All-New X-Men vol. 6: The Ultimate Adventure

This is a story that should have sold gangbusters… about a decade ago.  As it is right now, it’s just one more disappointing signpost on the road to the end of the Ultimate Universe.  The story involves a crossover between the Ultimate and 616 Marvel Universes after the time-stranded X-Men head off to meet a powerful new mutant who has just shown up on Cerebro.  Said mutant has the power to jump between the dimensions and after her initial encounter with these young X-Men goes bad, she winds up jumping them to the Ultimate Universe.  There, the team is split up and has separate encounters with everyone from Miles Morales to Doctor Doom (back with the cloven hoof he had when Warren Ellis wrote him).

I might be tempted to say that “The Ultimate Adventure’s” biggest problem is that its existence is an admission that Marvel has run out of ideas for this once-great imprint.  Except that the Ultimate Universe’s role in “Secret Wars” has already put paid to that idea.  With that taboo broken, you get the feeling that Bendis is making the most of the limited amount of time he has to play around in the universe he helped define.  The good news is that we get some decent banter between the cast, decent action, and lively art from Mahmud Asrar (loved the two-page spreads with Jean using her psychic powers to get info from Miles and Ultimate Jean).  Unfortunately, this is also a rather aimless story that culminates in a rather pointless showdown at Doom’s castle before the team finds the mutant who got this whole mess started and returns home — but not before Bendis indulges himself a bit more.

To be honest, I could see myself enjoying this story if it had been released before “Ultimatum” knocked a good portion of the Universe down.  The All-New team could’ve interacted with more clearly-defined versions of these characters (save Miles) and the decision to not “go big” for most of the story might’ve come off as refreshing.  As it is, “The Ultimate Adventure” comes off like a trip back to a neighborhood you used to live in that serves as a reminder as to why you left in the first place.