Ultimate X-Men, Vol. 4: Hellfire and Brimstone

Ultimate X-Men (2001) (Collected Editions)

by Mark Millar (Writer), Adam Kubert, Danny Miki

The world tour is over. It ended abruptly and tragically, with deaths and hard decisions. After returning home to Westchester, the X-Men attempt to continue on, bringing normalcy back to their lives as best they can, opening the school to students once more. However, just as everything settles back to the mundane, Jean Grey's life shifts towards the bizarre. Her mental barriers are starting to erode, as she begins to see things... like a giant bird composed of flames.

Collecting: Ultimate X-Men 21-25

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

144 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2003

About the author

Mark Millar is the New York Times best-selling writer of Wanted, the Kick-Ass series, The Secret Service, Jupiter’s Legacy, Jupiter’s Circle, Nemesis, Superior, Super Crooks, American Jesus, MPH, Starlight, and Chrononauts. Wanted, Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass 2, and The Secret Service (as Kingsman: The Secret Service) have been adapted into feature films, and Nemesis, Superior, Starlight, War Heroes, Jupiter’s Legacy and Chrononauts are in development at major studios.

His DC Comics work includes the seminal Superman: Red Son, and at Marvel Comics he created The Ultimates – selected by Time magazine as the comic book of the decade, Wolverine: Old Man Logan, and Civil War – the industry’s biggest-selling superhero series in almost two decades.

Mark has been an Executive Producer on all his movie adaptations and is currently creative consultant to Fox Studios on their Marvel slate of movies.

Reviews

[Subham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun read!

It starts off with the argument between Scott and Logan over Jean and the fight and the mission to Savage Land with Kitty where they encounter some machine resistance, meanwhile Bobby sues Professor X and then the whole testimony and all that and there is the story with Beast being duped on the internet by Blob and that leads to the return of someone big in the next arc and its fun and also shows how people pretend to be someone else on the interent aka catfish and the danger that it represents so that was something.

And finally the big story with Hellfire club and with Jean and Phoenix force and it felt like a big story but then it ends up being nothing but fluff and kinda killed my enjoyment of the whole series as a whole and yeah why was she acting like a particular political ideology? It was weird and out of character lol but maybe its a prelude to the things to come so who knows?

Overall its a good read and does have ultiple storylines and builds up the tension between what will happen and does it really well and also leads to the big event next volume in a fun way and I wanna see the consequences of Xavier's action and it does hold a lot of potential. So yeah and the art was okay for the most part, the manga style one was cute for sure.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat disjointed. There aren't really any good stories, so much as there are good partial stories. I'm thoroughly bored with the tension between Cyclops and Wolverine in any universe, so that was a bit boring to me. Including Kitty livened up the story a bit, and it was certainly needed. The Hellfire Club shows up, very briefly considering that the name of the group is the title of the volume. And they're fine, but I could have done with more of them. I am, however, interested in seeing where this Phoenix stuff goes. It's quite a bit different from the 616 version, which gives a well-worn story a new spin. Beast, however, is just an idiot.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really dislike most Phoenix stuff, and the Hellfire club is shit in any version.

There's stuff I liked here like Kitty, she's awesome. I also actually like Cyclops and Wolverine's little spats. Beast getting shitted on at the end and kind of "mind rape" was fucked up. But honestly, all the Jean stuff was boring and flat and took up about half the book. Still fun for the other half though but not as good as volume 2 and 3.

[Nicky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Isn’t Beast supposed to be really intelligent? I mean, I get that he feels isolated and stuff, but — argh, when a plot depends on someone being a total idiot, and on Professor Xavier not noticing what the hell’s going on with that even though he’s a telepath and we know from volume two that he wiped Bobby Drake and his girlfriend’s mind because they were a security risk?

Nope, back to two stars goes this series. It doesn’t help that the tension between Wolverine and Cyclops is just eyeroll worthy. More macho than thou and so on, fighting over Jean Grey, who… makes it pretty damn clear she loves Cyclops and was always interested in him. (Which does have some cute bits in this volume, actually, and it does help Cyclops unbend a little.)

