- January 16, 2025
Ultimate Wolverine #1 Review
Written by: Chris Condon
Art by: Alessandro Cappuccio
Coloring by: Bryan Valenza
Lettering by: VC’s Cory Petit
Editing by: Michelle Marchese, Wil Moss
Ultimate Wolverine? More Like ABSOLUTE Wolverine
This title in the new Ultimate Universe was easily one of the most anticipated. What new ideas could this new universe bring to one of the most popular X-Men characters? Turns out, not much if this first issue is anything to go by. Minor spoilers for the issue moving forward, only stuff that was in the trailer and press release.
Ultimate Wolverine #1 combines Weapon X and the Winter Soldier project to turn Wolverine into this universe’s Winter Soldier. Turns out… it’s marginally different from what Weapon X was before, only that Colossus is in charge.
This Wolverine is another brainwashed, mindwiped weapon set upon innocent people, and he dives into them in a bloody fashion. At first, I thought this book was trying to distill Wolverine to its purest form, hence why this book feels less fresh and more precise. This removes Wolverine from the soap opera of the X-Mansion, the superheroics of the Avengers, and the love of his expansive family. This brings Wolverine back to his core as an abused animal, used to bring only pain and suffering to himself and others.
I quickly compared this first issue to the first issues of other Ultimate Universe books, and I quickly realized that this isn’t a deviation from them, but stays well in line. What made Ultimate Spider-Man so good was how it focused on Spider-Man’s core principle of great power comes great responsibility. Instead of focusing on responsibility, it struck the core of Spider-Man by dissecting the power half of his motto. The Ultimates, focused on the Avengers being regular people forced to become extraordinary to make a change in the world and pushed it to its logical conclusion as freedom fighters in a dystopia. Ultimate Wolverine helped me to realize that the Ultimate Universe isn’t about changing what we know but being more precise.
Unfortunately, I’m not a huge fan of the overly gory, depressing Weapon X stories of Wolverine, so this isn’t my bag just yet. There is a twist I won’t spoil that seems to imply that this is a Wolverine who has been forced to become Weapon X after becoming a hero, but that’s not an interesting idea. The execution is done well, with gorgeous art and quality writing, but this isn’t the Wolverine book I needed.
That being said, for the reasons I’m disappointed, classic Wolverine fans will love it. Expect an edgy, violent, brooding story that will make you feel like you’re rereading Wolverine for the first time.
Check Out Ultimate Wolverine #1, then Check out SomethingCentral!
I say this a lot, that this is the first chapter, so it may change. I’m not as familiar with the creative team on this book as I am with others, but it’s by no means bad. It’s just not my cup of tea. For more, check out the website or the YouTube channel. We’ve just published an audio story for the first time, based on the short story you can read here. Hope you like it. Like, subscribe, and have a nice day.