Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk Unites Marvel Heavyweights for Hilarious Grudge Match

It’s 2005 – and Damon Lindelof has a problem.Already suffering from the success of Lost (the runaway hit sci-fi-thriller series he created with Jeffrey Lieber and J.J. Abrams), the then 32-year-old screenwriter was invited by Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada to reimagine the ferociously violent introduction of Wolverine. The beloved character made his comic book debut as an antagonist in The Incredible Hulk #180 in 1974 before he began tearing up the pages of X-Men. In the three decades since, his brawl with Bruce Banner’s alter-ego had gone down as one of the key defining moments of Marvel history – one Quesada was eager to recreate for the struggling yet indelibly ambitious Ultimate Marvel imprint.

But how does a writer plausibly stretch the Hulk’s bloody brawl with his ultimate rival into not just three issues (as Marvel had done in the ’70s) but six? Though he likely didn’t know it at the time, that was a question Lindelof would spend the next three years of his life answering in Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk, a six-issue limited series drawn by Leinil Francis Yu, colored by Dave McCaig and lettered by Chris Eliopoulos. The final product may not be perfectly seamless because of this unusually long writing period. Still, the series otherwise withstands the test of time as a stylish, devilishly witty and suitably brutal standalone story that defies one to have a bad time reading it.And with Marvel Studios’ Deadpool and Wolverine putting these characters on-screen together for the first time, there’s no better moment to revisit one of their greatest stories.

Damon Lindelof Delivers the Ultimate Superhero Grudge Match

Horror, Heart and Humor Collide in a Marvel Match-Up for a New Era

The first two issues of Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk respectively introduce the titular stars of this action-comedy, providing context on how their first meeting came to be. Issue #1 opens with James “Logan” Howlett face down in the Tibetan snow, bemoaning a lack of feeling in his legs – only for a page turn to cleverly reveal (in a perfectly gruesome splash page from Leinil Francis Yu and Dave McCaig) that this lack of feeling is a side effect of him being torn in half just minutes earlier by the Hulk. Already, Damon Lindelof shows a confident command of the medium in his debut, as well as a sort of dark, violent sense of humor that elevates the series beyond a bit of lore stashed away in the annals of the until-recently-defunct Ultimate Marvel universe.

As Logan claws himself inch by inch across the Himalayan mountains toward his lost limbs, he recalls how SHIELD Director Nick Fury got him into this predicament by asking him to assassinate Bruce Banner on behalf of SHIELD and the American government. A flashback to their clandestine meeting has Lindelof establishing a definitively cinematic tone for his tale in terms of pacing, dialogue and visual storytelling style. Even when working through the exposition for this quasi-compulsory fight (sometime before the events of the series, SHIELD attempted – and, obviously, failed – to execute Banner for killing over 800 New Yorkers as the Hulk), there’s a pleasant, natural rhythm to how the characters speak to one another and communicate information.

And – because this is Lindelof at the writing desk, after all – scenes are often punctuated with a twist of some kind, hard-earned by the writer slyly laying the groundwork for these reveals where readers least expect them. For example, he opens Logan and Fury’s conversation with the latter attempting to engage in some small talk about a painting he catches Logan eyeing (appropriately, Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights). But although the conversation serves to tease out the nature of Fury’s request, it’s cut short by Logan literally sniffing out that the painting is actually a camouflaged door, behind which wait Dr. Jennifer Walters – She-Hulk on Earth-616, but a mere SHIELD scientist here – and Betty Ross, SHIELD’s head of publicity and Banner’s ex-girlfriend. His deadly New York rampage is largely attributed to her breaking his heart.

Even the inclusion of both Walters and Ross ultimately becomes the foundation for Lindelof to subvert a somewhat familiar narrative. After all, a reader would reasonably expect that should any of these characters become the Sensational She-Hulk, it would be Walters. So, when the Jade Giantess does shockingly appear in a cliffhanger moment at the end of Issue #3, readers get to truly enjoy the slow unveiling of her identity in the following issue – on this earth, it’s actually Ross who is the She-Hulk, adding to the operatic romantic drama that bizarrely, yet beautifully emerges from the bowels of Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk.

At the end of the day, this is a story about two people too stubborn to admit their feelings for one another — and thus end up hurting themselves as a consequence. With Banner and Ross’ relationship taking center stage, especially in later chapters, there is little room left for Logan to operate at the same levels of emotional complexity. As such, Lindelof uses him as an entertaining yet mostly static antagonist, which evokes the same dynamic between Wolverine and the Hulk that writer Len Wein achieved in 1974.

