Ultimate X-Men Wears Its Horror Manga Influences Proudly

Ultimate X-Men #1 Cover

Marvel’s ambitious relaunch of the Ultimate Universe continues to expand with the Ultimate X-Men by Peach Momoko and translated by Zack Davisson. As opposed to conventional superhero stories like other series launches in the resurgent Ultimate Marvel line, Ultimate X-Men leans heavily into Japanese horror to great effect.

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The Ultimate Universe relaunch focuses on a world reimagined by the Maker, the villainous Reed Richards from the original iteration of the Ultimate Universe, without its usual superheroes. However, destiny finds a way of reasserting itself, with teenager Hisako Ichiki developing her mutant powers to become the hero Armor in her native Japan. Here’s how Ultimate X-Men stands proud and distinct from the other Ultimate Marvel relaunches by incorporating horror manga influences in Momoko’s daring redefinition of what an X-Men story can be.

Reintroducing the Ultimate X-Men

A monster attacking a girl. This image is part of an article about how Ultimate X-Men Wears Its Horror Manga Influences Proudly.

As different as Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate Black Panther repositioned their respective mythos, they’re still fundamentally superhero stories, if a bit postmodern in their execution. Ultimate X-Men plays out like a horror story that just happens to have a protagonist with superpowers. The wider links to the Ultimate Universe aren’t apparent just yet, focused on Hisako facing an otherworldly menace preying on her classmates and discovering her burgeoning powers.

From the panic in the characters’ eyes to the way this monstrous entity surfaces, Momoko evokes the master of manga horror, Junji Ito, with her own pacing and the disturbing nature of the artwork. Ultimate X-Men never veers into as visceral and terrifying as Ito’s work can get, but there is an unsettling nature to the story and presentation that will catch the uninitiated off-guard.

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This really underscores how versatile the new Ultimate Universe has been, from Ultimate Spider-Man redefining the character for the millennial generation to Ultimate Black Panther providing a balance of Marvel Cinematic Universe elements with usual comic book depictions of Wakanda, all under its creative team’s unique storytelling lens. The Ultimate Universe isn’t all under a single flavor and adds more variety to the expanding tapestry that highlights how malleable superhero comics can be.

Ultimate X-Men’s Manga Influences

A girl hearing voices. This image is part of an article about how Ultimate X-Men Wears Its Horror Manga Influences Proudly

It also speaks to Momoko’s own creative strengths and sensibilities, with her past work often blending Marvel characters with traditional Japanese art styles and folklore elements, particularly with her Demon Days miniseries. The way that Momoko draws the villain in the piece, with its intentionally messy and smudged presentation and color-inverted dialogue bubbles, is very evocative of Ito and his contemporaries’ work, with the way Momoko plays with color very much in her own wheelhouse compared to traditionally black and white manga. 

Momoko has explored Japanese transpositions of the X-Men before, but as standalone stories rather than one interconnected with a wider superhero universe. The links between the various relaunched Ultimate Marvel titles have yet to visibly materialize, making the prospect of seeing how such a unique world connects to something like Ultimate Spider-Man. The new Ultimate Universe is not beholden to a single sensibility but one that’s vibrantly diverse and distinct. This ties into the X-Men’s own extensive history with the Land of the Rising Sun but reimagined in new ways.

With characters like Silver Samurai and Sunfire among the familiar faces from the established X-Men mythos in prominent roles in the Ultimate Universe, additional classic elements from the X-Men are sure to be incorporated into the series as it progresses. Momoko has a surprisingly robust bench of elements to draw from in this pocket of the Marvel Universe, and she’s playing a slow burn in building what is quickly shaping up to be an important part of the Ultimate Universe saga moving forward.

The Ultimate Universe is back, and it is increasingly apparent that it’s not just more of the same. Ultimate X-Men captures that fresh direction more than any other title so far in the publishing line. Momoko imbues the familiar characters with her storytelling strengths right from the beginning, wearing her influences proudly on her sleeves as she eases herself into a larger creative sandbox. Readers should be very excited about where Momoko takes Marvel’s Merry Mutants next.

Ultimate X-Men #1 is available now.

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Author
Sam Stone
Sam Stone is a longtime entertainment news journalist and columnist, covering everything from movies and television to video games and comic books. Sam also has bylines at CBR, Popverse, Den of Geek, GamesRadar+, and Marvel.com. Sam remembers what restful sleep was. But that was a long time ago.