We did get Magik in this issue! I must have missed her head thingies in the preview page.
Doom has assembled the Avengers of Doom, as he calls them, or Kang’s Kaos Krew, as Kang prefers them to be called. Emma isn’t impressed with men’s desire to name things after themselves, so shots fired at these guys, and Batman. I like Ghost Rider’s continued, “I didn’t sign up for this.”
Doom recaps what happened in Godzilla Infinity Roar, and we get the Magic panel, as she’s among the defeated heroes.
The Avengers of Doom are Kang, Emma Frost, Human Torch, Reyes Ghost Rider, Punisher, Man-Thing, Herr Kagelmacher (their gadget guy), and Miles Morales Spider-Man.
The first Earth they go to, the last costumed person standing is Red Skull, which is gross, but I love how everyone is grossed out by him. Punisher kills him, which is a delight.
We see Mecha Fing Fang Foom.
Miles collects a very big cute purple guy.
They go to another Earth with a giant Walrus.
Miles is capturing them all, as he collects an ape looking fella.
Issue ends with Weapon Zilla, the Wolverine styled Godzilla that was on a variant cover of the first series, people must have loved him, I know Walker D did, as I bought that variant cover.
But it isn’t the end, as we get a post credit scene (which is fun as we got the credit page late)
We see Knull has assembled his Knull’s Kill Krew, consisting of America Chavez, Invisible Woman, Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Silver Surfer, and Doctor Octopus, all Knullifed, of course.
We get Magik continuing her origin story. One day on Earth equals one week in Ultimate Limbo. When she went missing, her father was utterly broken. Colossus, on the other hand, was determined to find her. When he couldn’t, he assumed she was taken by dark forces.
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Magik had become a Dark Child, which is just cool to work all of her monikers into this story.
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I love so much that Colossus took care of her, she wasn’t a monster to him, but his sister. Also, sleeping is such a great cure for so many ails.
Balga Castle, E.R.
Logan and Jean Grey are trying to find a way into Limbo. A find a person who can open and they both enter it. They locate the missing people, and Jean starts getting them all to safety. Logan is going to head off by himself to confront Magik. He comes across a dreamscape, and sees Colossus chopping wood.
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Logan finds Magik sleeping on her bed, with her giant souldsword out. A younger Illyana shows up with her little teddy bear.
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Little Yana wants Logan to read her a story, just one story. My heart is breaking reading these pages.
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I love so much that Logan, the killer that he is, still read her a story. There’s always time for one last story.
But! He didn’t forget what Magik did to him, with the mind control, turning him into the Ultimate Winter Soldier. Logan kills Magik.
Jean rescues Logan, and they are ready now for Ultimate Endgame 5.
So this new Ultimate Universe killed both Katherine Pryde and Magik. We never got Lockheed introduced, or even teased. I would love to say this is me being done with the Ultimate Universe, but I can’t as I already preordered Ultimate Endgame 4 & 5, and I’ve been searching every panel for Magik, but that’s not going to be necessary anymore.
I imagine we might see them as characters we lost along the way. I also preordered Ultimate Finale, and the first issue of the Miles Morales Ultimate Reborn miniseries, but I am definitely done with this Ultimate Universe. All of my enthusiasm for it is gone.
It is nice that with four bonus issues, we got Magik’s origin story, and also, her last story.
Such a great anniversary issue! We get two stories, one with the Uncanny X-Men, and the back up, an Outlier story.
Writer Gail Simone
Artists David Marquez & Luciano Vecchio
Color Artist Matthew Wilson
Letterer VC’s Clayton Cowles
This is Part 3 of 3 of the Where Monsters Dwell arc. Marcus St. Junior is wrapping up his bed time story.
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I love so much how Becca loves Ember. Her character in the story has a horse, and now she’s very excited.
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Such a cool page of the Outliers as Western characters.
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Seriously, I would buy an ongoing adventure of the Outliers as Western characters series.
