THE CREATORS: Brian Vaughan and Stuart Immonen, except for one fill-in issue by Steve Dillon.

WHAT HAPPENED IN 2005: "The Most Dangerous Game", with Ultimate Longshot; Professor X humiliates a mutant bank robber; "Shock and Awe", introducing Ultimate Lady Deathstrike; and "Magnetic North", tying off all the loose ends from Vaughan's run.

Ah, Ultimate X-Men.  It's finally shaken off the excessive cynicism of the early issues to become a book that recaptures the fun of an earlier X-Men era. 

Without in any way lifting the surface trappings of a 1980s Claremont comic, this is the only monthly X-Men title that truly provides that sense of a family living together.  No hordes of students, no multiple teams that never talk to one another. Just a simple, straightforward set up with a manageable number of characters, strong relationships, and good solid adventure storytelling.

A team book, in other words.  Remember when the X-Men were a team, not a franchise operation?  Vaughan and Immonen do, and that's what they're providing here.  The classic formula, given a polish for the twenty-first century.

This run has really crept up on me, since I'd partly given up hope on Ultimate X-Men as being saddled with Millar's poorly conceived versions of the characters.  But they've now been fleshed out into genuinely believable characters for the first time, and Vaughan leaves a book massively improved from the one he inherited.  He may be best known in critical circles for Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina, but with this title and Runaways, he's also displaying a far surer grasp on the team book format than many of today's writers.

At the same time as providing a straight ahead superhero story, though, they've also been teasing longtime viewers with unexpected revisions of old characters.  Ultimate Longshot is initially introduced as a mutant who's been framed for murder, only for the last issue to reveal that he's actually a murderer after all.  There's another very effective twist ending in the last issue of "Magnetic North", too.

All told, Ultimate X-Men has quietly become my favourite X-book of the year - the most consistent in terms of quality, and the one that best captures what made the X-Men such a success in the first place.  This is the best example Marvel have of what an X-Men comic should be like.

But Vaughan's run is over now, and with the Bryan Singer run pushed back once again - does anyone really still care, at this point? - we're getting Robert Kirkman instead.  I've yet to be impressed by his Marvel work, so this doesn't strike me as encouraging news at all.  Still, his fans assure me that his non-Marvel work is much better, so maybe he'll find his feet with this one.  I'm not holding my breath, though.

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