Ultimate X-Men (2024) - TV Tropes (2025)

Hisako Ichiki / Armor

First Appearance: Ultimate Universe #1 (November, 2023)

^{Click to see her with her power active}

A student at Kirigaya Minami Middle School. After the death of her best friend Tsubasa, Hisako finds herself haunted by a mysterious shadowy entity. She can form an armored shell around herself made of energy.

• All of the Other Reindeer: Is teased at her middle school graduation by other students who call her creepy.
• Ascended Extra: Downplayed. Her main universe counterpart is a relatively prominent character of the X-Men, but here, in this universe, she's one of the main protagonists.
• Best Friend: With Tsubasa. His suicide deeply affected Hisako, and it's the reason why she stopped coming to middle school until her graduation ceremony.
• Creepy Loner Girl: Dark hair, tends to wear dark clothes, no real friends, gloomy personality, interest in the occult, Hisako fits this trope to a T.
• Die or Fly: Her powers first manifest when her bike is hit by a car. They save her, but the car's driver is left in critical condition.
• Forgotten First Meeting: She encountered Shinobu Kageyama when he intruded on a séance she participated in during middle school, but had no idea who he was since he showed up uninvited. Hisako completely forgot about him, whereas he's fixated on her ever since. Come their first actual reunion in #6 she openly states she's got no idea who he is. He doesn't take it well.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Struggles with a lot of self-esteem issues as a result of Tsubasa's death.
• Innocently Insensitive: Issue #2 shows a flashback where she skips school with Tsubasa. When he admits that he wants to permanently skip school, Hisako shrugs it off as though he was merely making conversation, and she realizes in the present that his wish was a cry for help.
• Instant Armor: Just like in 616, Hisako's power is instantly manifesting an energy construct armor resembling a suit of samurai armor.
• It Can Think: There are small signs that Hisako's samurai armor has a mind of its own.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Hisako is haunted and tormented by her guilt over not doing more to help her deceased friend Tsubasa, who was victimized and bullied.
• Personality Powers: Reclusive and introverted, with the ability to summon armor that protects her from the world around her.
• Survivor Guilt: Very much so in regards to Tsubasa.
• The Protagonist: She is the main character of the series.
• The Shut-In: Became this after Tsubasa's death, only showing up to school for her graduation.

Mei Igarashi / Maystorm

First Appearance: Ultimate Universe #1 (November, 2023)

A student at Kirigaya Minami Middle School. She has the ability to control weather.

• Abusive Parents: Mei's parents are far from ideal. While her mother isn't outright abusive, she does nothing when Mei's dad slaps her and kicks her out of the house. And while Mei is uncertain how to feel about her mother, she makes it clear that she sees her dad as a scumbag for his actions.
• Blow You Away: Uses this to try and fend off a cop turned into a maggot-faced monster in Issue 2.
• Calling the Old Man Out:
  • Suggests that her mother should leave her father in a flashback, due to him barely acknowledging either of them. Her father promptly gets up and slaps her.
  • She later discovers her father engaging in enjo kōsai with the much younger Surge. Mei, understandably disgusted by this, chews him out and almost chases after him before Surge picks a fight with her.
• Canon Immigrant: She originated from Peach Momoko’s X-Men #27 New Champions Variant Cover, which wasn't part of the Ultimate Universe setting.
• Elemental Hair Colors: Has white hair, matching her ability to control wind.
• Elemental Powers: Has shown the ability to control wind, electricity, and rain.
• Expy Coexistence: Mei has similar weather manipulation powers to Storm, as well as appearance (white hair, punk attire, and electric bolt jewelry), though Storm already exists on Earth 6160 in the pages of Ultimate Black Panther. Mei is even shown scrolling through Twitter reading posts about sightings of Storm, aka Wind-Rider.
• Genki Girl: She's a lot more confident and energetic compared to Hisako.
• Locked into Strangeness: The first use of her powers turns her hair white and her eyes silver.
• Meaningful Name: The surname Igarashi means "fifty storms".
• Mystical White Hair: Gained this after using her powers for the first time.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: She's pretty short, even for a young teenager, being noticeably smaller than Hisako.
• Shock and Awe: Her first shown use of her powers is to turn on a toy that didn't have any batteries inside.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Storm, who has instead taken on the persona of Wind-Rider in this universe, as shown in Ultimate Black Panther. Fitting, as she was initially designed as a hypothetical protege for Storm.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: She first uses her powers in an outburst of rage after her father slaps her.
• Weather Manipulation: The initial triggering of her powers causes it to rain briefly.
• You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!: When Mei meets Surge, she is aghast at how her fellow mutant has decided to use her powers for fun, ignoring the sacrifice of the people who's death gave her those powers. Feeling she should have helped others than just using them for self-interest.

