Ultimate X-Men 4 (2024) Review

Background – We get our first fight!

Writing –At school, Mei and Hisako take a final exam as they debate on whether Nico Minoru has powers or if she’s just faking. On the way home, she is attacked by a boy who turns out to be possessed by the shadow (or maybe IS the shadow… we still don’t know). The two of them battle as it’s shown that Hisako has been practicing with her powers. The fight is fairly even but ends abruptly when the shadow simulates how Tsubasa killed himself and disappears. Hisako is left in the street surrounded by her armor as onlookers start to film her with their phones. Mei shows up out of nowhere and fries everyone’s phones with her powers. Unseen by anybody else, a girl stands on a balcony filming and eats some electricity. The next day at school Hisako and Mei have failed their exams, but bigger problems arise when Hisako goes viral for using her powers.

We finally see Hisako growing into her powers, which I feel brings us one step closer to a team of sorts uniting. This shadow thing, whatever it is, seems to possess people, but maybe I’m wrong. We’ve seen the chubby guy with the weird metal hat “summon” it before so… Look, it’s safe to say that 4 issues in the fact that this thing just exists is a problem. I understand that Peach wants to build her protagonists, but to do that we need something to root for our heroes to fight against, and right now all we get is a sadistic shadow thing. I don’t read solicits for the Ultimate Marvel Universe (I like being surprised), so here’s hoping that we are getting this things origin soon (even the worst horror movies have an explanation for the monsters after all.)

OH! I almost forgot about the electricity eating girl. I’m starting to head-canon all these new kids and their powers and giving them names based off the 616 mutants. For now, I’d like to think of her as this universe’s Polaris.

Artwork – Once again, the use of powers helps cut through the doom and gloom of the daily world. Hisako’s armor is bursting with pink and purple color against a dark and grim background. In a word, it’s just very pretty.

Where the art fails this issue is the ending to the fight. It sort of just… ends. The shadow is there one second and then it is gone. There is no conclusion. I feel like we are missing a panel or page describing what happened.

Final Thoughts – This issue finally provides us with our first superhero fight. While the outcome of said fight is a tad nebulous and we still have ZERO idea what or who this villain is, it does move the story forward. New characters have entered the fray and the ending promises to open new territory in a very unexpected way. This book is past it’s growing phase and is firing on most cylinders now. If only it wasn’t so damn short.

Comic Details

Publisher:  Marvel

Writer & Artist:  Peach Momoko

Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham

Cover Artist: Peach Momoko

Script Adaption: Zack Davisson

Genre:  Superhero

Format: Monthly

Release Date: 06/12/2024