This week Luke and Devin and Kitty Pryde are here to talk about Kitty and her adventures as the Ultimate X-men get good again when they face off against Magneto and Havok, Kitty, Iceman and Wolverine have to team up with the Fantastic Four to fight a returning enemy, and then Kitty goes on a date with Spider-Man.
Issues Covered:
- Ultimate X-men Vol 1 #61-65
- Ultimate X-men/Fantastic Four #1
- Ultimate Fantastic Four/X-men #1
- Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1
Check out the image gallery (when Devin gets it in) and show notes below!
Ultimate X-men Vol 1 #61-65 – Magnetic North
Writer – Brian K Vaughan, Pencils – Stuart Immonen, Inks – Wade Von Grawbadger, Colors – Paul Mounts, Justin Ponsor, Letters – Chris Eliopoulos
Xavier meets with Wolverine to talk about how Nick Fury saved him from Lady Deathstrike but Wolverine’s cagey about why Fury saved him. The conversation then switches to Xavier’s cat, Mystique, who is named after someone who Xavier previously dated which is weird.
Meanwhile Kitty interrupts the team in the Danger Room and reveals that Iceman has been emailing Rogue and has essentially been cheating on her so she breaks up with him.
The breakup frustrates Scott Summers, Cyclops, who wants them to be training as he watches on from the control room. The conversation leads Jean Grey to ask if Cyclops dated anyone else and he mentions there was one other person, which also seems like something they would have discussed before.
Coincidentally at the same time at Emma Frost’s Academy of Tomorrow, Lorna Dane, Polaris, and Alex Summers, Havok aka Scott’s brother who is dating Polaris, welcome Roberto daCosta to their school. Roberto noticed Jeopardy champion Doug Ramsey is also there and Emma Frost explains the school welcomes anyone with extraordinary abilities, not just mutants. Jean-Paul Beaubier, Northstar, runs by to alert them of a major alarm so Havok and Polaris leave to handle that.
The show up at a fire where Polaris’ magnetic powers start going haywire and she ends up killing the firemen there, forcing Havok has to knock her out.
Nick Fury is alerted to the situation and is reminded that the only place where he can hold her is at the Triskelion, in the cell where Magneto currently is.
In the Savage Land, Longshot is caught by Scarlet Witch and the two end up fighting with her eventually turning him into a cat so that she can catch him for Nick Fury to be delivered to the Triskelion as well.
Back at the scene of the fire, Havok is upset that Emma is letting SHIELD take in Polaris who wakes up shortly after in the metal-free cell with Magneto as Quicksilver watches on, angrily.
Emma follows up with Charles and she thinks her dream has failed again and talk about Polaris being locked up with Magneto, which they decide to keep secret from their students. Unknown to them though, Havok, Northstar, Sam Guthrie aka Cannonball, Roberto, and Doug Ramsey are listening in on an interceptor that Doug built. Havok wants to break her out and threatens the rest of the team into following him when they show doubt.
Back in the Triskelion cell, Magneto brings up Frost’s relationship with Xavier to Polaris, and how he sees everything in black and white.
Xavier brings the team together to talk about Polaris which is when Cyclops reveals that he previously dated her and that he doesn’t believe that she would lose control of her powers. But also Cyclops, you’ve seen Jean lose control of her powers so, why not? Anyway, Xavier lets them know that they need to stop Havok and his team, breaking them into groups with Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Storm, Wolverine and Shadowcat finding them in the X-Wing to stop them before they reach New York City, while Colossus, Marvel Girl, and Iceman will form a defense, and Angel and Dazzler are still grounded for saving Longshot and are expected to hang back. Meanwhile back near the fire, a magnetic power disruptor is loaded into a van by Forge and a shapeshifter who goes by the name Mystique.
Jean goes into Scott’s memories of his time with Polaris which Cyclops doesn’t want to do. She asks if he’d also try to break Polaris out and he gets angry and raises the question about the time she’s spending with Xavier and then he apologizes.
Fury meanwhile brings Longshot into the prison where Lady Deathstrike and Sinister are also in cells.
Magneto meanwhile tries to equate his killing of humans with the nuking of Japan and Polaris, still upset about the murders that she believes were caused by her powers, cries.
