Meanwhile, back in the realm of competent professionals, Ultimate X-Men kicks off "Magnetic North." 

This is apparently Brian K Vaughan's final solo storyline, before the much-delayed Bryan Singer arc turns up.  Years after it was first announced, it now turns out that Bryan Singer's arc is to be co-written by the current author of the book.  Call me a cynic, but something tells me Bryan Singer's got better things to do with his time, and Vaughan is going to spend six months fleshing out a paragraph scrawled on the back of a napkin.  Mind you, I never wanted to see the Singer arc in the first place, so I'm not complaining.

After going off on tangents for the last couple of arcs, "Magnetic North" brings back a whole load of concepts from previous storylines, as is fashionable when you're bringing your run to a conclusion.  Okay, strictly speaking a lot of this stuff is from Bendis' run, but close enough.  Emma Frost's team make a return, and since we last saw them, they've set up their own happy little school.  Polaris turns up properly for the first time, and everything promptly goes horribly wrong for her when she's trying to help out at a fire.

As with her debut in the Marvel Universe, the idea here is to play up her obvious similarities to Magneto, and the suggestion is that in some unclear way, Magneto's taking advantage of her powers from within his cell.  Ultimate X-Men has shown a surprising degree of restraint in its use of Magneto, who hasn't turned up in ages now, so it's about the right time to be bringing him back into circulation.

The art seems a little sketchy this month, particularly by Immonen and von Grawbadger's usual standards, but it's still got good, strong layouts and tells the story effectively.  Vaughan long since nailed the art of writing an effective superhero team story, and Ultimate X-Men has been a consistently good read during his run.  Shame we're getting the movie guy, really.  But this feels like a strong start to a good wrap-up arc.

 Rating: A

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