Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk #5 of 6
Marvel Comics
Lindelof, Yu & McCaig
The latest issue of the Ultimates version of Hulk versus Wolverine has very little fighting and very little Hulk in it. Instead of telling the story from Wolverine’s viewpoint after he was ripped in half, this one tells it from his viewpoint after he put himself back together only to have his head removed by Nick Fury. So in essence we have another flashback, but it’s a shorter one (the previous one took four issues to tell) and it’s a new angle. It’s a good issue but it isn’t a great one. The story is really saving up its energy for the finale. It’s a shame that there isn’t more fighting but the series is pulling in more characters to keep it interesting and keep the reader off balance.
The comic has a good mix of humor and twists in the plot to keep the flashbacks from getting too repetitive but this comic adds in a dream sequence that had some laugh out loud moments. Wolverine dreams of his inner self in the form of a panda. The panda is there to warn him to stay out of Banner’s business. Wolverine wakes up to find that Fury has removed his head from his body to interrogate him.
The Fury interrogation is a little out of place only because if Fury felt Wolverine would continue to be involved with Hulk and She-Hulk you would think he would just let him go and track him. However, the line of questioning and the near torture sequence is pretty darn entertaining.
Eventually we learn that Hulk and She-Hulk are now wanted by SHIELD and we don’t know their whereabouts or the real outcome of their fight. Wolverine seems to have other ideas as he figures out a way to suppress them for some unknown reason. The comic has a number of directions it could go for the finale and that means it told a story that had a good way of concealing its final plot resolution.
The art is fun as always. The comic never fails to deliver cleavage shots and this issue sneaks a couple in there. Without a lot of fighting the art only gets to show off with the varying Wolverine facial expressions and it works.
This comic could have been a little more interesting if we were able to track Hulk and She-Hulk a little more but this whole series has been a lot heavier on Wolverine than Hulk so it fits the mold. I would like to see a lot more action in the finale but this series is shaping up to be one of those classic character-fights-character-until-they-team-up stories, but so far this series has been anything but straight forward and I expect to be surprised, yet again, in the end. This was a good issue but it mostly moves the pieces in place for the ending.
3.5 out of 5 geek goggles
