Did Ultimate Wolverine Create Their Own X-Men?

The Ultimate Universe has been a tremendous success for Marvel, with many Marvel fans of the opinion that the best current Marvel books have the world “Ultimate” in the title. Ultimate X-Men introduced the mutants of Earth-6160, creating a mutant book that was basically a horror manga, but Ultimate Wolverine has gone a different way. This book starring Ultimate Wolverine has gone in more traditional directions with mutants, with Ultimate Wolverine showing the fates of multiple well-known mutants. Ultimate Wolverine #5 is yet another barnstormer of a comic, pitting Ultimate Wolverine against the new Ultimate Sabretooth in a battle over the fate of two surprising mutants — Artie and Leech. It’s an action packed little nugget, one that gives a reader a glimpse of their shared past.

Wolverine and Sabretooth fights often have flashbacks in them, showing off the years of battles the two of them have fought. Other times, Wolverine/Sabretooth flashbacks show off quieter times between the two of them. The flashback in Ultimate Wolverine #5 is one of the latter, and it, combined with a Eurasian Republic intelligence report at the end of the issue, will change what everyone knows about the X-Men and mutants in the Ultimate Universe.

Armor’s Team of X-Men Isn’t the First Team of Mutants to Use an X Symbol

Ultimate Wolverine‘s main plot so far has been about Wolverine being thrown at the Opposition, a group of mutants who have fought against the Eurasian Republic. On Earth-6160, it so far seems like most of the mutants on the planet are all either in the Eurasian Republic or in Ni Ho Kuni, the name of Japan on that world. Most of the well-known mutants are in the Eurasian Republic, which is ruled by Colossus, Magik, and Omega Red, although their older brother Mikhail was a part of the ruling triumvirate until his death at the hands of Gambit. Throughout Ultimate Wolverine, we’ve been getting hints about the Opposition, and they seem to be a group of mutants fighting for their own freedom against the forces of the Rasputins. Ultimate Wolverine #5 shows readers more of what most of them have already figured out — that Wolverine was once a member of this resistance, along with Sabretooth. Sharp-eyed readers noticed the “X” on Sabretooth’s uniform jacket, but also noticed how different it looked from the traditional X-Men “X” in close up panels. At the end of the issue, the intelligence report describes the “X” as “two crossed arms, hands curled into fists.” So, not exactly the X-Men symbology we’re used to.

RELATED: Marvel Finally Introduces Its Ultimate Sabretooth (& He’s Nothing Like Wolverine)

One of the complaints about the way the Ultimate Universe was using mutants before Ultimate Wolverine‘s debut was that it was nothing like Earth-616. Now, obviously, it’s a little weird to complain that two different titles in two different universes aren’t exactly alike, but comic fans’ demand for homogeneity have always been one of the industry’s bigger problems. Ultimate X-Men is an amazing book because it takes the trappings of the X-Men — teens with powers banding together at a school to fight for their lives against those who would oppress them — and puts it in a new story type. However, it looks Ultimate Wolverine is showing readers that there was another X-Men team, of a sort at least, on Earth-6160, and they’ve been fighting the good fight against the Maker and the Rasputins for a long time. This is much more in line with the 616 X-Men. There’s even a chance that X-Opposition (which is what I’m calling them until they’re given another name, like Ultimate X-Force or something) is where the girls of Ultimate X-Men got the name for their team. Maybe the X, even in its form of crossed arms, is an important symbol to the mutants of Earth-6160. We know that Xavier was around for a while, so maybe before the Eurasian Republic captured him, he spread the X among mutants.

X Marks the Spot?

Ultimate Wolverine #5’s fight between Wolverine and Sabretooth is a masterpiece for multiple reasons. For a long time, Wolverine was completely unable to defeat Sabretooth, and it’s cool to see that’s still the case in the Ultimate Universe. Wolverine gets some decent hits in, but it’s not enough to matter, as Sabretooth is seemingly his superior in basically every way. However, the fight does more than just homage classic Wolverine/Sabretooth fights; it shows what fans have suspected for a long time — that Logan once belonged to a group of mutants who fought the power of the Maker and an X was their symbol.

Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Wolverine are both taking very different looks at the mutant experience on Earth-6160, and that’s a great thing. It’s cool to have the horror manga X-Men of Hi No Kuni fighting the Maester and the Shadow King, and it’s cool to have a group of mutants in the Eurasian Republic fighting the Rasputins and Omega Red. The X-Men are looking more and more like a very important part of Earth-6160, whether it be in the present or the past, and this could open the doors for what could be an awesome crossover between the horror manga X-Men and the blood-soaked X-Men of the Eurasian Republic.

What’s your opinion on the mutants of Earth-6160? Sound off in the comments below.