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Ultimate X-Men (2001) (Collected Editions)
Ultimatum: X-Men/Fantastic Four
The unthinkable has happened as the X-Men find themselves reeling from the devastating events of Ultimatum. A band of humans have stolen Sentinel technology and attacked Xavier's mansion - killing any mutant they see! With the X-Men locked in battle with Magneto, can anyone save these students? Their greatest hope might rest in the hands of their worst enemy as the Weapon X program returns! Also, Ultimatum has hit the planet hard and the Baxter Building was ground zero. Johnny is still missing. Dr. Storm is dead. And Reed has taken off to parts unknown. Sue's life hangs in the balance and rests in the hands of untested pilot Ben Grimm, a.k.a. The Thing, and Dr. Arthur Molekevic, now better known as the megalamonical Mole Man. Collects Ultimate X-Men #98-100, and Ultimate Fantastic Four #58-60.
152 pages, Paperback
First published May 20, 2009
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156 people want to read
About the author
Aron Coleite
36 books5 followersAron Eli Coleite is an American comic book writer, television writer and producer best known for his work on the Netflix series Daybreak, and Ultimate X-Men Comics.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
July 18, 2021
Not sure why they crammed the X-men and the Fantastic Four issue together for this aftermath of Ultimatum volume. Neither title had anything to do with the other one and it made for a stupid book.
I was only reading this for the Fantastic Four stuff, but even so, I mourned the loss of a decent X-Men story. The gist is that the X-men are being slaughtered on all fronts and Rogue and Wolverine have to kill a bunch of people so everyone else can keep their hands clean.
I know I've read at least part of Ultimatum before, but it was years ago. All I remember was that it was a shitty story and a lot of the Ultimate Universe died. Perhaps I should have read it again, but I have no real urge at the moment. Later. Maybe later.
Anyway, Dr. Storm (Sue and Johnny's dad) died in the flood, Johnny is missing, Sue is in a coma, Reed has taken off, and Ben is left holding the bag.
With the help of Sue's mother, Ben tracks down Mole Man and performs surgery on Sue whilst inside a tiny spaceship they've shrunk down with Pym Particles.
Success!
Ben, Sue, Mom, & Mole Man then head to Atlantis to find an antenna that can track Johnny - who is in Dormammu's demon dimension.
Reed pops up at the end and helps save Johnny, but he's still in the shithouse.
Took me a while, but I found the conclusion/epilogue to this story in the one-shot Ultimatum: Fantastic Four Requiem . Finishing the Ulitmate Fantastic Four isn't going to be as easy as I thought it would.
Guess we'll see if Requiem wraps it up.
I was only reading this for the Fantastic Four stuff, but even so, I mourned the loss of a decent X-Men story. The gist is that the X-men are being slaughtered on all fronts and Rogue and Wolverine have to kill a bunch of people so everyone else can keep their hands clean.
I know I've read at least part of Ultimatum before, but it was years ago. All I remember was that it was a shitty story and a lot of the Ultimate Universe died. Perhaps I should have read it again, but I have no real urge at the moment. Later. Maybe later.
Anyway, Dr. Storm (Sue and Johnny's dad) died in the flood, Johnny is missing, Sue is in a coma, Reed has taken off, and Ben is left holding the bag.
With the help of Sue's mother, Ben tracks down Mole Man and performs surgery on Sue whilst inside a tiny spaceship they've shrunk down with Pym Particles.
Success!
Ben, Sue, Mom, & Mole Man then head to Atlantis to find an antenna that can track Johnny - who is in Dormammu's demon dimension.
Reed pops up at the end and helps save Johnny, but he's still in the shithouse.
Took me a while, but I found the conclusion/epilogue to this story in the one-shot Ultimatum: Fantastic Four Requiem . Finishing the Ulitmate Fantastic Four isn't going to be as easy as I thought it would.
Guess we'll see if Requiem wraps it up.
