Liked the story in UXM, but the art continues to be varying degrees of ass with the occaisional splash of brilliance like the Pheonix shot. It's frustrating because panels like that show that the artist can do good work, but just doesn't most of the time. Prime example being the first panel where Bobby's eyes are two different shapes and the left side of his jaw looks like he has a cancerous growth. I don't know if SI can't balance quality with speed or what but it's extremely off-putting.

The boot thing cracked me up, though.

Ultimate (UXM is only Uncanny to me): So is Longshot gay, then?

No idea. Not enough evidence yet either way. I mean, if a huge guy made out of metal told me to stand behind him in that situation I'd happily do so, too.

I would have let it go as subtext, but then Dazzler seemed to want to raise it.

Well, I think Pete most-likely is. Longshot on the other hand hasn't really said or done anything to indicate his preference yet.

ETA: And Dazzler was specifically asking about Pete. I don't she knows Longshot well enough to even care at this point. But she's likely been picking up a vibe from Pete and his interaction with Longshot probably brought it to the fore of her mind.

In that scene, they show Dazzler in front (IIRC) with a quizzical look, so I assumed that it was that line that prompted the question. In a segueish fashion. Because Pete didn't say anything gay.

I'm pretty sure about Petey myself, and have my suspicions about Angel, but need to reread the intro issues to remember why.

All the different universes make things confusing sometimes. I can't remember if Ultimate universe Angel has been giving subtext or if that was just the 1602-verse character.

As for what prompted Dazzler to ask I was thinking it was because of the boot thing and the "Are you okay?" combined with the "Stay behind me" bit. And there's probably a bit of the stereo-typical "If he/she doesn't want me, they must be gay" thing since she seems to have been crushing on Pete for awhile.

In a way, I hope he's not, as they already introduced Northstar and I don't trust comic book writers to have two gay characters in a book without automatically making them a couple. Kind of like well-meaning but clueless friends with the "I know someone else who's gay—you'd be perfect for each other!" matchmaking thing .

I'm actually not crazy about the We Must Pair Up All the Teammates with Each Other philosophy in general. It ends up being incestuous and soap-operalike and suddenly I'm thankful I've never run across any Ben Grimm/Johnny Storm slash .

The first Ultimate HoYay was Colossus and someone else -- he was asking about someone? Was that Angel?

I seem to recall him being rather fixated on Logan in the beginning.