Ultimate X-Men #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeUltimate X-Men #1 (March 2024) marks the debut of Marvel's Earth-6160 mutant corner — the third title to launch in Jonathan Hickman's reconstructed Ultimate Universe — and it does so by handing full creative control to Peach Momoko, who plots, draws, and colors every page, making it one of the rare modern Big Two #1s where a single artist-writer shapes every visual and narrative decision from the ground up. Rather than recycling Cyclops, Wolverine, or the X-Mansion, Momoko grounds the mutant metaphor entirely in contemporary Japanese horror and folklore, centering a teenage girl's trauma and body-horror awakening instead of a superhero team origin — a tonal departure that critics recognized as closer to the 'magical girl' tradition than anything previously published under the X-Men banner. The issue introduces the Earth-6160 version of Hisako Ichiki (Armor) as the first confirmed mutant in her corner of Hi no Kuni, while also setting the stage for Maystorm (Mei Igarashi), the first character born from a Marvel variant-cover program to be promoted into full in-universe continuity. Across its 24-issue run the series went on to become the most formally distinctive book of the entire Ultimate line, demonstrating that the X-Men's core theme — outcasts feared by a world that doesn't understand them — translates powerfully across cultural registers.
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The series emerged directly from Jonathan Hickman and Stefano Caselli's 2023 one-shot Ultimate Universe #1, which laid the geopolitical architecture of Earth-6160 and included a two-page Momoko-drawn prelude that served as an advance tease for her series. Momoko, already known in Western comics for her painterly Demon Days saga and Star Wars work, was selected by editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski and Hickman specifically because they wanted something 'completely new and different' from classic X-Men storytelling — a mandate Momoko has acknowledged openly. Because Momoko works primarily in Japanese, Zack Davisson (a noted Japan-scholar and translator, also her collaborator on Demon Days) served as script adaptor, converting her original Japanese-language plots into final English dialogue and captions. The first printing sold out ahead of its March 6, 2024 release date, prompting Marvel to solicit a second printing — featuring a new connecting cover by R.B. Silva — timed to arrive alongside issue #2 on April 10, 2024; the issue ultimately went to at least four printings.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published March 6, 2024 by Marvel Comics; written, drawn, and colored by Peach Momoko, with script adaptation by Zack Davisson and lettering by VC's Travis Lanham.
- Third title in Marvel's 2023–2026 Earth-6160 'Ultimate Universe' line, following Ultimate Spider-Man #1 (January 2024) and Ultimate Black Panther #1 (February 2024); the entire line was architected by Jonathan Hickman.
- First in-continuity appearance of the Earth-6160 version of Hisako Ichiki / Armor — a reimagining of the character originally created by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday in Astonishing X-Men #4 (2004); here she is a Japanese middle-schooler whose psionic exoskeleton manifests as samurai armor under traumatic circumstances.
- First in-continuity appearance of Shinobu Kageyama / Shadow King, a new Ultimate Universe character whose shadowy psychic influence becomes the central threat of the opening arc.
- Sets up the series debut of Maystorm (Mei Igarashi), a Storm-inspired weather-powered character Momoko originally designed for the 2023 'New Champions' variant-cover program (X-Men #27 variant) — making her the first New Champions character promoted to ongoing in-universe status; Maystorm's first full in-story appearance is technically issue #2.
- The series deliberately omits classic X-Men signifiers — no X-Mansion, no Cerebro, no Professor X, no Cyclops or Wolverine — instead filtering the mutant-as-outcast metaphor through Japanese folklore, urban legends, and body-horror aesthetics set in the fictional Hi no Kuni territory of Earth-6160.
- Went to at least four printings; the second printing (on sale April 10, 2024) featured a new cover by R.B. Silva connecting to matching second-printing covers for Ultimate Spider-Man #1 and Ultimate Black Panther #1.
- The series ran for 24 issues, concluding February 11, 2026, making it one of the longest-running titles in the Earth-6160 Ultimate Universe line before the imprint's conclusion.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Ultimate Universe Preview #[nn] (2024), Ultimate Universe #1 (2024), Ultimate X-Men by Peach Momoko #1 (2024)
Key issues in Ultimate X-Men
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