December 17, 2017
I’d always heard tales of the suckfest which was the Ultimatum storyline, but I never understood until I experienced it for myself. This part of the story was no exception, being disjointed and confusing with little plot development as well as an annoying tendency to do nothing but spend its timing doing horrible things for shock value. Guess if you don’t have a decent story idea the next best thing is to just kill everyone, right? Anyway, this book was pure trash. The only thing decent was the art in the X-men, which was good as usual. With that limited rant out of the way I’m now going to just pretend this whole story never happened.
July 21, 2016
I'm really only reviewing the X-Men half of the book. Yes, I read the Fantastic Four half, but it's only Ultimate Fantastic Four that I've read so far. For what it's worth, the two halves have nothing to do with each other. As far as the X-Men part goes... Wow, it's just really not very good, is it? It's just a clumsy effort to clear the board of as many "extraneous" mutants as possible, in a really dumb story. Because I totally believe that basically strapping on pieces of sentinel robots will make for effective Iron Man-type armor, and that even second string X-Men would be totally helpless against them. Ugh.
December 20, 2024
"Born with strange powers and amazing abilities, the X-Men are young mutant heroes, sworn to protect a world that fears and hates them.
After an inter-dimensional accident, young Reed Richards, Sue Storm, her brother Johnny, and reed's friend Ben Grimm are changed forever. the quartet's genetic structures are scrambled and recombined in a fantastically strange way. Reed's body stretches and flows like water, Ben looks like a thing carved from desert rock. Sue can become invisible, Johnny generates flame. Together, they are the Fantastic Four.
I love the Ultimate universe, and these 6 comics really added to the whole Ultimatum saga, the art and story were fantastic, and no one was safe. What Logan had to do was brutal and executed in the comic brilliantly, and the FF, what the F was Reed planning with them Nano Bots, great...3🌟
After an inter-dimensional accident, young Reed Richards, Sue Storm, her brother Johnny, and reed's friend Ben Grimm are changed forever. the quartet's genetic structures are scrambled and recombined in a fantastically strange way. Reed's body stretches and flows like water, Ben looks like a thing carved from desert rock. Sue can become invisible, Johnny generates flame. Together, they are the Fantastic Four.
I love the Ultimate universe, and these 6 comics really added to the whole Ultimatum saga, the art and story were fantastic, and no one was safe. What Logan had to do was brutal and executed in the comic brilliantly, and the FF, what the F was Reed planning with them Nano Bots, great...3🌟
August 21, 2012
Stuff I Read – Ultimate X-Men 98-100
So really, what happened to making the world a better place? I really want to know where that went. It probably left with Kirkman, but I find that really sad if this is a result of that. Instead of getting the X-Men trying to make the world better, they are drawn into this Ultimatum thing and really end up dead. Not much else to it. After this I will have to review Ultimatum and the Epilogue issue, as this arc doesn’t even resolve anything despite being the last arc of Ultimate X-Men. Really it just seems like further excuse to kill people and clear the world of mutants. I’m not sure why that was the way to go, but it sure seems like the case that the writers were doing everything they could to kill off the X-Men. It opens slightly after the opening events of Ultimatum, so I have to ruin it a little by saying that Nightcrawler, Dazzler, and Beast all die immediately. Angel is pissed and so he goes off and dies too. Then this religious group dresses up like Sentinels and starts killing all the students.
And that just seems so stupid, because it amounts to a bunch of rednecks finding some broken Sentinels and then duct taping it to themselves and somehow gaining Sentinel technology. I don’t know how the hell it is supposed to work, but they start killing a bunch of well trained mutants. And so despite Psylocke being around and presumably some of the other X-Men, these people come right in and kill most everyone. So Rogue gets a group together including Sabertooth and Juggernaut and Wraith and go after these guys. They kill most of them and Juggernaut dies and Sabertooth escapes because he is in Ultimatum and really not much else. Then the team grieves for Professor X, who is killed, and has to respond to the Multiple Men exploding everywhere. This kills off everyone at Frost’s school, including Emma (completely killing the story about her and the Hellfire Club, but whatever). Or maybe Havok survives, I’m not sure. Because, you know, who cares at this point. It’s just trying to be big so it kills them all off. They aren’t ever planning on bringing back an Ultimate X-Men, so have at it.