We finally get the name reveal of our mystery villain. Agatha Timly, so it was Agatha All Along. It is very odd that we have two Agathas and two Lunas running around the Marvel Universe right now. But we also have multiple Spiders-Man, so these things happen.
Marcus is very brave trying to hold her off with a shotgun.
With the X-Men, Nightcrawler is being attacked by Frankenstein’s Monster, but he’s no longer taking the hits, he’s fighting back.
Morbius is trying to turn Jubilee, but she blasts his serum away.
Gambit is fighting off the Manphibian, until Sadurang eats Manphibian. Gambit willfully gives back the Left Eye of Agamotto. We’re getting close to a years worth of time since the first issue. Comics are very complicated when it comes to time passing.
Rogue fights off Wereverine.
Meanwhile, Waffles is fighting Salem, Agatha’s big wolf. We learn she is from Marvel Spotlight on Werewolf by Night 3, thanks Tom, from 1972. Fandom states her name is Andrea, but she must have changed it to Agatha when she become quasi-immortal.
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I have missed actual Ember so much!
I also really love that Becca has (hopefully) made peace with the fact that she isn’t a monster, she’s a mutant, and proud. And a hero.
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Calico & Ember attack Agatha.
I like Jitter has incorporated calling out her attack move from her Age of Revelation self. I’m not sure if she was given those memories.
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Such an awesome call back to their Western counterparts from mere pages ago (or seen above).
I thought we had lost a few pages, but we’re shown the next page how we got everybody back to Haven House.
Apparently, Agatha had every mesmerized. Logan’s healing factor cured him, and the “monsters” are back to their proper characterization.
Issue ends with Gambit keeping the left Eye of Agamotto, for some reason.
. . .
They Dwell Too in the Human Heart
Writer Gail Simone
David Messina
Color Artist Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer VC’s Travis Lanham
Nice title hold over from the main story.
Willow is missing, and the police department was hoping the X-Men would help. They are unfortunately in either Alaska, Latveria, or who knows where. The Outliers are here, and they’ll help.
Jitter uses the skills of a French detective to become a human lie detector. Jordy Dukes’ cousin has Willow. The two of them have been killing young ladies for years now.
Deathdream scares the rest of the information out of Jordy.
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Calico, Ember, and Ransom immediately take off to the rescue.
I love Calitter so much! Them referring to each other as girlfriends is such a delight.
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They arrive at the cousin’s trailer, and see they have been buried their victims under slabs of concrete. Poor Becca, she’s not ready for the true horrors of the world.
Ransom goes full hero mode, and takes out the cousin, and save Willow.
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“Even Ember seems glad.” This struck me. Is he not usually a glad horse shaped spirit boy? I don’t like the idea that he’s usually down. I much prefer a mood neutral horse, if he’s going to be anything. Poor guy.
Letterers VC’s Joe Sabino with VC’s Travis Lanham & VC’s Ariana Maher (yes, the VC is before each of their names)
This is a physical print of Luciano Vecchio’s Iceman Infinity comic. I really like how this is everything someone would want in an Iceman comic. I like how Bobby has to fight three generations of Ikthalon. We really into Bobby’s mindset this issue, with his reflections on his life.
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Including a picture of his favorite teammates, including Kate Pryde, I believe.
This comic was during the Krakoa age, so it is nice to get a comic from that era. He fights lava dudes, which is a fun visual contrast with his powers. PuriFire does seem set up to be is arch nemesis. Bobby saves a dude, and gets a smooch as a reward.
One of my favorite aspects of Krakoa was that anyone can appear in any comic without it feeling like approval had to be made first. They were all on the same island, so people could just show up whenever, and it wasn’t supposed to be a big deal. Bobby is having lunch with both Rictor and Northstar, which is pretty cool. Bobby reflects on his, and this gets a little complicated, his Inhuman boyfriend, Romeo, that his time displaced younger self dated. Then his Amazing Friend, Firestar, shows up. This is before she joined X-Men in Volume 6, she’s just here to use the gates. She’s not ready to abandon her non-mutant father (as flatscans weren’t allowed to live on Krakoa, which still feels messed up). No Spider-Man appearance, but I’m always happy to get Firestar. They rescue some folks. Some debris knocks Iceman out.
