Welcome back True Believers to this week’s edition of the Marvel Rundown! This is a pretty big week as it sees the debut of Wolverine in the Ultimate universe. Be warned there are MINOR SPOILERS, so skip to the final verdict if you want to see what we think. Additionally, the Rapid Rundown looks at what’s happening in Exceptional X-Men, Storm, Immortal Thor, and take a trip to the past with Rogue: Savage Land. It’s a week of blood and thunder here, so buckle up and see what we’ve got cooking!
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Ultimate Wolverine #1
Ultimate Wolverine #1Writer: Chris Condon
Artist: Alessandro Cappuccio
Colors: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Of all the characters to make a splashy debut in this new Ultimate Marvel universe, the mainline X-Men has been no shows. There is an Ultimate X-Men book but that book is such a radical rethinking of the concept with only two characters familiar to readers. But the team members people know and love? They’ve been mostly absent outside of a handful of characters. Now comes Ultimate Wolverine which provides answers hinted at in Ultimate Universe: One Year In; what did The Maker do with Marvel’s mutants?
The answer is kind of complex. Other than the ones we’ve been start to emerge in Japan, they’ve more or less been exiled to Eurasia. The Rasputin family of Colossus, Magik, and Omega Red rules with an organic steel fist. Some of them are on the run. Those that don’t fall into line though? They meet the Rasputin’s ultimate weapon, Wolverine who in this version of Ultimate Marvel is The Winter Soldier.
Making Wolverine the Winter Soldier allows writer Chris Condon to show readers a Wolverine that hasn’t been seen in ages; a variation on Weapon X. Part of a government program made to create a mindless killing machine, the character spent his early years struggling against the programming instilled in him. One of his defining traits would be letting characters know that he wasn’t the killer he was made to be. Instincts he struggled against constantly.
Here though the character is a purely a weapon of the state, not an animal to be tamed. Even in Barry Windsor-Smith’s landmark origin of the character Weapon X, readers at least get to see the man before he’s turned into a monster. Condon wisely introduces an entity that is nothing but weapon to be pointed at a target. In this case, quite literally as we’re introduced to him has he’s dropped on his latest assignment. He may have been a human once but right now, there’s nothing but a killer.
Bringing this monstrosity to life is Alessandro Cappuccio’s fierce and fluids lines. Cappuccio spent the last few years bringing Moon Knight to vengeful life. Now their ability to capture violence and action through kinetic line work and page layouts is on a bigger stage. If there is any modern Marvel artist best suited for this take on an iconic character, it’s Cappuccio. Perfectly Pollaborating with the artist is colorist Bryan Valenza. For a book about a Winter Soldier, their color palette of icy blues suits the character and allows his orange costume to constantly make him a focal point.
But what makes this book so exciting is that while plots are set up, Condon and Cappuccio make it clear, like the current Ultimate Spider-Man book, nothing is certain with this Wolverine. Something happens at the end of this that will likely shock long time X-Men readers. The two creators here are to again remind folks that what Wolverine is best is not attractive. Where he goes from here likely isn’t either.
Verdict: BUY
Rapid Rundown
- Storm #4
- Some of my favorite movie scenes are dinner conversations and when the new Sorcerer Supreme Dr. Doom invites our X-Goddess Storm over for a chat, I’m all in for what writer Murewa Ayodele is serving up. I love when Doom gets in his player groove, from having her flown in (the Instagram kids know what I’m talking about) and his iconic power slouch to having her favorite childhood food, Morris Day would be proud, but unlike Appaolonia, Storm is not having it. Watching an Omega-level powerhouse like Storm show up to Latveria handicapped by not being able to access her full powers and not hesitate to stand up to Marvel’s biggest Bad Guy. The artwork by artist Lucas Werneck, along with color artists Alex Guimaraães & Fer Sifuentes-Sujo is stunningly beautiful, I will admit that there’s a page that is a touch risqué and I have to say I’m not mad at it, to follow that up with a full glow-up akin to the Hellfire Gala, Storm is stately, gorgeous, and regal. And in all of the statesmanship this issue, we get sweet moments of her as a very precocious child discovering a new favorite food, and later talking with her Father in the afterlife. All of this leads to her cosmic level up hinted at in previous issues. Ayodele is doing some funky things, raising the bar of what we can expect from Storm. – GC3
- Exceptional X-Men #5
