Peach Momoko will lead Marvel's Ultimate X-Men
A new era for mutants begins in March
Today at New York Comic Con, Marvel revealed their initial slate of new Ultimate Universe titles, with the previously announced Ultimate Spider-Man, an ongoing Ultimate Black Panther, and excitingly, an ongoing Ultimate X-Men by Peach Momoko launching on March 6, 2023. The series will be written and drawn by Momoko, delivering what promises to be a unique vision of mutantkind in the all-new Ultimate Universe line of comics.
Momoko rose to fame with gorgeously detailed, lush cover work, before building her own corner of Marvel in the Demon Days Universe, a series of interconnected one-shots that began with 2021's Demon Days: X-Men. As Demon Days readers know, Momoko is no stranger to reinventing Marvel's merry mutants, in gorgeous work that translates Wolverine into a literal wolf and Storm into a god-child (what's up late 80's Chris Claremont inspired ideas!). Demon Days is one of Marvel's most visually distinct works of the 2020s, and Momoko's presence in the Ultimate Universe feels like an inspired breath of fresh air.
During the early 2000's launch of Ultimate X-Men as the second title in the original Ultimate Universe, writer Mark Millar and artist Andy Kubert established a world that very much feared and hated mutantkind, with Magneto firmly cemented as the universe's greatest terrorist threat all the way through 2009's Ultimatum. At this point, it's unclear exactly how mutants will fit into a remade Ultimate Universe, but there are indications that mutants are in positions of power throughout the world. In Ultimate Invasion, we've seen Emmanuel De Costa (Roberto De Costa's father), Colossus, Illyana Rasputin, Omega Red, and Sunfire as members of a global collective organized by the Maker designed to control worldwide events and perspectives.
Nonetheless, Momoko will have the opportunity to define how mutants are understood, and which characters made it into the Maker's brave new world. The vast majority of popular X-Men characters have not been seen yet in the pages of Ultimate Invasion, and no known mutants were included as part of the Maker's efforts to control the rise of known supeheroes in his remade world experiment. This leaves Momoko with a blank tapestry for the likes of a new Ultimate Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Professor X, Magneto and on and on.
It'll be exciting to see what Momoko has in store for Ultimate X-Men, just as it's thrilling to see Marvel exploring newer talented creators to build ther new Ultimate Universe.
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