Stones have already been thrown at the glass house of "Ultimatum," but regardless of what happened there, more stories have presented themselves. One of those stories is right here, focusing on the surviving members of the X-Men and their choices about what to do with Xavier's dream. The story focuses on a rather unusual clutch of characters, as the Ultimate X-Men are incomparable to any other team of X-Men being published today.
Without spoiling the lineup or any of the casualties, I can say that some X-Men who are dead elsewhere are still drawing breath here and still making decisions that will forever impact the Ultimate Universe that evolves from the after effects of "Ultimatum." Coleite does a great job of presenting believable characters grief struck and unsure of their own futures. The story here doesn't dwell on a retelling of what happened in "Ultimatum." We only receive a very brief, high-level explanation of what occurred and what remains. The focus here is on the next. What happens now to these X-Men? Who will oppose them? Who will help them? The answers are not surprising, but they are certainly interesting. Coleite's tale made me care about not only these X-Men, but the entire Ultimate Universe more than I have since the first year of "Ultimate X-Men."
Oliver's drawings and Delgado's coloring of this issue certainly added to my enjoyment of this tale. The end result is very detailed, very realistic characters, akin to the work of Gene Ha, but with a great deal more action. Oliver also uses a liberal amount of silhouettes, evoking emotion. The downside to the silhouettes, however, is evident when the two characters who share very similar silhouettes square off against each other. The following panels straighten things out rather quickly though.
Between this issue and Carlos Pacheco drawing the "Ultimate Avengers," my curiosity is piqued. I might not be subscribing to any "Ultimate" titles any time soon, but I'll certainly be flipping through them on new comic day to see how things shape up from here.