Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk
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Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk is a Marvel Comics six-issue miniseries set in the Ultimate Marvel Universe, written by Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof, and illustrated by artist Leinil Francis Yu and colorist Dave McCaig. The title characters square off after Wolverine is contracted by Nick Fury to assassinate the Hulk, who is known to be residing in Tibet. Lindelof has revealed that neither Wolverine nor the Hulk will die, their powers will be shown in new ways, there will be cameos by other Ultimate characters, and at least one new major Ultimate character will be introduced (currently believed to be Ultimate She-Hulk), excepting the introduction of Ultimate Wendigo. [1][2] Originally meant to be a bimonthly series, it has met with numerous delays, especially the most recent third issue.
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[edit] Issue #1
Wolverine awakens to find his lower half missing, his body having been ripped in half by the Hulk minutes earlier. Using his keen sense of smell, he finds his legs have been thrown to the top of a mountain. As he climbs up a mountain to retrieve his legs, he recalls the events leading up to his current situation.
He recounts meeting Nick Fury, Betty Ross and Jennifer Walters, and being told that the Hulk is alive and responsible for several "incidents" of mass destruction after a public "execution" by S.H.I.E.L.D. Fury gives Logan (Wolverine) the assignment to hunt down and "take care" of the Hulk. Wolverine tracks the Hulk to a small Tibetan village, where the Hulk is found lounging, surrounded by scantily clad women. Upon seeing the Hulk, Wolverine says "Hi, Bruce". (A minor goof, as in the 2nd issue this line is delivered from another perspective as "Hello Bruce")
[edit] Issue #2
We see the events leading up to the fight between Hulk and Wolverine from Banner's point of view. The comic begins with Banner being left for dead on an off-shore ship, bound to the ground as a bomb looms beside him. He transforms into the Hulk at the last minute, and the explosion fails to kill him. The Hulk swims to a Parisian beach, transforming back into Banner as he reaches the shore.
Banner finds himself drifting from one lifestyle to the next, forced to relocate every time he loses control of his temper and transforms into the Hulk. The first time, a Parisian psychologist accuses Bruce of not letting himself get angry over losing Betty, calling him impotent and unknowingly calling him "David", driving him over the edge. The second time he is working as a farm hand and his superior mocks him for eating tofurkey, a tofu turkey substitute. The third time, Bruce musters the courage to call Betty once more, only this time a man picks up the phone. He ventures to Tibet in search of the Panchen Lama, a monk along the same line of holiness as the Dalai Lama, who turns out to be a child. The Panchen Lama predicts that Bruce's intentions of being there is to find an answer to his problem with him changing into the Hulk when he gets angry. The Panchen Lama explains that it is his duty, upon the Dalai Lama's death, to find his reincarnation, and similarly, it is the Dalai Lama's responsibility to do the same for the Panchen Lama. He then mentions an old proverb about which one discovered the other first, stating that most people know the question in modern times in relation to chickens and eggs. He then tells Bruce that a question he must answer is 'who came first, Bruce Banner or the Hulk?'. We then go forward in time to the point in which the first issue ended, where Logan says 'Hello, Bruce' upon finding the Hulk. The Hulk demurely answers 'Hello yourself, Logan. Would you like a hot cocoa?' This is presumably the first time we see the Hulk in the Ultimate Universe in a calm, rational state.
[edit] Issue #3
The third issue of the series has met with delays. It was originally solicited for April 19, 2006, only to be resolicited for May 17. That date came and went, and after about a week with no word on the issue's fate, Marvel announced that it would be released July 12. Further delays caused the issue to be bumped to August 9, then September 20, then October 25, then November 1, November 8, and December 27. Finally it was announced in mid-November 2006 that the third issue of the series had been officially cancelled until all of the remaining issues of the mini series are completed. [3]
[edit] Trivia
- The events in this series occur after Ultimate X-Men #69, where Wolverine receives "the call" from Nick Fury, and before Ultimates 2 #11, where Banner reappears in Washington in control of his "inner sociopath".
- Although in the previous 2002 miniseries The Ultimates (vol. 1), the Hulk had been said to have killed 800 people while on a rampage in New York, Lindelof gave the more exact figure in Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk #2 (April 2006) as 815. 815 is the flight number of the doomed Oceanic flight from which the castaways were stranded on the television series Lost (for which Damon Lindelof is the producer and head writer), and constitute three digits of the cursed "numbers" used as a recurring plot point on that show. This contradicts the number given in The Ultimates 2 where, in Banner's court trial, the number of casualties is given repeatedly as 852.
- Bruce Banner uses the aliases of both "David" and "Bixby", in reference to the 1970s/1980s television series, where "David Banner" was portrayed by actor Bill Bixby.
