Comic Book / Ultimate X-Men (2001)

Same great X-Men taste, fewer continuity woes.

"I've long held the opinion that the only guarantee in a confrontation between man and mutant is extinction on both sides. That's why I escaped here and formed this little school. And why it was so essential that I found you before he [Magneto] did. Make no mistake, children: we're here to stop a war."

— Charles Xavier

Ultimate X-Men is a reboot of the X-Men franchise in the Ultimate Marvel line of comics. As Mark Millar was not familiar with the X-Men when he started writing the series, he based the initial premise on the recent X-Men film, mainly the initial cast and the leather suits. There are four main factions in the setting. The Brotherhood of Mutant Supremacy, led by Magneto, a violent terrorist group that aims to kill all humans and replace them as the dominant species on planet Earth. The X-Men, led by Xavier, aim instead for pacific coexistence between humans and mutants. Humans are not a unified front either: some of them want to kill all mutants, and others to stay in good terms with the X-Men while keeping the Brotherhood under control.

The X-Men kept close ties with the other Ultimate comics. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, from the Brotherhood, became part of The Ultimates, also created by Mark Millar and following plotlines introduced in the X-Men's second arc. Kitty Pryde became the girlfriend of Ultimate Spider-Man for a time. The team also had a team-up miniseries with the Ultimate Fantastic Four.

The miniseries Ultimate Origins revealed that, unlike the usual X-Men premise, mutants are not a result of natural evolution, but a disease caused by nanobots that rewrite people's DNA and give them powers. However, this was a secret only known by Nick Fury, who kept it that way because he thought that The World Is Not Ready for such a reveal.

Ultimatum, with Magneto causing worldwide disasters, was the first Crisis Crossover in the Ultimate universe. It was a story that killed most mutants on both sides, including the four "sacred cows" of the franchise: Xavier, Magneto, Wolverine and Cyclops. Mutants thus had no leadership, of either side. The mansion was abandoned and destroyed. The human reaction to mutants was no longer divided: now it was openly hostile to mutants, who were to be killed on sight just for being mutants. And worse, the big secret finally came into the open for everyone. In this new context, Quicksilver tried to create a new Brotherhood, Jean Grey tried to recruit some mutants for a new X-Men team (one of them being Jimmy Hudson, Wolverine's son), and the rest were hiding in the sewers. The US fell into a Second American Civil War, with Sentinels taking part of the country; the X-Men go out of hiding to destroy them. By the end of the war, President Steve Rogers grants them a small territory to establish their own nation, Utopia. Jean Grey took over the foreign nation of Tian, and waged war against Utopia to absorb them. However, Utopia prevailed.

The comic ended before Cataclysm: The Ultimates' Last Stand, and had a tie-in with that event where the team gets lost in a pocket dimension with Rick Jones and the Gah-Lak-Tus swarm. Brian Michael Bendis, writer of All-New X-Men (set in the regular Marvel Universe) wrote an arc where the time-displaced X-Men are moved into the Ultimate universe and meet both Miles Morales and the Ultimate X-Men.

The Ultimate universe was destroyed during Secret Wars (2015), but Jimmy Hudson became a Canon Immigrant into the regular universe, becoming a member of the X-Men: Blue.

In 2023, it was announced that Ultimate X-Men would be part of the relaunched Ultimate universe following Jonathan Hickman’s Ultimate Invasion, which served as a complete Continuity Reboot. Ultimate X-Men (2024), written and drawn by Peach Momoko, features Armor as the main protagonist.

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Tropes:

Ultimate X-Men

• 10-Minute Retirement:
  • Phoenix, after she destroys Apocalypse. She's back in the very next issue due to a change in writers.
  • Also Dazzler, who leaves the original team due to the shenanigans involving Nightcrawler stalking and kidnapping her, only to be brought back a handful of issues later on Bishop's team.
• Aborted Arc:
  • After a few issues, Bishop states that in the future he and Psylocke will be married. He's killed an issue and a half later and these claims are never elaborated upon.
  • During Mark Millar's run on the comic, it was hinted that Xavier and Magneto were actually working together, with Magneto possibly playing up his supervillain persona to make the X-Men look more heroic and to showcase mutants' military potential so that Xavier would have something to leverage when trying to obtain rights for mutants. When Millar left the book, this plot thread was ignored by the other writers.
• The Ace: Magician is more ripped than Bobby, formulates a plan to take out the Brotherhood and has enough people skills that in front of the cameras he fixes the X-Men's reputation. Within 24 hours after joining the X-Men. However, it turns out that his power is that he's a semi-conscious Reality Warper, so reality restructured itself around his desire to be The Ace.
• Adaptation Name Change:
  • While revealed elsewhere, Blob's first name went from "Fred" to "Franklin". And he doesn't have a known surname (the 616 one's is Dukes).
  • Rogue's name is Marian Carlyle (616's Anna Marie's surname has never been revealed).
  • As Proteus in a Composite Character of his classic counterpart and Legion, he retains the latter's first name of David. However, as Professor Xavier and Moira MacTaggert, unlike the classic Xavier and Gabrielle Haller, were married when they had him, he has Xavier's last name.
• Adaptation Species Change:
  • Both John Wraith and Doug Ramsey are humans, not mutants.
  • Juggernaut's a mutant.^note In the 616 continuity he's a normal human empowered by a mystical artifact.
  • Instead of being aliens from another dimension, Mojo's a human and Longshot is a mutant. Spiral is also a mutant, too, instead of a mutated human.
  • Lilandra is a human, with the Shi'ar being a Phoenix-worshipping religion.
• Adaptational Badass: Moira MacTaggert gains the ability of a supersonic scream while, at that time in the mainsteam universe, she is just a normal human...
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • While Professor X himself is case of Adaptational Jerkass (being a Dirty Old Man who uses his powers to amuse himself and to manipulate others, lusts after his female students, and amounted his love for his son to an owner of a pet), his becoming Onslaught was the result of Cable (here the future counterpart of Wolverine) fixing his spine, giving him armor, and training him to prevent a Bad Future ruled by Apocalypse, as opposed to Magneto's dark side fusing with Xavier's repressed anger and becoming a split personality bent on taking over the world.
  • A straighter example is the UXM adaptation of Emma Frost. 616 Emma started out as a sadistic Rich Bitch whose evil deeds made her the X-Men's preeminent villainess before her Heel–Face Turn in the '90s and decades-long redemption arc (and thanks to her abusive relationship with Cyclops, even at the end her redemption is questionable). This Emma, on the other hand, is infinitely less sadistic, is in fact an Actual Pacifist, and never engages in any kind of mind games or intimate psychic tampering like 616 Emma did with/to Scott. The result is an unambiguously heroic Emma who, sadly, was among the hundreds of UXM characters pointlessly killed off in the shock-for-shocks-sake event Ultimatum.
  • UXM's adaptation of Pyro started out as one of these, being a much more sympathetic character who was a Minion with an F in Evil and even joined the X-Men after proving his new heroism by helping other mutants. Unfortunately, while Pyro survived the events of Ultimatum, a Fate Worse than Death at the hands of writers awaited him when during The Ultimates 3 he experienced steep Adaptational Jerkass and transformed from a decent guy into a leering wannabe-rapist, something 616 Pyro wasn't even at his worst. Mercifully, he was Killed Off for Real shortly after.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Shown so much with the X-Men that there's a reason why the page quote is a Cluster F-Bomb by Spider-Man where he calls them a bunch of assholes and said their being assholes, and not Fantastic Racism, was the real reason that people hated them. Professor Xavier used his powers for his own amusement, said his love for his son was that of a pet owner for said pet, and was one of the creators of the Banshee drug with Magneto — made from Wolverine's blood; Wolverine had a thing for teenaged girls, was originally The Mole for Magneto to kill Xavier, and even tried to murder Cyclops so he could be with Jean; Jean herself Took a Level in Jerkass after Ultimatum and even before that, she frequently read people's minds without their permission and her "Freaky Friday" Flip involving an unknowing Spider-Man to get back at Wolverine is why Peter dropped the Cluster F-Bomb; Colossus was an (albeit unwilling) arms dealer for The Mafiya; Dazzler was a rougher, more rebellious Lady Swears-a-Lot; and Nightcrawler was a while a stalker towards Dazzler and homophobic to Colossus.
  • Magneto is outright genocidal, as opposed to the mostly-noble Magneto of Earth-616.
  • Prior to his Face–Heel Turn turn in Ultimates 3, Pyro was a case of Adaptational Heroism, being a hero and member of the X-Men. Ultimates 3 made him this by having him express an interest in raping Valkyrie, something the classic Pyro never once did.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Colossus is gay instead of straight.
• Adaptational Superpower Change:
  • Emma Frost doesn't have her psychic abilities, instead using her diamond form.
  • Colossus's real mutant power in this universe is just having metallic skin, he naturally lacks the strength to move in it and needed the Fantastic Drug banshee in order to boost his mutation.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are willing members of the Brotherhood, as opposed to being forcibly recruited (though they do turn on Magneto, and Xavier "nudges" them into better behaviour before they join the Ultimates).
  • John Wraith is the head of the Weapon X project, instead of one of its victims.
  • Longshot, Forge, and Multiple Man are members of the Brotherhood.
  • Moira MacTaggart manufacturers drugs and sells it to kids, to fund her research.
• Adapted Out: While Professor Xavier and Moira MacTaggert had feelings for each other in the classic universe, they ultimately had relationships with other people and had children with them. In combining said children, Legion (Xavier's son) and Proteus (Moira's son) into the Ultimate version of Proteus, this resulted in writing out Gabrielle Haller (Legion's mother) and Joseph MacTaggert (Proteus's father).
• All According to Plan: Xavier, repeatedly through Millar's run, manages to plan for pretty much everything. Somehow.
• Always Someone Better: The Ultimates. Most encounters with the team result in the X-Men on the receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle.
• Ascended Fan Boy / Heroic Wannabe: Pyro.
• Back from the Dead:
  • Mr. Sinister commits suicide in prison. He gets better.
  • Magneto seems to be killed at the end of the first arc. It was a ruse by Xavier, who brainwashed him and tried to rehabilitate him
  • Xavier seems to be killed by Cable in a big explosion. The corpse is even there! No, it was all a set up by Cable.
  • Beast appears to be killed by Sentinels. He was actually abducted by SHIELD
  • Angel dies for real, but Phoenix has the power to make him live again. Then he goes and gets killed again an issue later anyway.
  • Wraith seems to be killed by a helicopter, but he was actually saved.
