Kirkman's poor characterization of the X-men

[Prime24]

Here are a few previews of Marvel's titles shipping on january 30th 2008;

http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=12813

After witnessing the Ult. X-men previews,I just had to vent on how much i despise Kirkman's characterization of the X-men.

1) BEAST. I absolutely HATE Kirkman's Beast Plot. I mean seriously WTF? Here's a former member who was killed and mourned,was buried by Cyclops and wolverine, made storm almost lose her mind and the reaction to him being alive is absolutely terrible from his teammates. I thought Jean and cyclops saw him in issue #89 while Storm was in a coma? No one has screamed, no one is shocked and Beast's dialogue is flat out bad. It doesn't even sound like Henry Mccoy. No big words, no quotes, no flashes of Brilliance and intellect and Larrocca draws him without his large feet and hands. And for him and storm to just jump into a relationship debunks most of the character development on storm constructed by the brilliant Brian K. Vaughan. I do miss his Ult. x-men badly

2) PYRO. what is he doing in this book? there better be a major plot for him in this arc otherwise...very bad ultimization of the character so far .And this is after his brilliant performance in the X-men movies as Iceman's main antagonist

3) PSYLOCKE. Good job by bringing her on board.But this character is heavily underutilized. She has the potential to be a great character in this Universe; primarily because of her background story developed by Millar (i miss him too).
She is a 20something year old government agent trapped in a teenager's body. can you imagine the potential storylines that can be developed? yet Kirkman decides to make her actually behave like a teen (rolleyes).Give me a break. I actually think her and Logan should hook up just because of their rich backgrounds and the amount of storylines that could develop

4) ICEMAN,ROGUE,ANGEL. they are nothing but wallpaper. Kirkman claims to be from Kentucky but not once does Rogue speak like she's from the south. Where's her beautiful southern accent? i watched some of the 90's cartoon episodes again and rogue's dialogue as well as gambit's were amazing.

5) JEAN GREY. He has overplayed and teased the Phoenix thing so much, it has lost it's value. I mean the last scene with Shinobi Shaw and Gerald In Issue 88 was a joke. (Ha ha ha ...) but i still don't get what they were trying to do.I hope this version of jean also develops the Goblin queen's powers. Emma frost turning to the dark side was intriguing though because i really don't see anything interesting happening to her just being the headmistress of the Academy of Tommorrow. why she wore that outfit is beyond me.

6) NIGHTCRAWLER. I like where Kirkman is going with the Morlock angle but I said it before in a preview post, there is no way a 14-year old Nightcrawler(that was his age the last time i checked) will waltz in to an underground mutant camp, defeat the leader and become boss. It's not like there was a prophecy of his coming or something. He's not Harry Potter or the Avatar.

7) WOLVERINE. Mostly cheesy dialogue throughout kirkman's run. he left the mansion in issue 80 to go search for his past but was found drinking in a bar with no luck. what happened?

8) BISHOP AND CABLE. I cant wait for bishop and cable to get the heck out of the book and we should say good riddance to time-travel. the book is also suffering from bishop's overexposure. a guy comes from the future, creates portals that that transports you across the world and everyone just says...cool. Nobody freaks out? Mind you the beast should be astonished at this sort of technology but kirkman's version of beast is as dum as they get

9)COSTUMES. Hope the next writer gets rid of Yanick paquette's awful costumes and reinstate the older versions. Did anyone see march's solicitations of Ultimate Spider-man with the Ultimate X-men on the cover. men i miss those times

Overall,the characters are suffering at the expense of the plot.The Ultimate Universe can still be saved.The ever brilliant Ultimate spiderman, Ultimate Human and Ultimate Iron-man are proof of that. they just need to get back to their roots which were realistic stories in a modern setting. Ultimate X-men and Ultimate fantastic Four have strayed too far from that. I can't wait for kirkman and carey to be off those books and Jeph Loeb should be limited to his Ultimates 3 and Ultimatum stories. No ultimates 4 for him, although issue 2 of ultimates 3 wasn't that bad except for a few b-movie dialogues and joe madureira drawing everyone like their 616 counterparts

