Synopsis & Review by CharleyX:
Synopsis: Cyclops and Iceman are pinned down in Croatia as Storm reports that Beast appears to be dead. Storm dodges gunfire from human snipers and then Cyclops takes a bullet in the chest, whereupon Iceman freaks. Luckily, the X-Men's uniforms are made of Kevlar, and Cyclops resumes leading the team. Piotr has joined Storm, who's too stressed to call up more than a light sleet. Storm questions Xavier's sending them on this mission in the first place.

Suddenly, a train lifts off a nearby elevated track and crashes down on the human attackers. Magneto and the Brotherhood arrive, and while Magneto berates the X-Men for being the lapdogs of the humans who would see them all killed, the Brotherhood helps the young mutants lift Beast onto a truck. Magneto tells the X-Men to leave, and they do. Scarlet Witch questions whether Wolverine could have actually joined the X-Men. Magneto replies that Logan was looking forward to killing Charles, and his delay must mean that he's trying to seduce a woman on the team first.

Back in the Mansion, Bobby has locked himself in his room, as Jean and the Professor pool their psychic abilities with Cerebro's amplification technology to link with top surgeons around the country as they operate on Beast. Later, Wolverine checks in on Jean, who is tending to Beast, now recuperating thanks to a bio-tech procedure that had only a small side effect in some monkeys - it turned their fur blue. They chit chat and go for a walk on the grounds. They talk about Scott blaming himself for the mission because he's a control freak, Beast's recovery, and then Logan asks Jean how she feels about him. Jean says that the really wishes she'd never met him, but can't deny Logan's assertion that she's attracted to him. Then Wolverine sweeps Jean into a kiss. From the Mansion, Cyclops watches, and Wolverine knows it.

As Professor Xavier noegitates with the President's staff, Cyclops enters the room and says he's leaving. Xavier signs off and tells Scott that the mission has resulted in real peace talks between them and the humans. Scott's not impressed and is angry at all the humans. Xavier tries to calm Scott by releasing a pleasure hormone in his brain, but Scott thinks some nasty thoughts and leaves. Beast then calls in from the infirmary and asks why his hair has turned blue.

The Blackbird lands in the Savage Land as hundreds of Magneto's followers watch. Cyclops gets out and says he's willing to listen to Magneto's pitch. Magneto welcomes him to the Brotherhood...

Review: One word: Awesome! Ultimate X-Men continues to knock my socks off. Here's why:

  • The seeds of Beast's transformation were very "today," though I didn't expect it to happen so soon. Hey, that's Ultimate for you! The idea of Jean and Xavier performing surgery by tapping into surgeons across the country was so cool. It means they can be the biggest geniuses in the world. I guess this was never done before in the real MU because of the moral implications, but it certainly works when you have to save a life.
  • Magneto was amazing! First off, the near-full page of the train silently falling out of the sky onto the Croats was chilling. I just stared at it. Brrr. And then, he DOESN'T attack the kids, DOESN'T really debate with them, and the Brotherhood actually HELPS get Beast out from the building and onto a truck! It was so great, because it shows that Mags (at least at this point) is really about helping mutants. He's not yet at the point where he feels the X-Men are a real threat. It will be interesting to see if and when that changes.
  • Wolverine was so slick. The best part of his whole flirtation with Jean was the end, when he KNOWS Cyclops is watching him. So cool! And Kubert really made it seem that Jean was in total rapture at the same time. Great work. Although, if they end up (ahem) "together," I'm not so sure how happy I'll be.
  • End results - I was really surprised that Xavier managed to get such goodwill from the US Government so quickly. "Call us if you need us, we're just sitting here running the country?" Hello? Are these the same people that built Sentinels to KILL mutants? And Xavier bascially revealed that he was one!?! Or was that "video conference" a ruse? If it is real, doesn't it prove Xavier's point? If not, then he's being really shady.
  • Finally, the big shocker - Scott joins the Brotherhood. Came right out of left field, especially since they were totally playing up Storm's doubts. Nice. The actual conversation with Xavier was done really well. Though let me just say that not for ONE moment do I think Scott's really defected. First of all, he doesn't trust Wolverine. He would never leave him alone there. Second, he took the Blackbird. That thing costs like a billion dollars - there's no way Xavier would have let him take it unless something was up. Personally, I think that Cyclops suspects that Logan may be a spy and assassin, and he didn't want to say anything out loud, because he knows how good Wolverine's senses are. So he makes Xavier read his mind and they come up with the plan via telepathy. Of course, this is the Ultimate Universe, and Scott could really be a control freak who's fed up with humans (especially after what happened with Beast's mom - nice touch there, so different from his proud folks in the MU). This will be interesting, to say the least...

    Keep it coming, boys!!!!