The token non-Claremont X-book this week is Ultimate X-Men #24, and part four of "Hellfire & Brimstone."

Although it's labelled as a five-part storyline, in terms of pacing this feels like a more open-ended arc.  Back in the days when every story didn't have to be labelled as a storyline for later trade paperback republishing, this probably wouldn't have struck me as unusual, but with one issue to go in this arc, there's no real sign of the various unrelated storylines coming together.  I have a suspicion that we're heading for a fifth part which is just a transition into the next arc - and that's fair enough, but it does seem rather odd to label something as a five-part storyline in these circumstances.

While the story still seems a little unfocussed, the individual arcs are building quite nicely.  Millar's done an admirably restrained slow build on the Hellfire Club's manipulation of the X-Men, and gives a perfectly reasonable explanation of how Xavier has failed to notice his employers' real motivations despite the minor handicap of being a world-class telepath.  Millar's version of Kitty perhaps veers a little close to being a cartoon spunky teenager, but it's working, particularly with Kaare Andrews' stylised artwork.  Bobby's subplot suffers from a somewhat cliched manipulative politician as the villain, and you can see the resolution coming a mile away, but it's still quite endearingly done.  And the rebellion in the Brotherhood of Mutants - presumably setting up for Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch to be kicked over to Ultimates - is working.

On the downside... well, as I said, what do any of these plots have to do with one another?  If the plan is to stick this five-parter out as a trade paperback in its own right, it's going to read rather strangely, with four largely disconnected plots, and a jarring shift of art between the Kubert issues and Kaare Andrews' pages.  Andrews is a wonderful artist, and his pages here are beautiful.  But he's hardly somebody you turn to as a fill-in artist who'll blend in with the rest of the story.  He really needs an entire storyline to himself if the style is going to work properly.

Quite good, but it could do with a stronger central focus.

Rating: B+

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