The Jean Grey/Phoenix plotline seems a bit thrown away, considering that I know it’s a Big Thing in other versions of the X-Men. I assume it’ll recur in later volumes or something, but I don’t think I’m going to read any more of Ultimate X-Men now I’ve finished the volumes I had. Which is a shame, since Kitty Pryde just got introduced, and I did enjoy her in Ultimate Spider-man, but… this doesn’t have the same feel at all. It probably doesn’t help that it’s a team book, so there’s less time to focus on a particular character.

Originally posted here.

[Adam Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Original 2019 Review:

While the last volume was a wonderful reimaging of Claremont's classic Proteus run, this volume is a tedious, ill-conceived retelling of the Phoenix / Hellfire saga. I suppose it's brave that it, in almost no way, resembles the original. It's not an improvement on the original.

Instead of a calculating group of rich mutants manipulating one of Charles's students into becoming a spy and a villain, accidentally unlocking primal cosmic power that destroys her, we get a bumbling, ineffective set of villains with no clear motivation failing to manipulateanyone, but accidentally unlocking a nebulous power that may or may not have any consequences for anything.

And the whole thing is a misdirect to set up a completely different plot point for the next two volumes of the series.

This was a massive let-down following volume three, and I'm not incredibly looking forward to The Ultimate War that follows.

***

Updated During 2025 X-reread:

I bumped this up a star, even though I still feel that this is the weakest volume of the run so far, and I think the Hellfire Club/Phoenix storyline is incredibly disappointing in comparison to the 616 version of the story.

The last time I read it, I was reading through the Ultimate Universe, and thinking of this in comparison to Ultimate Spider-Man and The Ultimates. This time around, I'm reading it as part of the history of the X-Men (I place this in the Secret Wars era where every book was non-canonical with the 616), and I think, while it's not great, it's at least mediocre compared to all of the other X-books, as opposed to bad.

I think you can read most of the Ultimate X-Men or the 1998-2014 Ultimate Universe and have a far better experience than trying to read the 616 series it's based on. If you're reading and enjoying the Ultimate Universe, there's no reason to skip this book just be prepared to roll your eyes occasionally. (At least, in this volume, there's no reference to what brand of toilet paper people use.)

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm so confused... I'm reading a digital version of this book through my library and there seems to be some mismatch between what's in the digital book and what's included in the Amazon preview. Not sure what's going on but will update when I figure it out.

Update: The problem seems to be that this volume is accidentally swapped with another volume of a similar title. What should be "Ultimate X-Men, Issues 21-25" is actually "Ultimate Comics X-Men, Issues 21-25" which came out almost 10 years later and is telling a COMPLETELY different story. I don't know who at Marvel is in charge of compiling the digital volumes but this one got messed up. Looking forward to reading the actual volume 4 and rating it then.

[Amy! · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Hmmm...while I do enjoy seeing some of my favorite characters in their alternate universe, this volume didn't super interest me. I didn't remember all the had happened in volume 3, and everyone was sort of making some terrible decisions in this one, plus I didn't love the art. I'm on the fence about continuing the series.

[Shane Stanis · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Ultimate Year #6

This is my favorite Ultimate x-men entry stance vol 1. The story is exciting & fast paced, with some cool foreshadowing. It was so good I was barely bothered by any of Millar’s obnoxious jokes.

Read for the introduction of the Hellfire Club and more spoiler filled excitement

[Natalie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Found this one disappointing. The hellfire club wasn't that badass and I wanted more Phoenix.

[Chris Borror · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 144 page volume contains Ultimate X-Men issues 21-25. This was another solid entry in my opinion. I liked the changes made to the Phoenix entity and the Hellfire Club. It only loses a star due to Kaare Andrews random abysmal art in two of the issues. Otherwise, it’s a recommend.

