It's Christmas!  And we all know what that means - a nice, short set of reviews.  Fortunately for me, there's only two X-books on the review list anyway.

I've been cautious about Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk since it was first announced.  The main hype point for this book was "Hey, we've got Damon Lindelof to write it."  Now, never having watched Lost, I have no strong views on Lindelof.  But both Marvel and DC have an erratic track record when it comes to bringing in writers from other media.  For every genuinely successful transition, there is another writer whose comics are considerably less dazzling than his IMDB listing. 

I long since formed the suspicion that both companies are easily enthralled by the thought of working with "real writers" and that their quality control in such matters is suspect to say the least.  So when a new comic is promoted primarily on the basis that it's written by a guy from another medium whom they're Delighted To Be Working With, I can't help but be sceptical.

But, that said, this is actually pretty good.

Lindelof clearly knows what people want from an Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk miniseries.  They want fighting and they want carnage.  And they want a token plot.  The token plot in this story is that the Hulk is a bit embarrassing to SHIELD, so Fury has enlisted Wolverine to deal with him.  Rudimentary?  Sure... but it's an Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk miniseries.  The plot is only there to provide a rationale for the bloodshed.  There are no pretensions to high art here.

Given that we're dealing with the Ultimate Hulk, this is surely the right line to take.  The Ultimate Hulk, as designed by Mark Millar, is not a subtle character.  To be honest, he's a bit of a misfire.  From the look of it, Millar had in mind the classic contrast between the put-upon nerd Banner, and the testosterone-fuelled Hulk who represents everything he normally represses.  Unlike his Marvel Universe counterpart, however, this Hulk is a genuinely amoral demolition machine who happily leaves trails of dead bodies in his wake.

In some ways it's a logical extension of the core concept, which has always been tempered by the unlikely suggestion that the Hulk is basically a cuddly little boy who would never hurt a fly, for all the property damage he causes.  It's a bit of a cop out, designed to ensure that the Hulk remains a sympathetic character rather than a wrecking ball. 

Millar removes that compromise, which already makes the Ultimate Hulk a tricky proposition as a lead character.  But what totally tanks him is the treatment of Banner, an uber-geek punching bag so pathetic that nobody without major psychological issues could possibly identify with him.  So... Banner's a prick and you don't want to be him.  Hulk's a mass murderer and you don't want to be him.  There is no heroic struggle to control the monster because there's nothing heroic about Banner.  All you're left with is a wrecking ball, and he's beyond hope as a protagonist. 

The best that can be done with him is to use him as a villain, and that's essentially what's being done here.  It's Wolverine's story, hunting down the big green lug and not doing very well against him.  Hulk is just there to smash.  In this context, the character works fine.  If they ever try to get an ongoing series about this incarnation of the character, though, I suspect they're screwed.

Anyhow, at least we know where our sympathies lie here.  Wolverine's a cynical operator, but at least he's not a mass murderer.  Hulk, for all Lindelof's attempts to rehabilitate Banner through expository dialogue, is unequivocally the bad guy.  Banner himself isn't used in this story, and it'll be interesting to see if he shows up at all - and, if so, whether Lindelof tries to salvage him and add a much-needed second dimension.

Since this is a set-up issue, Lindelof wisely flashes forward to assure us that insane, Lobo-style carnage will be with us shortly.  Poor Wolverine gets ripped in half on page 2, and spends the rest of the framing sequence looking for his legs.  Stupid?  Yes.  But the right kind of stupid.  It's Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk, after all.

Leinil Francis Yu is clearly enjoying himself tremendously when it comes to the ridiculous action sequences, and the Tibetan village.  He's always seemed to like unusual environments, and he gets to play with one here.  The conversation scenes in SHIELD's base are rather more prosaic, but then it's not like they give him much to work with.

All told, rather good fun, in an intentionally silly sort of way.  I'm not entirely convinced that this approach is going to sustain a six-issue miniseries, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.  A much more enjoyable first issue than I was expecting.

Rating: A-

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