This leads the remaining X-Men to fight Multiple Man while Wolverine goes to confront the original. And, because it’s so much more interesting the second time this kind of thing happens, Wolverine ends up killing him and saving the day. And that is how this series ends, as a lead in to the end of Ultimatum. Pretty much everyone is dead. Oh, and I learned that somehow Pyro turned evil and completely changed the way he looked. Not sure why on that one. I’m thinking Loeb, who wrote the evil Pyro, just assumed he was evil in this universe and used him that way. Completely different powers and look, too. Kind of makes me want to weep. The new characters were one of the best things about Kirkman’s run, and here they are either killed or changed. I have no idea what happens to Psylocke here. She is alive and then absent. I don’t really know what happened to Toad, either. I read that he showed up in Ultimate Spiderman and was helping people, but he is nowhere here. I’m guessing all the Morlocks are dead, too, what with the wave and all, but no one really checks.
This is really just a huge let down as a fan of the series. This is not what one ever hopes for when looking for an end to something you like. This is a mockery of everything that Ultimate X-Men was, with no respect for how the series got to where it was. This series lasted for one hundred issues, and it ends without any resolution beyond a lot of character deaths. At least the last arc tried to do something new. This just kills people. It is an excuse. Nothing more. I give it a 3/10.
So really, what happened to making the world a better place? I really want to know where that went. It probably left with Kirkman, but I find that really sad if this is a result of that. Instead of getting the X-Men trying to make the world better, they are drawn into this Ultimatum thing and really end up dead. Not much else to it. After this I will have to review Ultimatum and the Epilogue issue, as this arc doesn’t even resolve anything despite being the last arc of Ultimate X-Men. Really it just seems like further excuse to kill people and clear the world of mutants. I’m not sure why that was the way to go, but it sure seems like the case that the writers were doing everything they could to kill off the X-Men. It opens slightly after the opening events of Ultimatum, so I have to ruin it a little by saying that Nightcrawler, Dazzler, and Beast all die immediately. Angel is pissed and so he goes off and dies too. Then this religious group dresses up like Sentinels and starts killing all the students.
And that just seems so stupid, because it amounts to a bunch of rednecks finding some broken Sentinels and then duct taping it to themselves and somehow gaining Sentinel technology. I don’t know how the hell it is supposed to work, but they start killing a bunch of well trained mutants. And so despite Psylocke being around and presumably some of the other X-Men, these people come right in and kill most everyone. So Rogue gets a group together including Sabertooth and Juggernaut and Wraith and go after these guys. They kill most of them and Juggernaut dies and Sabertooth escapes because he is in Ultimatum and really not much else. Then the team grieves for Professor X, who is killed, and has to respond to the Multiple Men exploding everywhere. This kills off everyone at Frost’s school, including Emma (completely killing the story about her and the Hellfire Club, but whatever). Or maybe Havok survives, I’m not sure. Because, you know, who cares at this point. It’s just trying to be big so it kills them all off. They aren’t ever planning on bringing back an Ultimate X-Men, so have at it.
This leads the remaining X-Men to fight Multiple Man while Wolverine goes to confront the original. And, because it’s so much more interesting the second time this kind of thing happens, Wolverine ends up killing him and saving the day. And that is how this series ends, as a lead in to the end of Ultimatum. Pretty much everyone is dead. Oh, and I learned that somehow Pyro turned evil and completely changed the way he looked. Not sure why on that one. I’m thinking Loeb, who wrote the evil Pyro, just assumed he was evil in this universe and used him that way. Completely different powers and look, too. Kind of makes me want to weep. The new characters were one of the best things about Kirkman’s run, and here they are either killed or changed. I have no idea what happens to Psylocke here. She is alive and then absent. I don’t really know what happened to Toad, either. I read that he showed up in Ultimate Spiderman and was helping people, but he is nowhere here. I’m guessing all the Morlocks are dead, too, what with the wave and all, but no one really checks.
