What do you think?
Rate this book
Ultimate X-Men (Collected Editions) #11
Ultimate X-Men, Vol. 11: The Most Dangerous Game
It's the ultimate reality show as mutants convicted of capital crimes are released on an island where contestants hunt them down. Longshot has survived longest, and the X-Men are sent to rescue him - until they become part of the game themselves With one of their teammates a captive on the island of Krakoa, the malevolent media mogul called Mojo demands the X-Men return Longshot to his headquarters or Angel will soon have a harp to go with his wings Meanwhile, does Longshot have a "Dazzling" not-so-secret admirer?
Collecting: Ultimate X-Men 54-57
Collecting: Ultimate X-Men 54-57
96 pages, Paperback
First published August 10, 2005
6 people are currently reading
308 people want to read
About the author
Brian K. Vaughan
1,057 books14.2k followersBrian K. Vaughan is the writer and co-creator of comic-book series including SAGA, PAPER GIRLS, Y THE LAST MAN, RUNAWAYS, and most recently, BARRIER, a digital comic with artist Marcos Martin about immigration, available from their pay-what-you-want site www.PanelSyndicate.com
BKV's work has been recognized at the Eisner, Harvey, Hugo, Shuster, Eagle, and British Fantasy Awards. He sometimes writes for film and television in Los Angeles, where he lives with his family and their dogs Hamburger and Milkshake.
BKV's work has been recognized at the Eisner, Harvey, Hugo, Shuster, Eagle, and British Fantasy Awards. He sometimes writes for film and television in Los Angeles, where he lives with his family and their dogs Hamburger and Milkshake.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
July 7, 2016
Vaughan updates Mojo, and it's far, far more successful than his update on Sinister had been. I never liked Mojo as a villain, and I never really dug the concept of the Mojoverse. It just seemed awfully convenient to have this alternate dimension just for this one character and his various hangers-on. Recasting him as a normal human, working on the same planet the X-Men inhabit, takes away pretty much everything I didn't like about the character. This version of Mojo has a deadly reality show, but it functions as the government of Genosha's official execution method for mutants. I love the idea. The reality television aspect was even more timely when Vaughan wrote this book than it had been when Mojo was first introduced, and it's a perfectly fitting update of a super dated character. Beyond that, there's also a murder mystery that doesn't quite get the attention it deserves, because there's too much going on elsewhere. Still, the resolution is genuinely surprising and satisfying. It's a great volume, but it really doesn't stand on its own.
April 26, 2020
Battle Royal for X-men!
Longshot is being used in a mutant hunting game for people to view and enjoy. Sick? Yep. And so half the X-men go to save him while the other half go and find out if he's guilty of killing someone. Both stories happen at once as Ultimate version of Mojo runs this whole thing with the help of a new deadly assassin.
Overall, this was good. Better than last volume but not great. I did like the twist on certain characters, especially longshot, and even I was caught by surprise at the end result. I also enjoyed seeing the X-men work as a team once more. The story itself through has been done a million times and was that deadpool? Cause he was lame.
Overall, good stuff but nothing special. A 3 out of 5.
Longshot is being used in a mutant hunting game for people to view and enjoy. Sick? Yep. And so half the X-men go to save him while the other half go and find out if he's guilty of killing someone. Both stories happen at once as Ultimate version of Mojo runs this whole thing with the help of a new deadly assassin.
Overall, this was good. Better than last volume but not great. I did like the twist on certain characters, especially longshot, and even I was caught by surprise at the end result. I also enjoyed seeing the X-men work as a team once more. The story itself through has been done a million times and was that deadpool? Cause he was lame.
Overall, good stuff but nothing special. A 3 out of 5.
November 20, 2017
Mojo. Long shot. A Hunger Games like tv show featuring mutants from Genosha convicted of crimes being hunted down and executed . And two teams of X-Men show up to uncover what is going on. Just another great story from this creative team.
