My interest in Ultimate X-Men has waned considerably, mostly because I think it can't touch the work that Morrison has done with New X-Men, but this being a new arc, I wanted to check in and see Bendis shift gears out of "The Ultimate Universe starring Wolverine and friends." It is undeniably a character piece, the kind of thing Bendis excels at, as he introduces the Ultimate version of Angel, and I'm reminded in tone much more of Bendis's work on Ultimate Spider-Man. Though the story definitely has an X-Men flavor to it, the central themes of the upsides and downsides of being a teenage super-hero provide the strong core of this story, and the result is a pretty interesting take on one of the X-Men's founding members as well as some interesting insight into Storm and Beast, among others.
In terms of artwork, Ultimate X-Men #40 is also pretty impressive, as David Finch and Art Thibert provide artwork that looks nothing like the Top Cow style that I've generally associated with Finch's work. Certainly Finch gets plenty of mileage out of the heavenly appearance of Angel - it's not impossible for artists to make a guy with wings look cool, but it's also hardly a universal skill. Finch captures the dichotomy of this weird, religious imagery that Angel projects and the scared teenage personality that lurks inside that frame very well. He also does a fantastic rendition of the other X-Men, and though his take on Storm and Jean Grey looks a little more traditional than Ultimate to me, they're both beautifully drawn.
As always when you're talking about Bendis, you also have to take into account whether or not the artist is equipped to handle his talky style. Finch does a terrific job of keeping things interesting even when there's little more than subtle head movements or hidden emotional reactions (like the Beast's reaction to hearing about Angel's crush on Storm). Bendis, of course, makes those moments happen with his dialogue, and whether you're a fan or not, it's hard not to credit Bendis with some of the best dialogue in comics. Though there's an affected style to the speech, it also makes the characters feel real and human. The comparisons that have been made to David Mamet and Aaron Sorkin, two other dialogue stylists who generally do exceptional characterization, are not unearned.
Amidst this fairly emotional story of a cast-off child coming to a new home, Bendis mixes in a fair amount of humor. Rogue's clumsy attempts to integrate religious belief with mutant appearance results in some very funny moments between her and Nightcrawler, and I continue to love the sort of online fanboy mentality that Beast developed during Millar's run. Beyond being funny, though, the issue also has a lot of heart, and the conversation between Storm and Angel is just a great examination of the dream that has always driven the X-Men, the sort of tolerance and change-the-world attitude that represents the thematic strength of the book.
While Ultimate X-Men has been sort of lacking in strong villains during Bendis's run, making for action that is generally inconsequential (if sometimes impressive), my larger complaint about the first arc was that it felt like an Ultimate Team-Up story that had been shoehorned into the X-Men book. That complaint doesn't seem to apply to the "New Mutants" arc thus far, and while I'm still wondering if we're going to get any of the kind of impressive punch-ups that Millar delivered in his time on the book, I can't deny that the characterization has shifted into a more impressive level since Bendis came onboard.