- Following the revelation from the last issue, the team of new mutants must come to terms with Kitty’s actions during the Fall of X—You know the whole ninja assassin thing. Axo and Bronze aren’t exactly happy to learn Kitty was a killing machine but understand the context. The same cannot be said for Melee who quits the team in true X-men fashion, complete with a visual call back to that time Kitty called Professor X a jerk. This issue deals with her coming to terms with having a strong morale code but being pragmatic. All of this while connecting the series into the larger X-line with some real connective tissue beyond a few phone calls. Writer Eve Ewing keeps up the great work in this issue as we get to learn even more about these new mutants and their complex lives. I have written in the past couple weeks about how Exceptional X-Men is the strongest X-team book on the shelves right now, and this issue confirms my view. I don’t want to compare the books against each other, but it is startling how little we know about the new mutants in Uncanny X-men compared to in Exceptional X-men and Uncanny has THREE MORE ISSUES than Exceptional. I know these two books are structurally different and fill different niches, but this cannot be ignored. Ewing writes amazingly accurate teenagers with how Melee reacts to Kitty and most situations in general. This book has morphed from being Kitty centric to being one about the team, and I am enjoying this. Artist Carmen Carnero’s art is visually stunning and expressive. The recap of Kitty’s assassinations is a wonderfully silent page that is carried by Carnero’s art. The character work Carnero does compliments the story in a way that it elevates it even higher. Exceptional X-Men continues to be the one X-men comic you should read each month. –JJ
- Immortal Thor #19
- While for the first year of its run, Al Ewing’s Immortal Thor was an easy pick for the best ongoing at Marvel. But since the departure of artist Martin Coccolo the book has lost its visual identity and thus has suffered a great deal from rotating artists and a new regular artist who fails to meet the grandiosity of Ewing’s lyrical narration and cosmic scope. So what had been one of my most anticipated reads every month has become a bummer as Marvel once again undervalues the visuals of the visual medium they publish. It’s a relief, then, to have this issue of Thor be an all-star jam issue with a slew of terrific artists of varying styles, each of whom brings a unique aspect. From Dan Jurgens’ old-school, square-jawed heroes, to Luciano Vecchio’s precise cartooning, and even the briefest of reunions with Coccolo, the visuals are stunning. The story itself here is disjointed and fairly minimal as Magni, Thor’s son from an alternate future explores his father’s kingdom. It’s a deep breath to catch up with Thor’s supporting cast and the people of Asgard before the next big act of Ewing’s long-term story. In that sense it feels a bit superfluous, but this is a book that often feels breathless with its constant grim portents and lavish wordsmithing and overwhelms with ideas. The book could use more of these moments to let its characters have small, human moments amid the grandeur. Ultimately what this issue gave me was a glimpse into what the comic could be with any of these stunning artists to match the script and that makes the last six months more disappointing in retrospect. – TR
- Rogue: The Savage Land #1
- Behold True Believers as Marvel delivers yet another nostalgia bait mini-series with Rogue: The Savage Land by writer Tim Seeley and artist Zulema Scotto Lavina. Read as the creative team seeks to explain what happened during that time Rogue ended up in the Savage Land following the end of the Outback Era. The story most famous for Rogue in her Savage Land bikini and loving on Magneto, which then became a whole thing for Rogue. Despite being an ardent reader of X-Men, I haven’t read much of the stuff following the Fall of the Mutants until the early 90’s. This is mostly due to it being late in a long run on X-Men and on account I wasn’t even alive at the time. That said, I found this issue to be solid if not superfluous. Seeley is a steady hand and writes comics I really enjoy. He has a strong control over the action and humor of the series. He isn’t afraid to make tongue-in-cheek jokes about the fact Rogue is practically wearing a bikini in the savage land. Seeley finds nice emotional beats by exploring Rogue at her most vulnerable and alone state. Lavina’s art is gorgeous as they have the daunting task of following up on Jim Lee. Lavina goes a different route more reminiscent of Stuart Immomen that allows for dynamic and expressive looks with a bit of Terry Dodson thrown in for good measure. Lavina gets to draw some buck wild things like a Spinosaurus and a giant Tiktaalik (The fish that walks like an amphibian! ). I had a lot of fun with this issue as it dips into the silver-age insanity of the Savage Land. This story has it all for the Savage Land sickos out there with the Mutates, Ka-Zar, and Zaladane! Is the series necessary? Probably not, but neither are chocolate chip cookies and we still love them anyway. Worth checking out if you are looking for something different in the X-Line. –JJ
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