• Bad Future: The "Cable" arc deals with one, caused by Apocalypse becoming manifest and taking over the Earth, helped by killing Professor X and taking his powers. Much of issues 75 through to 93 are about Bishop trying to prevent it. They succeed, thanks to a little Phoenix help.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: Jean against Phoenix, Storm against Shadow King
• Beard of Evil: Inverted with Magneto, who grows a beard shortly after Professor Xavier uses telepathic blocks to turn him into a normal law-abiding citizen. As soon as the blocks are removed and he reverts to his old villainous ways, he loses the beard.
• Betty and Veronica: Wolverine (Veronica, duh) and Cyclops (Betty) to Jean. In the end they're both killed off. She starts off dating Cyclops, falls for Wolverine and has sex with him, then when Logan turns out to be a dirtbag stays exclusively with Scott.
• Beware the Mind Reader: Much of the story's conflict is driven by the American government's complete distrust of Professor Xavier as the world's most powerful telepath with many thinking he brainwashed the President into accepting mutants and his X-Men. It's not helped by the fact this version of Xavier has no problem brainwashing friends and foe alike to suit his agenda and even members of the X-Men defect because of how much they feared Xavier was messing with their minds.
• Big Bad: Magneto is irreparably evil in this version, and very difficult to thwart. He's the main villain up until Ultimatum, not just for the X-Men, but the Ultimate universe as a whole.
• Big Bad Wannabe: The supercomputer that used to run the Utopia base evolved into an Ultron-like robot, planning to create a new race of droids and become the dominant species on Earth, above both humans and mutants... and it was destroyed when Kitty Pryde phased through it, without even realizing what she was doing.
• Body Horror: Dr. Cornelius inflicts this on himself so he becomes The Grotesque, made of cancerous Wolverine DNA
• Breaking the Fellowship: The team is shattered into pieces by Ultimatum, and those that are left (or not imprisoned) go their separate ways.
• Brother–Sister Incest: The Fenris twins are a nigh-identical brother and sister who are speculated to be... much closer than simple hand-holding. After being attacked by Rogue, Adreas flips out and declares that only Adrea can touch him.
• Burn Scars, Burning Powers: Pyro in this universe has several burn scars as a result of cauterization.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Quicksilver to Magneto. He gets two uzis unloaded on his shins for his trouble.
• Cannot Tell Fiction from Reality: A small girl sees Gambit playing magic tricks in the street, and asks him for help: she needs him to "use magic" to make her just killed mother live again. When Gambit replies that he can't, that he doesn't know that kind of magic, the girl asks him to locate some more powerful wizard. What about Dumbledore? Or Harry Potter? Why don't go the England and ask them for help? (yes, she really asks these things, and not being sarcastic. In fairness, she's a little kid.)
• Can't Use Stairs: The parapalegic Professor Xavier, as lampshaded by Mr. Sinister; Mister Sinister refers to stairs as "Charles Xavier's one weakness"◊ directly before dumping him out of his wheelchair and down some.
• Captain Ersatz
  • Given his backstory in this incarnation, Doug Ramsey is a younger version of Ken Jennings.
  • Cyclops temporarily becomes one of Superman under the influence of Banshee.
• Coattail-Riding Relative: Initially, the Beast's parents disown him for being a mutant. Later, when the X-Men have achieved fame and (temporary) renown, they return and claim they always loved him... after they've made millions writing a book about how they lovingly raised such a wonderful young mutant.
• Combat Cue Stick: Beast's introduction has him fighting off an anti-mutant racist who attacks him with a pool cue.
• Compelling Voice: Sinister, when he looks people straight in the eye.
• Composite Character: A few "Ultimate" versions of 616-X-Men are revealed as new versions of existing Ultimate characters. Specifically...
  • Ultimate Proteus (David Xavier) is a composite of 616-Proteus (Kevin MacTaggert) and Legion (David Haller). Though his powers are based on 616-Proteus, his personality is more in line with Legion, and his parentage is based on a combination of the two.
  • The Ultimate version of Lady Deathstrike is a Japanese thief who had some history with Storm, apparently borrowed from Earth-616's Yukio, who is close friends with Storm and has a past history as a thief alongside Gambit.
  • Cable is Future Wolverine
  • Sinister is combined with Apocalypse.
  • Firestar is Liz Allan (from Spider-Man), also making her a Transplant.
  • Sasquatch is Wolfsbane on a Super Serum. Likewise, Vindicator is John Wraith (a member of Weapon X) rather than James or Heather Hudson, making him both this and Decomposite Character as James is mentioned and he and Heather later appeared.
  • Banshee is Professor Moira MacTaggert using the Banshee serum.
  • William Stryker is both this and Decomposite Character as he's split into two characters. William, Sr. is based on the movie version of Stryker while William, Jr. is a younger version of the Sinister Minister of the classic comics. That said, the Composite Character comes into play as Reverend Stryker eventually shows traits of Master Mold
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Magneto was killed by Xavier in the first act... or so it seemed. Actually, Xavier staged the whole thing, brainwashed Magneto and tried to rehabilitate him. Things got wrecked when the Brotherhood discovers this and restore his mind. Everything that Magneto does from that point (from Ultimate War to Ultimatum) could have been avoided if Xavier did kill Magneto when he had the chance, and he was frequently called upon it.
• Covers Always Lie: Issue #5 has a pin-up of Colossus as the cover. In that specific issue, Colossus is just a Living Prop.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Cyclops and Wolverine had two main fights. One clearly won the first, and the other the second.
• Danger Room Cold Open: Issue #3 begins with Logan apparently slaughtering the X-Men. Turns out it's just a Danger Room simulation, and Logan's gotten a little carried away.
• Darker and Edgier: Magneto and his brotherhood are an actual terrorist group, closer to Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda than to the usual supervillain team. The X-Men do away with the typical colorful superhero suits, and use instead black leather suits.
• Dating Service Disaster: Beast got an internet girlfriend when he broke up with Storm. It's actually the Blob, from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, who loves playing those pranks. Then, Beast shares the little secret of Magneto's true whereabouts, and he was asked for a "date".
• Death Is Cheap: Not as cheap as it is in the regular X-Men verse, but among those that cheat death are Magneto, Sabretooth, Professor Cornelius, Yuri, and Beast.
• Debut Queue: Most of issue 1 is Jean going around gathering up the starting team of Storm, Colossus and Beast. Then they go to save Iceman from Sentinels.
• Decomposite Character:
  • William Stryker becomes two characters. William Sr. is an anti-mutant military leader, as in the second X-Men film, while William Jr. is the religious extremist from the original comics. William Jr. is also a Composite Character as later becomes Ultimate Universe Master Mold; gigantic Sentinel.
  • Also done with Angel, with his "Archangel" identity going to Derek Morgan.
  • Neither James or Heather Hudson use the Vindicator identity.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype:
  • Wolverine's classic '90s Anti-Hero characterization gets put through the wringer during the first half of the series. The comic goes out of the way showing the type of effect that having a Wild Card like Wolverine would have on the team. He's tempermental, untrustworthy, and tries to assert his alpha dominance on his teammates. It reaches the point where he tries to outright murder Cyclops. Over time however, this take on the character ended up disappearing.
