The X-Men were already uncanny. To be a part of the Ultimate line, so deftly begun by Brian Michael Bendis, the X-Men needed to be something more.

Mark Millar proved up to the challenge, giving the Ultimate X-Men an edginess they've never before achieved.

In this fresh revamp, Charles Xavier is just starting to gather mutants to his cause. With Cyclops and Marvel Girl at his side, he seeks out would-be heroes including Storm, the Beast, Colossus, Iceman and more, all to oppose the anti-human machinations of Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants. (They're not called "evil" mutants any more, since few groups, no matter how homicidal they may be, consider themselves to be evil.)

More to the point, Xavier is able to protect his X-buddies from the Sentinels, a troop of giant robots commissioned by the U.S. government to seek, find and execute mutants (without a trial or anything so pesky as that) by sniffing out their unusual DNA. Creepy.

While evil mutants Toad and Blob are even more disgusting than their mainstream Marvel counterparts, the appearance of the Ultimate X-Men aren't too far removed from the images we're already accustomed to. The differences are in their personalities; Storm, a former car thief, is very unsure of her own abilities; Cyclops is more temperamental; Marvel Girl is slightly more prone to being ruled by her passions; and Wolverine -- well, he's best known as a very thorough, highly successful assassin.

I will confess the mainstream X-Men wore me out years ago and I do my best to avoid all of Marvel's various X-titles each week. However, the success of the Ultimate line in other titles convinced me to give this a try, and I have to admire Millar's ability to make the old and tired seem new and fresh.