Rounding off a busy week for concluding storylines, Ultimate X-Men #71 completes "Phoenix?". 

Robert Kirkman is clearly the sort of writer who isn't too thrilled about this newfangled idea of writing in defined story arcs, and while this is clearly structured to be suitable for trade paperback serialistion, it reads primarily as part of an ongoing monthly serial.  For an Ultimate title, that's an interesting shift in emphasis in its own right.

It also means that we have the sort of story that ongoing titles can get away with, because they're not expected to be so tightly plotted.  There are two parallel stories here, and they don't have an enormous amount in common.  The main plot involves the Shi'ar church prodding Jean Grey to try and work out whether she's the Phoenix they've been waiting for.

The other involves the X-Men fighting the Brotherhood of Mutants at the Massachusetts Academy, for no desperately clear reason.  To be fair, the characters comment on that, so it might well be a deliberate plot point.  The main purpose of the story, though, seems to be to get the other X-Men out of the house, and showcase Kirkman's new Magician character.

I find myself wondering quite where Kirkman is heading with the Magician.  Introducing a completely new character into an Ultimate book is an unusual move in itself, but the Magician is being given the traditional pet character push, steamrolling established villains and generally looking fantastic.  It's such a blatant piece of throat-shoving that my first instinct is to dislike the guy, but then it's also so blatant that I suspect that's precisely the reaction Kirkman is aiming for - though heaven knows why.  If I'm really meant to be cheering him on, mind you, then it's definitely not working.  At this stage I'm still giving Kirkman the benefit of the doubt, but I'm far from convinced by this storyline so far.

The Phoenix storyline, meanwhile, builds off Mark Millar's take on the concept - namely, that Jean might be channelling some sort of cosmic force, but then again she might just be insane.  It's been a few years since we last visited this point, and rather than resolve the question, "Phoenix?" serves more to flag it up again.  Some characters clearly believe she's Phoenix; on the other hand, the story ends with what seems a clear indication that she's mentally ill.  Perhaps she's both.

Phoenix has always been a problematic concept because it's never been terribly clear what the Phoenix Force is actually meant to be, or what (if anything) it represents - besides a hazily defined sort of uncontrolled power.  The question in this story is whether it represents Jean's own uncontrollable potential, or something external that's happening to her.  That's a point where the mainstream X-Men comics have always been terribly confused ever since Jean was brought back from the dead courtesy of a massive retcon - in strict theory it's meant to be the latter answer, but in reality that's not how a lot of stories approach it. 

Kirkman is at least dealing with this head on from the outset.  Hopefully this will provide a more clearly defined Phoenix - at least in terms of what the concept is supposed to signify, if not in strictly literal plot terms.

My reservations about the Magician and the wildly unmotivated Brotherhood fight scene drag the story down a bit, but overall it's a thoroughly readable superhero story with plenty of promising ideas.  And if Kirkman really does have some clever misdirection in mind for the Magician, it may be better than I'm presently giving it credit for.

 Rating: B+

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