THE CREATORS: Mark Millar and Adam Kubert up to issue #33.  Brian Bendis and David Finch since then.

THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Three - all during Kubert's run, and all by Finch.

WHAT HAPPENED IN 2003: Mark Millar concludes his run with the big showdown against Magneto in "Return of the King."  Brian Bendis starts with "Blockbuster", and then starts "New Mutants."

Mark Millar finally wrapped up his three-year run on Ultimate X-Men, and handed the title over to Brian Bendis.  It goes without saying that this involves a certain change of style.

Millar's "Return of the King" gave us the X-Men's showdown with Magneto, before ending with a couple of rather strange coda issues in which the X-Men became associated with the US government.  Naturally, it had everything we've come to expect from Mark Millar - cynical humour, violence, and shamelessly over the top action sequences.  He's not to everyone's taste, and at times I still find his fashionable nihilism a little grating.  Still, it did wrap up his run quite satisfyingly.

Brian Bendis and Mark Millar were the two writers who defined the ground rules for the Ultimate Universe.  On that level, Bendis seems a sensible choice to take over.  On pretty much every other level, it's hard to imagine two more different writers in the superhero genre.  Bendis is a much more character-driven writer, whose stories are much more about personality and emotion.  It'll be very interesting to see how he and Millar work together, co-writing Ultimate Fantastic Four - either their strengths will complement one another, or it'll be an unholy mess.  It's very hard to tell.

On Ultimate X-Men, Bendis' first arc seemed to be trying to stay close to Millar's territory.  "Blockbuster", at least for its first half, was a string of action sequences across New York, with a bunch of utterly gratuitous guest stars thrown in.  It wasn't exactly deep, and it went on a bit too long, but it had a definite guilty pleasure quality to it.  The second half of the story lurched more towards Bendis' usual territory as readers were suddenly asked to take it seriously again; the abrupt shift of tone didn't really work.

However, it did take the book more towards Bendis' strengths.  Issue #40, the beginning of the "New Mutants" arc, was a lovely little issue.  It introduces the Ultimate version of the Angel, and does more to restore a sense of wonder to "bloke with wings" than anything I've seen in years.  The Ultimate X-Men that Bendis inherited from Millar were, at best, sketchily drawn characters - if he can fill them out, so much the better.

Artist David Finch, illustrating Bendis' stories, turned out to be a surprisingly good fit.  Finch's art has the look of somebody who's spent long hours working on the Top Cow house style.  Normally artists like that turn out to be good at the flash, but awful at the storytelling.  Finch seems to have a pretty decent grasp on that side of things as well, and meshed much better with Bendis than I would ever have expected.

There's still work to be done in order to make the Ultimate team into characters I really care about.  After all, they're typical Millar characters at heart, and a long way from being three dimensional.  But despite some very noticeable flaws, there's been plenty of entertainment in Ultimate X-Men this year.  If Bendis is going to continue moving it towards his strong points, I'll be very happy.

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