Wolverine’s Revenge Was Derailed by Delays

The Effects of Damon Lindelof’s Lost Schedule Are Still Noticeable Today

Unfortunately, perhaps as a byproduct of reading this series all at once with the benefit of two decades’ distance, the cracks of that three-year timeline begin to show after Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk #2. It was originally released in February 2006, at which point the series was put on an indefinite hiatus so that Damon Lindelof could finish writing it. Due to both his overwhelming commitments to Lost and potentially the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike (during which time Lindelof presumably honored the picket line by not moving forward on any scripts whatsoever), Issue #3 would not hit comic store shelves until March 2009. And while everything fundamental about the series still works from this point on, there are some noticeable quirks that may understandably bug some readers.

In the aforementioned opening scene of Issue #1, Logan appears to have been left for dead by the Hulk, who threw the lower half of his body some four miles into the Himalayas for his foe to chase after. Issue #3, however, now shows that the Hulk remained with Logan after tearing him in two, with the characters debating which of the legs the Hulk should eat to hinder Logan’s pursuit. For the entirety of the sequence (which progresses intermittently across Issues #3 and #4), the legs are left within feet of Logan, with him even making an attempt to quickly reassemble himself before an angry Nick Fury drops a nuke on them both, clearly deviating from the original scene. The environment is also colored differently, with the oppressively cold atmosphere of the mountain range and its blues, whites and grays now engulfed by a warm, orange sky.

These aren’t story-breaking flaws by any means, and Lindelof spends most of the latter half of the series in new locations, focusing on more important plot threads. It does, however, make one wonder how much of the series’ plot changed during the three years of delays. Lindelof might have been aware that the transition back into the story wouldn’t be entirely smooth, with him seemingly poking some fun at continuity errors at the beginning of Issue #3. An editor’s box chalks up any inconsistencies to Logan’s jumbled, punch-drunk recollection of events, which also sets up that particular issue’s nonlinear structure. In fact, there are several cheeky leans against the fourth wall throughout the issue by way of Logan’s internal monologue, which serves to emphasize the structure while humorously acknowledging the fans who had been waiting literal years for the next installment. Letterer Chris Eliopoulos deserves special recognition for spacing the abundant narration of this issue in such a way that the reader can thoughtlessly follow Logan’s words along with the art, fully immersing themselves in his amusing yarn.

Lindelof might have had an easier time making such an unusual release schedule flow narratively had he not chosen to tell the story in various nonlinear formats. There’s a constant jumping about in time, with Lindelof often shocking the reader with an eye-catching reveal at the beginning or end of an issue, then spending the subsequent pages showing the actions that lead to that shocking moment. This style of storytelling allows Lindelof to imbue the titular brawl with plenty of drama and enough suspense to make this encounter credible as a six-issue event. It’s also another example of how perfectly suited Lindelof is for writing comics, treating time in almost the same way he would when writing a sequel television series to Alan Moore’s Watchmen in 2019. Though Moore and Lindelof are not identical in their individual nonlinear styles, they both take full, fearless advantage of a medium that allows the reader to flip through time as easily as turning a page.

Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk Is a Smashing Comic Book Blockbuster

Damon Lindelof’s Comics Debut Is a Triumph, No Matter How Long It Took to Finish

The ultimate aim of Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk is not to completely deconstruct or unravel its characters, nor is it to idly meditate on the inherent themes that made them popular in the first place (though it does seem that Damon Lindelof is at least somewhat interested in exploring how Bruce Banner’s fragile ego informs his actions as the hyper-masculine Hulk, especially in the aftermath of a breakup). The aim is simply to take two characters – bound together by decades of comic book history – and put them in an entertaining scenario that allows them to play off one another in contesting displays of wit, emotion and, most importantly, incredible power.

There are certain aspects of the series that may cause some readers to raise their eyebrows. In three distinct moments, Jennifer Walters’ blouse is apparently so tight that even a slight movement causes it to burst open – whether this reads as a running sight gag or an example of the sort of objectification that was common in early-aughts comics will likely depend on the person holding the book. But looking beyond the awkwardness of occasional outdated humor or continuity errors caused by delays, Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk shines as a high point from the Ultimate Marvel era, as well as a solid, self-contained story that even the most casual comic book fan could pluck from the shelves and fall in love with over a long afternoon. In that regard, this series is as timeless as it comes.