  • Xavier being a Technical Pacifist who practices Thou Shall Not Kill causes him to wipes Magneto's mind rather than kill him in the first story arc, something that might be acceptable (if still morally ambiguous) in the mainstream universe where Magneto is a Noble Demon and Well-Intentioned Extremist, but is dangerously stupid here since Ultimate Magneto is an unrepentant, egotistical genocidal psychopath, and when he does get his memories back Magneto goes on a rampage. His decision ultimately leads not only to suffering for the X-Men, but to Magneto becoming the Big Bad of the entire Ultimate verse, wrecking the planet and killing numerous major characters. Xavier and Magneto being friendly enemies is also deconstructed as in this timeline it seems more like Xavier was in the thrall of a charismatic but very evil cult leader and never quite fully broke free- far from being equals with opposing points of view, Magneto is the domineering personality and Xavier his naive victim.
• Didn't Think This Through: Alex and Northstar head to free Lorna Dane from the Triskelion, so the X-Men send two teams: one to try to stop the guys in their way, and another to the Triskelion in case they got away from the first team. It seems that nobody thought that the Ultimates themselves (who live there) would show up and take part in the fight.
• Dirty Old Man
  • Wolverine, at least, can look like he's only slightly older than the rest of the X-Men, making this not as obvious at times, but most of the series Wolverine looks to be in the mid 30s' to 40s' range while hitting on teenaged girls. What makes this worse is that he's older than Xavier. Much, much older, and yet no-one seems to call him out on this. This could be because no-one thinks of him as being older, or it could be an example of Darker and Edgier. He alludes to it when rejecting Storm, and when she points out that he had sex with Jean, he refers to that as a mistake. It's possible it was simply a convenient excuse, though.
  • Professor Xavier. It's a much more obvious, and in many ways bigger, issue with Xavier, having had at least two relationships in the past with students; Mystique and Emma Frost, and just before the end of the series admitted to being in love with Jean Grey.
• Dissonant Serenity: Moira MacTaggert, examining Wolverine after he's been run over by a truck, just calmly remarks that it looks like an autopsy in reverse. Justified in that she has a history dealing with unsettling sights.
• The Dog Bites Back: At the end of the first arc, Quicksilver is convinced to turn on Magneto after a lifetime of Erik being an abusive dick to him, which is what allows Magneto to be defeated.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • Stacy X is the leader of a minority group and calls them to fight them and drop their human names.
  • Charles Xavier (And Magneto) also make codenames up to replace "Human names".
  • The fact Mutants are rounded up in camps.
• Do Wrong, Right: The first arc has Quicksilver turn on Magneto for a lifetime of mistreatment. On his return in Ultimate War, when Magneto storms the Triskelion to attack the kids, Mags actually comes as close as he ever gets to praising Pietro for that. It's what he's done with the Brotherhood he's pissed about.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him:
  • In the Proteus arc, Psylocke is working alongside S.T.R.I.K.E. agent Dai Thomas, who disappears after a while. Just before the final battle Proteus offhandedly confirms he killed him.
  • Pyro's treatment in Ultimates 3.
  • Many characters in Ultimatum die during a big flood, such as Beast and Nightcrawler. Although a minor character, the worst offender in Ultimatum is probably Toad: his death is never shown nor mentioned, we never see the body and the girl he gets to safety (Liz Allen, Firestar) is still alive. The only indication we have that he died is the casualty list at the end of Ultimatum #5.
• Easily Forgiven: Wolverine left Cyclops to die. At first Cyclops gets his revenge and kicks Logan off the team. But then, the team unanimously invite Wolverine to return, stating that they want to help complete Logan's rehabilitation. Logan is astonished, and warns them that it's a bad idea as he has been de-humanized by Weapon X.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Despite the war going on between mutants and humans, when the world thought that Xavier and Magneto had died, their alleged murderers were also mutants (Cable and Xavier). And when they died for real, their murderers were also mutants (Magneto and Cyclops).
• Evilutionary Biologist: Mister Sinister, with a side order of insanity.
• Exactly What I Aimed At: During their battle in Las Vegas, Juggernaut taunts Gambit for failing to hit him with his explosive cards... only to realize too late that Gambit's true target was the structural supports of the building behind him.
• Faking the Dead
  • Magneto's death in the first arc turns out to be this. Xavier orchestrated it to try and redeem him.
  • As well Beast, Syndicate and Magician.
• Fanservice: All the barely-legal mutant boys and girls are dressed in black leather outfits and / or short skirts, and despite not having Most Common Superpower (until Paquette takes over for pencils) they're dressed in obvious poses.
• Foreshadowing
  • Oh does Colossus' sexuality get hinted at. From liking Will & Grace, to commenting on Longshot's boots, to blatantly getting hit on by Jean-Paul.
  • Nick Fury is quick to offer Magician to the Xavier Institute, and doesn't seem to remember a detail of his own life. This is a hint that he's not the real Nick Fury, but one of Magician's clones.
  • Beast once told Storm that the only other time a girl liked him, it was an elaborate high school prank. She asked him for a date, but when he arrived he found all the other kids, who threw eggs at him. This happens again, on a more dangerous scale, some time later. After breaking up with Storm he has a Dating Service Disaster, as he "dates" a shy mutant girl who is actually Blob trolling around. He confides that Magneto isn't really dead, that they erased his memory and gave him a new identity. The whole Brotherhood discoveres this... and arranged a date.
• From Zero to Hero: When she was first introduced, Kitty Pryde was just an average teenage girl, and when she joined the X-Men it was under the strict condition of being there only to train in using her power so that she doesn't phase to the subway trains by accident, with superhero battles completely forbidden. By then, she was the Naïve Newcomer Ascended Fangirl. By the time the comic book was ending, she became a guerrilla leader and then the leader of the last remaining mutants, and in Cataclysm: The Ultimates' Last Stand she saved the planet by using her power (and a little help from SHIELD to become a giant) to disrupt Galactus' machines.
• Future Me Scares Me: In Ultimate X Men, a different version of Cable is revealed to be Wolverine from the future, sans an arm. (Which Apocalypse tore off and used to fillet his face.).
• G.I.R.L.: In the lead-up to Ultimate War, Beast spends a lot of time corresponding with a girl on a mutant chatroom. It's actually the Blob, and it doesn't end well for anyone.
• Godzilla Threshold: Apocalypse's arrival, the devastation it unleashes and Xavier being attacked by Apocalypse is enough for Jean to finally let the Phoenix loose.
• Groin Attack: A particularly vicious one during the Weapon X arc, when Sabretooth and Wolverine are fighting. Sabretooth is holding Wolverine's head under water (realizing that even if Wolverine heals from drowning, he'll still have suffered brain damage), but Wolverine's fist is very strategically placed. The ensuing snikt accompanies a great reaction shot from Sabretooth... right before Wolverine tackles him off a waterfall.
• Heel–Face Turn
  • Toad and Rogue eventually defect to the X-Men.
  • Before them, Wolverine (though in his case, it's all but outright said to be Heel–Face Brainwashing.)
