Ultimate Marvel has been the best part of the publisher since it was brought back in 2023. Fans love to see their favorite characters in new ways, and the line has led to beloved comics like Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men, and The Ultimates. It’s always fun to get to see old characters in new ways, and each of the books has taken Marvel favorites and tweaked them, placing them into a world where the villainous Maker is in charge. One of the most controversial books of the line is Ultimate Wolverine, a book that follows the diminutive mutant, who was made into the Winter Soldier by the Eurasian Republic, a nation controlled by mutants Magik and Colossus. Many fans thought this would be a more “normal” X-book, as it starred numerous fan-favorite mutants.
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However, Ultimate Wolverine has turned into a meat-grinder for these characters. Logan becomes a part of the Opposition after breaking through his programming, battling against powerful forces that have stacked the game against anyone who opposes them. Ultimate Wolverine #12 is a climactic issue of the book, setting the stage for its role in Ultimate Endgame. It also contains a rather disrespectful death, as Logan goes up against one of the many mutants co-opted by the Eurasian Republic. While this isn’t exactly uncommon in the book — many popular mutants have died — what makes it so weird is that it’s a character that Marvel has been pushing pretty hard: Cyclops.
Ultimate Wolverine Just Disrespected Cyclops Worse Than Ever
Ultimate Wolverine is a favorite of Wolverine fans, but not so much with X-Men fans. A big reason for that is its treatment of some of the most beloved X-Men. Cyclops is the latest victim of that. It was revealed in Ultimate Wolverine #9 that the Eurasian Republic had been creating what are called “X-S Sentinels”. These Sentinels killed mutants and blended them with the robotic enforcers, and we got to see a defeated Cyclops as an X-S Sentinel several issues ago. Ultimate Wolverine #12 followed Logan taking revenge against the Eurasian Republic for their slaughter of the Opposition in the last issue, all while trying to find the woman who keeps speaking in his mind, taking him to the heart of the Republic.
While Logan attacks Dr. Alongya Prostovich, the head of the Republic’s mutant projects, the Cyclops X-S Sentinel is called in, gets a few shots off, and is killed. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Wolverine and Cyclops fight to the death in an alternate universe, but it’s coming at a very weird time. Cyclops has been getting a large push in the X-Men books, starring in X-Men and about to get his own solo miniseries. Wolverine unceremoniously killing off Cyclops in alternate universe book – and one that sells better than the other X-Men books – feels like blatant disrespect to the character.
There are also rumors that Marvel Studios is going to focus on Cyclops in the new round of X-Men movies. He’s been a rather important character in the X-Men books for almost twenty years now, positioned as something akin to Captain America for mutants. He’s always been a major character in the X-Men mythos, but it’s definitely felt like he was on the cusp of greatness lately. While the Ultimate Universe is ending soon, it’s still a strange choice to disrespect a character that the publisher is trying to push elsewhere, especially in a book that sells better than any of the X-books. Ultimate Wolverine has a bad reputation with a lot of X-Men fans because of things like this, and it looks like Marvel is once again proving that the book deserves that reaction.
Ultimate Wolverine #12 is on sale now.
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