Ultimate Wolverine #16
Writer: Chris Condon
Artist: Alessandro Cappuccio
Colorist: Bryan Valenza
I’m going to do something a little different with this one: I’m going to give you my conclusion first.
Ultimate Wolverine #16 is not a “bad” comic book - it’s put together well, bringing the series to a conclusion, with decent writing and great art. It just doesn’t have anything different to say, basically hitting the Wolverine “greatest hits” without really bringing anything new to the table. I’m not knocking the creative team, they’re talented gents with some great output to their names, but this just feels like a “paycheck” book to me.
That being said, on with the show…
Limbo - How Low Can You Go?
Most of the cast of this series, heroes and villains alike, is dead. Only Wolverine, Phoenix, Sentinel One, and Magik (who has fled to Limbo with a group of kidnapped mutants in tow) remain. After weeks of searching for a way to access Limbo, Wolverine and Phoenix finally find a way: magic. Gaining access, they find the mutant captives chained up and having their life force drained to power whatever Magik is doing.
So just what is she up to? She’s using all of the stolen power to place herself into an illusory world, where she is still a happy child and her brother Piotr is still alive, happily taking care of her. When Phoenix frees the mutants from her power, Magik’s illusion immediately ends, and she gets introduced to the business end of Wolverine’s claws.
One escape through a collapsing portal later, and our heroes are back home - and just in time to enjoy the sunrise. There’s still the Maker to deal with, but that’s a matter for another book, so they get to go out on a win.
Fin.
Showdown at High Noon
This book - this whole series, really - just wasn’t for me.
I thought the initial concept was awesome. Wolverine as the Winter Soldier? With his history of questionable military service and extreme forgetfulness, that sounded like a great idea on paper. Instead, we got what was basically a speed run through his greatest hits.
Turned into a weapon against his will? Check. Memory wiped to make him easier to control? Check. Berserker rages make that control difficult to maintain? Yup. Breaks free and joins the X-Men? Check. Thinks a lot about what he can’t remember and how no one else will ever control him, while lamenting his life of violence? Double check. So on and so forth.
I want to talk about the climax of this issue for a minute. I’m 50/50 on whether I think it was hilarious or incredibly brave, how the creative team handled it. We’re expecting a big fight with Magik, dark sorcery versus the power of the Phoenix, and an angry Wolverine. Standard comics “big finale” stuff. Instead, she gets gutted by Wolverine after barely even getting out any lines. It definitely subverted expectations, I’ll give them that.
I wish more of the series as a whole had done that.
Contractual Obligation
Christopher Condon is a busy guy, and getting to write a high-profile book like this is awesome for him. I just don’t feel like he brought his A-game to the project. It’s not badly written at all, but there is so much “tell” instead of “show” when it comes to our heroes trying to gain access to Limbo. And then when they do, it’s so close to the end of the book that everything wraps up in the blink of an eye. Characterization-wise, Wolverine feels almost the same as his OG version, but that’s at least more than I can say for Phoenix. She’s such a cipher that I feel nothing at all for her. And Magik suddenly showing a bunch of humanity after how she’s been up to this point was pretty abrupt, too.
Alessandro Cappuccio can surely draw some pretty pictures, so at least we get his great art in this book. I’m very disappointed that Limbo just looks like a dungeon, and then we go right to Magik’s illusion world, and there’s no real action, but Wolverine gets to look cool, stabbing someone. And although her character is basically non-existent, Phoenix looks really cool flying around and doing stuff.
The colors by Bryan Valencia work well, especially things like the Phoenix powers and the snow in Magik’s dream world. There’s only so much you can do to make a dungeon look cool, but he does what he can there. All in all, the colors complement the art well, and sometimes that’s enough.
What He Does Ain’t Pretty
As I said at the beginning, Ultimate Wolverine #16 isn’t a bad book; it’s just nothing special. If I remember correctly, the series was originally set for 12 issues, then it got extended to 16 due to high sales. These last 4 issues definitely have that tacked-on “oh, by the way” feeling to them. Like most of the Ultimate Universe, this book has drawn to a close not with a bang, but with a whimper.