Moving on, Ultimate X-Men is still in its (very) loose version of the Dark Phoenix Saga.

Sometimes I wonder whether Mark Millar is having a private competition with himself to see what's the most ridiculous plot idea he can get into print.  This month, the Beast inadvertantly reveals Magneto's whereabouts while having cybersex with the Blob.

No, seriously.

Written down like that, it's arguably one of the most ridiculous plot ideas ever written.  But it does work - largely because Millar introduced it in previous issues as a throwaway gag, and plays it largely for laughs throughout this issue.  When Hank dumbly brings the plot screeching in from nowhere, it's a highly effective change of gear that goes against audience expectations.

Meanwhile, Millar continues to juggle various plotlines.  The biggest weakness of this arc, I suppose, should be that it lacks any sort of central plot.  However, the seemingly unrelated threads are each strong enough to hold the arc together.

Scott and Logan are despatched to the Savage Land together, complaining about the plot as they go.  This is the old "send two people who hate one another to work together and get it out of their system" routine, and Millar makes that a little too obvious by having the characters flag up that it seems a stupid idea.  Of course, this being Millar, he may be intending to avoid the obvious resolution and have the characters feud blithely onwards with no change.

The Phoenix arc is kept in the background, as Jean gets a couple of pages to explain that she's having what she assumes are delusions to the effect that the Phoenix wants access to this reality through her so that it can annihilate the Earth.  ("It talks to me in Latin.")  Millar does a good job here of having Jean explain this in a way which both works for new readers by leaving open the possibility that she may simply be nuts, while referencing the original Dark Phoenix stories to build tension for readers who've already seen this plot the first time around.

The missing element from the Dark Phoenix plot so far - what with Kitty Pryde being introduced elsewhere in the storyline - has been the Hellfire Club.  Millar deals with that this issue, bringing to the foreground another subplot that's been confined to throwaway lines thus far.  We've heard about the Ultimate Hellfire Club before - they're the X-Men's financiers.  Which, of course, means that the X-Men are serving the same role that the Hellions did in the mainstream continuity.  Very clever piece of plotting, this.  Again, it gives newer readers something to worry about while throwing information guaranteed to have longtime readers doubletaking.

Fill-in art comes from Kaare Andrew, making a relatively rare appearance on internal pages.  The last time we saw him doing internal art was in X-Men Unlimited #37, where he was drawing a gimmicky alternate worlds plot.  This time he's applying his distinctive, cel-shading look to a more straightforward plot, and it works brilliantly.  Andrew has just the right amount of cartoonish elasticity to get away with anthropomorphic apes and then shift back to soap opera melodrama in the same scene.  Okay, the big-eyes look for Kitty (but not any other female characters) will grate with some.  But I think the issue is beautiful.

One of Millar's best pieces of writing, and some wonderful artwork.  Good issue.

Rating: A

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