Nico Minoru

First Appearance: Ultimate X-Men (Vol.2) #3 (May 2024)

One of Hisako and Mei's classmates. Her parents are supposedly psychics and she's able to tell the two girls are also mutants.

• Fake Period Excuse: Her classmates state she always says she's on her period whenever they have gym.
• Goth: She carries the aesthetic just like her Earth-616 counterpart, but a bit more subdued.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Hisako and Mei are unsure if she has powers, mutant or magical, even though she was able to deduce they're mutants. She turns out to indeed have powers, but her comments make it unknown if it's from the magnifying glass her grandmother gave her or her own innate mutant abilities.
• Not So Above It All: When she tries to present herself as aloof and mysterious, Nico is frequently faced with situations that are well out of her depth that forces her to drop her calm demeanor. Like encountering the Shadow King for the first time, and when Natsu and Mori reveal their parents are part of Children of the Atom (which she was completely unaware of).

Natsu Tsukishima

First Appearance: Ultimate X-Men Vol. 2 #3 (May 2024)

Another of Hisako and Mei's classmates.

• Abusive Parents: Her mother, someone associated with the Children of the Atom, at first sounds sweet and wants Natsu to go out and show her superiority. The second Natsu refuses, her mom calls her a failure where Natsu, in her cries after killing her mom, begs her to repeatedly call her a failure as she always did before.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She's bullied by some other girls, one of whom calls Natsu a murderer.
• Eye Beams: She can shoot a ruby beam of light from her left eye powerful enough to pierce a metal soda can. Unlike her 616 counterpart, her beams emit heat as well as force.
• Eyepatch of Power: Constantly wears an eyepatch, which if precedent is any indication is hiding her Mutant power.
• Meaningful Name: Natsu translated to "Summer". Mixed with her eyepatch and the look of her jumpsuit, she's apparently Earth-6160's version of Scott Summers.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Enters this state when Natsu accidentally burns a hole through her mom's eye, killing her, and begins crying when she realized what she'd done.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Not having used her powers as of issue 7, covers show her eyepatched eye is fully intact, but it irises are an unnatural red.
• The Stoic: Not one for big emotional displays, contrasting greatly against Mori.
• Tears of Blood: Her eye beam retracts into her eye when she finishes firing it, injuring her eye in the process and causing it to bleed.

Mori

First Appearance: Ultimate X-Men Vol. 2 #3 (May 2024)

Another of Hisako and Mei's classmates, keeping a secret from them.

• Adaptation Name Change: To go with the Race Lift, from Molly to Mori.
• Saying Too Much: While the others are talking about the mysterious Children of the Atom, she says she's part of it, then immediately clams up, since she's not supposed to tell outsiders that.

Tsubasa

First Appearance: Ultimate X-Men (Vol.2) #1 (March 2024)

A friend of Hisako's who killed himself after relentless bullying.

• Ambiguous Situation: It's unknown if he had come back as a ghost, has come back as the shadow, if the shadow is creating an illusion of him, or if Hisako is hallucinating him in her distress.
• Driven to Suicide: He was bullied relentlessly and his struggles were shrugged off by those closest to him, driving him to killing himself.
• Expy: Appears to be one to Wing, a character from Earth-616 who was also best friends with that version of Armor and whose suicide was a a major plot point for Astonishing X-Men. His name also means "wing."
• Nice Guy: By the shadow's accounts, Tsubasa was a very friendly and cheerful boy who was unfortunately bullied into suicide.
• Plot-Triggering Death: His death hangs over the story like a shadow, but the plot also truly begins when a teacher who was rumoured to have bullied Tsubasa hangs himself at the end of Issue #1, implying that the shadow creature is hunting down everybody it perceived as having pushed Tsubasa to his death.
• Posthumous Character: Had died shortly before the events of the series, but his death casts a rather large shadow over the story. Rather literally, as a shadowy entity is haunting everybody who knew and/or tormented him.