On the way from Chicago, Nightcrawler appears on Havok’s car, causing him to crash but they get out fine and start to fight with Northstar knocking out Kitty while Havok and Cyclops preparing to face off until Havok takes Cyclops out with a tire iron.
Meanwhile Angel and Dazzler snuck out to look out to help but start making out in the air instead.
Northstar ends up taking Havok with him, which Mystique sees, commenting it is part of the plan, and Cyclops lets the defensive team know to look out, which is when the Ultimates – Captain America, Iron Man, Wasp, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and Black Widow in her Iron Man suit, show up.
Back in Chicago, Doug, who is in trouble and didn’t go on the mission, digs up video of Mystique and Forge planting the magnetic power disruptor and shares it with Emma who calls Fury.
The Ultimates tell the X-men to leave, the X-men refuse, and then Quicksilver reveals Polaris is in a cell with Magneto which he thought the Xavier would have told his team.
Back in the cell Magneto is confident he will be freed and offers Polaris a chance to leave with him but she refuses and so Magneto attacks her with a chair which Quicksilver misses because he’s not doing his job and apparently he couldn’t get anyone else to watch the security tape.
Northstar arrives outside the Triskelion and gets the X-men and Ultimates to fight each other. Meanwhile Forge and Mystique work to break into the prison which Angel and Dazzler see. When the Ultimates and X-men fight resolves, Colossus tries to tell Havok to step down but he refuses.
In the cell, Forge and Mystique take out the guards, free Magneto, and then turn off the power in the prison as Magneto causes an EMP freeing the prisoners. As the Brotherhood prepares to leave, Magneto tells Mystique it is her time to sacrifice.
Lady Deathstrike who overheard Dazzler talk about being an X-man stabs through her, as she and Angel had snuck in. Luckily Longshot ends up breaking Deathstrike’s neck, returning the favor to the X-men and Angel leaves with her while Longshot gets caught up by Essex.
Outside Magneto and Forge escape with Polaris, still unconscious, as Havok reaches the island, followed by Jean, Cyclops and the other X-men who show up in the jet which Magneto explodes immediately. The X-men work together to survive and Jean controls Forge who was holding Polaris, but Magneto, who still has his helmet which they shouldn’t have kept in the Triskelion, threatens to kill Havok so Cyclops blasts through his brother, knocking out Magneto, because mutant sibling’s powers don’t affect one another, sometimes.
Fury lands after with the Howling Commandos and Cyclops tries to get Fury to not arrest Polaris but Fury reveals that he is actually there for Havok who caused the entire situation, sort of. Wolverine shows up and threatens to reveal to the media about the kid he killed and Fury accepts this deal, but ends the relationship between the X-men and SHIELD, just before Angel shows up, asking for someone to help Dazzler.
Dazzler ends up in a coma and while Angel is visiting her, Xavier tells Angel he’s being publically expelled, but secretly Charles needs him to go and be a sleeper agent at the Academy of Tomorrow to watch after Emma’s students. Angel agrees if in return, Charles promises to care for Dazzler.
Meanwhile Nightcrawler overhears Colossus accepting Northstar’s invitation to go to homecoming which bothers Nightcrawler because Ultimate Nightcrawler is homophobic for bad reasons, and Rogue appears back at the mansion, still stuck with Gambit’s powers.
Emma Frost visits Magneto back in the cell at the Triskelion to say that Magneto failed, but we see that Mystique is actually in the cell, and elsewhere Magneto and Longshot have escaped and are preparing to start on a new plan.
Ultimate X-men/Fantastic Four/Ultimate Fantastic Four/X-men #1
Writer – Mike Carey, Art – Pasqual Ferry, Lenil Francis Yu, Colors – Dave McCaig, Paul Mounts, Rob Schwager, Guru EFX, June Chung, Letters – Chris Eliopoulos
Charles Xavier wakes up at night being messaged by an alien general who asks for help, saying a ship will crash with destructive sun-eater level mutants and they need help holding them off. Xavier along with the team minus Iceman, Kitty and Wolverine prepare to head off on the mission, though Iceman is not happy about being left behind.