Iceman wakes up, to find an aged up Romeo! He’s been aged up due to Inhuman nonsense, but now they’re the same age! So that’s nice. They immediately start hooking up.
While out and about, they come across Julian from the 2021 Reptil series, thanks to a very helpful editorial box. Her favorite mutant is Rictor. Sure.
A giant beast shows up, Iceman attacks it, but Romeo has empathic powers (but uses them for good, unlike gross Empath), and turns out, the giant create woke up early from its hibernation, and was panicked. Iceman creates a nice cocoon for the big fella, and all is good again.
I like the idea the World Council would seek out Iceman to help with Earth’s climate problems, after he terraformed Mars. Earth is very much populated, so he can’t just turn deserts into gardens. So that answers why he doesn’t do that, for some folks out there.
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Iceman’s father is dying, and tries to get to him as fast as possible. On his way through a gate, we see Magik and the New Mutants, including Karma, who I love to see. Mr. Drake is so racist, he refuses to take the mutant medication (which is a good thing, as he would have ended up being a pawn of Sinister’s), and dies. Mr. Drake is the worst, so at least we’re done with him now.
In his grief, Bobby hooks up with Christian Frost. We get a fun Kate Pryde reference, as Bobby doesn’t want any adventures at this time, and any calls from Kate or Romeo can wait.
Iceman has a fun adventure with Teen Loki, who is a prisoner of the third Ikthalon, who is a cool edgy teenager. Loki has to deal with his frost giant of a father, Jotunheim. But since this is an Iceman comic, Ikthalon turns Jotunheim into Bobby’s father, so he does get to take his anger out on something he can hit.
Iceman goes on some other adventures, takes out Nuclear Man, then Abomination. He’s doing hero stuff.
He even assists the Avengers (Captains Marvel & America, Iron Man, and Black Panther). We get an awesome image of Silver Surer and Iceman together. Iceman uses too much of his omega power, and needs his friends, Northstar & Firestar to help calm him down. I like that it is Christian Frost and Romeo that get through to him. A nice mutant circuit there. Issue ends with Iceman just being great.
Then we get a reprints of Vecchio’s Pride pages, and short stories. The short story is a history of LGBTQ+ superheroes, told through Prodigy.
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Final page is a house ad promoting X-Men United, stating Iceman will appear, so Eve Ewing must also be a big Iceman fan. It is the Stefano Caselli image, surrounded by ice, so Lockheed barely is seen on the very right edge.
Such a great comic! Here is hoping many many people buy it, so that we can get Lovable Lockheed and Strange Tails printed.
Such an interesting final issue. Lots of story concepts are introduced, and none are concluded. Is this a meta commentary on how cool this series could have been, but with Ultimate Endgame’s force event, we are being denied a proper conclusion, as that’s life sometimes? The title is being murdered, and thus, all of its potential is being stolen? Is that the message?
OR! Is it a situation where we’re getting Reborn : Ultimate Impact so the Ultimate Universe might be returning in some other fashion? I’ll admit, that five part mini appears to be purely about Miles Morales, and the Origin Boxes, funneling the second Ultimate Universe into Armageddon.
Maystorm is having nightmares, she wants to know what happened to Armor.
We meet Miss Y, who appears to be Peach Momoko drawing a very pretty lady. Miss Y is dealing with pills that can only be given to mutants. Appears to be a pill that removes mutant powers.
We are introduced to a mutant girl with fairy ears. Could this have been Meggan? Her name is Reiko.
Mei meets up with Nico to see if there’s anything to be discovered about Armor. Armor’s trinket has a reaction to Miss Y’s pills, so they confront her. Miss Y doesn’t know anything about Armor, believing she’s dead. Makoto Armano, the main focus of the previous issue, appears, nothing like his cliffhanger final appearance. They are determined to find Armor.
Issue ends Maystorm laying down flowers, and being surprised by a text message.
