- Written by: Peach Momoko, Zack Davison
- Art by: Peach Momoko
- Colors by: Peach Momoko
- Letters by: VC’s Travis Lanham
- Cover art by: Peach Momoko (cover A)
- Cover price: $4.99
- Release date: November 13, 2024
Ultimate X-Men #9, by Marvel Comics on 11/13/24, amps up the public’s awareness of the Children of the Atom cult, causing an increase in the number of humans who hate and fear mutants. Meanwhile, Mei battles Surge.
Is Ultimate X-Men #9 Good?
Writer/Artist Peach Momoko significantly improves on issue #8 with a tighter, more focused script that adds layers of depth to the characters and escalates the “mutant threat” in the Eastern territory. To be fair, there’s still no clarity around where this series is headed or how it ties into the rest of the Ultimates line, but Ultimate X-Men #9 is a relatively enjoyable comic.
When last we left the fledgling band of students in Ultimate X-Men #8, we learned the Maester is accelerating his plans to bring the Children of the Atom cult out onto the public stage. Meanwhile, Natsu’s unpleasant encounter with a group of bullies confirms Natsu is the Ultimate universe’s Cyclops. The issue ended with assorted cult members becoming suspicious about Maester’s motives when a cult member’s body was found by the river.
In Ultimate X-Men #9, we begin with a day in the life of the students at Irodori High School. Knowledge of the Children of the Atom cult spreads like wildfire among parents, teachers, and students. Hisako and her friends are (accurately) suspected of being mutants, so some of the mean girls at school taunt and insult them, prompting Hisako to tear down a festival display in anger.
Elsewhere, Kagoyama, aka Shadow King, wakes up from his coma when he hears the voice of another patient nearby in the Cult’s infirmary. He sees a hairy man lying on a hospital bed and attached to numerous tubes. The man introduces himself as Akihiro, the first mutant, and he begs Kagoyama to kill him.
Later, Mei wanders the city streets because she avoids her parents since her powers manifested. Coincidentally, she spots her father walking with a young girl with blue hair. Surge! Mei confronts her father and Surge, but her father simply walks away unphased. Mei begins to run after him, but Surge grabs her by the arm and haughtily challenges Mei to a fight to make up for the lost client.
The issue concludes with Surge getting the shock of her life.
What’s great about Ultimate X-Men #9?
Peach Momoko keeps the packing up but tightens the focus on a manageable number of plot points. Mei gets the most amount of character work in this issue, depicting how her life changed for the worse since her mutant powers manifested. Plus, the introduction to Akihiro as the first mutant, who looks a lot like Wolverine, has a lot of mystery potential.
What’s not great about Ultimate X-Men #9?
After nine issues, we still have no idea what the Children of the Atom cult is up to or why. We’re experiencing the motivations of the “heroes” as we witness their emerging powers in real time. Conversely, the villains have no motivations to speak of, and that gap is increasingly frustrating.
Further, Momoko has a habit of not following through on big moments in progress. What happened to the ghost hunter from the previous issue? Why did the girls see a big eye in the sky two issues ago during a festival? Where is Viper when all this is going on? Where is Psylocke and her brother? Where are Natsu, Mori, and Nico?
The challenge with starting so many threads at once is that you either have to keep them up or drop them temporarily, resulting in a start/stop jerkiness to the plot.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
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Final Thoughts
Ultimate X-Men #9 is a significantly better issue. Peach Momoko keeps the pace and energy up while tightening the plot to focus on just a few threads at a time. Unfortunately, several threads that have big cliffhanger moments suddenly get pushed to the back burner, so the issue is fine, but the arc is disjointed.
7.5/10
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