Ultimate X-Men #35

Background

Spidey and Wolverine have met twice before in the Ultimate universe and after some initial problems, get on pretty fine. Last issue Wolverine was taken down pretty badly and hid out at Spidey's house, but now the people gunning for him have tracked him down...

Story Details

Outside of Peter Parker's home are a bunch of vans full of gun-toting military types who are out to get Wolverine for unknown reasons. They have tracked Wolverine to Peter's house and are debating on how to proceed. Meanwhile, Wolverine and Pete have noticed the vans and are themselves wondering what to do. Wolverine surmises that they can track him and it must be related to his vital signs, since it took them ahile after nearly killing him last issue. He tells Peter not to freak. to get them out of there and then cuts his own throat. Back in the van they lose Wolverine's signal and start to panic, then his signal reappears right on top of them. Wolverine shakes them up a bit and escapes on the back of a web-slinging Spidey.

Wolverine and Spidey return to the diner where Wolverine was ambushed and interrorgates the onwer. Wolverine finds out that the girl who entered and chatted to him is the one that orchestrated the hit. He also surmise that whoever it is after him has his Weapon X file and are somehow tied to the project.

Still looking for clues, Wolverine drops in on the Black Widow to see if she or SHIELD have anything to do with what's going. Spidey asks for some money to replace the web shooters she stole from him on their first meeting... They end up leaving with no real further evidence, except it seems unlikely that SHIELD is involved. Wolverine and Spidey exit to the Black Widow's rooftop and Wolverine checks on whether his pursuers have been there. Spidey starts telling Wolverine about his spider-sense and how it warns him of danger when a rocket comes flying at Wolverine from a nearby building. The rocket hits Wolverine in the guts and carries him off across rooftops until Spidey sees the rocket hit a building with an explosion... to be continued.

General Comments

I'm liking this story more and more as it develops. The pacing picks up this issue and there are some great moments. I like Wolverine's inventive, yet gory solution to escaping at the beginning. I like the way this doesn't feel like a forced team-up and that it seems natural for Spidey to help out. I like the art, it's great. I like the mystery in the storyline and I'm interested in where it will lead. I like the dialogue, especially Spidey's, which displays what a teenager he is. Hassling the Black Widow for payment and then explaining how his spider-sense works only to have Wolverine blasted off the building beside him were classic moments.

I think what I like best is how well Bendis handles these two characters from two books that have very different themes and tones. Ultimate X-Men has been more adult book with blockbuster action and violence. While Ultimate Spider-Man been much more of a teen drama. Bendis seems to place Spidey in an X-Men situation and it doesn't seem wrong. Spidey acts like he is out of depth, which is what you would expect. I am really enjoying this team-up.

One problem that is apparent though is that this is Ultimate X-Men and none of the other X-Men have appeared for the last 2 issues. In fact, at the moment there are more X-Men appearing in Ultimate Spider-Man than there are in their own title! I'm an X-Men fan aswell and have been with the Ultimate X-Men title since its beginning and honestly I don't really mind. This still feels like an Ultimate X-Men story and it is really enjoyable. I haven't even really noticed that I "miss" the other characters yet.

Overall Rating

I'm really enjoying this book at the moment and if you're a Spidey fan and not picking this up, you're definitely missing out.