Ultimate X-Men #4
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeUltimate X-Men #4 (2024) marks two debut appearances within Peach Momoko's boldly reimagined Earth-6160 mutant world: the first showing of this universe's Surge (Noriko Ashida), an artificially mutated electricity-wielder, and the first appearance of Makoto Amano, a shape-shifting young mutant possessed by the Shadow King who would go on to become one of the series' most consequential figures. The issue also delivers the series' first sustained superhero action sequence — Armor and the Shadow King–controlled Amano clashing in the street — which ends with Hisako exposed in her psionic exoskeleton while bystanders record her on their phones, a public-outing moment that shifts the stakes of the entire run. As the closing chapter of the opening story arc, it functions as both a climax and a launchpad, broadening the cast and signaling that Momoko's slow-burn coming-of-age horror was ready to accelerate into something grander.
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The series is the product of an unusual creative pipeline: Momoko conceives, writes, pencils, inks, and colors each issue entirely in Japanese, after which Zack Davisson — an award-winning translator and Japanese-folklore scholar — adapts her scripts into English. Momoko has described Davisson's role as coming after all story and art are completed, meaning the visual storytelling is entirely her own unfiltered vision before the English text is layered in. The character Maystorm, who co-stars throughout the arc, originated as a design Momoko created for a variant cover of X-Men #27 (2021–2024 series) as part of Marvel's 'New Champions' cover project, giving her an unusually long gestation before landing a full ongoing role. Editors Wil Moss and Michelle Marchese shepherded the issue under Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of the Earth-6160 Surge (Noriko Ashida), an artificially mutated teenager with electricity-generation powers, here depicted as an observer who witnesses and records the street fight.
- First appearance of Amano (Makoto Amano, Earth-6160), a young mutant capable of altering his physical form into a smoke-like state, who appears in this issue possessed and manipulated by the Shadow King.
- Written, penciled, inked, and colored entirely by Peach Momoko; English script adaptation by Zack Davisson; lettered by VC's Travis Lanham.
- Released June 12, 2024 (cover-dated August 2024) as the fourth issue of the relaunched Ultimate X-Men series set on Earth-6160, the third title in Marvel's new Ultimate Universe line alongside Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate Black Panther.
- Delivers the series' first major superhero fight sequence, with Armor (Hisako Ichiki) battling the Shadow King–possessed Amano outside Irodori High School.
- The fight ends with Hisako standing exposed in her psionic exoskeleton as surrounding students film her — a pivotal public-unmasking moment for the series.
- Amano's introduction here sets up his role as a long-running, morally complex antagonist whose motivations are not fully revealed until much later in the run (around issue #23).
- Collected in the trade paperback Ultimate X-Men by Peach Momoko Vol. 1: Fears and Hates, which gathers issues #1–6.
Cast · 40 characters
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Reprinted in Ultimate X-Men by Peach Momoko #1 (2024)
Key issues in Ultimate X-Men
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