Ultimate X-Men #3
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeUltimate X-Men #3 (May 2024) delivers the full origin of Maystorm — Mei Igarashi's transformation from an ordinary Japanese teenager into a storm-wielding mutant — making it the issue that firmly establishes her as a series co-lead alongside Armor and the emotional backbone of Peach Momoko's reimagining of the franchise. The issue also marks the debut of the Ultimate Universe version of Nico Minoru, arriving one issue ahead of where she had been solicited, repositioning her from a Runaways-style magic user into a mutant classmate who immediately clocks both Hisako and Mei as powered individuals — the catalytic moment that begins the organic assembly of Momoko's new X-Men team. As a chapter in Marvel's second Ultimate Universe line, it demonstrates how radically the series diverges from X-Men convention: no mansion, no Professor X, no Sentinel threat, but instead a Japanese horror-inflected coming-of-age drama in which mutant identity surfaces through trauma, domestic violence, and supernatural folklore. That deliberate break from X-tradition, executed entirely by a single creator handling plot, art, and coloring, marks the series as among the most formally distinctive entries in the 2024 Ultimate relaunch.
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Peach Momoko conceived the series in the manga creative tradition — plotting, penciling, inking, and coloring every page herself — with award-winning Japanese-culture translator Zack Davisson handling the English script adaptation afterward, meaning Davisson worked from completed art and story rather than co-plotting in advance. Maystorm herself had an unusual pre-history: Momoko designed the character for the variant cover of the mainline X-Men #27 as part of Marvel's 'New Champions' cover project, and Marvel subsequently invited her to anchor an entire ongoing series around the character. Issue #3, edited by Wil Moss with lettering by VC's Travis Lanham, arrived on May 15, 2024 — the third monthly installment of a series that would ultimately run 24 issues through February 2026.
Trivia · 7 facts
- First full appearance / origin of Maystorm (Mei Igarashi, Earth-6160): the issue recounts how her weather-control powers first erupted during an act of domestic violence by her father, changing her hair from brown to white.
- First appearance of the Ultimate Universe (Earth-6160) version of Nico Minoru, debuting as a mutant classmate rather than a Runaways-style magic user — one issue earlier than Marvel's own solicitations had indicated.
- Cameo / early appearance of Natsu Tsukishima (the Ultimate Cyclops analogue), identified in key-issue databases as a first or very early cameo in this issue.
- Written, penciled, inked, and colored entirely by Peach Momoko; English script adaptation by Zack Davisson; lettering by VC's Travis Lanham; edited by Wil Moss.
- The issue connects Maystorm's idolization of Storm — shown here via news footage of a freedom fighter in Africa — to the wider Ultimate Universe, where Ororo Munroe is an activist allied with Wakanda in Ultimate Black Panther.
- Issue received a second printing with connecting and virgin Peach Momoko variant covers, reflecting strong reader demand; multiple variant editions exist including a 1:10 Momoko design variant and a 1:25 Tony S. Daniel variant.
- Collected in Ultimate X-Men by Peach Momoko Vol. 1: Fears and Hates (issues #1–6), the first trade paperback collection of the series.
Cast · 40 characters
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Reprinted in Ultimate X-Men by Peach Momoko #1 (2024), Ultimate Universe #2 (2024)
Key issues in Ultimate X-Men
Variants (7)
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