This is really just a huge let down as a fan of the series. This is not what one ever hopes for when looking for an end to something you like. This is a mockery of everything that Ultimate X-Men was, with no respect for how the series got to where it was. This series lasted for one hundred issues, and it ends without any resolution beyond a lot of character deaths. At least the last arc tried to do something new. This just kills people. It is an excuse. Nothing more. I give it a 3/10.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 22, 2017
The X-Men part has good art, but the story is jumpy and has a few really silly things. Apparently a box full of broken bits of sentinel armor can outfit several dozen anti-mutant fanatics and make them more deadly than the brotherhood, or even the actual sentinels.
The FF story is much more coherent, and also has good art. The story is a bit of a takeoff on the movie Fantastic Voyage.
Both stories seem wholly incomplete as they are presented here without the previous story arcs to support them, especially the X-Men part.
The FF story is much more coherent, and also has good art. The story is a bit of a takeoff on the movie Fantastic Voyage.
Both stories seem wholly incomplete as they are presented here without the previous story arcs to support them, especially the X-Men part.
September 27, 2012
The X-Men story is badly fractured, and much of its tangencies don't feel like they blend well with Ultimatum. Only the final issue, surrounding Madrox, has any real punch to it [4 or 5/10]. Contrariwise, the Fantastic Four story is quite good, complementing Ultimatum without being subservient too it. It also has some very nice character backstory. Its one flaw is that it has no conclusion. [7/10]
November 28, 2010
Forgettable writing. Necessary for the Ultimate universe, but an example of why I'm no longer reading those books on their own.
October 1, 2023
Ultimate X-Men :
Belles illustrations de Brooks, (celles de Panosian un peu moins), pour des tie-ins bien agréable à suivre. L'attaque de Magnéto sur le monde entier réveille évidemment les comportements anti-mutants et les x-men (ceux qui restent) sont attaqués par des militants extrémistes, tandis que Rogue s'allie au chef d'Alpha Flight pour tenter de tuer Magnéto.
Les personnages sont respectés, le contexte d'Ultimatum pose une atmosphère très pesante de danger permanent, on voit une Rogue proactive, ce qui permet d'utiliser à fond son pouvoir de mimétisme, et l'intrigue des Madrox et des Sentinelles est cool.
Ultimate Fantastic Four :
Kirkham aux pinceaux, donc comme d'habitude pas fan des dessins. Pour soigner Sue, qui vient d'évacuer l'eau laissée par le tsunami de Magnéto à New York au prix de sérieux efforts, Ben et l'Homme-Taupe se rapetissent et partent pour un véritable voyage au centre de Susan. Sans Reed ni Johnny, on a quand même affaire à une aventure typique des FF, centrée sur Ben, puis sur Susan, qui nous emmènera jusqu'à Atlantis dans l'espoir de retrouver Johnny.
____________________________________
Overall ces tie-ins sont bien plus agréables à lire que la série principale Ultimatum, et se servent bien du contexte instauré, mais il est dommage que les séries Ultimate X-Men et Ultimate Fantastic Four se finissent ainsi, même si les issues Requiem concluent réellement proprement les deux séries.
Belles illustrations de Brooks, (celles de Panosian un peu moins), pour des tie-ins bien agréable à suivre. L'attaque de Magnéto sur le monde entier réveille évidemment les comportements anti-mutants et les x-men (ceux qui restent) sont attaqués par des militants extrémistes, tandis que Rogue s'allie au chef d'Alpha Flight pour tenter de tuer Magnéto.
Les personnages sont respectés, le contexte d'Ultimatum pose une atmosphère très pesante de danger permanent, on voit une Rogue proactive, ce qui permet d'utiliser à fond son pouvoir de mimétisme, et l'intrigue des Madrox et des Sentinelles est cool.
