Over in Ultimate X-Men, the "Return of the King" storyline picks up from where Ultimate War left off.

And since this is pretty much what you'd expect from Ultimate X-Men, I'm going to run through it quickly.  Now separated from Xavier, the X-Men are on the run and trying to rebuild their public image in the face of a hostile media determined to portray them as terrorists.  It's interesting how this comes across as a topical storyline bearing in mind that "misunderstood hero can't get a break from the media" has been a staple plot for years.

Millar has a typically offbeat approach to the X-Men going on the run.  Rather than shack up in one of their safehouses (which have now been compromised), they just turn up at the home of a family who have two spare bedrooms and telepathically cloud their minds so they don't notice the new arrivals.  Silly?  Yes, but it's one of those ideas which is so winningly nuts that it can't help but raise a smile.

Points off for a hoary old cliche, where Magneto turns up and informs the X-Men that while the world has been distracted by his clever feint, he has been working on a doomsday weapon which will shortly be operational.  You might have thought that, having gone to the trouble of distracting everyone from it until now, the last thing Magneto should be doing is popping round to his arch-enemies' houses and giving them advance warning of the plot.  Yes, I know he's meant to be arrogant and overconfident, but that's not the most interesting fatal flaw that you can give the character.

Nonetheless, not bad overall.  The usual Millar formula of a fundamentally standard superhero plot cranked up to an exaggerated degree, and it works here.

Rating: B+

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