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Being as they are mutants, feared and hated by the world. Which is why Xavier actually puts effort into publicity, at least in Millar's run. Of course, then it turns out he's being keeping Magneto alive, and... well.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Xavier and Magneto were this. And how. Xavier left his wife for Magneto, which was a contributing factor to David's rampage. It would be hard not to infer that they were in a gay relationship, but Xavier says their bond was "stronger than love," which seem to rule that out.
• How Did You Know? I Didn't: In a confrontation with the Russian mob, Cyclops is held at gunpoint. He fires a beam at Colossus' forehead, which ricochets off and knocks the mobster out. When Piotr asks how he knew that would work, Scott instantly changes the subject.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Ultimate Liz Allen is the daughter of her human mother and the Blob.
• Idiot Ball
  • Held in Ultimate Nightmare, where a small team goes out to find the source of a psychic signal, assumed to be a mutant in need. Wolverine is angry (well, more than usual) that they were too stupid to turn on the news and check what was going on before running off half-cocked and getting roughed up by the Ultimates for their trouble.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Rogue. Subverted in that when she's presented with a cure, she doesn't take it.
• Important Haircut
  • Storm cuts her hair drastically from elegantly long to punk rock short after Beast dies. She lets her hair grow out after Ultimatum though. But she cuts it off at the first sign of mutant uprising.
• Intro Dump
  • Every. Single. Character. Each and every one of them are continually referring to each other by name! Every. One.
  • TWICE. Ultimate X does this for every character again! Even the ones we know!
• Jeopardy! Intelligence Test: Doug Ramsay got into a private school for mutants due to his smarts, exemplified by his record-breaking streak on Jeopardy!
• Karma Houdini: Just about every member commits terrible acts over the course of the series and save for Wolverine never faces any repercussions. For example:
  • Cyclops defects to the Brotherhood and takes part in the bombings of the British Parliament and MI6 (though in the interest of fairness, the Brotherhood lied to him and said they'd wait until everyone had been evacuated).
  • Professor X and Jean frequently abuse their powers to their own ends.
  • Storm even crippled someone and electrocuted a sandbox full of children (off panel).
  • Averted with Wolverine in that he not only faces retribution for the things he does, but he is even held accountable for things he didn't do. For example Jean threatens him if he ever thinks of her in a sexual way again, and actually follows though with it despite the fact that she was fully compliant in their affair.
• Killed Off for Real: See below.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Not usually, but in issue #54, where they're taking on Mojo and his reality show, there are a few instances. Apart from in-universe examples of Breaking the Fourth Wall on Mojo's show, there is Dazzler staring straight forward out of the page and declaring the concept to be a "rip-off of The Running Man".
• Love Triangle:
  • Jean, Scott, Wolverine. Jean loses interest in Wolverine after he admits he's a mole, and stays with Scott until Ultimatum. Doesn't stop Logan trying to leave Scott for dead in the hopes of getting her attention.
  • Kitty, Bobby, Rogue. This does not resolve itself so well.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Sabretooth is Wolverine's son!
• The Mafiya: Colossus is first shown as muscle in the employ of the Russian Mob.
• Manipulative Bastard
  • Charles Xavier. Though he claims he doesn't tamper with people's minds, he's shown doing as such repeatedly, especially at first. Subverted in that EVERYBODY knows he does it and question their actions, but when he's out of order, they still do what they think he would've had them do.
  • Magneto as well, observe him with Polaris in his cell.
• Mass Monster-Slaughter Sidequest: Sinister needs to kill 10 mutant souls for his master.
• Master of Illusion
  • The Ultimate Mastermind is less of a straight up psychic like his 616 version, and is more likely to induce illusions into people's perception.
  • Magician is this as well, partly.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Jean's "Phoenix" state teeters between her being insane and having a split personality (as a power lock) and an actual cosmic deity, depending on the arc or the writer.
• Meat Puppet: This is one of Apocalypse's powers.
• The Men in Black: Prevalent here and there, but they're the ones keeping Colossus post Ultimatum.
• Meta Origin: The mutant gene isn't evolution at work, it was artificially created in a lab. Only Wolverine's X-gene is natural.
• Mind Rape: Xavier erases Magneto's mind after the first arc and has him living his life as a peaceful civilian. When it gets reversed, Magneto was very, very angry at the revelation.
• The Mole
  • Angel gets sent into Emma Frost's school at one point.
  • Pyro is one as well in the Mutant Liberation Front, but he get ousted pretty quickly.
  • Bishop turns out to be working with Cable.
• Monumental Damage: Early on, the Brotherhood blows up the UK house of parliament.
• Most Common Super Power: Seems to be averted early on in the run, but once Paquette takes over, and Medina in Ultimate X / Ultimate Comics: X-Men, yowza.
• Murder the Hypotenuse:
  • Juggernaut tries it when he comes looking for Rogue and finds her partnered up with Gambit.
  • Logan leaves Cyclops for dead the first chance he gets. Scott just barely manages to survive.
• Mythology Gag
  • The Danger Room allows a few. They face off against Brood, and Wolverine calls them Alien ripoffs.
  • Nightcrawler enjoys pirate stories, which tie into his swashbuckler 616 incarnation.
  • When talking about Sinister murdering four mutants in one night, Angel says it's been declared a "Mutant Massacre", a major Sinister-related storyline back from the 80s.
  • Storm's play is called Shadowking, a villain in 616 universe.
  • Jean sometimes envisions goblins. Jean's clone in the 616-verse, Madelyne, went mad and became the Goblin Queen.
  • The middle of the battle of Apocalypse is interrupted by the arrival of two people in armour, which look suspiciously like that of Onslaught and Stryfe. They're actually Professor X and Cable in disguise.
• Never Found the Body: Cyclops falls into a deep pit and is left for dead. He survived, even if badly injured. He is found and rescued later by the Brotherhood (they didn't recognize him).
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the midst of their fight, Gambit grabs the nearby Gem of Cyttorak to charge up as ammo against Juggernaut. It does not have the effect intended.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed / Our Presidents Are Different: Although he's never referred to by name, whenever the president appears in Millar's run, his features vaguely resemble those of George W. Bush. His vice president also resembles Dick Cheney. Couple this with when the first books were set (during the Bush administration) and it's no big leap to assume that's the president we're looking at.
  • Clinton is sometimes mentioned as having been bullied into green-lighting the Sentinel Initiative.
• Non-Action Guy: Doug Ramsay is a non-mutant at his school, he's just really smart. He wasn't the only non-mutant; Emma Frost was very proud of the fact that it was human-integrated. He was just the only important one.
• Non-Indicative Name: Colossus at one point faces off against a strongman called Grizzly, and says it doesn't suit him. Grizzly promptly turns into a Grizzly.
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The president and his boardroom are presented this way in order to disguise the fact it's supposed to be George W. Bush. Though one turns out to be evil (or just trigger-happy more like), he's a Canon Immigrant of Real Life...
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Charles gets a good one at Erik before (supposedly) hitting him with several nukes.
  Professor X: Goodbye, Erik. Give my regards to the dodo.
