Ultimate Wolverine First Look Features a Showdown Against an X-Men Teammate Gone Bad

Ultimate Wolverine is the latest smash hit in Marvel’s revival of its Ultimate Universe, and there’s a new look at the title’s second issue. Wolverine is arguably the most popular member of the X-Men, but as of now you won’t find him in Marvel’s Ultimate X-Men comic. Instead, Ultimate Wolverine drastically alters Logan while also keeping him somewhat close to his roots. He’s still being used as a weapon, but his former teammates on the X-Men have turned Wolverine into the Winter Soldier. It’s one of those former X-Men teammates that clashes with Logan in the Ultimate Wolverine first look.

Marvel released a first look at Ultimate Wolverine #2 by Chris Condon, Alessandro Cappuccio, and Bryan Valenza. The four pages pick up after the events of the debut issue, where Ultimate Wolverine killed Nightcrawler and Mystique after being unleashed on a covert mission. Nightcrawler and Mystique were a part of the Opposition who opposed Colossus, Magik, and Omega Red’s Eurasian Republic. In the Ultimate Universe, Piotr and Illyana Rasputin are villains who work for The Maker, the evil Reed Richards who changed the past to prevent any heroes from reaching their true destinies.

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The Maker split up the Ultimate Universe into different regions which are ruled over by members of his evil council. The triad of Colossus, Magik, and Omega Red started a secret government division called Directorate X to exploit mutants, with Wolverine being one of their successful test subjects. Wolverine was the only survivor of an attack on an Opposition stronghold, and once Directorate X’s Dr. Prostovich saw his potential, she recommended him for skeletal enhancement, aka the Adamantium bonding process. The rest, as you can say, is history.

The preview pages feature Maker setting a building on fire (possibly the Charles Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters), soldiers being attacked in the snow, a meeting of Directorate X, and Colossus choking Ultimate Wolverine and violently tossing him towards the reader. Ultimate Colossus is much different from his heroic counterpart on Earth-616. Sure, Colossus has danced between good and evil at different times, most notably when he joined with Magneto and his Acolytes after the Master of Magnetism ripped the Adamantium from Wolverine’s skeleton. But Ultimate Colossus appears to be one of the ringleaders of the Eurasian Republic, and has no problem killing to achieve his goals.

“THE MAKER’S COUNCIL AND THEIR ULTIMATE WEAPON!” a description of Ultimate Wolverine #2 reads. “Colossus, Omega Red and Magik put the Ultimate Wolverine to the test by seeing how well he handles the OPPOSITION, a group fighting for mutant liberation!”

The first look at Ultimate Wolverine #2 is below. The issue goes on sale Wednesday, February 19th.