What was so bad about Ultimate X-men?

[TheLazy]

I've just re-read Millars initial run on UXM, and I cant see why people think that he was the books worst writer. To be honest Id say he was the books best writer. He helped establish a strong Ultimate continuity and develop nice twists on classic characters. Now maybe he did throw a few duds like proteus, but compared to a great arcs like return to weapon X and Return of the King, I think these are reletively negatable

thoughts?

:)

[Thorlief]

I don't think Millar was the worst writer..actually, I think lots of us think his run was the best of the serie. Cool action, excellent pencils, witty dialogues,,,it was funny. I basically stopped buying it when he left

[Roons]

I wasn't away anyone thought that Millar's run was the worst, I think it's still the best run on the book so far.

[Guybrush]

After Beast told his internet girlfriend (Who was actually Blob) that Magneto is alive I couldn't take the book serious anymore, that is probably while I don't mind most of the stuff that happen. For me its just 1 big parody.

[Gargus]

I loved UXM when it first started, I liked what millar did alot. It actually felt kind of new and different while still being a X title.

Once millar left it started going downhill, it took a big dip down when bendis wrote a little, then when kirkman took over it was the worst it had been. When he was writing it was just a soap opera of who is f'ing who.

I dont even buy it anymore. Im quitting UFF to when this arc is over. It started slow but picked up (again thanks to millar mostly) and now it went right down the crapper after that pitiful excuse for a thanos story.

But I never always disliked UXM, I just do now and have for awhile.

[Neptunicus]

I for one also thought Millar's run was the best and the writing has been good on the title until recently.....

[Mister Mets]

I don't think Millar's run was universally despised. There were some long-time fans who didn't liek the revamp, but it sold insanely well.

I don't recall many people ranking Bendis or Kirkman's run above it, so I don't think he's really considered the book's worst writer.

It is worth noting that Millar has topped his Ultimate X-men work his Ultimates book, and Wolverine run, and now believes that it was a mistake to stay on the book for more than twelve issues.

[rwsmith]

I think you've heard wrong. Millar's run was the best IMO, and it went steadily downhill from there.

Millar > Bendis > Vaughan > Kirkman

[Toboe]

I don't think anyone thinks he was the book's worst writer, that's a title Robert Kirkman has won without doubt.
I quite liked Millar's initial run and his new take on the characters and concepts. However all his villians were just plain one-dimensional, especially Proteus, some ideas like machines evolving to create zombies were just laughable and there were massive plot holes from time to time, especially in the Hellfire and Brimstone arc.
Even though, his writing was entertaining, especially in the first three arcs, and helped establish the Ultimate Universe as it is.

[Omega Alpha]

What? Millar is the most acclaimed writer on the title. Kirkman is considered to be the worse almost unanimously.

[streator]

i've only read the first hardcover of ultimate x-men (issues 1-12) and i thought it was alright.

i too would say that it doesn't appear to be that millar's run is considered the worst around here.

[Xany Kaos]

Yeah. Millar was pretty fantastic. He actually made me like Cyclops. Because, y'know, Millar's Cyclops had a personality and all.

[The Foreigner]

*raises hand*

I thought Millar's run was the worst of UXM.

I only read the first few issues of Kirkman's run, thought it was terribly boring, and gave up. So maybe he's worse, but either way...

When it comes to Millar's UXM though, I'll admit I dig the first arc. It's nutty and stupid, but fun in places, and enjoyable enough.

After that, things get frightingly boring.

ICool action

Never liked any of the action scenes in UXM. Millar can do action; his Ultimates fights scenes are brilliantly choreographed, as was his work on Wolverine and Spider-Man. The guy can write action, but I didn't find it in UXM (Except, like I said, the first arc had some cool bits, like Cyclops blowing Quicksilver from the car with his optic blast).

excellent pencils,

I'm not a big fan of the Kubert brothers to begin with, but I thought some of the art in Return to Weapon X was downright awful. The art was spotty at best, generally not my cup of tea.

witty dialogues

Ech. Millar's dialogue was atrocious, and far from witty. I recall Jean bragging that Hank knew the "square root of a million"... is that supposed to be impressive? Every character talked the same, including Xavier and Magneto. I swear, every line was a one-liner or clever quip. Not a distinct personality in the bunch, I just hated it. It's honestly hard for me to believe it's the same guy that wrote such distinct and well balanced characters within The Ultimates.

Now, Brian K. Vaughan's run was just brilliant, which is funny because I avoided his trades for the longest time because I hated how thin each of the trades were, and I had never heard of the guy.

When I finally read his run, though, I was amazed at the insanely cool plot twists he created (Ultimate Longshot was great, Magnetic North was wonderfully crafted), the excellent villains (Ultimate Magneto was actually interesting for once!), the unique characters (He worked wonders with Dazzler), the clever dialogue (There were several laugh-out-loud moments for me), and finally, just the overall feel of the book-- It felt like a family of teenagers who loved each other, laughed together, and fought together (and each other on occasion).

Millar's run consisted of a team of commando's spouting one-liners and flexing their muscles. Snooze.

Controversial, maybe, but I loathed Millar's run and adored Vaughan's with a fiery passion (His two UXM hardcovers are two of my most read trades).

I enjoyed Bendis' run, as well, but mainly for 5 reasons: 1) The Wolvy/Spidey team up was a fluff piece of action that didn't belong in UXM, but it was undeniably fun, 2) The lovely one-shot with Wolvy being sent to kill the kid who discovers his powers for the first time, 3) The introduction of Angel issue, which was beautiful and wonderfully self-contained, and 4) The final battle with the Sentinel, which David Finch absolutely NAILED. Besides that, it's typical hit and miss Bendis, with occasional bits of great dialogue, and the rest being overlong, convulted conversation that he thinks sounds "real."

I do own the hardcover, the last reason being that it sets up Vaughan's run so well (A lesser writer would not have been able to balance the insane amount of new characters, concepts, and story threads that Bendis introduced, but BKV was brilliant in this capacity-- It's a shame Kirkman couldn't follow suit, Vaughan left absolute gold for him, but Kirkman has totally buried many of those great concepts. Ah well).

Well there ya go. :)

[NevamindU]

I thought Vaughs run was the best on the UX by far....Millar and Kirkman are like in the same league.....

[Nick MB]

I think I preferred both Bendis and Vaughan to Millar, but Millar wasn't bad. It annoyed me a bit that all Millar's characters spoke almost exactly the same. I know he has a distinctive dialogue style, but at least in Ultimates and other series you can tell the difference.
Aside from that, it was kinda fun. But a bit generic and never made that leap from entertaining to really great and memorable.