Ultimate Comics X #2 – Review
Our story begins with a mystery. Who is Karen Grant? Who is this mutant dying her hair before heading to work? Then of course she uses her powers to move things around the room, another clue to the puzzle. It remains a mystery because the clues are so vague that at first glance, this could be any female mutant.
Dave is a mall cop in love with Karen, our mystery mutant, since the moment he saw her. He’s planning to ask Karen to marry him after work. That is the narration of the issue, and it has nothing to do with the story. There are many well-executed narrations that do not give a play by play of what is happening in the story. In fact when done right they are very powerful and moving. Ultimate Spider-Man has a perfect example of this: The Ultimate Venom storyline has Peter fighting Eddie Brock after becoming Venom. The entire narration is a letter from Peter’s father, and although it happens in the past it still indirectly ties in with the events happening in the fight.
Jeph Loeb (Ultimatum, World War Hulks) uses a misplaced narrative in an attempt to humanize one the Ultimate universe’s mutants left in hiding afterUltimatum. I applaud Loeb for trying to grow as a writer but this is his third failed attempt of this narration type. He tried it in Ultimates #1, failed. He tried it in Ultimate Comic X #1, failed. The narrations themselves are not half bad but they are distracting from the story and do nothing to move the plot forward.