[Tym · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those times where you realize how much art really does contribute to the story in graphic novels. The artists on this book are very different. Adam Kubert is an artist that goes for a fairly realistic style with sometimes a bit cartoony or at least low-detailed panels however part of this was done by another artist (their name escapes my mind) and their art reminds me nothing more than a bad saturday cartoon, and the colorist for the artist did nothing to help with almost no shading etc. However the story overall was fairly good though, other than the Beast portion, the story felt a bit disjointed. I love what they did with Jean's ascendance as far as changing the idea from the mainstream universe but the issue felt a bit anti-climatic. Overall I gave it 3 out of 5 stars for the inconsistant quality in art and the anti-climatic resolution.

[Kenneth Morrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a portion of the Ultimate X-Men collection, this is important to read. However, it's not one of my favorite. The art changes in the middle, and while I'm okay with art changes, not to the extreme of this one. The two art styles are totally different and jarring. As individual issues of the comic, it might not have been such a big deal, but when reading this as a whole story, it totally takes you out of the story.

[Ben Nealis · Rating 5 out of 5]

hmmm a good book but the way they displayed beast when he was chatting online with blob was just plain WRONG! i will tell you now that are going to be spoilers galore.first of all bringing back Sebastian Shaw in the hellfire club and then giving jean grey/marvel girl the phoenix force is just 1 this was just a great book i would recommend this to all x men fans. WOLVERINE out.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an ongoing series, this has been quite the ride so far. There are parts of these storylines that are so familiar to me that were presented in completely different ways. Definitely love the Ultimate versions of these characters. I wish there was more Rogue and Gambit though to be honest. But what can I say? I'm a 90's X-Men fan. And if the 90's was anything, it was the age of Rogue and Gambit.

[Kris Morris · Rating 2 out of 5]

boring. and they take one of the best x villain groups and just...ugh. by far the worst ultimate book ive read outside of ultimates 3.

[Krzysztof Grabowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Po takim sobie trzecim tomie Millar chyba sobie przypomniał jak prowadzi się żwawszą i pełna akcji narrację, jednocześnie wprowadzając kolejnego znanego X-mena, czyli Kitty Pryde. Shadowcat. Nie sposób jej polubić od pierwszej chwili, kiedy ją widzimy, a próbuje rozegrać z matką wyjście na imprezkę.

Niestety zamiar nie pokrywa się z czynem i mamy pokaz mocy nastolatki, której matka nie waha się ani chwili i podejmuje kontakt z Xavierem. Reszta jest zabawną historią, która doprowadzi do odkrycia, że za chojnym finansowaniem szkoły Charlesa stoją członkowie klubu Hellfire. Tu miałem pierwszy zgrzyt, bo skoro wszyscy w około podchodzą do sprawy mutantów najczęściej wrogo, to skąd u kocha taka naiwność Profesora X na tym polu. Wiem, że członkowie stowarzyszenia zadbali o to aby ich personalia pozostały nieznane, ale...

Zwłaszcza, że prowadzi to do kolejnego bólu jakim jest wątek Phoenix. Nie wiem czy był potrzebny na tak wczesnym stadium, niemniej jest słabo zakończony. Przynajmniej na razie. Cały ten Hellfire Club też wydaje się nieco zmarnowany. Na szczęście jest kilka wątków, którym kibicowałem. Relacja Scotta z Wolverine'm. To robił na czacie Hank i do czego to doprowadziło. Cała otoczka wokół Icemana i żądania zadośćuczynienia za to co mu się stało. I to co nastąpiło potem. Końcówka zapowiada coś świetnego, więc czekam na kolejny tom. Jednocześnie bawiłem się tu lepiej niż przy World Tour, choć zdaje sobie sprawę z głupotek jakie tu występują.

Miejscami wygląda to tak jakby autor leciał na łeb na szyję i odhaczał wszystkie ważniejsze wątki, do jakich doszło na przestrzeni lat w historii o X-men, tyle że kosmetycznie je zmieniając na potrzeby świata Ultimate. I jakoś mi to troszeczkę przeszkadza, mimo lepszego tempa w tym tomie.