• Prodigal Family: Professor Xavier is a Fantastic Racismst who regards non-mutated humans as lesser beings, which is why he loses all interest in his wife and son after he first meets Magneto, a mutant like him. After Magneto betrays him and Xavier finds his son David is a mutant too, he seeks to reconnect with them. It goes without saying that Moira and David have grown to deeply resent him and don't want him back in their lives.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: During her time locked up with Magneto after the Brotherhood framed her, Polaris calls Magneto's codename "retarded".
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Magneto had this going for him in addition to his usual Fantastic Racism. Throughout his tenure, he displayed ableism (calling Professor Xavier a "spastic" (original writer Mark Millar is from Scotland and thus is aware it's pretty charged term in the UK), homophobia (mocking Quicksilver as "effeminate"), and sexism (his retort to the above point above Polaris insulting his codename was to call her a "harlot").
• Punch-Clock Villain: Syndicate just wants to make a quick buck. Luckily, Xavier gives them the benefit of the doubt.
• Race Lift
  • Ultimate Nick Fury was introduced by Mark Millar in this series, and he's African-American but doesn't look like Samuel L. Jackson yet.
  • Snowbird was also made Native-American and strangely, John Wraith went from an African-American mutant to a Caucasian human.
• Real After All: The "Sinister" arc has Nathaniel Essex speaking to a "Lord Apocalypse", who commands him to kill select individuals. When Storm and Wolverine investigate his apartment, they find a crude dummy, which they assume Essex had been talking to. Then, after he's arrested, Essex is visited in his cell by a very real Apocalypse.
• Reality Warper: Magician Subconsciously too, as everything just works out for him the way he wants it.
• Recruitment by Rescue
  • The Brotherhood rescued the X-Men and the other mutants captive from Weapon X. None of the X-Men left the team to join the Brotherhood, but the Weapon X forced members Juggernaut and Rogue did so. Nightcrawler left to be on his own, and would only join the X-Men much later.
  • Colossus was forced to work in the mafia with a Leonine Contract. The X-Men rescued him, and when the Mafia tried to force him to return with them, Wolverine forced them to "renegotiate" the contract.
  • Storm was in prison, but Jean got her out with a Jedi Mind Trick on the police officers.
• Reimagining the Artifact: The X-Men's habit of taking codenames gets a nod in the first issue, with Xavier justifying it as a sort of "rebaptizing" in a way that matches their powers.
• Required Secondary Powers
  • Colossus eventually reveals that he doesn't have them — he can turn to metal, but doesn't have the strength to move in this state. He's been taking a Super Serum to compensate.
  • Likewise Pyro, who's scarred to deformity, seeing as he can't stand the heat of his own projected flames.
• Reset Button: Phoenix manages to hit one after Apocalypse destroys most of Manhattan
• Romantic Fusion: A dying Gambit asks Rogue to permanently absorb his mind so that they'll be together. Though Rogue later moves on with her life and starts new relationships, she acknowledges that Gambit is still part of her, although in her case she's not quite sure if it's a pleasant experience or not.
• Shout-Out: The big Russian at one point shouts "I will break you!"
• Slumber Party Ploy: Kitty is introduced about to attempt this with two friends with each saying they're sleeping over at each other's houses. Her mom isn't fooled and already knew she was trying to sneak out to a boy's pool party.
• Snap Back: The end of the Apocalypse arc has Phoenix leaving the planet. The next issue Jean's back in the book, and we only get a Hand Wave we don't want to hear the story as to why she's back. A few issues later, we do get an explanation: A Silver Surfer told her to go back to Earth, because her actions were causing galactic chaos.
• Suicide by Cop: Conjoined twins Syndicate fakes his death with help from Xavier this way.
• Super Serum: The final pre-Ultimatum storyline deals with Banshee, a superpower-granting/enhancing steroid.
• Take That Us: Infrequent mockery is made of Jean's original code-name, Marvel Girl, and how goofy and non-indicative it is.
  Jean: Are we still going by "Marvel Girl"? I outgrew that handle two bra sizes ago.
• Taking You with Me: It seemed Cable pulled this on Xavier. He didn't. It is however, played straight with Gambit.
• Technical Pacifist: Xavier. Notably, members of the X-Men regularly question his policy on this point.
• Terminator Twosome: Cable and Bishop, as par for the course. Subverted by Cable bringing his entire team to the past. And by Bishop working for Cable the whole time.
• There Are No Therapists: You'd think the Xavier institute would have one permanently on remand considering the students that go there. This winds up really bad, in the case of Nightcrawler. Apparently being held captive by Weapon X left him more screwed up than everyone thought, so when he snaps and kidnaps Dazzler, everyone is shocked.
• Token Evil Teammate: Wolverine in this outing is a lot darker than regular Wolverine. And that's saying something.
• Transplant
  • Firestar, a.k.a. Liz Allan from Ultimate Spider-Man.
  • Before that, Shadowcat went the other way and joined Spider-Man's cast, as did Iceman after Ultimate X-Men was canceled. Peter's death prompting Shadowcat and Iceman to return and bring a friend: the Human Torch, who was in Fantastic Four before moving to Spider-Man.
• Troubled Sympathetic Bigot: How much sympathy he deserves is up to you but Nightcrawler can't handle Colossus being gay.
• Ultimate Universe
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: The series chokes on it. This is even commented on by Cyclops, on how the team members go from hating each other to "making out in the attic".
• Unseen Pen Pal: Cynical teenage genius Beast managed to get involved with someone he really thought was an attractive, brilliant (and mutant) model online. The "model" turned out to be the remarkably clever Ultimate version of the Blob, out for nothing more than to humiliate him by showing up to a rendezvous and revealing the scam. Too bad Beast got too trusting and and let slip a dangerous secret...
• Villainous Incest: The Fenris twins are about as subtle about it as Jeph Loeb is about Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in The Ultimates.
• We Named the Monkey "Jack": Xavier owns a cat called Mystique. In a side story we're shown Emma picked the name after Mystique nearly beats Xavier up.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: In-Universe, Rogue feels this way after encountering Warren Worthington (whose codename is Angel), and Nightcrawler. It's taken to the extent that, in the Ultimate Fallout comics, she's shown recalling them as one of her "signs" that the Apocalypse is falling for the mutant race.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Xavier is on the receiving end of this one a lot. Keeping Nightcrawler alive after he kidnapped Dazzler was enough for her to Rage Quit.
  • The page quote comes from the "Freaky Friday" Flip arc of Ultimate Spider-Man where Peter launched into a Cluster F-Bomb-laden "The Reason You Suck" Speech towards the team.
• Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?: When Magneto hires Wolverine to kill Xavier, Pietro asks why he didn't send him, the guy with super speed. Magneto shuts him down, saying Xavier could shut his mind down before he's halfway there (also, Magneto hates Pietro and treats him like crap).
• Wolverine Publicity:
  • Wolverine and Shadowcat had the most exposure in the Ultimate Comics run, with Wolverine crossing over into Spider-Man titles, Kitty Pryde dating and befriending Peter and his gang, and eventually becoming the spiritual head of mutantkind post-Ultimatum.
  • Wolverine is the first mutant, his DNA is used to make Banshee, he Cuckolds Magneto and fathers a child with his wife Magda, Jimmy Hudson, he gets the only awesome death, as opposed to ignominious and pitiful, in Ultimatum.
• Your Head Asplode
  • both of the Fenris twins
  • Matthew, the right head of Syndicate