Kanon Sainouchi / Psylocke

First Appearance: Ultimate X-Men vol. 2 #7 (September 2024)

An older classmate of Hisako and Mei's.

• Adaptation Name Change: Implied to be a version of Kwannon.
• All There in the Manual: Only referred to as Psylocke in the recap pages, not in the story proper.
• Arrogant Kungfu Guy: Arrogant Kendo Gal, really. Her first interaction with her big brother, she casually recounts how she beat the crap out of some sophomores. He scolds her for this, saying she should try to get on with people, because she'll never know when she might need help.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: After discovering a suitcase with a corpse, she took a picture of it and later put it on social media before deleting it. Needless to say, her brother is horrified and quickly grabs her so they could leave, her actions having endangered them as the leaders of the Children of the Atom are very upset with her actions.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her actions in releasing the images cause the entire country to be aware of the Children of the Atom. Domino-effecting until it reaches a breaking point where racism rises, the cult members begin acting out, people getting injured, and so on.

A radical cult of mutants.

• Advice Backfire: The Maester, in an attempt to control the children, lets out a speech in hopes it'll calm them and ensure none of the powerful ones go rogue, all while claiming their time has come to step out of the shadows. Multiple children and others conclude to actually step out and reveal themselves. The result leading to the entire country slowly descending into what may be war between them and the Children of the Atom.
• Blood Magic: They use items with a X-shaped sigil to trigger mutant powers.
• Dark Secret: The Children of the Atom, for all their claims that those with powers are chosen as the next step of evolution, don't exactly reveal that the power of some of their mutants come from vile experimentations. Some which have led to people being killed.
• Didn't Think This Through: Its pretty clear that when many members of the cult begin going out, they had no idea what to do beyond stepping out of the shadows and showing themselves, with some questioning if they were entering war. The result is some attacking regular humans, others doing so in self-defense, and their actions causing many mutants unaffiliated with them being targeted by racists who either hide or fight back themselves.
• Scam Religion: With the group being revealed in the open, some of the young mutants part of it now question if they've been fooled and are part of a cult. Leading to the Maester becoming worried that the more powerful mutants may defect alongside the very bad publicity being sprouted.

Shinobu Kageyama / Shadow King

First Appearance: Ultimate X-Men (Vol.2) #2 (April 2024)

An introverted reclusive classmate of Hisako and Tsubasa's. He has the ability to read minds and project illusions, including a shadowy figure with which he uses to haunt and stalk Hisako.

• Ambiguous Situation: While it's revealed that he's behind the shadow entity haunting Hisako, some of the shadow's actions don't correlate with Kageyama's later expanded personality, especially how it treats Hisako despite Kageyama's one-sided crush on her. Sometimes it seems to even act independently from him.
• Bully Hunter: Is actively hunting everybody he feels were responsible for Tsubasa killing himself, including those who were accomplices by inaction.
• Dark Is Evil: Has a power to project illusions formed out of shadows. Kageyama uses it to stalk Hisako.
• Demonic Possession: Possesses one of the bullies that drove Tsubasa to suicide to attack Hisako and forces him to slit his own throat.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: He appears to be an extremely lonely boy; he appears uninvited to a Oujia board seance Hisako attended and Surge mocks him when he claims his friends are calling him away.
• Living Shadow: Can create a shadowy entity with human eyes.
• Loners Are Freaks: Kageyama clearly has no friends and spends most of his time in his closet performing some kind of strange ritual.
• Loving a Shadow: He has a breakdown in #6 when Hisako doesn't act like he thinks she should, further exacerbated when she states she has no idea who he is.
• Mythology Gag: His makeshift helmet and all the strings attached to it evokes Cerebro.
• Mind Rape: One of his abilities, which he utilizes in certain issues for his own usage. Issue #10 has him do this towards some distraught parents who were begging Hisako about their dead children and force the girl into nearly choking a mother to death.
• No Sympathy: When seeing Akihiro, who is clearly suffering and asking for help, Kageyama doesn't care and calls the man a fool.
• Speech Bubbles: His shadow speaks in distinctive speech bubbles with ragged white text on a black background.
• Stalker with a Crush: At some point in the past, he joined a seance Hisako attended uninvited, and it's later revealed he has a fixation on her.
• Super-Empowering: The Maester reveals in Issue #7 that Kageyama's abilities can trigger latent mutations.
• Villainous BSoD: Hisako not acting the way he wanted and her admitting to not recognizing him sends his powers into chaos, causing him to enter a partial coma where his telepathic subconscious reaches out to her.

