Two Halves Of A Contrasting Whole — Reviewing ‘Ultimate Wolverine’ #6

Inside there are two selves. A true self and the one created through the machinations of malevolent world-ruling figures. Oh wait, that’s not the normal situation for most people.

Unfortunately, that is the case for Logan, as the man turned weapon struggles to find himself once more in Ultimate Wolverine #6. This mind-bending tale comes from Chris Condon, Alex Lins, Bryan Valenza, and Cory Petit.

It would have been quite simple to tell this tale in an expected way. We could have easily had the two Logans duke it out in the mind, as there is excessive dialogue to let us know what they think and feel. It would have been a true battle for the body and soul of this character. Perhaps even have some of the Opposition figures pop in through a telepath or such to talk him through it.

This series is far from simple.

Once more, this creative team has turned things around and done it quite differently, giving us a piece where Logan, and the Logan within, say nothing till the very final page of the issue. When that dialog comes, it’s a powerful set of words that would have felt so cliché if not for the previous pages leading up to that moment. Giving a totally new interpretation of Legion/David Haller as the powerful narrator, speaking Logan through the battle for his body and mind was inspired.

Condon tackles this series with such a deft and calculating hand. He’s able to still hit many of the waypoints a Logan story is expected to hit, but not in the way one might expect. Somehow, he finds a way to take what is overdone and make it feel fresher than anything else going on with the clawed mutant in the last who knows how many decades.

Looping back around, I love how Condon keeps giving us really different takes on the merry mutants of Marvel in this series. None are what we would expect, whether alive or dead. A Legion devoid of a body, finding his way around the Maker’s movements to silence him, is really cool.

We’re given another chance to appreciate Lins’ artistic style within this world. He’s hitting all those same rough and tumble sort of feelings from the previous issue but altered. Here they are more ethereal and spectacular because of their taking place within the mindscape, using exaggeration and brevity to weight and lighten the panels at alternating and concurrent moments.

There is so much fluid kinetic energy rippling across the page. The figures loom large and move as they must. Logan fights claw and claw for the ability to reclaim all that was taken from him. Some of the softness felt in the previous issue is more obscured here as there is no room for a softer take in a battle such as this.

Valenza still pulls from many of the same colorful palette wells as the previous issue. He keeps a more middle level of color and darkness in most cases. Backgrounds are sharp muted color styles devoid of any detail or depth, paired with a bevy of white space backdrops that contrast smoothly. All of it helps bolster the lonely outlandish aspect of the story.

A mindscape with a formless powerful ‘narrator’ means tackling things differently. Petit answers that call so easily, delivering the lettering naked of balloons or usual comic signifiers. Words bounce from black and white in textual color schemes as they spread through the panels, creating a singular concise voice that still feels larger than life.

Ultimate Wolverine #6 is now available from Marvel Comics.