August 21, 2012
Stuff I Read – Ultimate X-Men #54-58
So we enter into the third of Brian Vaughan’s arcs, and this one at least retains a bit more cohesion and interest than did the last one. The Most Dangerous Game introduces the Ultimate Longshot, which is a nice concept. Again, however, we see Vaughan take the characters (in this case Colosus) and really change them considerably. The newer characters like Angel, Dazzler, and even Nightcrawler (who isn’t really new but is newer, at least) are given a fair treatment, and one can argue that these are more his characters anyway. He continues to struggle to maintain consistency with older characters, though, and Colossus, Cyclops, and Iceman all suffer a bit from Vaughan’s treatment. These are characters that were supposed to have matured in their tenure as X-Men, but here we see Colossus rushing headlong into disaster, distrusting Xavier and being almost giggly around Longshot. His homosexuality, which before was only implied (and was at least a subtle thing) here becomes suddenly more pronounced and gaudy. The whole nice boots thing was admittedly a little funny, but when looking at a character that could have been gay and not stereotypically so, these things that “gay up” his character seem shallow and poorly done.
With Cyclops, we see his team almost taken down by Spiral, who somehow knows exactly how to fight the X-Men. I mean, this is a low grade threat at best, and if Vaughan is implying that the X-Men are not working together very well, then he does that, but he does not earn that conclusion as the X-Men should be used to working together by now. This is after fifty issues in. I don’t care how young they are, they should be getting over the rookie mistakes. At least the veterans should be, at least. If Spiral is kicking their asses, how are we supposed to believe that they stood up to the likes of Magneto? On the other side, the actual rookies (except Nightcrawler and Colossus, who just act like rookies) stumble about and fall for Longshot’s charms. Which is understandable given his powers, but still seems like the whole arc was just to further devolve the team to a place where they are much less effective than they were even during Bendis’ run.
It is like Vaughan wants to start over with the team, erasing all that they have earned and gained during their history. And it just doesn’t feel real to me. Not legitimate, somehow. I don’t feel that he earns the changes he is making. The characters were already interesting, and to weigh them down so heavily with teen angst and relationships seems like a big step backwards for a team that fought Magneto and Proteus and the Weapon X program. It’s all become too safe and too focused on the characters’ romantic entanglements. I would rather have Millar back at this point because while his message never sat right with me, at least his writing was big and didn’t fall back on high school drama. But even Vaughan’s Professor X one-and-done seemed dumbed down, or somehow less than what I would expect from the character. Here is a world class telepath being frustrated going to the bank. Again, this is a big step back from the character who before would probably have just handled it telepathically. His ultimate solution wasn’t too bad, but his methods seemed remedial for a man who has done so much. Being thwarted by two brains? For a guy who can take control of hundreds of people at once it doesn’t seem like it should be a problem.
So I guess at this point I want to see the X-Men get back to the big problems and threats and stop dealing with their own juvenile relationships. Honestly I thought better of these characters before Vaughan muddled them with crushes and idiocy. I want them to have to work against something that feels real, that feels dangerous. Sorry, but Spiral and Arcade really didn’t do it. I never thought that they might lose. It was just kind of dumb. So this arc ends up with a 5/10.
So we enter into the third of Brian Vaughan’s arcs, and this one at least retains a bit more cohesion and interest than did the last one. The Most Dangerous Game introduces the Ultimate Longshot, which is a nice concept. Again, however, we see Vaughan take the characters (in this case Colosus) and really change them considerably. The newer characters like Angel, Dazzler, and even Nightcrawler (who isn’t really new but is newer, at least) are given a fair treatment, and one can argue that these are more his characters anyway. He continues to struggle to maintain consistency with older characters, though, and Colossus, Cyclops, and Iceman all suffer a bit from Vaughan’s treatment. These are characters that were supposed to have matured in their tenure as X-Men, but here we see Colossus rushing headlong into disaster, distrusting Xavier and being almost giggly around Longshot. His homosexuality, which before was only implied (and was at least a subtle thing) here becomes suddenly more pronounced and gaudy. The whole nice boots thing was admittedly a little funny, but when looking at a character that could have been gay and not stereotypically so, these things that “gay up” his character seem shallow and poorly done.
