Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

At some point after Ultimatum, the Ultimate-verse got a reboot.   I wasn't interested, having heard that many of my favorite characters had been killed in Ultimatum, and that the Ultimatum itself was pretty disappointing as a larger story arc. 

What changed my mind?   Nick Spencer.   

Everything enthralls me with Spencer's writing.   He tackles large questions such as detainment camps based on race, and he does so with a quiet grace.   He never denies the power of such a concept.  While he doesn't directly link them to the camps we had in the US during World War II, there is no denying that these are part of our country's history. No, instead of calling our camps to mind, Spencer simply deals with this the proper gravitas.   

X-Men has never shied away from loaded subjects.   Genocide has been a recurring theme as many terrorist groups or a scared population of humans try to eradicate all mutants.   However, there is something powerful about the way these events play out in Spencer's Ultimate X-Men series, something very real and vivid and present.   Something timely, something that makes my breath catch in my throat.   It feels imminent.   

And if Spencer only gave us this, it would be enough.   But, no.   He pushes characters forward, he gives us development and action.   And in particular the relationship between Ro and Piotr are amazing, but it's really Pietro and his sister - and an unnamed god - that really got to me.  I usually don't give a crap about Pietro because he is an ass.   (And I took great pleasure in playing him in an X-Men roleplaying game, and was told I was excellent at writing old school Pietro.   He's a fun character, but he's also such an ass, and thus fun to hate.)   Spencer puts Pietro through the wringer, and in a way that makes me feel for him.   That one scene nearly had me in tears.  

To Spencer, I have only this to say: