Fresh off Jonathan Hickman’s Ultimate Spider-Man #1, delivering what fans want from a Marvel Comic, Peach Momoko is making the rounds for her debut of Ultimate X-Men #1. This book is already causing fans to scratch their heads as to what C.B. Cebulski is thinking about hiring Peach Momoko to write and draw the book, as it looks nothing like an X-Men comic and doesn’t feature beloved heroes like Wolverine or Cyclops at all. As she’s made the rounds with interviews on Ultimate X-Men, she’s made it clear Marvel intends to forsake their audiences again for self-insert lame comics.
As the media blitz to build hype for Ultimate X-Men begins, Peach Momoko has gone to several outlets to talk about her vision of the book, showing off previews of art that make it clear “Men” won’t be a central part of “X-Men,” and that it will be about girls in junior high like it’s a Kathleen Kennedy-style “put a chick in it and make it lame and gay” project.
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“Jonathan and C.B. kind of just let me do whatever, they just gave me… ‘What if X-Men… but in Japan?’ but with a whole new roster of X-Men, not Wolverine, not Cyclops, not the popular ones,” Peach Momoko said in Screen Rant of her Ultimate X-Men run.
Peach Momoko admitted to AIPT Comics that she wasn’t influenced by the X-Men in the least and knew very little of the property before taking on her Marvel assignments, saying, “My Ultimate X-Men isn’t directly influenced by classic X-Men stories. I like to believe C.B. and Jonathan Hickman chose me because they wanted something completely new and different, so I think sometimes no influences is a good thing!”
When taking on a property like Ultimate X-Men, readers expect to see something that does honor to the X-Men. This take by Peach Momoko is concerning for the overall direction of Marvel Comics, who seems to be trying to court a different audience than loyal X-Men readers.
“I wasn’t too familiar with X-Men,” Peach Momoko also admitted, showing that C.B. Cebulski and Marvel editorial have no concerns about honoring the legacy of their franchise with Ultimate X-Men.
The most damning admission of all, however, is that Peach Momoko is pushing yet another self-insert comic. While leaving out Wolverine and Cyclops, the main character is just an idealized version of herself. “I am writing many of the stories looking back at my own experiences (and what I saw) during my own time as a student in junior high and high school,” Peach Momoko said.
Retailer Glenn O’Leary went viral last year complaining about this very fact of modern Marvel Comics. In his video, the retailer called out writers for their poorly made self-inserts, saying it’s killing his business. Amplified by Netflix’s Mark Millar, it sparked serious questions about how long Marvel and D.C. Comics could survive given the current state.
The video and its subsequent discussions rocked the comic world, upsetting several long-time influencers in the industry, such as Heather Antos and Mark Waid. However, Marvel Comics doesn’t appear to have learned the lesson with C.B. Cebulski greenlighting a relaunch of one of its biggest properties with yet another female-centric self-insert comic in Ultimate X-Men.
While Jonathan Hickman’s Ultimate Spider-Man shows that honoring the legacy of characters and treating readers with respect garners incredible sales, Peach Momoko’s Ultimate X-Men aims to do the opposite by turning off comic readers. It will be interesting to see how the sales of these series compare.
What do you think of Peach Momoko admitting Ultimate X-Men will be a self-insert for Marvel Comics? Leave a comment and let us know.
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Ultimate bullshit.
This is why I didn’t hop on the “Everyone go buy Ultimate Spider-Man” bandwagon. As long as they’re still cranking out garbage like this, Marvel doesn’t deserve one red cent of my money.