[Joey's deathly tomes of death · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't have it in me for a long review, but this was excellent. I still can't understand how people can not like Momoko's art, it's amazing.
The final confrontation in the hospital room was epic, this definitely reads like a slow build horror manga.
I'm wondering if Mori is this teams Wolverine with her advanced regeneration.

[Jannes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love that Mei is a Kamen rider Fan and adapts a lot of the kamen rider stuff in her suit, her moves etc.

I loved this Volume again, just like the two before! I think the unfolding mysteries that this story has to offer are immaculate and super interesting. I feel like the pacing is way to fast sometimes though, it won’t let us have a few moments with the characters in between these super important scenes. This pacing problem is probably the editorials/marvels fault though, I feel like this switch up in pacing happened right at that time marvel said that they will end all of the universe Afters certain amount of time.

Despite that imperfection I still think that, both this volume and the whole run until now, are truly amazing, art-wise and story-wise alike.
I mentioned it before, but I really like Hisakos and Meis Friendship and now that payed off in Mei being basically the one saving hisako.

In addition to that I really enjoyed that the children of the atom feel structurally more like the normal x-men, but don’t act like them at all. The school and power training and all that is not what makes the x-men great. It’s the teamwork, the heroism, the will to make the world a better place and to protect everyone you care for while doing so. And this all comes from their strong and diverse character bonds that form a giant family and especially that was something I felt in this volume.
They were a found family of young mutants who don’t really have a place in this world, but they have eachother. Great stuff peach momoko, a truly outstanding x-men story!

[Jiro Dreams of Suchy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy this run- top notch character work and wonderful artwork. This new group of mutants obviously has some parallels to the main X cast but they all feel uniquely their own. For children they feel real- prone to fear or anger and not the kind of default HERO so many comics rely on. This is not to say they’re not heroic but you can just feel their moments of doubt and dread when approaching some nightmarish monster like The Maester.

Read this book! I have hopes it’ll be published in a nice hardcover that will look great on my shelf. Having just read a book on the Aum cult, which infamously released sarin gas on the Tokyo subway, I can see some similarities with the apocalyptic visions both cults share.

[PebbleInTheBrook1794 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the book when this title clicked for me, and has possibly retroactively made the previous two volumes much more interesting to me (I'd have to reread and check, but I suspect).

First, what Momoko has done exceedingly well IMO is show us how school-kids behave toward one another, with all the bullying and teasing. Doing so contextualises the emotional core of the book being Tsubasa's suicide, and it's very fitting material for an X-Men book (it's the best I've read in a long time in fact). This was my 'in' to this UXM title - finally!

Much more is revealed in this third volume, as the young characters try find and free Hisako from the Shadow King's influence. And, finally, I got to find out Mori's (the girl wearing a fluffy rabbit-ears head-garb) mutant power, and it only took close to 15 or so issues!

I didn't mind that there are jarring jumps between sequence, in time, and then between a good melee-fight, with them then just facing a school day again, as I believe I've found the core of the book. I don't mind the narrative just changing around that, as the core still makes sense to me, blessedly (the big fight was also cool, and cathartic after such a long build up in the story - well done!).

I also no longer mind that these mutant kids are just inspired by the original X-Men, and are their own characters rather than direct adaptations. As I said, it feels appropriately 'X-Men' to me, and that's more than good enough.

I've a wait before the fourth tpb comes out, but I am looking forward to what's in store for Hisako and her friends.

[Charley Isaacs · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to give this two stars but the art is just SO good. This is maybe the most unique series going on in this Ultimate Universe. But I think that’s also its downfall. It feels completely disconnected from the larger story. The month issue gimmick really harms the story here. That’s especially because we have a completely new cast of characaters.

In other comics time skipping and coming to conclusions is easy because we already know who is who. This is 100% new. On top of this the story is just confusing. There’s too many characters, six different plot threads, and a lot happening on the page. At times the story feels impossible to follow and it’s just FAR too bloated.

This series would have seriously benefited from being indoenedent of the new Ultimate Universe and having a damn second to breathe. Momoko is trying to do way too much in such a short amount of time it simply isn’t working.

[Mr. Stick · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Y'all are poking your noses around in the Children of the Atom? A word of advice... don't. They're not as harmless as you think."
- someone resembling Rogue to Nico and Mori.

