Ultimate Wolverine #1 is here, kicking off the first new ongoing title of the second year of the reborn Ultimate Universe. And as advertised, the new Ultimate Wolverine is also the Ultimate Winter Soldier, bearing that codename as a mindless weapon in service of the Maker’s villainous cabal.
And like the mainstream Marvel Universe Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes, the Ultimate Wolverine version has a backstory that is rife with tragedy and the loss of old friends, combined with elements of Logan’s classic Weapon X origins. But for the new Ultimate Wolverine, his time as Winter Soldier will come at an even greater personal cost than for Bucky.
Spoilers ahead for Ultimate Wolverine #1
Ultimate Wolverine #1 by writer Chris Condon, artist Allessandro Cappuccio, color artist Bryan Valenza, and letterer Cory Petit switches back and forth between showing just how the new Ultimate Wolverine was transformed into the Maker’s Winter Soldier, and his latest bloodthirsty mission following up his first appearance in the recent Ultimate Universe: One Year In one-shot.
In a series of flashbacks, we’re shown a dying Logan being captured as the only survivor of a plane crash in the Eurasian Republic, one of the Maker’s territories which is controlled by the Rasputins, Colossus and Magik, and their cohorts. As it turns out, the reason he survived is because of his vaunted healing factor, and what’s more, he’s part of the mutant resistance that fights against the Rasputins.
The Rasputins have their scientists perform the same experiments that were done to the mainstream Marvel Universe Wolverine as part of Weapon X, lacing his skeleton with adamantium and wiping his mind to turn him into a perfect killing machine under their absolute control. But rather than giving him the codename Wolverine, they call him their Winter Soldier, evolving him into their personal assassin.
Back in the present day, the Winter Soldier is sent on a mission to eliminate some of the very mutant rebels who were once his allies – in this case, a cell led by none other than the new Ultimate versions of Mystique and Nightcrawler, one of the mainstream Marvel Universe Wolverine’s closest friends and allies.
Ultimate Wolverine/Winter Soldier quickly tears through their soldiers with the same ruthless efficiency as his mainstream counterpart, finally engaging with Mystique. She transforms into Colossus, attempting to call Wolverine off, but his super senses aren’t fooled, and Mystique is brutally dispatched just as quickly as she’s introduced, at the end of Wolverine’s adamantium claws.
Tragically, it turns out that, just as in the core Marvel Universe, the Ultimate Nightcrawler and Ultimate Wolverine are old friends, with Nightcrawler pleading to Wolverine’s inner self to recognize him. Alas, it’s to no avail, as Ultimate Nightcrawler too is slaughtered by Wolverine.
The story ends with Wolverine being retrieved by one of his military handlers who commends him on the operation before taking him home. As Wolverine rides home in the hold of an airplane, he sniffs Nightcrawler’s blood on his claws, but it’s unclear whether there’s any hint of recognition of the scent of his old friend.
For now, he remains a seemingly unstoppable killing machine who has already slain two powerful and popular X-Men characters, living up to the reborn Ultimate Universe’s reputation for not pulling punches when it comes to the fates of its characters.
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