With Cyclops, we see his team almost taken down by Spiral, who somehow knows exactly how to fight the X-Men. I mean, this is a low grade threat at best, and if Vaughan is implying that the X-Men are not working together very well, then he does that, but he does not earn that conclusion as the X-Men should be used to working together by now. This is after fifty issues in. I don’t care how young they are, they should be getting over the rookie mistakes. At least the veterans should be, at least. If Spiral is kicking their asses, how are we supposed to believe that they stood up to the likes of Magneto? On the other side, the actual rookies (except Nightcrawler and Colossus, who just act like rookies) stumble about and fall for Longshot’s charms. Which is understandable given his powers, but still seems like the whole arc was just to further devolve the team to a place where they are much less effective than they were even during Bendis’ run.
It is like Vaughan wants to start over with the team, erasing all that they have earned and gained during their history. And it just doesn’t feel real to me. Not legitimate, somehow. I don’t feel that he earns the changes he is making. The characters were already interesting, and to weigh them down so heavily with teen angst and relationships seems like a big step backwards for a team that fought Magneto and Proteus and the Weapon X program. It’s all become too safe and too focused on the characters’ romantic entanglements. I would rather have Millar back at this point because while his message never sat right with me, at least his writing was big and didn’t fall back on high school drama. But even Vaughan’s Professor X one-and-done seemed dumbed down, or somehow less than what I would expect from the character. Here is a world class telepath being frustrated going to the bank. Again, this is a big step back from the character who before would probably have just handled it telepathically. His ultimate solution wasn’t too bad, but his methods seemed remedial for a man who has done so much. Being thwarted by two brains? For a guy who can take control of hundreds of people at once it doesn’t seem like it should be a problem.
So I guess at this point I want to see the X-Men get back to the big problems and threats and stop dealing with their own juvenile relationships. Honestly I thought better of these characters before Vaughan muddled them with crushes and idiocy. I want them to have to work against something that feels real, that feels dangerous. Sorry, but Spiral and Arcade really didn’t do it. I never thought that they might lose. It was just kind of dumb. So this arc ends up with a 5/10.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 21, 2023
My Ultimate Year #11
Immonen joins BKV!
There are features of this story that feel a little more like Vaughn, and less like him trying to follow the Bendis run.
Also look for a big old nod to Mutant Massacre.
Immonen joins BKV!
There are features of this story that feel a little more like Vaughn, and less like him trying to follow the Bendis run.
Also look for a big old nod to Mutant Massacre.
November 19, 2023
This series is really hitting its stride. Mojo, Longshot, Genosha. The "B Team" shines and takes the spotlight. Great stuff.
August 8, 2016
Probably one of the more memorable ultimate x-men stories. It's a self contained story.
March 4, 2020
Si la calidad de un héroe o en este caso grupo de héroes es medida por la calidad de sus villanos apaga y vámonos.
Mojo es un simple productor de televisión que contrata asesinos para cazar en su isla privada a Longshot. Arcade es simplificado a un asesino sin más. Como digo, es más villano la tension que ninguno de los que mete. Tensión pero acaban todos muy amiguitos.
Por nombrar lo bueno, Angel, Dazzler y Rondador. Son lo único bueno, le da protagonismo a estos tres junto a un Coloso que no es Coloso, es un Lobezno con esteroides ruso. En fin, Vaughan parece empeñado en cargarse la Patrulla para crear lo que quiere, pero para ello está erosionado todo el trabajo que realizó Millar y la transición de Bendis.
Mojo es un simple productor de televisión que contrata asesinos para cazar en su isla privada a Longshot. Arcade es simplificado a un asesino sin más. Como digo, es más villano la tension que ninguno de los que mete. Tensión pero acaban todos muy amiguitos.
Por nombrar lo bueno, Angel, Dazzler y Rondador. Son lo único bueno, le da protagonismo a estos tres junto a un Coloso que no es Coloso, es un Lobezno con esteroides ruso. En fin, Vaughan parece empeñado en cargarse la Patrulla para crear lo que quiere, pero para ello está erosionado todo el trabajo que realizó Millar y la transición de Bendis.
