NB of the Week

Ultimate X-Men  #13 - Born Free
The Ultimate Universe is a little hard to follow right now. Things are every which way now-a-days with X-Men struggling the most. Nick Spencer came on with the new launch and set up a newer (sorta) premise: the world has found out that mutants were created by the government. Thanks to that and the massacre that Magneto created (with Ultimatum which tilted Earth's axis and killed at least three bazillion people including Wolverine, Cyclops, Magneto and Xavier), mutants can be shot on sight if they refuse to be taken into custody (and sent to containment camps which sounds totally awesome and not like Nazis at all). There were fights and arguing and Storm cut her hair off. The book wasn't badly written, just not really moving forward to anything. Until Brian Wood took over this issue.
Kitty Pryde is tired. Tired of running, of hiding, of being the target of violence and death. Her, Johnny Storm, Bobby Drake, Rogue and Jimmy Hudson (son of Wolverine) have a small sanctuary in the sewers for mutants and Kitty Pryde wants a "normal" life again. Kitty Pryde is revealing herself. Kitty Pryde is done running from her life. Kitty Pryde just became the biggest badass in the Ultimate mutant world. Leaving their code-names behind, Kitty Pryde is about to lead the revolution for mutant freedom. Giving the others armbands with the X-Men's X on them, we get her hope for their future:
"We'll put them on later. And then every day after until all mutants are free. And then, once that happens, we won't need to wear them ever again. Just you wait and see. And on that day, we'll truly be free."
Brian Wood has in one issue given this title a clear voice. Here's what the characters face and here's what they're gonna do to stop it. Couldn't be more simple and yet I'm actually excited to see what happens and how they get there. For a while now, the Ultimate Universe has been about Spider-Man first, Avengers second, everybody else third. I'm not saying that Ultimate X-Men is going to suddenly become the flagship book but I do have hope that this could bring it up to the same level as those other two and I'm excited to read how Brian Wood plans on doing that.