Ultimate X-Men #74

Written by Robert Kirkman

Breakdowns & Cover by Tom Raney

Finishes by Scott Hanna

 

A scheduling oddity had the Ultimate X-Men Annual released first even though the Annual discusses the climax of this comic in relative detail. This wasn’t a mistake—they purposefully scheduled the books to be released this way. “Where now, brown cow?” I ask. Where now?

 

This is a fairly odd resolution to the Magician problem. First, Kirkman has you thinking he’s gonna be tying up loose ends if Marvel Girl (who’s been off to the plot’s sideline going insane because of the Phoenix) was to come in and save the day. She doesn’t. But she frees Wolverine and we have yet another scene in yet another X-Men comic where Wolverine saves the day by taking it one step farther then anyone else would: he kills Magician. Or does he?

 

Kirkman, for all my repressed rage at seeing Wolverine win the day while the rest of the X-Men twiddle their thumbs, has been able to moderately play off my expectations. Anyone reading my reviews on the story arc will be able to testify that I figured Kirkman was leading us on from the beginning. So when Magician shows up at the end of the comic to explain the situation to the reader (because Kirkman clearly didn’t have him talking for two pages on anyone else’s account), I wasn’t too surprised.

 

Magician is made to be extremely powerful, Scarlet Witch/Rogue/Retcon Machine powerful. Magician’s power is that whatever he wants, he gets. That extreme level of power is commented on by Xavier, but that hardly assuages my doubts that his introduction to the Ultimate Universe does any good. What does a character like that bring to the Universe now that he’s become self-aware? Reality tampering in comics is usually just a plot device in good writer’s hands and a horribly contrived crutch in a bad one’s. Kirkman has already made Rogue a potential writer’s crutch again and now he’s gone and made an even bigger one out of Magician.

 

Also odd is the portrayal of Nightcrawler’s subplot, which adds the last critical pieces to the puzzle that completely setup the Annual. Nightcrawler finally loses it with Colossus and pseudo-attacks him (he really just leaps at him and then teleports at the last second). Colossus, for his part, almost loses his temper, which sets up him actually losing his temper in the Annual. And lastly, when Colossus asks to see the Professor so he can talk about his ‘troubling encounter,’ Xavier is off on a date with Lilandra, which helpfully explains part of his preoccupation that kept him from noticing the troubling signs with Kurt.

 

In all ways, waiting for this issue before releasing the Annual would have been the best bet. As it stands, this issue really doesn’t do much at all for me. Magician’s ending was anti-climatic (made all the more so because of his faux-death by Wolverine), Marvel Girl (along with the rest of the X-Men) gets ignored after her promising entrance last issue so her plot isn’t advanced, and finally, Sabertooth is shown hiding out in the woods even though SHIELD had just scanned the whole area for intruders. He’s good but come on.

 

Ok, that last one’s a minor point, but the rest is worth noting.

 

Rating - 6