OMG HOW IS THIS SO AWFUL?!?!?!?!?!? Like, srsly, why was it necessary to completely destroy and change the character of Cable? And now Bishop and Cable are from the same timeline?!? This whole story arc is just a mess, especially if you know anything about the 616 X-Men continuity that it's extremely loosely based on. ( )

Skips from TPD 9 to 16; in between in issue form (missing 62 and 74).

This storyline was fairly good. I like the character of Cable in the 616-verse, so I was excited to see him getting the Ultimate Universe treatment. His appearance, however, left more questions than answer. Was he truly who he claimed to be? What was his true motive? I'm hoping that these questions will be answered in the next trade.

I found that the characterization here was slightly off. Quicksilver, while delivering something to Charles Xavier from Nick Fury, mouths off to Xavier. Yes, maybe Pietro has a habit of being arrogant, and even disrespectful, but earlier in the series he had so much respect for Charles that he called the man "uncle" and took Charles' advice about working for the "good" side seriously enough that he really did turn "good." Similarly, although Magneto is something of a psychopath, he always had some sort of respect for Charles, who had once been his comrade, which apparently disappeared too. It left me wondering if Kirkman had bothered to read the previous work in the Ultimate Universe before penning this.

I'm a fan of Kirkman's The Walking Dead, but I just don't think that he's a good fit for the Ultimate X-Men.

Ben Oliver is the artist for about half of these issues, and I really like his style. I wish that he drew more for Marvel! The other artist, who draws the other half of the issues, is okay, but I didn't care for his style as much as Oliver's (and the guy's faces looked really weird at times).

The extras include a few sketches, including a note to Oliver congratulating him on becoming a father (the reason why Oliver only draws and colors half of the issues in this trade), which was kind of cute.

Altogether, this trade is an okay read, but it doesn't compare to the awesomeness that was found earlier in the run with Millar at the helm. ( )

collects Ultimate x-men #75-80 ( )