April 9, 2020
I enjoyed this volume a bit more than the last one. Maybe I mostly just enjoyed the setting and the introduction of a couple new characters... but I also appreciated the time given to fleshing out the character and teamwork a bit more of several of the less popular x-men. I also enjoyed the bit of twist they put on the plot right at the end. The art style was a step down in my opinion, they seem to change the artist for every volume of ultimate x-men. But it still wasn't bad art. Overall, it was a fun enjoyable read, not moving or anything, but fun for an x-men fan who's been reading the Ultimate X-Men series so far.
April 29, 2021
Di Krakoa, Genosha, seorang taipan media menayangkan reality show mengenai perburuan mutan oleh manusia. Longshot, mutan yang sedang diburu dalam tayangan itu, adalah tertuduh dalam satu kasus pembunuhan. Profesor Xavier memerintahkan Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, dan Shadowcat untuk pergi ke sana menyelidiki soal pembunuhan itu. Sementara itu, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Angel, dan Dazzler, karena khawatir akan keselamatan Longshot, memutuskan untuk melanggar larangan Xavier. Mereka mencuri pesawat X-Men dan pergi ke Krakoa untuk menyelamatkan Longshot. Namun apakah benar Longshot tidak bersalah?
March 11, 2024
The Most Dangerous Game (#54-57). I think the biggest problem with Vaughan's UXM is that it's very monster-of-the-week. We get a Sinister arc, then a Fenris arc, now a Mojo arc. There's character continuity, but not the bigger plot arcs that defined the earlier runs of this comic. Which leaves it shallower. Certainly, Vaughan's reinventions in this arc are strong. The new Longshot, Spiral, Mojo, and Arcade are all interesting variations (unlike the new Sinister). There's even a fun twist at the end. But despite that, the comic ultimately (ha!) ends up being forgettable as Vaughan moves on to the next thing [3+/5].
September 30, 2017
So, it's Arcade, Mojo and Genosha, with a cast of characters including Colossus, Nightcrawler, Jubilee and Longshot - so far, so early 90s. But what is this: Angel is a teenager, Colossus likes boys rather than Kitty and Longshot is an out and put wrong un?
To reboot: to raid the family silver. This might add a little spice and update for a modern readership but at the expense of real creativity. The X Men of the golden era (issues 93-around 300) had new mutants each episode it seemed. Ideas spilled out across titles.
This, by contrast, is stale. Fine, but stale.
To reboot: to raid the family silver. This might add a little spice and update for a modern readership but at the expense of real creativity. The X Men of the golden era (issues 93-around 300) had new mutants each episode it seemed. Ideas spilled out across titles.
This, by contrast, is stale. Fine, but stale.
April 17, 2023
Full review / all my reviews available on my blog
A mutant on a far away island, being hunted as fuel for a 24x7 reality show.
Bit on the name with that title’s reference, no?
Anyways, of course the X-Men have to come to the rescue… even if they’ve been explicitly told not to.
A decent volume. Onward!
A mutant on a far away island, being hunted as fuel for a 24x7 reality show.
Bit on the name with that title’s reference, no?
Anyways, of course the X-Men have to come to the rescue… even if they’ve been explicitly told not to.
A decent volume. Onward!
August 5, 2023
In theory, these Ultimate Krakoa stories should be way more fun than they are. This is better than the Spidey one but it's still kind of dull. Also, the whole comic is based around the idea that they should only try to rescue the mutant being hunted for sport if he's innocent of the murder he was accused of, which is wild. Hunting people for sport is wrong regardless of whether they committed murder once.
October 10, 2017
This is a fun story. Vaughan continues to tell quality stories by reinventing existing characters, in this case Longshot, Mojo, Arcade and Spiral. In his original storyline Mojo predicts the reality television that would grow to dominate television. Here Vaughan is able to tell a more grounded and fully realized version of that story and we are all the luckier for it.
January 18, 2022
This was awful. I raced through it because it was so rough. Cheap illustration and tacky writing. If I weren't reading the Ultimate universe for completion, I would have skipped over this. The only positive thing worth mentioning is the creative reimagination of a couple classic (albeit obnoxious) X-Men villains.
November 24, 2018
By far my favorite of BKV's run so far and possibly of the series to date. Like Mr. Sinister, BKV takes a classic X-men villain that was perhaps based more on a threatening art design than actual character and menace and reinvents them brilliantly for the Ultimate universe.