This doesn’t feel like a plot we’ll get properly finished in Ultimate Endgame, but maybe in Ultimate Finale?
I’m not entirely sure how I feel this is going to read in a beautiful omnibus collecting the entire run. I do feel like there must be a meta commentary in this.
Now that this series is over, I’ll share with you dear listener / viewer, I feel like I’ve been checked out of Ultimate X-Men for a while now. Beautiful Peach Momoko art, and plots, but it hasn’t been a title for me, and it only adds to my detachment to the overall Ultimate Universe, that I’ve been feeling for a while now. At least I still have Ultimate Magik as seen in Ultimate Wolverine, but even that feels hallow.
Also, very odd how that series got four more issues, whereas Ultimate X-Men appears to have also needed four more issues? Or one giant issue?
Started off well, but maybe it is time to just end the Ultimate Universe.
You can’t make people love you by lobotomizing them, or traumatizing them, or manipulating them. Thanks, Jan!
I wasn’t thrilled with this issue, until the final page got me back in. Issue opens with Jan talking to Korvac. He’s in love with Carina, but he’s worried she won’t love him back, because of all of the horrible things he’s done. So, he’s tempted to just rewrite history, and erase her memory of the old timeline, and we get Jan’s helpful quote above.
Korvac kills / erases Jan, which upsets Pym, naturally. Bucky and Britainicus Rex, who isn’t used nearly enough, neither is Days of Future Past Storm, but more on that later, show up to help DoFP Storm, and others. Too late to do anything else, really.
Pym & Korvac yell at each other. Hank has the “brilliant” idea to force Carol to trauma dump with Korvac. She doesn’t love the idea, why would she?, but agrees to it. We do get an awesome page of her history, including The Brood Saga, where she turns into Binary. We also get Rogue stealing her powers, and of course, ugh, the Marcus of it all. But The Brood Saga, that’s cool.
Korvac recognizes how cool Carol is, and brings Jan back, and we’re all good now. With a few pages left, I start thinking this was a bit of a waste, a decent enough story, but underwhelming, and does kill my buzz for 2099 The End.
Then everyone is set back to their respected realities. EXCEPT! DoFP Storm is about to commit to her, and the X-Men’s end, and we learn Earth-811 is, well at least this version, is now Earth-813! Korvac is going to help sort this timeline out! That’s pretty cool! Kate Pryde is not seen or mentioned, so this isn’t needed for the collection.
Do we get a fun “The End…?” caption, and I’ll definitely buy a Days of Future Past miniseries, I’m a sucker for those. Kate Pryde has to be seen in that, right?
I did look it up. Earth-812, was established by legends Johnathan Hickman and Tini Howard in X of Swords : Destruction, as one of the Earth’s Liz Braddock is from. She is in a giant group shot of other Captains Britain, but we learn on a text page that she’s from Earth-812. So that is why this Earth is Earth-813.
The potential of future stories does make this mini fun, but also, I’m okay with we don’t get a sequel series. This one would just get summarized in a caption box, or a dialogue exchange.
Peach Momoko, Zach Daivsson, and Travis Lanham give us such a compelling penultimate issue! I believe we only have one more after this.
We are introduced to Makoto Amano, who I feel is very Doug Ramsey coded, but I may be completely off base here.
Issue opens with Akihiro still being tortured, so we shouldn’t forget that is happening.
Every couple pages, like chapter breaks, we get this very intriguing hand written information.
# 0 Amano, who is the escaped 256.
# 1 March 2024, Hisako. 256 is telling Mei that Armor is still around. But he’s like a ghost?
# 4 June 2024, Nico. Nico gets a warning from a pair of floating red eyes.
# 5 July 2024, Secret Society X-Men, I want this spin off!
# 5 July 2024, Natsu. Amano taunts Natsu, which isn’t very nice.
# 8 October 2024, Meat case. Good reminder that Kanon’s brother was one of the first characters introduced.
# 9 November 2024, Kanon. Amano helps Kanon channel her ancestors through her stick.
# 9 November 2024, friend. Mei hasn’t given up on Armor yet. Didn’t issue 22 end with Christmas? Interesting that we have gone back to fill that skipped time.
# 11 January 2025, New Home. Natsu is taken back in with the Children of the Atom. Who Amano hates as much as he does the X-Men it seems.
# 12 February 2025, Purpose. Mei is told Armor is still out there.
# 13 March 2025, Crew. Natsu isn’t sure if she deserves to be part of the team. She should be part of the team!
# 22 December 2025, Result. Did Mei get merc-ed? We see her face, with what appears to be blood coming at her, from her? I’m not sure. Such a crucial page to not know what is happening?! Amano clearly did something to her, as he floats into the sky, and appears to be another shadow like being?
What the heck is going on?!
Issue ends with Hi-Chan, maybe? Seeing Iron Lad’s big speech.
Issue opens up with Reginald James McNair III, which I like. Not enough of us IIIs around.
We first met him all the way back in issue 4. Famously, the issue where the students learn Kitty Pryde has murdered people, and also, Kitty was still not talking to Rogue.
Reggie can create portals, space and time portals. One might even call them, rifts, as he’s clearly Rift from Expatriate X-Men, as part of the Age of Revelation series.
Reggie can’t break the fourth wall.
Poor Reggie believes he killed Kitty Pryde, not that he knows who that is.
Not Too Far Away, we see the Students holding their own against omega mutant, Iceman.
Bronze gets the win as she tags Iceman.
Bobby is pitch hitting as Kitty stormed off last issue. Bobby calls Nina, they hung out in issue 4. It really was a big issue.
Bobby has a very awkward phone call with Nina, as why would he even bother calling someone if Kitty has only been missing an hour. I wonder if Bobby’s favorite umbrella is yellow?
Ironheart brings Reggie, through an open window, so it isn’t breaking and entering.
Melee is about to say Reggie is Bronze’s crush, but in a sweet recovery – she is an athlete after all, calls him Trista’s creative friend.
Reggie and Trista now have being mutants in common, along with theater.
Ironheart states that Kitty went through one of the rifts.
Emma, being a great mentor, immediately figures out how Reggie’s rift powers work. They even form around his forearms.
Emma prefers to address him as, Reginald, as she’s a classy dame.
Emma refers to his rifts as, swirls, and they’re space-time portals. His blackouts are minor bursts of time travel.
Iceman volunteers to go back in time to rescue Kitty, but Emma squashes that as Bobby and Emma are important to Kitty’s future. Which, I don’t think Bobby and Kitty have that much time spent together outside of the Ultimate Universe, and this series.
Well, besides when they briefly dated, but not real history before that, I’m trying to remember of any times before.
They were in the big battle in ROM 65. Young Iceman was involving in Excalibur : XX Crossing, present day Bobby never appears in Excalibur properly. He stands right next to Kitty during Illyana’s funeral in Uncanny X-Men 303. They’re around each other during Scott and Jean’s wedding in X-Men V2 30. So really, it was fun that they got romantically paired together. Which, I was a fan of the relationship as it gave Kitty a chance to have fun. Setting up Star Lord and Kitty’s relationship, now that I think of it.
Once it is established the students are going back in time, and to be fair, now that they fought Mister Sinister, they are officially X-Men, but it is easier to distinguish them as the students. Bronze runs off to grab early 80s clothes. She doesn’t grab any for Ironheart, who can’t go on the mission, but would have liked the invite.
Emma encourages Reggie to create a rift, and the students are going back in time after Bobby tries to warn them about changing time.
As soon as the students are gone, Sentinel Dogs barge through the wall, so that isn’t great for Priti’s dance studio, but hopefully she got mutant insurance.
Reggie closes the rift, but not before a Sentinel Dog goes through the portal.
Meanwhile. Somewhen else. And somewhere else. Deerfield, Illinois.
The Students land back in time, and not graciously.
Melee makes a great comment about how Kitty Pryde clearly came from some money, but yet doesn’t have access to that money now. Probably due to the questionable career choices. There’s just no money in being an X-Man.
