Rounding off the Reload books is Ultimate X-Men #46, the first issue by Brian Vaughan and Brandon Peterson.

Vaughan's been doing some very solid work lately on Mystique and Runaways, not to mention the hugely underrated Chamber miniseries.  Nonetheless, none of them are exactly huge sellers.  So he's still a brave choice for Ultimate X-Men, one of Marvel's top sellers.  Then again, Marvel haven't exactly been pushing this is a major part of the X-Men revamp - if anything, they've given more attention to the Bryan Singer issues that aren't even scheduled yet.  On that basis, I suppose this is more of an interregnum period where Vaughan is being given the chance to show what he can do.

Art is provided by Brandon Peterson, who's been working at CrossGen for the last few years.  Is there anyone still left there, by the way?  At this rate, it's not going to be long before we get a press release saying that Barbara Kesel has also assumed the responsibilities of switchboard operator, nightwatchman and office cleaner.

I've never particularly been a fan of Peterson's work.  It's perfectly alright, it tells the story, the acting's decent.  But something about it leaves me cold.  It seems to lack atmosphere.  Mind you, there's a lovely page of Storm with her new look (the Ultimate version of the mohawk design), and he does do a good job with Sinister on the closing pages.

The story doesn't really hit the ground running, opting for a variety of set-up instead.  Of course, this book doesn't have the weight of expectations that attach to Astonishing, so it can get away with that sort of thing more easily.  So we get a mixture of new ideas being introduced, and some of Bendis' material being quietly dealt with.  Bendis left an enormous number of characters behind, and I can't blame Vaughan for a little bit of thinning out.  While the rest of the team angst about the Beast's death, Emma Frost and Alex Summers are shoved aside.  Probably the right move - with both those characters, you have to deal with them properly or not at all.  If the time isn't right to deal with them, they need to be removed from the board so that they haven't been overexposed when their moment in the sun comes along.

Ultimate Northstar turns up, as a student athlete who's just been kicked off the team for being a little too suspiciously good.  Not unreasonably, he turns down membership, on the basis that he's not in favour of segregation and the X-Men can't be that safe if they're getting killed.  He'll take his chances, thanks.  I'm a little uncertain about using Northstar in this role, depending on what he has to do later in the story - it seems a waste to bring in major characters for bit parts, but it remains to be seen how much Vaughan is planning to do with him.

Then there's Mr Sinister, a villain who's always been deeply problematic.  They've gone for a drastic overhaul here, with Sinister as a heavily tattooed street thug nicknamed after his tattoo.  Purists will no doubt be outraged, but Sinister was an incredibly silly character in many ways.  I can readily understand the appeal of giving him a huge revamp.

A bit low-key as a first issue, but it's gently moving some interesting ideas into the plot.  Overall, successful.

Rating: B+

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