It turns out that this was a distraction by Rhona Burchill who previously attacked the Baxter Building. She set up this opportunity so she could sneak in to steal Cerebro. She comes prepared with tech that she uses to knock out Iceman and Kitty, but Wolverine takes her by surprise until she kicks him in the balls, escaping. She then infects Wolverine with a retro-virus, and vanishes with Cerebro.
Meanwhile the X-men believe that the Fantastic Four are to blame and since SHIELD cut them out, they have no way to reach out to contact them. Wolverine dealing with the virus is also suspicious because the Fantastic Four have members to justify all of the specific ways the trio was defeated by Rhona and they are also unable to reach the rest of the X-men. Wolverine, knowing the Cerebro tech is dangerous in the wrong hands, plans to take the fight to the Baxter Building.
Meanwhile Johnny and The Thing are fighting as the X-men infiltrate, but they quickly bump into Reed Richards. Wolverine, dealing with a loss of senses, is frustrated that he can’t tell if Reed is innocent or not, and Reed attacks after being threatened.
Rhona around then shows up to the buyer demanding double what they offered because of the danger, but once she takes her money, she then kills the AIM handlers who hired her and plans to rewrite the minds of everyone on the planet using Cerebro.
The X-men are losing the fight as the rest of the Fantastic Four join in and as Kitty gets knocked out, Rhona activates Cerebro. The other X-men who went with Charles, realize that they were duped, and they find that New York City is now a psychic dead zone.
Rhona starts psychically killing soldiers to prove that she can and the two teams realize they have to work together.
Reed is able to make a cure for Wolverine, sets the X-men’s suits to hide them from Rhona, and Kitty tries to hit on Reed. Professor Storm tries to get them to have the Ultimates come in but Sue points out they’d be dangerous if they fell under her control so it has to be them.
Bobby and Johnny attack from the sky, Sue and Kitty sneak in and Reed and Ben stay back for the time being.
Rhona makes Iceman attack Johnny, and then stops Kitty and Sue from attacking her when they infiltrate the base and finally she makes the Thing attack Reed. Reed ended up putting defenses in all of their psychic shields though so when Rhona hacked into them, she developed empathy for everyone she was controlling. Rhona, worried about losing her drive, sets off to nuke the city. but Wolverine shows up having sabotaged her ship causing it to explode when she got in. The teams reconvene and then head home, having saved the world as the X-men get back from their mission
Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1
Writer – Brian Michael Bendis, Pencils – Mark Brooks, Inks – Jaime Mendoza, Finishes – Scott Hanna, Colors – Dave Stewart, Letters – Chris Eliopoulos
Kitty Pryde of the X-men is frustrated being a princess in the Danger Room simulation and leaves it while in New York City, Spider-man faces the Rhino, a man in a robotic suit. He ultimately deactivates it but the military tries to bring him in so Spider-Man runs off.
Peter and Kitty are still dealing with complicated emotions and feeling like left-out losers. Kitty talks to Jean about boyfriends and Kitty ends up deciding to reach out to Peter Parker and asks him on a date – eventually. He’s interested and so they make plans together.
The next day after school they meet up and head to the mall to the food court. They talk about mutants, how they both know Johnny Storm, Peter trying to be better, and life being complicated. Kitty talks about her frustrations living with Iceman but when Flash and Kenny keep being jerks, they decide to leave for the roof of the mall and they talk about how they both hate Nick Fury.
When Kitty tries to ask Peter about dating by bringing up that he wants to date people who can protect themselves, she gets nervous and runs off, until working up the courage to try talking again. They almost kiss but hear a nearby emergency so Peter suits up as Spider-man and takes Kitty with him.
They stop the Shocker who was robbing a bank when Kitty distracts him by being intangible and disrupting his gauntlets and then Spider-Man webs him up and they swing off together. They flirt some more but the X-men show up to take Kitty home and they decide they want to date and they make plans and share a kiss and the two head home to keep talking online.
Comics To Review:
Ultimate X-men Vol 1 #61-65 – Magnetic North
Ultimate X4 – Ultimate X4
Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1 – More Than You Bargained For