I've always said the antics of the X-Men feel far removed from everything else going on in the Marvel Universe and someone must have been listening, because the new Ultimate Universe take on X-Men has the famous mutants start not in America, but Japan! Its a radically different book in art and genre, but I appreciate big swings in this industry, and I think this really works!

The spooky mysteries at school are a nice hook, and its interesting to see familiar X-Men tropes in a different culture (mutant cults in the vein of a Japanese doomsday cult is an inspired idea), but the characters are what really grabbed me. Its hard *not* to care about Hisako and Mei as we watch these kids deal with stuff like survivor's guilt and homelessness at an early age. School life ends up being a sanctuary for them (much like the Xavier Institute), and you just want to hug them and say, "Everything will be ok!"

Something to note going in is that this book is a slow burn and really doesn't get going until the start of the next volume, so I really think people are better off waiting for an opportunity to snag both volumes before trying this series. If you're looking for something different from the normal Marvel fanfare though, I think this will whet your appetite.