Honestly, I'm not even sure what was happening, for the most part as I don't remember much from the last volume. The girls were searching for Hisako who appears to have been captured, and corrupted, by the Children of the Atom. Somewhere toward the end, the whole story took a hard left turn at Wierdsville and slid right off the map. The Maester is still a creepy cartoon-dracula who just gets creepier. Anyway, looking forward to a conclusion that I can understand.
This wasn't bad. I just think some culturally specific plot devices were utterly lost on me.
Still good. Three stars.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, and a good continuation of what came before, but I think this was the first time it felt like this was more of Peach's ideas than an X-Men book. Ultimate X-Men's always been a bit unconventional, especially compared to the other books of the Ultimate line, but it's always felt very X-Men-y to me until now.

This problem gets rectified in the final few issues of the volume, but I think losing Hisako as the POV character proved that the other characters can't really hold the spotlight themselves and work better as an ensemble around her.

The art's still gorgeous though!

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this might be it for me. I liked the weirdness at first, but it's just gotten too weird and doesn't seem to have any connection to the rest of the Marvel Universe, Ultimate or otherwise. Plus, this time the art is often quite slapdash and messy--pressure on Momoko to keep to a schedule? The story just doesn't really make much sense and too many of the characters are difficult to keep separate--they all blur together after awhile. I also didn't like that the Lexicon sections basically became an excuse for Peach to list her favorite foods (for instance) or other non-pressing stuff.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to enjoy this more than I did, but this volume (like several other reviewers have said) was a real mess. The art is still absolutely fantastic – those manga-inspired, dreamy panels are gorgeous.

But there's just too much going on: plot developments that happen between panels, way too many characters to keep track of (especially with all the Japanese names I struggle to remember), and pacing that never slows down enough.

Hopefully the next volume will dial it back a bit and focus more on character building, because I really want to love this series.

[Nate Deprey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this series a lot. There isn't anything else like it Marvel has ever published and it even stands out on its own in the Ultimate reboot. I like that Peach Momoko is introducing readers into a culture they may not be familiar with and even has explainers at the end of each issue for cultural references the reader may have tripped up on in each issue. What would also help is a line up page with the character names and powers. I love that this series exists but I just need a little help keeping the characters straight.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

I honestly don't know why I'm still reading this. It's terrible. There's way too many characters and when they wear full face masks you can't keep track of who's who. The story meanders. It doesn't feel like it's set on the same world as the other Ultimate titles at all. Even the art isn't very good here which is what Momoko is known for. It's often sloppy and I couldn't even tell what was happening at times.

[Dallas Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A reminder to share your love of those around you! You never know how much it could mean to them.

Another creative stunner here that has new characters coming in, moments of empathy and laughter among epic inevstigations and fights, and never forgetting the heart of the story!

Im excited for a lot of the development for the Runaways characters, the older characters, and Tatsu!

Im in love with the expressions drawn for Kanon!

Feels like a lot happened to propel towards a finale here!

[Macqueron · Rating 3 out of 5]

J’adore l’ambiance assez unique qui ressort de ce comics, à la croisée des chemins entre les Marvel classiques et le génial Naoki Urasawa. Mais n’est pas Urasawa qui veut. Ici, dur de suivre l’histoire qui croûle sous le nombre de personnages. Cependant, il y a un vrai univers visuel (même si imparfait) et une vraie volonté de faire différemment et d’avoir des personnages sensibles. A suivre

[Shivesh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Still difficult to tell our heroes apart, and the art really suffers in the end of the volume. Finally there is some movement to integrate this to the rest of the Ultimate Universe, but I feel like there is too much distance to still navigate.

[Tyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story in issue 13 was not good but the artwork is amazing. Absolutely loved the cover of issue 16. Read as individual comics on Marvel Unlimited, ratings below:

#13= 1.5 stars
#14= 2.5 stars
#15= 3 stars
#16= 3.5 stars
#17= 4 stars
#18= 3.5 stars

Overall rating of 3 stars

[Zachary Blake · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art style and setting continue to be my favorite part of this reimagining of the ultimate X-men. Story was a bit confusing and difficult to follow in this volume. It may read better if I read again altogether once all the volumes are collected.

[Fazun · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Harry Alliss · Rating 2 out of 5]

This ain’t it chief,

[Tristan Bishop · Rating 1 out of 5]

What even is going on in this book? There are so many characters to keep track of that all do very little in the story that it becomes confusing and hard to follow.

[josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*