Noriko Ashida / Surge

First Appearance: Ultimate X-Men (Vol.2) #4 (June 2024)

A member of the Children of the Atom with electric powers. She also goes on dates with older men in exchange for money.

• Adaptational Badass: Downplayed. In the main universe, Surge has to wear metal gauntlets to control her body violently discharging excess electricity. Here, she can seemingly control her powers perfectly by herself... until a fight with Mei causes her rings to shatter, causing severe burns on her hand as her electricity goes out of control.
• Adaptational Villainy: She has no qualms about killing in this universe and even seems to enjoy it, while in the main universe, she is horrified after accidentally electrocuting a shop owner during a robbery.
• Elemental Hair Colors: She has blue hair and also has electricity-based powers.
• High-Voltage Death: She kills a man by electrocuting his brain.
• Psycho Electro: She is a bit too excited to electrocute someone after she kills a pervy old man asking to feel up her thigh, and smiles while doing it. She also helps herself to his wallet.
• Shock and Awe: Surge can also control electricity.
• Troubled Teen: She is involved in enjo kōsai (compensated dating) and goes on dates with older men in exchange for money. When one particularly pervy old man asks to feel a scar on her thigh, she calmly puts her hand on his head and fries his brain like an omelette with her electricity powers. She also seems to have no qualms about killing someone horribly (his head was steaming), even if he was creepy.
• You Are Number 6: Has a numbered tattoo on her indicating she's one of the Children's experiments.

Akihiro

First Appearance: Ultimate X-Men #9 (November 2024)

A mysterious man who claims to be the first Homo superior and whose blood is used to create mutants.

• Death Seeker: Pleads with Kageyama to kill him after spending so long being drained of his blood to create mutants.
• Monster Progenitor: Claims to be the original Homo superior.
• Mythology Gag: Akihiro on Earth-616 is better known as Daken, the villainous son of Wolverine. The biggest two gags are how he resembles his father with his Wild Hair, and his blood being used to create mutants is a nod to Earth-1610's mutants being born from experimentation with Wolverine's blood.

Shiro Yoshida / Sun Emperor

First Appearance: Ultimate Invasion #2 (July 2023)

• Adaptation Name Change: He goes by Sun Emperor instead of Sunfire.
• Adaptational Villainy: Maker's toxic influence has resulted in him being a part of a ruthless conspiracy manipulating the world and willing to do anything for "the greater good".
• Greater-Scope Villain: Issue #7 reveals that he's the benefactor of the Children of the Atom and seems to be financing them to discover or create new mutants.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Tends to go around in a business suit rather than the colorful outfit most Sunfires go with, though the cover for Ultimate Universe: One Year In shows him in one.

Ophelia Sarkissian / Viper

First Appearance: Ultimate Invasion #2 (July 2023)

• Bad Boss: When things slowly start going out of control with the Children of the Atom, she blames the Maester, even though he himself has no full control of everything that's happening. She doesn't care and threatens him with death if he doesn't clean up the mess happening around them.
• The Dragon: Acts as Sun Emperor's voice and agent.
• Green and Mean: In Ultimate Invasion and the Ultimate Universe one-shot she's decked out in the typical green halter top most Vipers prefer. In Ultimate X-Men she swaps for wearing trenchcoats in either black or white, but she starts wearing green-tinted glasses.
• Mouth of Sauron: Per the rules, no-one may speak to Sunfire directly, so Viper speaks for him.
• No Sympathy: When Captain Britain calls up the rest of the Council to inform them of the Ultimates, Viper isn't remotely sympathetic to his losing an eye.

Kenuichio Harada / Silver Samurai

First Appearance: Ultimate Invasion #2 (July 2023)

• Bodyguarding a Badass: He's Sun Emperor's bodyguard, but all indications are Shiro doesn't really need the protection.
• Malevolent Masked Man: A different from other versions of the Silver Samurai is his face is entirely covered, but he's just as villainous as the rest of them.
• President Superhero: He's one of the leaders of the Land of Fire.