Ultimate X-Men #21 kicks off the "Hellfire and Brimstone" arc, which thus far seems to be loosely based on 1980's Dark Phoenix Saga.

The main purpose of this issue is to introduce the Ultimate book's version of Kitty Pryde, and bring her into the school.  Despite the arc's title, the Hellfire Club don't figure into this version of the story - it simply sets her up as a mutant with trouble controlling her powers, and then gets her enrolled.

Millar does a good job of selling Kitty's panic at being unable to control her powers, although the nagging suspicion remains that she seems to be one of his typical vaguely sassy teenage characters.  His tendency to write characters who have pretty much the same personality as one another remains one of the key flaws in Millar's writing, and while it isn't as pronounced in Ultimates, in this book there remains a serious question mark over, for example, what distinguishes Jean, Ororo and Kitty from one another.

Kitty's mother is written as being aware of her powers, which is a nice change from the usual "we must conceal this from your parents" angles, and also helps to further the storyline that everyone is concerned about Iceman's injuries.  Incidentally, it seems that the school is now being disguised behind a hologram projector, rather than a telepathic illusion as the series had earlier tried to claim.  I still don't see the benefit of disguising one building to look like another when the team's activities are meant to be public, but at least now we're onto a vaguely credible means of disguise rather than the previous nonsense about telepathic illusions.

The subplot and cliffhanger bring in the Phoenix imagery, so evidently Millar wants to have a go with that piece of the mythology.  Since Morrison is trying much the same thing in New X-Men at the moment, the results could be an interesting contrast.  I've always been a little sceptical about the Dark Phoenix Saga's place in the X-Men mythology - it's a good story, and a strong one for Jean Grey, but all this stuff about cosmic entities has got next to nothing to do with the themes of the X-Men as a whole.  One of the challenges for both Millar and Morrison is to persuade us that this is a natural story to be doing with the X-Men, rather than just a warmed over idea from twenty years ago which is being revisited because it's very well known in comics circles.  At this stage, of course, it's far too early to see where Millar is going with the concept - but it'll be a point to watch over the next few months.

As usual with Millar, he's at his best when he steers clear of shock value and just writes the characters.  Fortunately, this is an issue which is light on shock tactics, and it's one of the better Ultimate X-Men issues as a result..

Rating: B

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