Ultimate X-Men Vol. 5: Ultimate War [Paperback]

Mark Millar (Author), Chris Bachalo (Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: Ultimate X-Men | Publication Date: September 13, 2006

The Ultimates vs. the Ultimate X-Men: the battle begins. When the X-Men do the worst thing they could to humanity, the government orders Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and the rest of the Ultimates to bring them down. A small but lethal army, the Ultimates were created to face these and other newly rising threats to mankind. But the X-Men's founder, Professor X, hasn't been training his students for nothing -- and the youngs mutants just might take out the Ultimates first.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Marvel; Direct Ed edition (September 13, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785111298
• ISBN-13: 978-0785111290
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 0.4 x 10.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #509,835 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Along with Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Millar has been one of the key writers for Marvel Comics in the 21st century. After proving himself in the '90s as a talent to watch while writing for DC Comics and the UK comic 2000AD, his arrival to Marvel came at a time when Ultimate Spider-Man had just shot up the sales charts. It was in this environment that Millar made his first major contribution to Marvel with Ultimate X-Men, as Millar integrated forty years' worth of X-Men history, characters and lore into a solid two-year run, making the companion title to Ultimate Spider-Man every bit the creative and commercial success. Next up was The Ultimates, a new rendering of the Avengers that was to continue building on the success of the Ultimate line. He and artist Bryan Hitch pulled it all off in spades: The Ultimates and its sequel, Ultimates 2, were ensconced at the top of the sales charts every month; what's more, they were critical successes, as well. Meanwhile, Millar was invited to enter the regular Marvel Universe to take a stab at two of its most iconic characters: Spider-Man and Wolverine. Paired with industry heavyweights to draw his stories -- Terry Dodson on Marvel Knights Spider-Man and John Romita Jr. on Wolverine -- Millar brought the same fast-paced and cleverly constructed plots with which his Ultimate fans were already familiar. Amid building a small library of Millarworld indie comic books -- including the titles Chosen and Wanted, the latter of which was turned into a Hollywood blockbuster starring Angelina Jolie -- he managed to write Civil War, the epic seven-issue miniseries that definitively reshaped the landscape of Marvel's heroes. Kick-A**, a Marvel Icon project done in tandem with John Romita Jr., made an impressive impact on the sales chart before also being adapted for a major motion picture. In addition, Millar has reunited with Civil War artist Steve McNiven in both the pages of Wolverine and their creator-owned book Nemesis.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is more of a delaying action that a full out war, June 19, 2003

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Ultimate X-Men Vol. 5: Ultimate War (Paperback)

You would think that a showdown between the Ultimate X-Men and the Ultimates (the Nuevo Avengers) would offer an epic battle, but instead "Ultimate War" is pretty much a holding action. This trade paperback which is Volume 5 in the "Ultimate X-Men" series collects the four issue mini-series, which follows up on the conclusion of Volume 4 "Hellfire & Brimstone" where Magneto remembers himself and prepares to put humanity in its proper place. In the wake of the revelation that the Mutant Master of Magnetism was not killed and that Charles Xavier had lied about Magneto's true fate, the X-Men join the Brotherhood of Mutants on the government's hit list and the Ultimates are sent to bring them down.

Of course the lineups of the two groups is substantially different from the first time they fought in "The Avengers" #53, with Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and the Black Widow added on one side and Wolverine, Storm, and Colossus on the other. More importantly, it takes the Ultimates until issue #4 to track down the X-Men, although the Ultimates do get to tangle with Magneto when Daddy Dearest comes looking for Pietro and Wanda (I do hope that Magneto really is their father this time around because that would be a pretty good change from the first time through the Marvel Universe). Writer Mark Millar and artist Chris Bachalo reduce the "war" to a series of one-on-one battles: Iron Man vs. Colossus, Thor vs. Storm, Captain America vs. Wolverine, and the Wasp vs. Professor X. The problem is that they all take place in one issue, which means we only get a couple of pages for each confrontation. To quote Xander: "Big overture, little show."

The biggest problem with "Ultimate War" is that the mini-series is hamstrung from the beginning: not much can actually happen because the big showdown with Magneto has to be with the X-Men. The end effect is not a complete reset to where we started, but its is close all things considered. There are also some implications for down the road, such as when Captain America recalls Wolverine as Corporal James Howlett of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion (of all of the new and improved Marvel Superheroes in this Ultimate book the one I like the most is Cap; the living legend is now much more of a pragmatist than an idealist, which makes perfect sense for somebody who fought Hitler and the Nazis during World War II). Consequently, it is not like you can skip this without being at something of a disadvantage when the story continues in "The Ultimate X-Men," which is precisely the point of such mini-series.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The X-Men vs The Ultimates - What more to ask for?, July 17, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Ultimate X-Men Vol. 5: Ultimate War (Paperback)

The showdown between the X-Men and the Ultimates in this 4-parter has been commonly terms as lackluste, but I actually enjoy it very much. The sypnosis has already been discussed in other reviews, so I'm just going add some other points that I thought were interesting. I particularly find the choice of "who vs who" very well done. Storm vs Thor, for example, was a clear indication for the weather girl vs the God of Thunder. Colossus taking on Ironman pits a man of steel against another. Also, the pace of the story was good enough to sustain interest in an other weak plot. A highly recommended read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Millar Makes a Mutant Massacre, June 21, 2009

By 

Scott Edward Calibraxis (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ultimate X-Men Vol. 5: Ultimate War (Paperback)

[This review comprises this book, and its sequel, The Return of the King, Ultimate X-men Volume 6, both of which are combined in the hardcover UXM Vol 3. The three stars are for "Ultimate War". "Return of the King gets one star, which equals two for the double volume hardcover!]


