Reading Diary #25: Ultimate Wolverine by Chris Condon

In Ultimate Wolverine, Logan falls into the hands of the leaders of the Eurasian Republic (Magik, Colossus and Omega Red), who wipe his mind and use him as a human weapon, something they’re trying to do with the mutants under their “care” in general, turning him into their Winter Soldier. When he breaks free, he joins the Opposition, a mutant rebellion, filled with his old friends, some of whom he has killed in the meantime while controlled.

I found myself enjoying Ultimate Wolverine a lot more than I thought I would. I flip-flop on Logan as a character, just by himself: I do love him, and I do love when a comic about him is good, but he’s just so ubiquitous that it can get quite annoying. So I don’t really read Wolverine comics unless I know they’re good and important or they’re part of the era I’m currently reading or Sabretooth is in them. Because I really love Sabretooth. Sorry. (Not that many, many comics about him don’t also suck, lmao!)

I also went into this comic mostly for Sabretooth—because I knew he was a good guy here, and I wanted to see how that pans out and how they write him and if he’s defanged and what his dynamic with Logan is like and if they’ve managed to write him distinct enough from Logan, which is always a worry for “good” Sabretooths (Sabreteeth?)—and for evil dictator siblings Illyana and Piotr. I like Arkady as well—for all of its many, many faults, Krakoa’s X-Force run endeared me to him a lot—but I was well aware he wouldn’t get anything of substance, and he didn’t. I didn’t go in with high hopes, anyway; mostly just to read all of this universe and to get a picture of the setting for, well, again, fanfiction purposes. Lmao.

But I was surprised! I liked Logan’s introspection and his arc there, I liked his dynamic with the Republic doctor who kept him under control, and I liked the Opposition and their dynamics. Remy/Kitty was a surprise, and it’s not like they got much, but they were also very endearing. Minou… And Sabretooth, too, I enjoyed a lot. I love Artie and Leech in general, so him sort of adopting them in this universe is so sweet… I also like that him and Logan’s relationship is a friendship, but is still very antagonistic at times. They will start a fight and if Kitty hadn’t stopped them they likely would have torn each other to shreds for a bit of fun. But they also trust each other like nobody else does… The secret Logan made Victor make… The way Victor broke it to try and save Logan, instead… Oughhh. I am quite fond of them.

However, Ultimate Wolverine starts falling apart very hard and very fast at its last arc. This is not Condon’s fault—one can see the structures and ideas he’s had for this arc, and it undoubtedly would have been good—but Marvel editorial’s fault, since the Ultimate universe was on a tight deadline and was set to end at a certain point, which meant he had to wrap things up rather quickly, and rather abruptly. I’m still sad about that! And he had an even harder time than the other runs—Ultimates, for example, I thought ended rather graceful without feeling rushed at all—since Ultimate Wolverine started much later than the other runs, and thus had less issues to work with. I also wasn’t fond of the Jean arc, and how Logan just kind of comes back to her after she’s been built up since the start at the very end after his whole team (Sabretooth and his kids excepting) gets blown up and killed rather unceremoniously, which also didn’t hit with the right weight, in my opinion.

I really liked the Magik introspection during the last arc, however. This is something I missed throughout the rest of the run; for how much the Eurasian Leaders appear, we don’t ever get to look into their heads until the very end. Illyana paints a very clear picture for herself and Piotr in the time and panel space that is allotted to her, but Arkady doesn’t really get anything before he dies, lol. Illyana’s end is rather unceremonious, as well; I get they had to hurry up the end of this arc, but the whiplash from Logan reading to child her and then killing her just feels unearned, and definitely needed more room to breathe. It’s such a shame, because this cannot even be blamed on bad writing, and could have been avoided so very easily. It bums me out to end this run that I enjoyed on that note, but it’s not like I can change anything about that.

The final end was sort of cute—and I’ve seen Sabretooth shows up for a glimpse in Ultimate Finale that I haven’t read yet, so it’s not like this story ends without his friendship with Logan getting some closure—as much as I didn’t like Jean’s treatment in this run… I also was disappointed that there wasn’t anything more to David after how he was built up in that document from Beast, but I assume Condon had a plan for him—and perhaps a villain arc, or something of that sort, just anything—that was just cut short. Pity!