Ultimate Fantastic Four :
Kirkham aux pinceaux, donc comme d'habitude pas fan des dessins. Pour soigner Sue, qui vient d'évacuer l'eau laissée par le tsunami de Magnéto à New York au prix de sérieux efforts, Ben et l'Homme-Taupe se rapetissent et partent pour un véritable voyage au centre de Susan. Sans Reed ni Johnny, on a quand même affaire à une aventure typique des FF, centrée sur Ben, puis sur Susan, qui nous emmènera jusqu'à Atlantis dans l'espoir de retrouver Johnny.
____________________________________
Overall ces tie-ins sont bien plus agréables à lire que la série principale Ultimatum, et se servent bien du contexte instauré, mais il est dommage que les séries Ultimate X-Men et Ultimate Fantastic Four se finissent ainsi, même si les issues Requiem concluent réellement proprement les deux séries.
January 11, 2020
Whle not as truly awful as The Ultimate X-Men voume that precedes it, or as boring as most of The Ultimate Fantastic Four series, this was a cruel way to end two of the major tentpoles of The Marvel Ultimate Universe. Both series end as sidebooks to their own story, with the main action happening in Ultimatum.
The Fantastic Four story is actually a self-contained and moderatey interesting look at Ben Grimm trying tove one of his teammates who was benched early on in Ultimatum. It's fairly sweet, and says true to all of the character development of the series. The only real disconnect is the difference between Ben Grimm in this volue and the Ben Grimm at the very end of Ultimatum. If this were a filler story, I might have given it three or four stars, but it's a very lackluster cap off to, actually, avery lackluster series.
The Ultimate X-Men tells a couple of different moderately interesting side stories. And it's heaps better than Coleite's last volume. It just, again, isn't an ending to a major series.
If you enjoyed Ultimatum, it's worth reading.
The Fantastic Four story is actually a self-contained and moderatey interesting look at Ben Grimm trying tove one of his teammates who was benched early on in Ultimatum. It's fairly sweet, and says true to all of the character development of the series. The only real disconnect is the difference between Ben Grimm in this volue and the Ben Grimm at the very end of Ultimatum. If this were a filler story, I might have given it three or four stars, but it's a very lackluster cap off to, actually, avery lackluster series.
The Ultimate X-Men tells a couple of different moderately interesting side stories. And it's heaps better than Coleite's last volume. It just, again, isn't an ending to a major series.
If you enjoyed Ultimatum, it's worth reading.
October 17, 2021
Aron Coleite y Joe Pokaski son los encargados de martillar el último clavo en el ataúd de Ultimate X-Men y Ultimate Fantastic Four respectivamente, en estas historias complementarias del evento Ultimatum y cierre de las serie son un triste complemento que aportan muy poco. Sin emoción como ese final de los 4F definitvos, separados porque si con Reed tomando todas las peores decisiones como los autores de estos números en si.
Hechos por compromiso estos acolitos de Jeph Loeb no dan un cierre digno que hubiesen merecido las series.
Hechos por compromiso estos acolitos de Jeph Loeb no dan un cierre digno que hubiesen merecido las series.
August 6, 2020
Four stars for issue 100 alone, really nice what they did with multiple man. The end felt very rushed, I mean it’s issue 100, you have room to breathe tell the whole story.
More to the point, where did Kazar and Shanna go? We never see them again in all of Ultimatum. Oh well.
Everyone dies. Everyone.
More to the point, where did Kazar and Shanna go? We never see them again in all of Ultimatum. Oh well.
Everyone dies. Everyone.
August 8, 2021
Artwork was significantly worse than the previous one, and though the story had elements that would've been intriguing (time-traveling characters, etc.), it was honestly just too much too quickly without a lot of time to enjoy what it could've been. So it could've had promise but just didn't fulfill it.
November 13, 2023
As if the main Ultimatum story wasn’t bad enough! Not one good story came out of that whole entire cringeworthy PR stunt. I do feel bad for Coleite, actually, because he’ll forever be remembered for writing this awful crap and there’s no way it wasn’t going to be crap given the situation. Too bad he didn’t camp it up or make it “so bad it’s good.” Or something. Skip!
July 7, 2022
Deeply unfortunate that this was published as a combo issue with Fantastic Four since I have absolutely no interest in any Fantastic Four characters or storylines.
