Why You Should Be Reading Ultimate X-Men By Kenn Beck
Jun 12, 2016 7:53:06 GMT -5
D. Golightly and Artistik like this
Post by Meriades Rai on Jun 12, 2016 7:53:06 GMT -5
Nine years ago (tempus fugit, right?) a bunch of us kickstarted an Ultimate line within M2K's Alternate Branch. I posted duty on Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate Defenders, David Golightly was on Ultimate Avengers, Neil Gow was on Ultimate Fantastic Four and Kenn Beck was on Ultimate X-Men. Output was decent enough before we finished up and moved on to other projects; I reached seven and nine issues respectively on my titles, and Dave and Neil - I think - both hit the half-dozen mark, though neither title seems to exist in the archive any more.
Kenn, however, kept on his merry way, whistling and clicking his heels like a contented Huckleberry Finn meandering down the Mississippi, off into the distance. Last month, Ultimate X-Men posted its eighteenth issue. It's a brilliant series. I can only hope that people are reading it, but if you're not, here's why you should reconsider.
Firstly, it's relevant, even if you might think otherwise. Back during those Ultimate days, when I was also writing Marvel Team-Up for the Alternate Branch, Bryan Locke stated something along the lines that it was a shame these series weren't set in the regular M2K-verse - or that he wished I was writing something for one of the other imprints instead, as if the Alternate Branch wasn't as important or authentic as the others. I can kind of see his point, even though I didn't agree, and still don't. I do wonder if this is a readers' block for Ultimate X-Men too, however, especially when I see the odd comment here and there that M2K's X-Branch isn't as healthy as it used to be, and how readers are missing their regular doses of mutant goodness.
It's a real shame, because M2K is currently hosting one of the best X-Men fanfic series anyone could hope to read - so long as you cast your eyes two steps to the right and go Alternate. Kenn's got your goodness right here.
Secondly, it's worth your time. It's probably off-putting to think about going back and reading eighteen issues all in one, if this is a series you don't typically follow. Eighteen chapters at three-to-four-thousand words each is between 50,000 and 70,000 words, around half the size of a chunky novel. I get that, honestly - I've just spent a good few hours re-reading the whole series this weekend, because it's been years since I read my last issue, and setting aside such a significant amount of time is daunting. The truth is, it's completely worth it and that time will pass quicker than you think.
Kenn is a terrific writer anyway, but he's the perfect kind of writer to read in big swathes because his prose is clean and sharp, and it flows beautifully. He hardly ever makes a spelling or grammatical error, which is crucial when you're reading issue after issue, and his sense of pace and timing is impeccable. He does that thing that I also love to try and do, which is to link one scene with the next by way of repeated imagery or dialogue - for example, Storm is staring up at the stars at the end of one scene, and then we go into flashback and the younger her is also staring up the stars. It's a literary trick to keep you reading, and it's just the tip of the iceberg.
Because, thirdly: man, this is a narrative structure masterclass. Kenn is a cinematic writer, where his paragraph and scene structure and his descriptive verve allow the reader to easily visualise everything that's happening, as if they're watching it rather than just reading. He doesn't fall into the trap of page after page of talking heads; there's always a lot going on, in terms of background setting and foreground action, and because prose fiction isn't restrained by financial budgets he instinctively makes his scenes as vivid and wide-reaching as possible, whether he's portraying other countries in colourful brushstrokes or going even further afield. In issue #14, for example (my favourite chapter, I think) we follow one character into space on a long journey to the moons of Jupiter, and Kenn's descriptions and personal touches are so faultless that you're completely there with them on their travels, for every step of the way.
This series structure is highly reminiscent of Lost and - especially - the first couple of seasons of Once Upon A Time, where present day events are constantly intercut with flashbacks involving the same characters, explaining how they got to be where they were. But, again very much like Once Upon A Time, you don't get to see everything, and Kenn is a master of the 'reveal', where something secret about a character or situation is suddenly divulged to the reader at the most dramatic point. This can happen a couple of times or more every issue, and even if you predict some of the more obvious twists you certainly won't catch all of them before they happen. I absolutely adore this style of writing.
Fourth: It's the X-Men. Character is a key element in this series. Again, potential readers are possibly put off by the Ultimate tag - been there, done that, yes? After the comics and the movies, who wants to re-live the origins of the X-Men yet again, right? Well, Kenn approaches things differently and characters are all-important. They're familiar enough for us to love, but they're re-worked enough that we're intrigued. For example, the early premise of the series sees mutants divided into two factions (and the fundamental notions of what makes a mutant and how it all works is also very original and different from an anything else you've read, by the way). Kitty Pryde is a member of one faction, Piotr Rasputin is with the other; they meet, there's a common attraction, but circumstances prevent them being together. It's the star-crossed lovers of Romeo & Juliet in another form, of course, but these two characters are so perfectly imagined and their chemistry is so electrifying that it lights up the screen. I seem to remember that these two were Kenn's favourite characters, so it's only right that everything begins with them.
This does, however, lead to my one and only criticism of the series. This is obviously a deep and personal project for Kenn; I imagine he'd keep writing it even if no one was reading, and his X-Universe is the equivalent of George R R Martin with A Song Of Ice And Fire, a place where he can happily get lost and where the story is organic and develops even when he's not looking. The trouble with this is that he has a tendency to introduce characters and then move on, sometimes not returning to them for a long while - and there are a lot of characters. Kitty and Piotr's romance, for example, is a recurring thread, but sometimes those characters don't appear for an issue or two, so that in authentic Game Of Thrones fashion we're now almost a decade along in real time and they're not bloody together yet. That's harsh.
This isn't to say that these characters are one-dimensional or throwaway, it's actually the opposite. When Kenn introduces someone new they possess sympathetic back-story and dramatic motivation in abundance, and they're always crucial to the over-arcing plot in some way; you want to read about them, more and more, but then next issue they're gone and you're reading about someone else... who you'll want to keep reading about, and so on. In eighteen issues Kenn has made me care about (or made me hate) numerous certain individuals whose stories have then just not been continued. That's fine if you're getting eight-to-twelve chapters a year, but much less than that and it's tough.
So, no, it's not all Huckleberry sunshine. Go and read these eighteen issues and you'll likely end up with the same frustration as me - but, damn it, I implore you to go read them anyway. This is excellent fanfic writing, and a masterclass in suspenseful, twist-laden, character-driven episodic fiction. It's X-Men, and readers love their X-Men, which, with the best will in the world, isn't happening at M2K outside of Dave's X-Factor.
But, most of all, it's because I know you'll enjoy it and you'll lose yourself in Kenn's intricate and beautiful world, and that's surely what reading is all about.
That's why you should be reading Kenn Beck's Ultimate X-Men.