Ultimate Comics X-Men by Nick Spencer vol. 2

Compared to “Ultimate Comics Ultimates,” this one isn’t necessarily the better title but it is at least more consistent.  Not only did Nick Spencer write all the issues himself, but artists Carlo Barberi and Paco Medina have pretty consistent styles that are well-suited to superhero action.  In spite of all this, though, the end result is something that leaves you with the potential for great entertainment than delivering the actual thing.

After the focus on Kitty’s group in the first volume, the narrative spreads out across the country to catch up on what everyone else has been up to since the Sentinel attack on New York.  Quicksilver struggles with the backfiring of his plan to sell Nimrod Sentinels to the U.S. and the displeasure of his sister for not following her plan.  Karen Grant/Jean Grey gets accustomed to life in Tian and her status as a triple agent in the power play between Nick Fury and Xorn.  Alex Summers gets a very interesting visitor at his sanitarium.  Then in the longest story in the collection, Storm deals with the fallout from the revelation that the U.S. government created mutants as those who are interned with her demand justice for their treatment.

A lot of the developments here are pretty interesting.  The revelation of who Quicksilver is meant to see in Egypt, Jean Grey’s triple agent status, and “Master Mold” all set up potentially compelling stories to be told down the line.  That being said, the downside to all this is that these stories don’t feel like they have a proper payoff.  It’s like their only purpose is to set up future plots than to tell interesting stories in the here-and-now.  Spencer’s work here is serviceable enough, but there’s precious little of the zest that he brings to the dialogue and overall action of of his creator-owned series “Morning Glories.”

The other thing about all this setup is that after doing all the hard work here, Spencer isn’t going to be around to see it through.  He has since been replaced on this title by Brian Wood, and — as I’ve made abundantly clear over the last few months — I think that’s only a good thing for this title.  Spencer deserves a lot of credit for getting this series going in the right direction, and rebuilding it after Jeph Loeb effectively dismantled things with his “contributions” to the “Ultimate” imprint.  However, he never really hit the high points the title achieved under Bendis and Vaughan back in the day.  Though I’m sure you’re all sick of me saying how much I’m looking forward to Wood’s run, I can assure you that it won’t be pretty at all if he screws things up after being presented with every conceivable advantage to build from here.