Ultimate Wolverine Just Put a New Spin on Two Classic X-Men Frenemies

The cover to Ultimate Wolverine #2 recalls one of the most famous comic book covers of all time. Incredible Hulk #340, drawn by Todd McFarlane, features Wolverine with his claws popped, the image of a rampaging Hulk in the reflection. Alessandro Cappuccio’s cover to Ultimate Wolverine #2 zooms into the face of Colossus, with Wolverine charging at him in the reflection.

On first glance, the cover seems like a classic Ultimate Marvel inversion. Wolverine and Colossus are pals, right? Well, in this universe, they’re going to be enemies, kind of like the mainline Wolverine and Hulk.

However, a closer inspection of X-Men comics over the year shows that the massive Russian mutant has always had a rocky relationship with his short Canadian counterpart, one that makes the Ultimate showdown a lot more reasonable.

Deadly Genesis

Although he had popped up in a couple issues of Incredible Hulk, Wolverine really started coming into his own with 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men #1, the same issue that introduced Nightcrawler, Storm, Thunderbird, and, of course, Colossus.

The two couldn’t be more different in their first interaction. As expected, Wolverine is all bad attitude, grouching at Professor X as Xavier tries to convince him to leave Canada’s Department H and join a new generation of X-Men. Colossus finds Xavier’s offer flattering, and only pauses to discuss the possibility of leaving Russia with his parents.

Those differences set the stage for the clash of personalities in early X-Men comics. After Sunfire returns to his native Japan and Thunderbird dies in an explosion, Wolverine becomes the sole hothead in the X-Men, occasionally irritating others when he gets into a berserker rage. And yet, more often than not, the kind-hearted Colossus rolls with Wolverine’s outbursts. In fact, the two team-up to create one of the most iconic attacks in comic book history, with Colossus hurling Wolverine at enemies in what’s called the “Fastball Special.”

Yet, Marvel Comics being Marvel Comics, writers still found ways to pit the two against one another.

Fighting and Fastballs

The first notable dust-up between the two occurred in 1984’s Uncanny X-Men #183, written by Chris Claremont and penciled by John Romita Jr. Set after the events of the original Secret Wars, in which Colossus falls for an alien woman and dumps his steady girlfriend Kitty Pryde, the issue finds Wolverine and Nightcrawler taking their Russian buddy out for a drink to give him a talking to.

Colossus and Wolverine don’t come to blows in that issue. But Colossus does get heated, so much so that he won’t listen to Wolverine’s warning that they should leave the pub. When Colossus shoves Wolverine and spills his beer on another patron, Wolverine drops it and lets the Russian deal with the problem he tried to avoid, the arrival of the unstoppable Juggernaut. While Nightcrawler wants to help out, Wolverine insists they stand aside and let Colossus slug it out with Juggernaut.

Originally, Claremont wanted Colossus and Wolverine to actually fight in that issue, but readers would have to wait for a while to see that.

When Colossus left the X-Men to care for Magneto and join the villainous Acolytes, he attempted to be a conscience for the team, and thus never crossed paths with Wolverine. Still, when Colossus returned to the X-Men, Wolverine was slow to forgive his old pal (even if he takes the first possible chance to pull off another fastball special). For his part, when Wolverine turned to the dark side, becoming the horseman Death under the control of Apocalypse, he battles most of the X-Men, but Colossus is absent from the team and misses the chance to fight.

However, fans got to finally see the two fight it out in alternate realities. Wolverine and Colossus had a very different bond in the original Ultimate Universe, but even they couldn’t resist fighting. In 2008’s Ultimate X-Men #94, written by Aron Coleite and Mark Brooks, a rampaging Colossus even tears off Wolverine’s adamantium leg.

More recently, Wolverine: Revenge by Jonathan Hickman and Greg Capullo went all the way. In this alternate reality tale, Colossus sides with Omega Red, Deadpool, and Sabertooth after a massive EKG throws the world’s balance of power out of whack. The quartet capture Wolverine, Captain America, and the Winter Soldier, leaving them for dead. Of course, Wolverine survives and makes his way toward bloody revenge, as promised by the series’ title.

The clash is titanic as expected, finally paying off the years of tension between the two X-Men. In the end, Wolvie gets his arm ripped out, but still manages to pop his claws in Colossus’s head, leaving his old friend for dead.

Ultimate Grudge Match

Given Hickman’s treatment of Colossus and Wolverine in Wolverine: Revenge, it’s no surprise that he would play with the duo’s dynamic in the new Ultimate Universe. In this rebooted world, Colossus rules over the Eurasian Republic alongside his sister Magik and Omega Red. Dubbed “the Winter Soldier” in this story, Wolverine is still closer to his Weapon X form, a masked super soldier who doesn’t seem to recall his memories as Logan and willingly slaughters old friends like Nightcrawler.

Written by Christopher Condon and penciled by Alessandro Cappuccio, Ultimate Wolverine pits the old frenemies against one another on unequal ground. Dr. Alonya Prostovich, the scientist in charge of the Winter Soldier program, delivers a report to her higher ups when Magik transports them, along with Colossus and Omega Red, to the laboratory that contains Wolverine. Colossus dismisses Prostovich’s jargon with a more direct approach.

“I know how to handle creatures like this. It is not with verbal commands,” he declares. He grabs Wolverine by the throat and lifts the Canadian into the air. “It is with violence.” The violence that follows is completely one-sided, with Colossus squeezing and shaking Wolverine around, underscoring the fact that he sees the Winter Soldier as nothing more than a tool to be deployed as he wishes.

The truly shocking part comes when Colossus tosses Wolverine away. It’s not the speed or brutality with which he throws Wolverine that’s shocking. It’s the pose Cappuccio gives Colossus, a leg in the air and an arm thrusted down, with Wolverine’s body hurling toward the reader. Readers recognize exactly what Colossus is doing, he’s throwing Wolverine in a Fastball Special.

We’re only two issues into the series, so it’s too early to expect a full knock-down, drag-out fight now. But Ultimate Wolverine #2’s twist on the Fastball Special reminds us that these two mutants are together inseparable, as friends, as enemies, or as something in-between.

Ultimate Wolverine #2 is available on Feb. 19.

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