Nie mam zarzutów do warstwy wizualnej. Kreski są świetne. Kubert to klasa sama w sobie, ale Andrews i jego kreskowkowy styl jest arcydziełem, które pasowało tu jak ulał. Oby więcej.

Reasumując. Tom czwarty jest lepszy od poprzednika, ale ma sporo słabszych w fabule, abym ocenił go nieco wyżej. Niemniej to nadal świetna zabawa, która należy polecić każdemu wielbicielowi mutantów. 3.5.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yessss, an arc I can get behind: mostly character filler until the very last issues and then things get exciting again in a big way. "Hellfire and Brimstone" brings Kitty Pryde into the Ultimate mix, sees Wolverine and Cyclops finally start to duke it out over Jean, and reminds us of the perils of online dating in the early 2000's. Beast fans may be a little disappointed with where his character goes, but if you can imagine him quoting Shakespeare and lamenting that love is blind, it's believable. Our intro to the Hellfire Club and the (Dark?) Phoenix Saga might be a little rushed, but it's clear they're just teasing the full Phoenix arc for later in the run.

H&B is mostly ink by Adam Kubert, whose style only gets better every issue in -- except maybe the way he draws bruises as weird boils that suddenly erupt on peoples' faces. What's that about? -- and he's interrupted for a two-issue run by Kaare Andrews, whose style feels like a simpler cartoon/anime-fusion, with blocky shading that adds to that feel. It's a little jarring at first, but not terrible.

Four stars for enjoyable art and a read that although it might not have one coherent arc, slows things down and gives the characters a chance to shine.

[Christian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ultimate Spider-Man is Spider-Man as a 90s/00s teen drama. Ultimate Fantastic Four is similar in concept. Ultimates is the Avengers as paramilitary assholes.

But what's the point of this? This is just X-Men, but bad.

This is Millar's more character focused arc, and it's kind of terrible. His more modern version of Cyclops, Jean, and Wolverine is one where Wolverine and Cyclops are literally trying to kill each other and Xavier is trying to convince them both to just give Wolverine what he wants (okay, he doesn't say that. He just implies it.)

So, can we call Wolverine an incel? He's the one having temper tantrums because a teenager is dating someone else (or playing games with him, as Xavier calls it (gross)). Or does he not count because he's traditionally (hyper) masculine? I still feel that Millar, while having contempt for all the characters, reserves the most of his contempt for nerds.

As I almost always do with Millar, I can't help but feel that I'm either too hard on it or not hard enough on it. Regardless, Millar consistently offers up a bland meal that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Millar's time is on the the book is almost done. I can make it. 11 more issues.

[Krishnakumar Mohanasundaram · Rating 3 out of 5]

No nostalgia here. These albums never made to India when they got released. Reading them for the first time.

There is a main story arc about Jean and her powers going untameable suddenly, while we have other smaller ones,
- Introducing us to Kitty n her powers
- Wolverine and Scott going to Savage land in search of army people who had vanished where they encounter Magneto's computer that has achieved sentience
- Beast - who seem intelligent - acting as dumb as he could in a chatroom and accidentally revealing information about Magento to his brotherhood of mutants

While the main arc developed interestingly, portraying the whole 3 previous albums to culminate in this final plan, the ending itself is very disappointing. You expect a good meal and end up with some party snack.

Anyway, the post-arc scene, with Magneto's return was very intriguing.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I generally really liked this and I think the story stayed mostly strong throughout. However, the poor artwork (that others have commented on - really did look like a Saturday morning cartoon and the coloring of it was terrible) for several chapters/issues in the middle really detracted from it all. Still, overall I liked the plot and characters and the themes. The idea of Beast, the smartest on the team, also being the most gullible with the internet chatting, was very interesting and well executed. The phoenix story seemed pretty rushed though, so we'll see if/how that comes back up in the future.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hellfire & Brimstone (#21-25). A really interesting remix of the Dark Phoenix saga. It introduces Kitty Pryde and the Hellfire Club and also brings Jean Gray into contact with the Phoenix ... but it's not obvious if the Phoenix is real or not, which is a great twist. On top of that, we get Scott & Logan in the Savage Land _and_ a major advancement in the Magneto plot that's been running low-key since his "death". (There's one panel of Blob discovering that Magneto is alive that is priceless.) A pretty impressive mixture of plots. On the downside, issues #23-24 have really cartoony art that's out-of-style with the rest of the volume and unfortunately brings it down as a result [4+/5].

