Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk #6 Review: Freefallin’…

Hey, everyone… I am going to be very busy doing reviews this week. I have a whole bunch lined up so expect to see them through the weekend to as late as Monday. For my sixth and (thankfully) last review, I am going to do Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk. Hope you enjoy it.

Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk #6 cover Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk #6
(preview | thread)
Writer: Damon Lindelof
Pencilers: Leinil Francis Yu


RECAP:  The issue opens with Wolverine lamenting having to fly commercial rather then his stealth jet and recalling all the time he has been asked how he gets through security at the airport. In this case it is by slipping a grenade made of soap into the bag of the guy in front of him and getting through in the confusion.

He catches up to Betty in her hotel in Hong Kong. She tries to reason with him and distract him with nudity but Logan is having done of it. He insists she puts on the collar to prevent her from changing.

She hulks out and tackles Logan, tearing out one of his eyes in the process. He pops two of his claws one through he spleen, one through a kidney and promises to pop the third through her liver and kill her if  she does not change back on put the collar on. He also promises to kill her if she tries to warn Bruce or interfere again.

She surrenders and begs Wolverine not to kill Bruce because she still loves him. Logan responds ‘Too bad.’

He confronts Bruce on a passenger plane, quickly getting the collar snapped in place around his neck. They talk for a bit about how Logan found him, what happened to Betty and what Logan is planning to do. Bruce assumes it is ego and Wolverine wants a rematch. But Logan simply wants the Hulk to die.

Logan explains it is purely about revenge. He decided how he wanted the Hulk to die when he was being torn apart and although he has no problem with Banner, he fully intends to make the Hulk die slowly. Bruce argues that he is a good person and that Logan is not a bad one. To prove it he opens the door and jumps out of the plane.

Logan manages to save the plane getting the door shut from the outside. He then dives off to catch up to the still falling Banner. Banner refuses to change making Wolverine chose whether to kill Banner or save the Hulk before impact. He decides to cut off the collar so Banner can change.

They impact in the desert safely and are met by Nick Fury. Fury tells them that the Hulk can go free because thanks to Logan they have Betty in custody. He offers Hulk the chance to work with him again knowing that eventually Banner will agree because he loves her. He then tells Logan he is on his bad side for lying and leaves.

Hulk and Logan are alone together. Hulk agrees to carry Wolverine to the next town when he gets his breath back. It ends with an amusing back and forth as they literally walk into the sunset.

MY TAKE: While this was not a bad issue, if I had to pick one word to sum it up, it would be anti-climatic. It felt like everything needed to be wrapped up in a neat little ribbon to return things to the status quo. The huge fight I was waiting for never occurred. Instead we got a brief scuffle with She-Hulk and a whole lot of character driven exposition.

That being said, several of the character scenes were very well done. I do not like the way they made Wolverine into the heavy of issue, driven solely by rage and revenge but you can understand it. If I had been ripped in two and had my legs almost eaten I would be ready to kill someone too. And he does redeem himself nicely in the free fall.

I felt bad for Betty, she definitely got the raw deal in the issue. But since she was a new character I can understand wanting to write her out. I am not sure why a claw through the liver would kill her after surviving a nuclear blast but there is nothing established to countermand it so I will let it slide.

I have a lot less forgiveness for the idea that the Hulk can be strangled. In Ultimate Human he survives test of being on a planet with a different atmosphere so there is no reason to believe he even needs to breathe. Or, with Wolverine’s example of last issue, that he needs anything more then a head to live.

Still, I did enjoy much of the dialogue and taken by itself it is a good if somewhat bland issue. But as the comic we waited years to see, it disappointed. I really wanted to see these two go at each other tooth, nail and claw. But since that did not happen I will have to be satisfied with good character dialogue over a somewhat weak plot.


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I feel rather bad for not picking this series up, since it seems pretty good.


Well if you had started when I did back in 2006 you would have had a three year wait between issue 2 and 3…