The X-Men bit of this is 5 stars, but this format was so annoying.
The X-Men bit of this is 5 stars, but this format was so annoying.
July 5, 2017
Well I'm just going to pretend that was shitty snuff porn fanfiction.
November 24, 2018
What a horrible way to tie-up both of these long-running series.
January 29, 2023
It's Ultimatum, it's horrible I still have my PTSD from reading this storyline.
August 7, 2023
It's okay. The X-men stuff is better than Coleite's first book, but not by much. The F4 stuff was pretty fun.
November 22, 2013
X-Men 98-100 Does the same thing that the previous few X-Men storylines have done, rush through to the detriment of the story. Nightcrawler and Dazzler are killed off immediately due to Magneto flooding New York with a tidal wave... Dazzler I understand, but how does a teleporter die while Beast survives while standing beside him? They finally reveal the surprise identity of Vindicator and we get a lot of big battles and countless deaths, but the details of exactly which mutants live and die aren't really given. Oh, and somehow Xavier is murdered during all of this, though noone knows how and Magneto is conveniently blamed. I'd give this half of the collection 2 1/2 stars.
Fantastic Four 58-60 was a much better read, and I haven't read any of the Ultimate version before this. Thing hunts to cure Sue Storm after she is put in a coma while saving some of Manhattan from Magneto's wave. Then they go on a quest to locate the missing Human Torch. Much better transition from the FF comic into ULTIMATUM than X-Men managed. I really loved this section and it's glimpses at the childhoods of the team. 4 stars for this half.
Fantastic Four 58-60 was a much better read, and I haven't read any of the Ultimate version before this. Thing hunts to cure Sue Storm after she is put in a coma while saving some of Manhattan from Magneto's wave. Then they go on a quest to locate the missing Human Torch. Much better transition from the FF comic into ULTIMATUM than X-Men managed. I really loved this section and it's glimpses at the childhoods of the team. 4 stars for this half.
February 3, 2010
I really liked the X-Men portion of this graphic novel, but I could take or leave the Fantastic Four half. I'm more familiar with the X-Men world, and although I like the Fantastic Four, their part of the story just didn't really grab me.
Although I did feel a bit lost during the X-Men portion. I think this is much further into the story line than I've gotten in my reading, so there were things that were referred to that I'd never read about. That's what happens when my library doesn't carry all the graphic novels I want to read.
The artwork in the whole book was great, though. Beautiful colors, and just my style. I would only recommend this for those who have read at least parts of these series already, otherwise I don't think you'd like it.
Although I did feel a bit lost during the X-Men portion. I think this is much further into the story line than I've gotten in my reading, so there were things that were referred to that I'd never read about. That's what happens when my library doesn't carry all the graphic novels I want to read.
The artwork in the whole book was great, though. Beautiful colors, and just my style. I would only recommend this for those who have read at least parts of these series already, otherwise I don't think you'd like it.
January 21, 2018
Book Info: This collection contains
Ultimate X-Men
issues #98-100, and
Ultimate Fantastic Four
issues #58-60.
ABSOLUTE RATING: {2.5+/5 stars}
STANDARDIZED RATING: <3/5 stars>
ABSOLUTE RATING: {2.5+/5 stars}
STANDARDIZED RATING: <3/5 stars>
April 3, 2014
Again I notice the fact that this GN has a rating less than 3, this is down to the simple fact that if you had purchased this as a one off it would make no sense at all, you would have needed to have a general knowledge of what has preceded this. As I have this is great!
July 5, 2011
This was the weakest part of the Ultimatum crossover.
April 22, 2019
The X-men and Fantastic Four goes all in to stop Magneto and save their own lives
June 7, 2012
The Jamie Madrox part was really good.
August 23, 2013
Very good Fantastic Four work. The X-men story was only okay.
January 18, 2013
The first half is pretty interesting, at least.
August 6, 2013
I could not follow this at all. Some of the panels seemed randomly placed. This was really bad.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews