Ultimate Wolverine #1 Review: The Wildest Wolverine Yet

Marvel’s new Ultimate Universe is a dark place. Thanks to The Maker — an evil version of Reed Richards — heroes never reach their full potential and The Maker’s Council ruthlessly rules the world. That includes the Eurasian Republic where Colossus, Magik, and Omega Red rule, experimenting on and exploiting mutant kind. But you can’t have a secret government division doing nefarious deeds without soldiers and that’s where Ultimate Wolverine #1 comes in. Written by Chris Condon with art by Alessandro Cappuccio, Ultimate Wolverine #1 plays with the idea of what if Wolverine was this world’s Winter Soldier and the result is a story that is grim and bloody, containing just enough familiar elements for longtime Wolverine fans to hold onto while introducing some brutal new elements that the story unfolding particularly tragic, even if not especially groundbreaking.

Ultimate Wolverine #1 is a story that is, in. a sense, told in pieces. It begins largely in the “present,” with a flight over Eurasian Republic airspace near the Latverian border with Wolverine — though not called that by name — being deployed. A pair of terrified soldiers speculate about who or what he is, suggesting that he’s not even human and instead was made of the corpses of soldiers who died in combat and that he himself cannot die. As Wolverine deploys himself on his mission, we get pieces of his past. He was the lone survivor of an airstrike, then shot in the head, then imprisoned by Directorate X who decided to experiment on him, stripping him of his identity, enhancing his skeleton and turning him into a murder machine for their purposes. When it comes to those purposes, we see him deployed against Nightcrawler and Mystique — who we learn were his friends before he was taken and turned into a weapon. But while Wolverine carries out his task, the issue ends with the suggestion that maybe not all traces of Logan have been erased and that there are variables that Directorate X did not account for.

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In terms of this being particularly groundbreaking, story-wise, this really isn’t it. However, Condon does a really masterful job of taking the familiar aspects of Wolverine’s story — being seen as something other than a person, the suffering and cruelty he’s endured as he’s turned into a living weapon — and the familiar aspects of the Winter Soldier concept and presenting them as something that doesn’t feel overly repetitive. The issue gives us just enough to be interested and leaves us with questions that make us want to know more. What is Wolverine’s real origin? Is he really a composite of the parts of dead soldiers? What is his history with The Opposition? What happened that led him to being separated from his friends in the first place? There are also questions about what is really going on inside Wolverine’s head. It’s already established that he’s practically feral. How much of his old life does he remember by way of his animal self? Even with a general concept that has, in some capacity, been done before, these questions give the story a freshness worth exploring and makes for a solid read.

Artistically, Ultimate Wolverine #1 is solid as well. Cappuccio’s style carries a particular energy and when paired with Bryan Valenza’s colors there are moments when this issue feels less like a Marvel comic and more like an independent title in the best way possible. There are also some just truly stunning images, in particular one of Wolverine cutting across the sky as he makes his way to his target having leapt from the plane. The fights are also very well rendered as are the emotions on the faces of the various characters — namely Kurt’s as he realizes exactly who he’s facing in his final moments.

It can be difficult to take familiar elements and ideas and give them new twists and while Ultimate Wolverine #1 definitely does lean into some familiar things, this isn’t merely another remix. Condon has crafted a take on the idea of Wolverine as a brutal killer that offers readers enough mystery and questions that makes the story stand on its own even for the more “what if” elements of the storyline. By giving readers glimpses of where the character has been but not quite revealing everything and keeping some of the dynamics between characters and groups a bit of a mystery. The result is a compelling story, one that will have readers wondering what’s next.

Published by: Marvel Comics

On: January 15, 2025

Written by: Chris Condon

Art by: Alessandro Cappuccio

Colors by: Bryan Valenza

Letters by: VC’s Cory Petit