[Rocío · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es el primer volumen en el que leo todo seguido sin que haya algún momento en el que me aburra o quiera abandonar.

Estuvo entretenido. Introducen the Phoenix Force y the Hellfire club, y me encanta, pero al mismo tiempo sentí que lo tocaron muy por encima.

Toda la subtrama de Henry me dejó media ¿?¿? porque no tiene mucho sentido. Se supone que es el más inteligente del grupo, y aunque entiendo que esté en un momento vulnerable con todo lo que respecta a su mutación, cualquiera con medio gramo de sentido común sabe que no puede confiar en cualquier extraño de internet y decirle secretos así de importantes.

[Evalyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. Where to start. I actually had to go back to Vol 3 because the beginning of this was so out of left field that I thought maybe I jumped ahead and missed a volume. Nope. I don't know if maybe there was an arc in another series I was supposed to read before this one, but it was like I was dropped into another comic series in the middle somewhere. And then I'm dropped into a Kitty Pryde arc and ugh. Entitled, snob of a mutant that preaches "no violence" and acts as if just not fighting is enough - lets ignore that she can phase through most weapons and such so she isn't in quite the same danger as the rest of the Utopian mutants. Either way, I had to stop reading because I was just done with the subpar writing and the "eh" characterizations.

[JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review / all my reviews available on my blog

All the fallout and barely time to process.

And now Jean is having hallucinations and Beast’s new flame is digging for secrets…

Quite a ride, setting up all sorts of what’s next.

Also, sudden art shifts yo. I like the new one. Don’t think that will ever stop being surprising.

Onward.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the Phoenix story line much better than the battle with David. Beast getting catfished was creepy. Sometimes it seems that the artwork changes, and perhaps I didn't like it as much, but still good. Like they are rushing. But this volume seems to be setting the series back on its natural path.

[Julio RGuez · Rating 2 out of 5]

De Hellfire tiene poco, tan solo en el último número aprace el club fuego infernal, y el resto que nos queda es la aparición de Fenix, peleas entre Lobezno y Cíclope y una aventura de dos números de estos dos junto con Kitty en las tierras salvajes con un dibujante distinto y que sinceramente gusta mucho.

[Rangga Sukmawijaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Episode ini menandai munculnya musuh baru bagi X-Men dan bangkitnya kembali musuh lama mereka. Misteri pendanaan sekolah mutan Charles Xavier terungkap dan anggota Brotherhood of Mutants mengetahui rahasia besar yang selama ini ditutupi oleh Xavier. Dinamika antarpribadi anggota X-Men juga semakin berkembang seiring dengan munculnya anggota baru.

[Cosmic Robots · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starting to hit it's stride but not without some pacing and plot issues. Highlights were Blob cat-fishing Beast, the introduction of Kitty Pryde, and the dynamic between Cyclops + Wolverine. Overall this series still seems a little unsure of what stories they want to tell - plots seem a bit disjointed and unfocused at times.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based upon what other people wrote, the one I got from Hoopla was not this. It was an alternate universe where kitty pride had seeds to restore the grounds. Super weird and I felt lost. I guess it makes sense if it’s another comic series but yet has all the things in the comic picking up where the third one ended. Super strange

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barely 3 stars. This was definitely the worst volume of the bunch so far. It does end on an interesting issue though.

The main problem with this volume was the art. We go from Adam Kubert to Kaare Andrews and let’s just say there was a big drop off in quality. It completely ruined my immersion even though the plot wasn’t good for those two issues anyway.