Broken Dreams And Quality Control — Reviewing ‘Ultimate Wolverine’ #2

There’s only one way to make sure that a weapon will live up to expectations. A strenuous test of capability. Especially if that weapon happens to be a heavily brainwashed and experimented upon man.

The story of the ultimate-ized version of the favorite clawed mutant continues under the guidance of Chris Condon, Alessandro Cappuccio, Bryan Valenza, and Cory Petit.

While the first issue saw the Wolverine at work, dispatching some familiar faces, the second issue takes a different tact. With the Rasputins and Omega Red skeptical of their new weapon, a test is devised. One which pits a bunch of unaware soldiers against a man programmed to slaughter them.

Condon is doing a splendid job of building things up, without overly relying too much upon familiarity. This is a Logan that has some ties to the regularly known one, naturally. (That being the whole experimented upon, memory loss, adamantium stuff.) How it’s playing out and what it means for the character are where things diverge. We even get the moment where the usual suspect of Weapon X and its leader were wiped out long ago.

All the strings that the Maker has pulled to make this world fit his own vision. It is intriguing to see what different eras and times the man popped into along this world’s “natural” path to interfere.

For such a simple plot, Condon manages to really infuse the whole thing with a lot. This is probably the most we’ve really gotten to see of how the Rasputins & Omega Red go about their business. Even without Logan uttering any words, we feel for the character, chiefly because we know him and we know what this sort of thing does to him. But also it’s made truly clear through what is happening here that the toll is going to be mighty once control is broken.

We feel all of that because even with the full mask, Cappuccio tells us everything through the body language of the character. There is a powerful emotional energy that always is felt in his artwork, where it takes the rough tone of the story and really gives that a sharp vivid life. There is blood and grit and death at the core of this story. Not a bit of that is lost on the pages as it does not shy away from really hammering it all home.

Even with the grotesque nature of some elements, the artwork never falls into the overly gory realm. This is not a gore porn type of affair. It’s brutal and harsh but in a way that allows that to be felt without going too extremely far. Which is impressive when there is a scene with an eyeball and then severed heads.

Much of the story takes place in shadowy lab spaces and then snowy landscapes, meaning there isn’t a ton of room for the usual vibrant array of colors that come with superhero books. Good thing this isn’t that type of book, and most definitely is not a superhero book at it’s heart. Valenza really goes all out with the shift in his coloring style to bring all the dark shadowy and heavy colors to the page.

Lightness comes from the natural (and artificial) light sources, breaking up the darkness, creating spaces that feel authentically lit and lived within across the pages. Even the more colorful part of Logan’s costume feels darker in a sense because it’s a harsher version of the color, far away from the usually light and flashy yellow and blue the character is known for.

Various familiar — and a few unfamiliar — characters fill the pages around Logan. They have lots of things to say in some cases. Their voices are just as crafted as the non-voice that Logan currently has. With Petit dropping in the right bits of modification to deliver different tones, volumes, and personalities along the way. It all glides around the page for maximum efficiency and flow, keeping the eyes and story moving at all times.

Ultimate Wolverine #2 is now available from Marvel Comics.