September 21, 2021
El mundo de Mojo, Krakoa, Longshot, llegan al mundo Ultimate. Una historia entretenida de Brian K. Vaughan se siente cómodo con estos X-Men. Y supongo que este es el momento en el cual Stuart Immonen comienza a ser un dibujante estrella, ya es conocido y empieza a desarrollar su talento.
January 26, 2024
This volume of Ultimate X-Men contains issues 54-57 (96 pages). We get introduced to the Ultimate Universe versions of Longshot, Mojo, Spiral, and others and I love this alternate take on these characters. I won’t spoil anything here, you should read this for yourself.
March 18, 2025
Another decent story arc.
We follow Xmen as they split - one under instruction of Prof X and the other team going rogue without anyone's knowledge - to save a mutant murderer who had been condemned to death and is being hunt on a live show in a far distant country.
We follow Xmen as they split - one under instruction of Prof X and the other team going rogue without anyone's knowledge - to save a mutant murderer who had been condemned to death and is being hunt on a live show in a far distant country.
November 24, 2018
I was not really impressed with Ultimate-Mojo. But then again, I did not really like Mojo to begin with.
August 11, 2019
Fairly average arc, not a big fan. This Battle Royale thing has been done to death and the execution wasn't even that good. Also the artstyle suffered in this one.
August 20, 2019
A really fun an interesting concept not quite well delivered but still great character work from Vaughan.
October 26, 2020
a good reversal of expectations in this one. i like when this universe takes what you know about specific characters and then flips it on its head
December 2, 2022
Pretty damn good and entertaining story.
Story itself has been seen way too many times, but Vaughan told it so well, it was a good read. Nice Mojo update.
Story itself has been seen way too many times, but Vaughan told it so well, it was a good read. Nice Mojo update.
April 21, 2024
A fun reimagining. Good moments. Next volume!
May 1, 2024
Don't entirely know what I just read, but it was interesting enough.
October 31, 2025
Updated Review During 2025 X-Reread:
Conceptually, this was a fun book. Vaughan's 21st century re-imaginings of Mojo, Spiral, Longshot, and Arcade are improvements over their cheesy 80s Claremont-penned counterparts. Unfortunately, the Shadowcat/Iceman melodrama was inconsistent and annoying. This mat also be an intentional Claremont/Stan Lee homage, as the X-Men were constantly bickering and overreacting for no reasons in the 60s-90s. It seemed really out of place here, though.
There was also an obscene amount of telling vs showing for a comic book where we can see the characters and their actions. Apart from the Spiral reveal, courtesy of Jean Grey, all the characters seemed to spout off their back story and intentions rather than letting the reader discover them.
Vaughan is one of my favorite comic writers of all-time but this run on Ultimate X-Men is probably his weakest work. I don't think it's so bad that someone reading Ultimate X-Men would want to drop the book but it's also not something I would go out of my way to read again.
***
Original 2019 Review:
Mojo, Longshot, Dazzler, Spiral, and Shatterstar are some of (but not THE) most annoying characters to like in the regular Marvel Universe, they come and go depending on the writer, their timelines are bafflingly complicated and cyclical, and their motivations are a casual shrug.
I enjoy Vaughan's reimagining of them (though Shatterstar is absent in this volume). Mojo as a human reality TV series director, instead of an alien TV creature makes much more sense, his reason for obsessing over Longshot is much more believable, and Vaughan's slight nods to other important X-Men moments, such as Fall Of The Mutants, is skillfully done. I epecially liked his work with Dazzler's development on the X-team, and her interest in Longshot.
While there are enough nice touches to make this seem like a four star book, it still didn't have the tight pacing I'm used to from Vaughan.
I don't usually talk about the art, as it usually falls into just "I liked it." "I loved it." or "I hated it." But Immonen's lines on this were a really interesting way to portray the new human versions of these characters while giving them a more alien weight than the other characters. Their lines were darker, and their colors brighter.
