Mark Millar's run on Ultimate X-Men finally draws to a close with the final chapter of "Return of the King."

The idea of this series being written by anyone other than Mark Millar is hard to fathom.  Most of its identity derives from Millar's writing style - viciously over the top, but also with a tendency to slight silliness and underwritten characters.  It tends to work when it's a breakneck action movie, and to suffer a little when the plot has to make sense.  Nonetheless, Ultimate X-Men and Ultimates are decidedly Millar comics.  His replacement, Brian Bendis, is a very different writer and it'll be interesting to see how the book makes the transition to a completely new creative team.

All that said, this is a fun story, acting as an epilogue to Millar's run.  In a set-up shamelessly reminiscent of the movie, Xavier goes to visit Magneto in his all-plastic transparent cell.  They have a nice chat and Magneto does a bit of posturing, while Xavier does his usual "sinister undercurrents" routine.

Of course, Ultimate Magneto isn't exactly the most rounded of characters - or to put it more charitably, he keeps his other dimensions very well hidden.  As a serious character piece, it falls a bit short, but it's still a largely entertaining read thanks to Millar's deadpan dialogue.  Xavier solemnly telling Magneto that he's campaigning for "at least one positive mutant character in a number of popular television shows" is a cute joke.  It makes both characters look silly, but what the hell - it's that kind of book, isn't it?

After last month's odd overhaul of the set-up, this is a much more successful rounding off of themes for Millar's run.  As a whole, I'm still lukewarm about the series, but it's a decent finish.

Rating: B+

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