There aren't any Chuck Austen comics out this week, so rambling about his departure from X-Men would be rather difficult to fit into the column in a natural way.  Suffice to say that I reserve final judgment until we find out who's replacing him, though I find it hard to imagine that it won't be an improvement.  And in the meantime, pass the champagne.

The only X-Men title shipping this week is Ultimate X-Men, continuing the rather odd re-imagining of Mr Sinister as an urban assassin.

Last issue, it began to seem as though the connections with the original Mr Sinister were stronger than they had first appeared.  There was an Apocalypse involved as well.  This issue neatly pulls the rug out from under that idea.  Sinister, it seems, is just plain nuts.  Apocalypse is part hallucination, and part imaginatively dressed mannequin.  Brandon Peterson does a brilliant job with the character as a pathetic scarecrow oddly reminiscent of the original design (right down to the silly earmuffs).

So it seems there isn't an Apocalypse at all, and that entire chunk of continuity has no real counterpart in the Ultimate universe.  Gee, what a loss that would be.  But then again, the door isn't entirely closed - perhaps Apocalypse really is out there manipulating Sinister through his hallucinations.  I like the hallucination idea more, though.  It means we get a scene where Ultimate Storm and Ultimate Wolverine of the Ultimate X-Men break into the home of Ultimate Mr Sinister and encounter Crap Apocalypse.  And that makes me laugh.

Vaughan is best known for his work on Vertigo title Y: The Last Man, but this storyline has shown him to have a surprising grasp of superhero team books.  Traditionally they're very tricky to write, simply because of the difficulty of constructing a proper story which still gives every character some screen time and something to do.  This story solves the problem neatly - a basic central plot (man is killing mutants, X-Men must stop him) used as a frame on which to hang a whole load of character material.  The original stories are hanging around in the background as source material, particularly with Storm's change of image, but Vaughan makes the story work as a good, straight superhero book in its own right.  Knowing the original Sinister and Apocalypse characters probably enhances the mystery, but it certainly isn't necessary knowledge.

Peterson goes a little over the top with some of his textures (there's something really not right about Colossus's skin, which seems swirly rather than shiny).  But he nails the character material, and has a suitably understated sense of humour that sells the jokes.

This is turning out to be a really good storyline.  I honestly doubt Vaughan would be hired to write X-Men, simply because he's still not all that prominent.  Then again, they gave him this book - and Austen was hardly prominent when he was hired either.  Marvel could certainly do a lot worse if they want a quality superhero title.

 Rating: A

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