Well, here's a thoroughly odd issue.

With Ultimate X-Men #32, we're nearing the end of Mark Millar's run on this title.  This perhaps accounts for the bizarre billing of this story as "Return of the King, part 6 of 7."  I'm not convinced that this sort of labelling of stories is remotely helpful; it just sets up odd expectations about the shape of the plot and distracts from what's actually happening.

When they say this part 6 of 7, what they mean is that they've earmarked Millar's final seven issues as a trade paperback.  But it's pretty obvious that Millar is structuring his stories by the single issues.  This issue opens by tying up the last loose ends from the storyline which actually ended last month, and then lurches headfirst into a bizarre, breakneck overhaul of the concept.  It reads more like a coda to the storyline we've just read as Millar presumably sets things up for the incoming writer.

The stand-off between Wolverine and Cyclops is brushed off quickly.  Wolverine gets his head kicked in.  Well, what did you expect?  All Cyclops has to do is look at him.  And that takes up to page two.

The bulk of the issue is given over to the X-Men resolving their differences with the US government.  Rather than leave that as an ongoing feud, Millar makes a curious swerve.  The X-Men bring themselves under government influence as a compromise deal - Xavier looking for influence within the government, and SHIELD trying to get access to potential new members of the Ultimates.  All of this seems extraordinarily rapid and convenient, which Millar more or less brushes over with a montage sequence and a "three months later" caption.

Strictly speaking, it's not a completely new idea for the X-Men, but it's certainly one that we haven't seen in a long time.  When the X-Men started back in 1963, they had government supervision.  And that was the status quo through till, oh, around 35 years ago.  To all intents and purposes, then, this yanks Ultimate X-Men off into a very different set-up from anything that the mainstream X-Men have had in a long, long time.  Of course, Millar still has one issue left, so we'll have to see whether it sticks.

The issue also includes a lengthy party sequence catching up with various supporting cast members.  Strangest of all is the belatedly re-introduction of Psylocke.  Millar killed off Psylocke a few storylines ago.  The big idea is that she woke up in the body of Kwannon (previously comatose) and is now alive and well again.  This gets Millar to the basic 1990s Psylocke set-up - English woman in Asian body - without the horrible convolutions of continuity that plagued the original character.  I believe there's a prize for anyone who can explain Psylocke's history to a new reader without the use of flowcharts and diagrams.  To that extent, I can see that Millar has simplified the set-up, but why he wants to bring the character in at all at this late stage is beyond me.

The art is a tad patchy.  Adam Kubert is only producing breakdowns for this issue, with Danny Miki on finishes.  Most of the issue looks fine, but there are some really glaring moments where detail is horribly lacking - particularly the opening pages, where some of the characters are way too sketchy.

Really quite a strange issue.  It seems way too late in the day for Millar to be bringing in entirely new concepts and characters, but that's what he seems to be doing.  It reads oddly, to say the least.

Rating: B

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