In what is surely the worst episode of Mark Millar's career, this book concludes his overblown, bombastic, silly, and nonsensical interpretation of the X-men. Previous volumes established the pattern: take familiar storylines from X-men history, and reinterpret/bowdlerize them in the most jacked-up, brainless "blockbuster" style, while erasing any trace of believable motivation, likeable characterizion, realistic dialog, and credible plotting. Add liberal doses of absurd and ridiculous military/industrial/political/presidential politics and intrigue that have absolutely no connection with reality, nor are they any credible exaggeration of reality.

Mr Millar is completely capable of works of super-hero genius. Read his brilliant "Marvel Knights Spider-Man" or "Wolverine: Enemy of the State" or "Civil War"--they are the some of the best Marvel Comics of the past 10 years. They feature huge-scale action, intrigue, excess, and yes, sometimes characterizations that are a little more smarmy than we are used to seeing in Marvel comics, but it all works.

Ultimate X-Men literally seems like something he farmed out to an understudy. Some apprentice teenager who he hired under the table to do his work for him. There is just nothing here to like. The characters are all stupid, or insane, or jerks, or just lacking in sensible motivation. The characters' powers are off the charts and ridiculous. The dialog is so over-the-top, everyone is constantly yelling at each other and spouting maniacal nonsense, or spicing their speech with military/espionage-poseur BS:

Nick Fury: "With Xavier down, that cult of his is just a bunch of TERRIFIED KIDS running around with the might of the U.S. MILITARY MACHINE on their tail." (word emphasis from the original!)

"The US military machine"?? That is so corny and ridiculous. But those kinds of lines are on every page. Everyone talks like that! Everyone tries to sound like they are too cool for school. But it doesn't work. They just sound like badly-written characters created by someone who's only knowledge of the world comes from watching Michael Bay movies.


On to the specifics about the stories in this volume. The first arc, "Ultimate War", deals with the Ultimates vs Magneto vs the X-Men. The characters of Magneto, Prof Xavier, Nick Fury, and Captain America are the main ones here. And they are completely annoying. Every line they spout is overblown with stupid braggadocio. The clash of wills between Magneto and Xavier is absurd. They are supposed to be the two poles to which mutants are supposed to gravitate, but their ideologies are so ridiculous and stupid that nobody could possibly fall for their BS. We've now had to slog through 35+ issues of Xavier and Magneto delivering interminable sermons. Their characters never behave or develop in credible ways. They simply brood, strut, spout crazy-talk, and order people around.

At one point, Xavier asks Jean Grey whether he's ever given her reason to doubt his judgment in the past, and she says no. That is absurd! Every story arc has featured his misjudgements--from brainwashing Magneto, to leaving his family and allowing his son to grow up crazy and kill hundreds of people, to being suckered in by the Hellfire Club-- everything Xavier has done on Millar's run has been disastrous. Yet everyone still acts like he's god, including himself! That's just bad writing: inexplicable character motivation and behavior.

In this Ultimate War arc, there are some pretty cool battles between the X-men and the Ultimates. The characters' powers and abilities play off interestingly against each other. The art by Chris Bachalo is generally excellent, one complaint being the fact that the art is so densely packed onto the page that you frequently have to work to figure out what is happening in the action sequences.

[This section discusses the next volume "The Return of the King", UXM vol 6]

In the last half of the book, we have the final confrontation with Magneto, as he attempts to kill off the world's population by reversing the Earth's magnetic poles. There's a parallel plot in which Cyclops lies dying, dropped to the bottom of a gorge by Wolverine, who was trying to get him out the way in order to get with Jean Grey. Um, what? That is just stupid. It is not believable. It is also not believable that Cyclops would survive for days at the bottom of this gorge by eating bugs, then get rescued by Magneto's goons, then get completely healed by spending one day in a bed at Magneto's floating sanctuary. And it is certainly not believable that he would then take Wolverine back on the team at the end, with everything honkey-dorey.

The characters' powers are jacked up to the maximum as usual, so the battles and conflicts lack jeopardy. In one completely ridiculous situation, Magneto destabilizes the reactor of a nuclear power plant...so Jean Grey telekineticaly cuts out that section of the Earth's crust and flies it into outer space. Uh, WTF??? Stupid.

Xavier's relationship with Nick Fury continues to develop, in similarly ridiculous ways. Finally, in the last issue reprinted here, we are treated to yet another multi-page blab-fest when Xavier visists Magneto in prison. Haven't we all had enough of these two and their endless clash of wills? Especially as presented by this writer, the relationship between the two is simply devoid of nuance and utterly tiresome.

The good news is that this is the last of Millar's UXM. Next up, Brian Bendis and David Finch jump start a new direction for the book with a brilliant 12-issue run. Then, in volume 5, Brian K Vaughan and a roster of excellent artists truly take this book to the heights. If you've read this far, stick with this series, because it gets so much better.