Conceptually, this was a fun book. Vaughan's 21st century re-imaginings of Mojo, Spiral, Longshot, and Arcade are improvements over their cheesy 80s Claremont-penned counterparts. Unfortunately, the Shadowcat/Iceman melodrama was inconsistent and annoying. This mat also be an intentional Claremont/Stan Lee homage, as the X-Men were constantly bickering and overreacting for no reasons in the 60s-90s. It seemed really out of place here, though.
There was also an obscene amount of telling vs showing for a comic book where we can see the characters and their actions. Apart from the Spiral reveal, courtesy of Jean Grey, all the characters seemed to spout off their back story and intentions rather than letting the reader discover them.
Vaughan is one of my favorite comic writers of all-time but this run on Ultimate X-Men is probably his weakest work. I don't think it's so bad that someone reading Ultimate X-Men would want to drop the book but it's also not something I would go out of my way to read again.
***
Original 2019 Review:
Mojo, Longshot, Dazzler, Spiral, and Shatterstar are some of (but not THE) most annoying characters to like in the regular Marvel Universe, they come and go depending on the writer, their timelines are bafflingly complicated and cyclical, and their motivations are a casual shrug.
I enjoy Vaughan's reimagining of them (though Shatterstar is absent in this volume). Mojo as a human reality TV series director, instead of an alien TV creature makes much more sense, his reason for obsessing over Longshot is much more believable, and Vaughan's slight nods to other important X-Men moments, such as Fall Of The Mutants, is skillfully done. I epecially liked his work with Dazzler's development on the X-team, and her interest in Longshot.
While there are enough nice touches to make this seem like a four star book, it still didn't have the tight pacing I'm used to from Vaughan.
I don't usually talk about the art, as it usually falls into just "I liked it." "I loved it." or "I hated it." But Immonen's lines on this were a really interesting way to portray the new human versions of these characters while giving them a more alien weight than the other characters. Their lines were darker, and their colors brighter.
May 27, 2016
That was Ultimate Spider-Man: Deadpood, wasn't it? That seriously was just that issue with the X-Men now.
While Ultimate Spider-Man is still the superior series, in my opinion, I do think the concept of "hero(es) are stranded on an island with a murderous psychopath that hosts a show for massive worldwide audiences, filled with obvious social satire" is much better in this comic than in Ultimate Spider-Man. Although, speaking of Spider-Man, he was hardly mentioned for being Kitty's new boyfriend. In fact, I think Kitty was more fleshed out as a character in Spider-Man than in X-Men.
I did like certain elements to the pot, such as Longshot having the ability to "luck" his was out of any situation (reminiscent of all the action movies of years gone by), and the little mystery sub-plot of who murdered Scheele. But the bottom line for The Most Dangerous Game is...
If you've read "The Most Dangerous Game", you already know what's gonna happen.
It's the same plot borrowed from the original (and, in my opinion, brilliant) short story: man is stuck on island with another man and must fight him amongst nature. You know every twist and turn the plot will throw at you. So I buzzed right through this comic without anything that really stuck. I hate to say it, but Millar has done a much better job than Vaughan at making me remember key moments in this series. That's really depressing.
While Ultimate Spider-Man is still the superior series, in my opinion, I do think the concept of "hero(es) are stranded on an island with a murderous psychopath that hosts a show for massive worldwide audiences, filled with obvious social satire" is much better in this comic than in Ultimate Spider-Man. Although, speaking of Spider-Man, he was hardly mentioned for being Kitty's new boyfriend. In fact, I think Kitty was more fleshed out as a character in Spider-Man than in X-Men.
I did like certain elements to the pot, such as Longshot having the ability to "luck" his was out of any situation (reminiscent of all the action movies of years gone by), and the little mystery sub-plot of who murdered Scheele. But the bottom line for The Most Dangerous Game is...
If you've read "The Most Dangerous Game", you already know what's gonna happen.
It's the same plot borrowed from the original (and, in my opinion, brilliant) short story: man is stuck on island with another man and must fight him amongst nature. You know every twist and turn the plot will throw at you. So I buzzed right through this comic without anything that really stuck. I hate to say it, but Millar has done a much better job than Vaughan at making me remember key moments in this series. That's really depressing.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews