Ultimate X-Men - Volume 6

This volume reprints the second year of Brian K Vaughan's UXM run. His first year redefined the characters and point of the book, while simultaneously preserving the character and plot developments that earlier writers established, but deepening the characters' personalities and motivations and relationships, making the action more realistic, and toning down the absurd levels of bravado, braggadocio, and, bombast that made the first 4 years of this title completely overblown and absurd. He focused the book on the idea that these are teenagers. He fleshed out their personalitiesand tied them to particular motivations and struggles based on their emerging relationships with each other, and their powers and identities. When you read this second volume, keep in mind you are reading reprints of monthly comics, ok? So it is natural that a collection like this will contain multiple stories and have work by various artists. You can't expect a continuous, self-contained story in a compilation such as this. Ok, let's get to it. The first story gives some face time to Xavier, who was mercifully relegated to the background in the previous year. He had become way too dominant a figure in the Millar run. He was also poorly written: he was unpredictable; his character traits seemed to change with every issue, he was absurdly dictatorial, and as written, prone to wild errors in judgment that everyone around him inexplicably ignored! BKV still keeps him freaky and frigid, but tones down his tendency to lecture ad nauseum. The highlight of this issue is the hilarious artwork by Steve Dillon. The "villian", an absurd conjoined twin mutant, is mutant comedy gold. The next story, "Shock and Awe" further explores the character of Storm and the relationship between Storm and Wolverine. These two make a a great team, and Vaughan is obviously paying homage to the original and very deep relationship as written by Chris Claremont back circa issues 190-250 of Uncanny X-Men. I love that Storm's character continues to develop. She was being completely wasted by Millar and Bendis. The action here is excellent. It has always been difficult for artists to deal with Storm's powers. Check out the X-men movies for some particularly lame attempts at that. Millar just basically had her dropping lightning bolts on Sentinels, then stuffed her back in a minor role. But BKV and Immonen do her right, using her powers in an inventive, believable manner. Some criticize artists Stuart Immonen's cartoonish style, I personally love it. But one of his indisputable strengths is his ability to create dramatic compositions: the placement of the characters, objects, and the point of view to heighten the action and drama of the scene he is depicting. He consistently changes the size of the panels, the angle of the viewer, and the depth of the pictures to maximize the impact of the exciting action. This story is no exception, he does a great job with Deathstrike vs Storm &