Related
Summary
With ten years of experience working with college students — and even more experience reading and writing about funnies — I ’m dead sure Marvel ’s newUltimate X - Mentitle is the publishing company ’s next big fortune at attract new readers from younger generation . Despite theX - Men’supcoming post - Krakoa reboot , Peach Momoko ’s alternate take on the decade - man could be a actual hit , but only if Marvel plays its cards proper .
Ultimate X - Men#1 by Momokoarrived in March 2024 to much oecumenical acclaim . The story take shoes in the new Ultimate Universe , which , in simple terms , has reset the traditional Marvel Universe to basics , re-introduce authoritative Marvel team and concept with new origins . The X - Men — as fans know the classical team — do n’t yet live — but variation certainly do .
If the disco biscuit - Men do n’t subsist in this world , what precisely isUltimate cristal - Menabout ? The mere reply is that it ’s the tale of Hisako , a young Japanese girl who discover she has the superpower to manifest armour around herself as she navigate her complicated schooltime and personal life story . The complex answer is thatUltimate X - Menis really unlike any other standard Marvel comicon the shelf properly now , and that ’s part of what should make it so appealing to new readers — but new proofreader who are n’t precisely unfamiliar with ocular storytelling .
Marvel ’s other currently - running Ultimate Universe titles includeUltimate Spider - Man , Ultimate Black Panther , The Ultimates , all available now from Marvel Comics .
The Krakoan Age has finally end , but not before the sentient mutant island was reunify with it ’s lost sib , join it in the White Hot Room .
Ultimate X-MenIs Already Designed to Attract New Readers
Marvel’s Ultimate Universe Relaunched in Late 2023
It ’s no secret that Marvel’sUltimate Universe relaunch that has taken situation over the last class was and is contrive to attract new and lapsed reader . I sleep with this because I ’m one of those lapsed readers ; since childhood I ’ve been more of a DC buff , but I reach my visor Marvel era , like so many before me , during my college long time , which aligned withthe height of Brian Michael Bendis’involvement with the X - Office ( I was especially affectionate ofAll - New X - homo ; I ’m a mark for time travelling play ) . But life happens , and for a mixture of reason , I had n’t buy a Marvel comedian in almost ten yr — until now .
That said , Ultimate X - Men#1 is n’t the very first new - release ten - Men comic I buy in the last year . I may not be a regular Marvel reader , but I ’m as aware of Krakoa ’s conclusion as anyone following comics , and I can count2023 ’s monumentalHellfire Galaone - shot among my appeal . But despite the full-grown , captivating swings happening at the end of the Krakoan years , the dense persistence finally became far too much for me .
If even I , a lover of deep lore and a long - time reader of superhero comics , have trouble navigating the New X - Men era , why would an 18 - class - old newbie find compelled to pick up these books ?
Even witha straight X - Men rebooton the horizon , I still feel that history loom over me . And no wonder , whenthe bring up X - Men title of respect esthetically and narratively evoke an X - Men era from before even my fourth dimension as a comics reader . If even I , a lover of deep traditional knowledge and a long - prison term reviewer of superhero funnies , have trouble navigating the new X - Men era , why would an 18 - year - old newbie sense compel to blame up these book ?
Ultimate X-MenIs Heavily Influenced by Manga
And That’s Part of Its Appeal
That same un - compelled teen — and other college - age readers , in my experience as a university lecturer — would have mountain of grounds to be draw to Momoko’sUltimate X - Men , which deal out with the need for any continuity noesis whatsoever . It ’s an issue - one - page - one kind of amusing with no pauperism for any wiki deep dives for character histories and news report references . Actually , there ’s little need to " keep up " at all , because this loop ofUXMis methodically slow in its pacing , a storytelling style that feels more drawn from sealed genre tradition in mangathan from the American - turn out superhero genre .
That manga influence is dead on target of Momoko ’s art as well as her tempo , an observation she confirmed herself inan exclusive audience with Screen Rantearlier this year : " I was inspire hard [ by ] Nipponese manga , body revulsion , and horror in general . So , for Ultimate X - Men , or any script that I save , I always desire to put in what I love and what I see . “Momoko ’s prowess is notably distinct from even the most conventionalized superhero booksin comic fund , and that ’s not order anything fresh .
Peach Momoko rose to prominence as a blanket artist ; she ’s also the writer / artist ofDemon DaysandDemon Wars , a reimagining of the Marvel Universe inspired by Nipponese folklore , available now digitally and in collected edition from Marvel Comics .
For me , though — a long - prison term superhero reader who only started reading manga in 2023 ( of late to the party , as always ) — live a quasi - traditional X - Men history in Momoko ’s manga - work prowess and writing style is really thrilling . Ultimate X - Menmakes a conversant Marvel place completely unfamiliar to me while still evoking the most popular graphical storytelling style in the world today : manga .
