The X-Men are still the clear also-rans in the Marvel Ultimate universe, although Return to Weapon X marked a substantial increase in series quality. It turns out that in addition to Professor X’s eponymous X-Men (dedicated to peaceful co-existence between humans and mutants) and Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants (dedicated to a world where homo superior reigns supreme, either through conquest or extinction of homo sapiens), there is a third organized group of mutants in the world: a black-ops division of S.H.I.E.L.D.[1] called Weapon X kidnaps mutants, adjusts them genetically and psychologically to fully weaponize them in defense of freedom, justice, and apple pie, and throws them away like so many apple cores when they’re of no further use, which seems to happen within months or less for most such kidnapped mutants. And now they’ve got their eyes on the X-Men.[2]

Yeah, on the whole it was pretty good. There are characters I disliked, though I have trust that it was often on purpose and some of them will be redeemable in the course of time. Most egregious of all was someone who thankfully will not be involved in the X-Men stories much: Nick Fury (you may remember him as Samuel L. Jackson in the Ultimates comics as well as the Iron Man movie from earlier this summer) is supposed to be a hard-bitten, tough-as-nails spy who can be covert but is more comfortable punching commies (or whoever) in the face. Whereas this guy was a particularly poncey version of James Bond who, even worse, looked nothing like Samuel L. Jackson! So every time he was on-panel, I wanted to punch a commie my own self.

[1] Shield are the people who set up the Ultimates that I’ve reviewed elsewhere, and in general they’re movers and shakers in the Marvel universe who tend to combine the best aspects of the CIA and NSA into one unstoppable unit.
[2] The return in the title refers to the fact that Wolverine escaped from Weapon X before the events of the previous volume, the only mutant ever to have done so. Because he’s awesome.