I was thinking when I saw this week’s releases that the last thing we needed was another stand alone Wolverine title. On top of that, this week also launched this comic which is a stand alone Wolverine title set in the Ultimate Marvel Universe. Going into it I was pretty reluctant on being able to find any enjoyment out of it. We also don’t usually follow the Ultimate line here but it being a #1 AND Wolverine I just couldn’t pass up on it.
How’d it stack up?
Logan in Ultimate Marvel is dead and has been for some time. In the Ultimate Universe, much like the regular 616 series, Wolverine had a son. Unlike our Wolverine, this one only had one son and fortunately for everyone he didn’t turn out like Daken. In fact in this world his name is Jimmy and he’s been an active member in what passes for the X-Men these days.
Recently he’s been given a recording of his father telling him to be a good man. What he didn’t know and finds out this issue is that there was a hidden message under his father’s video message. It’s a detailed list of something related to his father and he needs to learn more.
At the same time he’s learning about this we are getting flashbacks of a mission Wolverine was on as part of a Weapon-X styled project. He was playing security and the one thing that really bothers me about this portion of the issue is how similar in context it is to this week’s actual ‘Wolverine #1’ release. There’s a young child who is possessed and goes on a killing spree that Logan wants to keep safe.
He finds the body of the person actually responsible and something about the scent has him all worked up. Whose that going to end up being?
Granted the comparison stops there but it bothered me that we had even seen that much of one. Another annoyance here would be how much Wolverine is acting like the Weapon-X trained Wolverine instead of the one found in Ultimates. He really just felt a touch too much like ours for me to be comfortable with.
Back to modern day times. With Jimmy having found this information it appears as if a code has been sent out that someone has seen it. A black ops team worried about Project Wolverine and the ‘children’ coming home suddenly tries to start a massive cover up only to be stopped by Quicksilver.
We haven’t seen him in awhile but it appears that he’s not only back but familiar with the events that are occurring.
Separate from that it did say it had something to do with calling the children home. Maybe this will lead us to seeing that Wolverine did have more than one child and would be a great way to introduce a near twin to Jimmy that could go by the name Daken. Or it could be completely unrelated to mutants.
To be honest the most surprising thing was how much portions of the flashback plot mirrored the first issue of Wolverine in the NOW! lineup. I’m curious to see what Quicksilver knows and what this entire Project Wolverine story is going to be like. I suspect it will be Weapon-Xish in nature as we already have learned that mutants caused by the government in this world.
It’s a good introduction with enough elements to catch the attention. I’m just down on another Wolverine title and how much portions of it felt the same after having just read the reboot. I really don’t think we needed another Wolverine title. If you are following the Ultimate Universe this would probably be one to pickup but if you are just starting I wouldn’t say this is a great jump in point.
Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Ramon Rosanas