[togeteiku42]

1) BEAST. I absolutely HATE Kirkman's Beast Plot. I mean seriously WTF? Here's a former member who was killed and mourned,was buried by Cyclops and wolverine, made storm almost lose her mind and the reaction to him being alive is absolutely terrible from his teammates. I thought Jean and cyclops saw him in issue #89 while Storm was in a coma? No one has screamed, no one is shocked and Beast's dialogue is flat out bad. It doesn't even sound like Henry Mccoy. No big words, no quotes, no flashes of Brilliance and intellect and Larrocca draws him without his large feet and hands. And for him and storm to just jump into a relationship debunks most of the character development on storm constructed by the brilliant Brian K. Vaughan. I do miss his Ult. x-men badly



Maybe someone after Kirkman can write out Beast by having him end up being a version of the sentinal robots made by SHEILD to keep an eye on the x-men.

[Prime24]

The previews for ultimate Spider-man justifies my point. i couldn't help but fall in love with the first 3 pages depicting Peter parker, kong, and mary jane.
character development driving the plot not the other way around. Honestly we haven't had anything like that in ultimate x-men in the past year. Why is Kirkman's work so bad in UXM but great in Invincible?

[Sonicjuce]

I really don't think Kirkman has done as awful a job as everyone makes out. He started very poorly, but I think he has turned his run around. I think people are quick to blame the inability to keep UXM seperate from 616 on Kirkman. Heck Spider-Man at times has not seemed the slightest bit diffrent. I think people need to back off the Kirkman hate for a second.

[Omega Alpha]

I really don't think Kirkman has done as awful a job as everyone makes out. He started very poorly, but I think he has turned his run around. I think people are quick to blame the inability to keep UXM seperate from 616 on Kirkman. Heck Spider-Man at times has not seemed the slightest bit diffrent. I think people need to back off the Kirkman hate for a second.

Or... they don't. I think that the fact Kirkman is acclaimed for almost all his other work made critics go a little soft on him. His work is in the level of Way or Hudlin, but he gets a pass often because people like The Walking Dead or Invincible. The guy turned the book into exactly what it was trying to avoid: 90's X-men (and he admitted so), and with all the convoluted mess, poor characterization, terrible plots that never end, etc.

[bbmakdaddycomics]

Or... they don't. I think that the fact Kirkman is acclaimed for almost all his other work made critics go a little soft on him. His work is in the level of Way or Hudlin, but he gets a pass often because people like The Walking Dead or Invincible. The guy turned the book into exactly what it was trying to avoid: 90's X-men (and he admitted so), and with all the convoluted mess, poor characterization, terrible plots that never end, etc.

not ot mention sinister may be apocolypse, WTF hopefull y the next author will ignore everything about kirkmans run except for beast coming back. beast can still be saved too, even storm can be saved i lo ve storm but kirkman is really killing her, in the begining she was a bad ass who created thunderstorms in peoples intestines now she like whatever.

[Angelus II]

8) BISHOP AND CABLE. I cant wait for bishop and cable to get the heck out of the book and we should say good riddance to time-travel. the book is also suffering from bishop's overexposure. a guy comes from the future, creates portals that that transports you across the world and everyone just says...cool. Nobody freaks out? Mind you the beast should be astonished at this sort of technology but kirkman's version of beast is as dum as they get



This is the source of the problem. It was to soon to bring these two into the story.

[Angelus II]

I don't see the point of the Cable stroyline. Kirkman started one idea that was some what good (the return of the Hellfire club) and never complete it.
Whan exactly does Cable fit in or why Kirkman decide to ditch one idea and start a new one is just below me.

[sugarmanandrobin]

2) PYRO. what is he doing in this book? there better be a major plot for him in this arc otherwise...very bad ultimization of the character so far .And this is after his brilliant performance in the X-men movies as Iceman's main antagonist


6) NIGHTCRAWLER. I like where Kirkman is going with the Morlock angle but I said it before in a preview post, there is no way a 14-year old Nightcrawler(that was his age the last time i checked) will waltz in to an underground mutant camp, defeat the leader and become boss. It's not like there was a prophecy of his coming or something. He's not Harry Potter or the Avatar.



