But when it comes down to it, this second issue of Ultimate Comics X-Men just feels more focused and delivers a tighter narrative than last month's installment. Hopefully, Spencer can keep this up, finding a way to balance pre-established continuity and accessibility to deliver a happy medium for all types of readers. Read Full Review

Overall there's a lot of potential here; Spencer and Medina could be a formidable team. Reading this issue, one can only hope that they're still just finding their stride. There's definitely time for them to turn this around and make this book into something special rather than just superhero business as usual. Read Full Review

By no means under the radar but perhaps still somewhat overlooked, Marvel's Ultimate line got its own complete set of number one issues last month la DC's New 52 -- an almost-too-coincidental-to-be-true attempt at tweaking its product to appeal to new or lapsed readers. Conducted on a much smaller scale than the competition's onslaught, the Ultimate Comics relaunch may have been, on the whole, a better executed effort than DC's at starting everything afresh. Brian Bendis certainly succeeded in snatching both headlines and sales dollars with the Miles Morales-fronted Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, while Jonathan Hickman set up The Ultimates as the perfect jumping-on point for anyone who saw a Marvel movie this summer. Read Full Review

Can't I go six damn months without a damn Stryker in one of the goddamn X-books?! The Purifiers are a group that can be interesting, but in SMALL doses! I mean seriously, since M-Day, they seem to be butting heads with the 616 X-teams every other month. Read Full Review