"Something unimaginable is happening... It feels like all our sins, all the dark secrets we hid away... some cruel power has torn off the lid... let it all out."
— Hisako Ichiki
Ultimate X-Men is a 2024 comic book series by Marvel Comics, written and drawn by Peach Momoko, with Zack Davisson credited for script adaptation. It's part of Marvel's second Ultimate Universe line.
Although it's linked to the wider Marvel Universe, the Ultimate Universe is an Alternate Universe within the same continuity, where the meddling of the supervillain known as the Maker has ensured that the world, and its superheroes, take a very different path.
Hisako Ichiki wants to live her life amidst the international chaos that's now brewing, but fate has other plans when she starts manifesting strange new powers.
The first issue was released March 6, 2024.
Ultimate X-Men provides examples of the following tropes:
- Adaptational Abomination: Mutants in general. In this universe, mutants are explicitly magical in nature rather than science fiction themed, and their powers are often depicted in decidedly frightening and eldritch ways. But whether this also extends to the mutants in the Maker's council is still unknown.
- All There in the Manual: As part of the new Ultimate Universe, the series takes place on Earth-6160, which isn't mentioned within issue #1 itself.
- Breaking Old Trends: Most X-Men incarnations, when introducing a new universe, usually use a combination of the Original Five and the All-New, All-Different teams. Here, no one from those teams are there, not even Wolverine, Mr. Wolverine Publicity himself.
- Canon Immigrant: Maystorm originated from Peach Momoko’s X-Men #27 New Champions Variant Cover, which wasn't part of the Ultimate Universe setting.
- Die or Fly: Hisako's powers first manifest when her bike is hit by a car. They save her, but the car's driver is left in critical condition.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Japan, renamed Hi No Kuni ("Land of the Sun"), is ruled by Sunfire, Viper, and Silver Samurai of the Maker's Council. They aren't seen or mentioned in the first issue, but a lot of the territory's problems are implied to be their doing.
- Instant Armor: Just like in 616, Hisako's power is instantly manifesting an energy construct armor resembling a suit of samurai armor.
- In the Style of: X-Men by way of Junji Ito.
- Kids Are Cruel: Some bullies were harassing Tsubasa which contributed to his suicide. As if that wasn't enough, some girls from Hisako's middle school make fun of her on her graduation day.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Hisako is haunted and tormented by her guilt over not doing more to help her deceased friend Tsubasa, who was victimized and bullied.
- Mythology Gag:
- The mysterious shadow entity that antagonizes Hisako looks a lot like a very creepy and eldritch take on Door Man. Whether this a mere example of this trope or he's meant to be this universe's version of Door Man remains to be seen.
- Hisako being haunted by the suicide of her friend Tsubasa (whose name means "wing") is a subtle rearrangement of the death of Wing in Astonishing X-Men where Armor first debuted as a character.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Tsubasa's death hangs over the story like a shadow, but the plot also truly begins when a teacher who was rumoured to have bullied Tsubasa hangs himself at the end of Issue #1, implying that the shadow creature is hunting down everybody it perceived as having pushed Tsubasa to his death.
- The Protagonist: Hisako Ichiki (Armor) is the main character of the series.
- Psychological Horror: The series essentially puts a J-Horror spin on the X-Men, with emphasis on Hisako being mentally and emotionally tormented by her enemy and an atmosphere of eerie paranoia.
- Recycled Title: The original Ultimate Marvel line included another Ultimate X-Men series, which ran from 2001 until 2009.
- Speech Bubbles: The thing haunting Hisako in the first issue speaks in distinctive speech bubbles with ragged white text on a black background.