Manga’s Influence on Contemporary Comics Readers Is Undeniable
Junji Ito-Inspired Variant Cover ofHarley Quinn#33 by Hayden Sherman
The numbers back me up : according to some late information analysis by theBeat,49 % of the " pictorial novel " sold via BookScan in 2023 were manga , meaning manga easy dominatesliterally half of the market place , and that ’s after gross revenue have slowed down after the pandemic upswing . I say this with dandy love and warmness for my hebdomadary comics , but to relate to Marvel or DC as manga ’s " rival " is authentically laughable from a data viewpoint . But I ’ve never been one for datum analysis — I teach originative writing to undergrad , after all — so let ’s move to the anecdotal evidence .
Even before I began read and sharing my interest in manga with my undergraduate creative writing students — who , typically , are between 18 and 22 — they were sharing their love of manga with me . When I learn a Poetry and Visual Art course in the autumn of 2022 and asked my students about what ocular media they had been consuming , manga came up multiple times ; I remember one immature woman in particular waxing poeticaboutAttack on Titan .
My Experience Teaching Gen Z Tells MeUltimate X-MenCould Be a Genuine Hit
Marvel’s Longevity Depends on Reaching These Readers
Since that social class , I myself have started reading and " bonding " with my students over manga , and I ’ve come to learn just how much anime they ’re check and manga they ’re study . This is n’t the niche interestingness of my 2000s young anymore . If my 2023 - 24 Intro to Creative committal to writing bookman are anything to go by — many of them American midwesterners canvass the scientific discipline , so a mere slice of the cultural pie — Gen Z is in all likelihood far more familiar with and therefore attracted to manga - style storytelling than traditional Marvel - way superhero tale .
Hand me a manga - sized assembling of Momoko ’s first six issues , and I could easily getUltimate X - Meninto the hands of my manga - hungry undergrads .
With the right packaging and marketing ofUltimate X - Men , Marvel could have a literal gateway serial on its helping hand for stigma - new ( andyoung ) readers search not for an leisurely entry point into most 65years of ten - Men comics , but for advanced superhero storytelling more along the line ofMy Hero AcademiathanNew Mutants . Hand me a manga - sized collection of Momoko ’s first six issue — something along the blood line and price ofDC ’s new Compact Comics editions — andI could easily getUltimate X - Meninto the hand of my manga - athirst undergrads .
Custom Image by Kate O’Donoghue (from Peach Momoko and Tony S. Daniel)
The X-Men Reboot Should Start Courting Younger Readers
Manga Is the Present and the Future
Marvel will , of course , keep on promoting the rebooted X - Men occupation as the mutant enter their new earned run average , and a healthy comics ecosystem should be able-bodied to manage both the main 10 - Men Koran and the unlike - anything - elseUltimate X - Men . But if half the decimal point of a reboot is offering a jump - on pointedness for new readers , Marvel could have a sleeper smasher on hand with Momoko ’s manga - style take on theX - Men . Ultimate X - Menmay be critically - acclaim , but it ca n’t stay that way , cordoned off in on-line comics circles . This book is meant to be in the hand of young , eager , newreaders . I can only hope Marvel sees that before too long .
Ultimate X - Men#1 - 4are useable now from Marvel Comics . Ultimate X - Men#5is uncommitted July 17th , 2024 .
ULTIMATE X - MEN # 4 ( 2024 )
Visionary creator Peach Momoko creates a new generation of X-Men for an all-new universe! Hisako Ichiki is a teenage girl who just wants to live a normal life — go to school, hang out with her friends, ignore the political strife broiling over after the events of ULTIMATE INVASION — but life has other plans for her. In Japan, urban legends have sprung to life and brought some unusual new powers with them… Meet Armor, Maystorm and a group of new Ultimate X-Men the likes of which you’ve never seen before!
Visionary Jehovah Peach Momoko creates a new generation of decade - man for an all - fresh universe ! Hisako Ichiki is a teen girl who just wants to inhabit a normal aliveness — go to schooling , string up out with her friends , ignore the political discord broil over after the consequence of ULTIMATE INVASION — but living has other plans for her . In Japan , urban legends have sprung to life and bring some strange new powers with them … Meet Armor , Maystorm and a group of new Ultimate X - Men the likes of which you ’ve never see before !
Source : The Beat
Visionary creator Peach Momoko creates a new generation of X-Men for an all-new universe! Hisako Ichiki is a teenage girl who just wants to live a normal life — go to school, hang out with her friends, ignore the political strife broiling over after the events of ULTIMATE INVASION — but life has other plans for her. In Japan, urban legends have sprung to life and brought some unusual new powers with them… Meet Armor, Maystorm and a group of new Ultimate X-Men the likes of which you’ve never seen before!
