About Heroes

This Review was Submitted by knightwingbk:

Writer: Mark Millar
Artists: Adam & Andy Kubert

Wow. A knockout story for Mark Millar re-introducing the X-men to millions of readers. The reader jumps right into the story, as the Sentinel program already exists, Magneto has already been terrorizing the human race, and Professor X assembles his first team of X-men in the first issue. Talk about moving fast. So much happens in this book that there is no slowing down. Right away, we are in the midst of a Sentinel attack, and we are introduced to the Ultimate world in the form of TV News captions. After that we see Jean Grey meet Beast, Storm, and Colossus and invite them back to Professor X's mansion to form the X-men. Still in that first issue, they go to New York City to rescue Bobby Drake from the Sentinels! Did I mention we also meet the Brotherhood of Mutants, Magneto, and catch a glimpse of Wolverine?

Needless to say, the pacing is racing along in this book, which is what makes it such a fun read. Instead of your usual, take 6 issues to assemble the team or establish your hero (CoughUltimateSpidermanCough) Millar starts us right away, throwing us into the universe and never looks back. We only have one flashback in these entire 6 issues, where Professor X recounts how he ended up in a wheelchair from Magneto. Issues 2 sees the X-men "rescue" Wolverine, and issues 3-4 they try to rescue the Presidents daughter, and finally in 5-6 confront Magneto and battle Sentinels. Millar just never lets up; as we're racing along he develops his characters on the battlefield through banter and post-battlefield conversations. Wolverine is much more of a badass in the Ultimate Universe than the 616. Let’s just say he does much more than just pine for Jean Grey. Millar writes these teenagers without all the "yo-yo-yo's" and "wassups" and shows their youth through their naiveté in the stories. Cyclops is the leader on the field but he is unsure of his leadership abilities, causing him to make mistakes. Jean Grey is a lot different than her counterpart. I feel she is stronger here, than she ever has been in any X comic I've read. Another way she is different, is that Jean is actually fun. I never had any fun reading the 616 Jean, but I sure do here! Iceman, Beast, and Colossus are all pretty similar so far to their 616 counterparts, but in these first 6 issues, even though they are given a lot to do, they are not as developed as Cyclops, Jean, Wolverine, or Magneto.

Professor X is almost missing here, aside from a few short scenes, he leaves the leading of the X-men to Cyclops. One would think he'd be in their heads telepathically orchestrating the battle, but Millar does not use that here. Magneto is far more prominent here than his old friend, and like 616 Magneto, he is just as villainous if not more. This being the beginning of the war, he may be a little soft. At one point he lets the X-Men go after a battle, whereas 616 might have killed them.

Millar smartly gets rid of the yellow spandex for all the heroes, going for a more streamlined uniform look, a la the X-men movies. He does give a reason for the Uniforms, calling them cloaking devices of their mutant gene so that the Sentinels do not detect them. Millar does a lot of smart things in this book. Like anything he writes, there is no reason for nothing, and an explanation is given for everything, although some are more fleshed out than others. If Bendis had written this arc, we would have gotten a dialogue and banter heavy X-men, and had seen the team go on their first mission at the end of issue 6, rather than issue 1. Millar was a smart choice for the book, keeping the pacing up and making the characters stronger rather than changing them dramatically as some may have feared with this relaunch.

The art here is top-notch. The Kubert brothers frenetic style is a perfect match for Millar and the X-men. I never felt the art was forced or wrong on any page. One thing I did like, was that the flashback and television sequences in the first issue are inked and colored differently than the rest of the book. Almost as if they were colored right over the original pencils. This sets it apart from the rest of the book and is not distracting from the story as say, the Jim Lee flashbacks were in the Hush storyline where sometimes both flashback and present existed on the same page, but were so drastically different. My one complaint, thumbing through it now, is that there seems to be little or no backgrounds unless the script calls for it. Some panels are looking at floors, walls, and sky. You can tell what they are but missing from the art are all the cracks in the tiles, in the asphalt, and the clouds in the sky! Sure let the colorist do all the work, whatever. But that is my only complaint about it, other than that it is great to look at. This book gets a solid A. Go and pick it up if you haven't already. A great introduction to the series.