They wonder how they’re going to find Kitty without the Internet, or just asking people. Bronze offers the phone book as an option, but Melee doesn’t know what that is.
Issue ends with Uncanny X-Men 129’s Kitty Pryde, in her all black outfit, and yellow sweater.
Our team found Kitty . . . the wrong Kitty.
Such a great issue!
Also, I got my tenth letter published in it, which is highly exciting for me.
Chris Wildrick and I had to write in to show our appreciation for Lockheed returning!
Though that’s two issues in a row now that we haven’t seen or heard mention of Lockheed.
This issue is going to be my comic of 2025, I can just tell. It makes me so happy.
In issue 9, Emma defeats Mister Sinister, but at a price. Not only did Emma defeat Sinister, but she also rescued Axo. Now Emma is trapped inside Sinister’s mind, where he’s having a Mad Hatter inspired tea party.
Federica Mancin draws these pages in a very fun decision. I really like the visual continuity of having Woodard do the coloring for both artists.
Emma reflects on her and Kitty’s origins, and we get a page from New Mutants V1 15.
Emma is still haunted by her Hellfire Club days, and her treatment of Kitty Pryde. Which, of course, makes me wonder if she is haunted by Firestar’s beloved horse, Butter Rum.
We catch up to the rest of the Exceptional X-Men team, Kitty Pryde, Iceman, Melee, Bronze, and Axo. They are distraught by Emma still being unconscious. Axo tells them that Emma is very much still in danger, and has to go back in to rescue her.
I do like how all of the students are X-Men now. They took down a major X-Villain, so they have earned it. Let’s hope they survive the experience.
Kitty, to her credit, did not want them to be present for the confrontation, as she wasn’t raising child soldiers. Sinister sent a clone Iceman to get them, and bring them, but since they are here, they got into the fight.
We see in Sinister’s mindscape, that he’s ten, but not a cute ten year old, he’s Sinister but as a ten year old. He likes to perform dissections, and is generally a cruel child.
Axo returns to the mindscape, Emma doesn’t miss a beat that she sacrificed herself to free him, so this undoes all of that. Sort of like the climax of Top Gun : Maverick.
Meanwhile, the Exceptional X-Men having to fight Sabretooth sabretooth clones. As there is no end to what Sinister will do with Victor Creed’s DNA.
Axo finds a cute plush elephant of Sinister’s, which calms Sinister enough that Axo can force him to nap. Emma compliments Axo, and they are free!
Emma wakes up, which means Sinister wakes up.
in a very classic Claremont Care Bear stare, the united Exceptional X-Men team take down Sinister.
But was it the real Sinister? All we know is that, like the fake Axo clone, or how Dr. Stephanie Burt phased him, Faxo, he explodes in a goo.
But we have no time for that, as Kitty looks over, and sees . . .
LOCKHEED THE DRAGON!!!
. . .
it took ten issues, but we are here!
I keep fondly remembering this fun exchange I had with Carmen Carnero
Way back on April 9, 2025, and a took a while, but her dragon drawing skills are exceptional.
. . .
I can only imagine the only way to top this issue will be if we keep getting more and more Lockheed, but getting him back in monthly comics is all I’ve wanted for so long.
We’re no longer in a Lockheed-less era!
. . .
I do have a concern that Sinister made Sabretooth sabretooth clones, that this could be a Lockheed clone that he created to mess with Kitty Pryde, and all of our emotions, but maybe he was also just keeping him prisoner too?
One of my least favorite villains, and one of my top two favorite characters prisoner.
I’m really hoping that this is the genuine Lockheed, as I don’t want to be hurt again.
. . .
This also explains why we’ve seen him on the covers to Giant Size House of M and Giant Size X-Men 2 as
as Lockheed is back!
I can’t stop smiling 🙂
What a great day this as been, and came at the best time as the school district has decided to shut down the elementary school my wife teaches at, so this comic worked as a perfect distraction when I needed it most.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 