Ultimate X and Ultimate Comics: X-Men

• Aborted Arc: Big parts of Nick Spencer's run, such as the "ghosts" some characters see And Sinister/Apocalypse's return, are barely even mentioned by Brian Wood.
• Adaptational Villainy: The commander of the camp Storm and Colossus are put in is John Walker, who in regular Marvel is the U.S. Agent.
• All There in the Manual: Without little bravado, Ultimate Hawkeye takes place in between issues Ultimate Comics: X-Men 7 and 8. Relatively a lot happens in that mini, so yeah.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Reverend Stryker's death triggers this in the Nimrod Sentinels he takes over with his mutant powers, he pulls this on the entire USA, decimating the already decreased Mutant count
• And the Adventure Continues: The last X-Men comic book in Ultimate Marvel was the tie-in to Cataclysm, and ended this way. At this point of the story, they had escaped the pocket dimension of Rick Jones and Gah Lak Tus, but Galactus was still destroying everything.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Colossus after Ultimatum.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: A Morlock seen post-Ultimatum is a conjoined being of him and his brother, and his brother has become a centipede monster. He still hugs it and loves it because it's his brother.
• Big Bad: Quicksilver becomes this as of Ultimate X, as he tries to recreate the Brotherhood. Then it's Stryker and his Sentinels, and in the last arcs it's Jean Grey
• Bittersweet Ending: The World War X arc ends with Utopia victorious, but to do so Kitty had to destroy Tian and couldn't evacuate everyone in time, causing thousands of deaths, the Sentient Seed died, and Kitty feels guilty about her actions.
• Boom, Headshot!: Attempted on Jimmy by mercenaries and Kitty by a paranoid sniper. Jimmy healed from the wounds, and Kitty ramped up her density in order to simply tank it.
• Cain and Abel: Jimmy Hudson and Pietro are half-brothers, with Wolverine sleeping with Magneto's ex-wife, Magda Lensherr, and getting her pregnant. They promptly try to kill each other at one point.
• Call-Back: In Spencer's run, it's noted how, back in Ultimate X-Men, Phoenix reset everything after Apocalypse's rampage to give everyone a second chance, and then Ultimatum happened.
• Captain Ersatz: Derek Morgan is basically Archangel as a different character, instead of Angel under the influence of Apocalypse.
• Child Soldiers: During the United We Stand/Divided We Fall Arc and World War X arc.
• Civil War: Tian versus Utopia as evolved into this.
• Colony Drop: The end fate of Tian.
• Covers Always Lie
  • Issue #1 has someone (Jimmy?) using Wolverine's classic yellow spandex suit. Jimmy has not used a superhero suit during the whole run.
  • In Issue #21 they make it seem as though Tony Stark is leading an attack force on Utopia, when he instead defends them.
• Dead All Along: What's this? Quicksilver talking with Magneto and the Scarlet Witch? Rogue talking with Xavier? Havok talking with Scott? They are all dead! What the hell is going on? No, they are not back from the dead, Quicksilver, Rogue and Havok simply see dead people.
• Dead Person Impersonation: Jean, after Ultimatum.
• Death from Above: Utopia's ultimate weapon invokes this.
• Debut Queue: in Ultimate X. Issues 1 through 4 are devoted to introducing the cast, which wouldn't be such a problem if the series wasn't five issues long.
• Despair Event Horizon: By the time most of the mutants reached the Mutant Caves or Camps, they just didn't have the will to fight back, believing they were damaged goods until Kitty motivated them.
• Dumb Muscle: Farbird, in the words of fake Psylocke. Not that she was right.
• Fantastic Racism: Mutants have always been a metaphor for racism, but since Ultimatum, it seems the stories are now specifically addressing the Islamophobia that became widespread after 9/11, with Magneto symbolizing Osama bin Laden.
• Four Lines, All Waiting: Nick Spencer's run was written that way:
  • Kitty and the gang in the sewers
  • Storm and Colossus in the camps
  • Stryker and the sentinels
  • Quicksilver manipulating the government
  • Karen and her gang in Tian
  • Havok in a mental facility
  • Ghosts of dead people, and Apocalypse's return
• Gaia's Vengeance: If Utopia doesn't like you, it will fight back.
• Generation Xerox: Jimmy and Teddy are both the biological sons of the characters they replace.
• Genius Loci: Utopia. Until it's consciousness died.
• Give Him a Normal Life: The reason that Wolverine and Magda Lensherr gave Jimmy to the Hudsons.
• Green Thumb: Blackheat's ability.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: SEAR hid their genetics lab in the middle of the capital square
• Human Resources: The Natural Resources arc is about the Mutants being turned into this.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Kitty ordered the destruction of Tian to end the war.
• Idiot Ball: Occasionally, in Ultimate X.
  • Jimmy Hudson goes off with a strange woman he's never met because she jokingly offered him candy.
  • And again with Jimmy, when he goes looking for Jean Grey. He finds her apartment, and rather than wait outside for her, decides the best thing to do... is lurk in her bathroom.
  • Liz Allen doesn't even attempt to talk her brother Teddy out of joining Pietro's new Brotherhood.

Important Haircut: Jean dyes her hair black after Ultimatum, but this is because she is taking up a new identity. She goes red again later on, after she dumps the new identity.

