Contains Spoilers for Ultimate X-Men #4!Marvel’s new Ultimate X-Men has just introduced its fourth heroine, and she’s a fan-favorite right out of the 2000s, a character who was long overdue for an entirely new look and story. As this new roster of X-Men slowly assembles, even more changes to their familiar backstories are sure to crop up, and that’s much of the fun of the latest incarnation of Ultimate X-Men.

In Ultimate X-Men (Vol. 2) #4, readers are briefly introduced to the new Ultimate version of Surge, as she watches Armor and Maystorm’s confrontation with the Shadow King from an overlooking balcony.

Noriko Ashida, the hero known as Surge, is a Japanese mutant who – in Marvel’s mainstream continuity – fled to the US to get away from her family. The character is beloved for offering a look at not only the X-Men, but Japanese culture, from a perspective that many X-readers might not be familiar with.

Ultimate X-Men Introduces An Updated Surge For A New Generation

Ultimate X-Men (Vol. 2) #4 – Written & Illustrated By Peach Momoko; Lettering By Travis Lanham

It’s hard to gauge too much about the Surge of this new Ultimate Universe from this brief appearance, but it’s interesting to see how her powers might differ from her mainline counterpart. In Ultimate X-Men #4, Surg eats a spark of electricity produced by the weather-controlling Maystorm, suggesting that she might have a higher level of control over her powers than her original incarnation from the get-go. This would, of course, negate the need for the character’s trademark electricity-controlling gauntlets, which notably don’t appear in Momoko’s design sheet for the Ultimate version.

It will be fascinating to see whether Ultimate Surge gets a similar backstory to her original counterpart, or whether she differs completely. It seems somewhat unlikely that this Surge is also a runaway, because it would overlap significantly with the origin of Maystorm from Ultimate X-Men #3. What’s also interesting is that this is the first time that readers have got to see Surge live in Japan, as her -Earth616 version had already moved to the US by New Mutants #8, where she was found by the X-Men living homeless in New York.

Peach Momoko Offers A Perspective On Japanese Culture Through Classic X-Men Characters

One of the great joys of Momoko’s book so far has been seeing how drastically different her world is from what X-Men fans expect, and Surge should be no exception. The original character draws so heavily from American ideas of Japanese culture and anime in the 2000s, and what Momoko can do is instead bring a more nuanced, realistic look at a young Japanese hero to the book. Momoko’s work is also undoubtably influenced by manga, but there’s a difference between US-based creators with no cultural experience taking on this character and a native Japanese creator like Momoko.

Between Surge and Armor, Momoko clearly has an interest in reinterpreting existing Japanese culture, giving them authenticity drawn from Momoko’s real-life experiences. It’s a long overdue perspective after decades of X-Men stories set in, and featuring characters from, Japan, with little actual representation among the creative staff. Each issue of Ultimate X-Men (2024) ends with a brief glossary, filling in readers on the cultural touchstones from the issue that they might not recognize. Whether its through Surge, or the very setting of the comic itself, Ultimate X-Men gives readers a nuanced look at Japan, and feels all the more special for it.