These are the only points in which I disagree. And not because they're great or strong character/plot choices for a writer to make. But that was my biggest problem with Ultimate X-men/Ultimate U to begin with. It should have just been called Marvel: Extreme. For the most part, I keep waiting for the Watcher to come out and say, "WHAT IF Mountain Dew sponsored the Marvel Universe?"

However these two deviations were nice. I was surprised they waited so long to add Pyro in. But I've always thought he'd be much cooler playing for the good guys. His power is to basically exacerbate one of the most destructive forces of nature. Making him a good guy (kind of) gives him tremendous potential as a character. As opposed to 616 where he died of the legacy virus two or three times.

Nightcrawler may be young...but he was killing people in his Ultimate debut. He's fourteen and a hardass. Like Hannah Montana. Except more homicidalier. But I agree, I don't know about his whole King of the Freaks status. Just boring more than anything. How many times can an X-Man assume leadership of the Morlocks, in this or any other Marvel U?

[HaroldAllnut]

Although I'm a Kirkman fan, I immediately lost interest early in his run on UXM when he invented a character. INVENTED A COMPLETELY NEW FRIGGIN' CHARACTER. Magician? I love Kirkman, but the point of the Ultimate Universe is merely to give today's talent a way to reinvent/reimagine already created material and characters, not to bring in entirely new creations!

I used to subscribe to UXM, but that was back in the early Millar days, when I was in middle school. I was wondering if Marvel has announced the creative team that will come after Kirkman and Larrocca? I've been thinking of returning to the Ultimate Universe.

[carabas]

I don't see the point of the Cable stroyline. Kirkman started one idea that was some what good (the return of the Hellfire club) and never complete it.
Whan exactly does Cable fit in or why Kirkman decide to ditch one idea and start a new one is just below me.He's doing that old-fashioned thing where you can have more than one long-running plotlines in the air at once. Claremont made the X-Men the X-Men with that sort of writing.

[MrPunch0]

Like Hannah Montana. Except more homicidalier.

:D HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHa

[Obsidian Thought]

I disagree, I think the UU needs to be more about creating brand-new, original characters and stories. Re-imagining is always fun to see but it can get tired real fast; the UU needs to start taking some risks and make a complete break from 616 stuff. I mean, isn't that what everybody seems to be helplessly crying and moaning about nowadays? How the UU is too much like 616?

I for one want them to play with some ideas and see what happens. A true writer can always repair damage done to a comic book if he or she is good. UX isn't beyond repair IMO; UX doesn't sound like it's abysmal but just suffering from poor character development. I haven't picked up an UX since "Return of the King" but that's not because of the writing, story, etc., my interests have just been elsewhere. UX just needs a refreshing, creative breeze to blow the dry leaves away. I swear though, the way most people cry about Loeb, (whom I'm not familiar with) it makes me uneasy about the UU as a whole.

[ThePhenom]

A true writer can always repair damage done to a comic book if he or she is good.

Unfortunately many believe that the damage has been in play for so long than Ultimatum might end UXM, effectively turning the damage into death.

[MattXG]

I don't see the point of the Cable stroyline. Kirkman started one idea that was some what good (the return of the Hellfire club) and never complete it.
Whan exactly does Cable fit in or why Kirkman decide to ditch one idea and start a new one is just below me.
Cable Arc removed Xavier from the picture. Which opened the door for the new team. It also was the opener for his master storyline (Apocalypse).

How can you NOT understand what the point of the Cable storyline is? Are you mentally challenged?

[G. Wayne]

Or... they don't. I think that the fact Kirkman is acclaimed for almost all his other work made critics go a little soft on him. His work is in the level of Way or Hudlin, but he gets a pass often because people like The Walking Dead or Invincible. The guy turned the book into exactly what it was trying to avoid: 90's X-men (and he admitted so), and with all the convoluted mess, poor characterization, terrible plots that never end, etc.

I'm the other way around. I dropped UXM two or three issues into Kirkman's run, and I ended up with such a bad taste from it I don't think I'll ever pick up Invincible.