• I See Dead People: A recurring theme of Nick Spencer's run. People start seeing loved ones talking to them, and suggesting things for them to do.
  • Quicksilver sees his sister Wanda, and his father.
  • Rogue sees Xavier.
  • Alex sees Scott.
• I See Them, Too: The final issue of Spencer's run has Sinister visiting Alex in a mental institution, while Alex sees a hallucination of Scott. And then Sinister responds to something Scott says.
• Karma Houdini: Jean Grey after World War X gets away with just a power limiter on her. Kitty wants to avert this for ordering the attack, but the World Bodies are happy Tian is gone and don't want to police mutant issues at the moment.
• Killed Off for Real: Farbird and the Sentient Seed.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: After fake Psylocke's death and Utopia's Gaia's Vengeance moment the military calls off the attack since it escalated too far and the land itself is a deterrent.
• Lawful Stupid: Derek Morgan's brother, a cop, finds out his brother is a mutant, and tries to arrest him then and there. Which, by the way, is while Derek is in mid-air. And he points a gun at him. Possibly justified since he's a cop with a baby on the way, but still an unimaginably stupid thing to do (also, handing your baby brother over to the fascistic government).
• The Leader: Kitty Pride is considered the leader of the remaining mutants by most.
• Legacy Character: Wolverine II; Angel II; Blob II, all introduced in Ultimate X.
• Male Gaze: Jimmy Hudson suffers from this with Jean. Though accidentally. Jean notices, and responds poorly.
• Misfit Mobilization Moment: In the war to retake the southwest, where Kitty became The Leader with the help of Nick Fury.
• The Mole: Karen who is Jean, for Xorn to Nick Fury
• Moral Myopia: Jean has no problem destroying the Sentient Seed, which she is fully aware is alive, but she breaks down crying when Storm destroys the drones she sent to subdue everyone in Utopia to the point of calling her a murderer.
• More than Mind Control: Jean seems different after going to Tian.
• Mythology Gag: Kitty Pryde assembles a small army of mutants, labeled with color-themed team names. The ones we hear about are Gold and Blue, harking back to the 616 Marvel universe when the X-Men split up in the '90s.
• Never My Fault: Jean attempted to destroy the sentient jungle of Utopia with a deadly herbicide, and then attacked them with killer drones. However she blames Kitty for starting the war between Utopia and Tian for destroying those drones.
• Never Trust a Trailer: Several covers depicted the new X-Men wearing costumes, including Jimmy donning a version of the costume wore by the Wolverine of Earth-616. As noted below, they never donned costumes.
• Noble Bigot: General Thunderbolt Ross may not like Mutants, but when one of his own attempted to kill Kitty in cold blood he attempted to take the bullet for her. He's doing everything By. The. Book. including giving them a 12-hour grace period before he invaded and ordered them taken alive, as well as retreating once fake Psylocke's influence wore off and giving some parting advice for them to simply live while they were young.
• Not Wearing Tights: Except for Kitty as the Shroud, most guys do not use superhero costumes. Eventually, even Kitty drops it.
• Power Nullifier: After the events of Divided We Stand, Mutants are offered two choices, to take a Power Nullifier and live as ordinary citizens or go onto reservations.
• Psycho Serum: Given the actions of the characters in this series both hero and villain (see Karma Houdini) the revelation that the mutant gene was the caused by a super soldier program makes it come across more as this.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Tony Stark and Nick Fury
• Reed Richards Is Useless: Averted. Kitty intended to show that the remaining mutants were peaceful and willing to contribute to helping humanity, such as making the Sentient Seed, which managed to even Terraform raidated soil.
• La Résistance: After the Nimrod breakout, the mutants turn into this even more.
• Significant Monogram: Jimmy Hudson in Ultimate X is pointed out to have one, as his dad is James Howlett a.k.a. Wolverine.
• Sinister Minister: Reverend Stryker in this incarnation gears up on man-sized Sentinel weapons and begins to hunt mutants after Ultimatum.
• Spanner in the Works: Jean Grey is this to Psylocke's attempt to bring down Utopia.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: As of Ultimate X: Derek Morgan for Angel, Jimmy Hudson for Wolverine, and Theodore "Teddy" Allen for the Blob.
  • Mach Two, under Wood's tenure, becomes something of a Rule 63 equivalent to Magneto, as the voice of dissatisfaction in the remaining group of mutants and actively even declaring she wants a war, at one point.
• Take Up My Sword:
  • In Ultimate X, although Jean doesn't want to do this for Xavier and the X-Men, she is forced to do so, as Quicksilver is starting a new Brotherhood of Mutants.
  • After the death of Xavier, it was Kitty of all people the one who would raise into the leader of all mutants, and the voice of reason that tries to keep things peaceful (or at least with just the minium violence possible) when others want to Pay Evil unto Evil to the humans.
• Teleporters and Transporters: Ultimate!Pixie. And she doesn't even need magic words.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: In order to stop The City the presidents used the full armament of the US’s nuclear weapons
• Treacherous Advisor: Quicksilver becomes one post-Ultimatum for the president.
• Trigger Phrase: Project Mothervine is used on Mutant Sleepers Agents to trigger them into acting. Psylocke did this to Jimmy. Making him eager to start another war with Utopia against the Military, despite knowing they won't survive another war.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Mach-2, who is planning on killing Kitty and assuming control of Utopia. Psylocke has been prodding her into it at least on some part.
• Token Evil Teammate: fake Psylocke during the X-Reservation and Natural Resources arc. The bombing of the greenhouse, the splitting of the factions, everything to have other mutants dragged off in chains.
• Took a Level in Badass: Kitty, from adolescent X-team padding to international Mutant Leader. Of course, she was always a favorite in the Ultimate Universe.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Jean Grey, since assuming the mantle of Mistress of Tian, going so far as to start a war between the already dwindling mutant race, bombing Utopia, mind-controlling Jimmy into attacking her own country so she would have a legitimate reason to continue the war, ordering assassinations, and trying to kill her own team.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Jimmy to Jean Grey after she starts attacking Utopia and decided to assassinate Kitty Pryde.
  • Johnny to Kitty after trying to stop him, Bobby, and Rogue by using the memory of Peter Parker and the other dead heroes, which pisses him off to the point he points out that unlike he and Bobby, Kitty didn't even try to help Peter.

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