The unexpected success of USM meant Marvel was keen to expand the Ultimate line. USM was followed almost immediately by Ultimate X-Men (Bendis was originally to write both titles, even), but as far as I know, anything beyond that was a “wait and see” situation. But now that the buying public was clamoring for more Ultimates, it was time to see more of this world. Enter Ultimate Marvel Team-Up. History repeats itself. Just 6 months into USM, before the first arc even ended, this issue hit stands. But this time, almost every Team-Up will be debuting the Ultimate version of its characters, which makes this a very different experience, and also probably made it way more exciting to the average consumer. I can’t say for sure, as I wasn’t around when the original MTU was running, and as I was already in the tank for USM and Bendis in general and would’ve bought this regardless. But, if you wanted to know what Ultimate Iron Man or Hulk or Daredevil or whoever was like, this series was all you’d get for now, so that had to bring in people who might’ve passed otherwise. First though, perhaps predictably, it’s Wolverine. The most popular X-Man meets the most popular non-X-Man for the first time in a new continuity. Another goal Bendis had for this series was to showcase a lot of great comics artists you wouldn’t normally find in a Marvel comic in 2001 (Ironically, in some cases, as some of them either had drawn for Marvel before or would pretty often after or both). But there’s some pretty surprising choices in there, too, all people Bendis admired, starting here with Matt Wagner. Wagner is a legend in indie comics, a writer/artist known for his long-running and beloved series Mage and Grendel among many other things. Jung Choi colors. We open on Wolverine waiting for a subway train, listening to an old couple argue about whether mutants are people or not. He puts a little fear in them, and then smells Sabretooth nearby.
Another thing working against Ultimate X-Men was the 2000 X-Men movie. It began the long and sorry tradition of comics desperately trying to be more like the adaptations that wouldn’t exist without them. So the Ultimate X-Men, and soon the regular X-Men, must wear black & yellow matching uniforms, and Sabretooth has to kind of look like the big dumb mook he was in that movie.
Beyond that look, though, we’re in pretty familiar territory for these two. Sabretooth stands up and heals his tab wounds in front of the previously arguing couple, horrifying them, before running off after Logan’s train. Meanwhile, up in the city, some drunk guys have thrown a trash can through a window to steal some stuff over their girlfriends’ objections, and Spider-Man has arrived to fight them about it.
Pretty good. We cut to Sabretooth getting onto the train, but not finding Wolverine, before going back to Spider-Man ruminating on mutants. Now Spidey is in very familiar territory, swinging around and thinning to himself as he has since the 60s. He thinks he’s not a mutant, and then wonders if maybe he is, if the spider bite just triggered something already there in his system. He thinks about how bad mutants have it and thinks people love to be ignorant. Cut to Wolverine having an intense phone call with someone he believes is leading his enemies to him, cut back to Spider-Man swinging around thinking. He’s currently thinking about how he needs to go home and put all this mutant worrying behind him. Probably not going to work out…
Hard to imagine why Sabretooth would need a knife on his belt, but what a great double splash page. Hitting the ground, Logan doesn’t want to get into it with all these people around, but Sabretooth attacks, and people are screaming about mutants. As Sabretooth brutally gets the upper hand, Spider-Man wonders if he should get involved. Which is an unusual for a superhero, but makes a lot of sense, really. They yelled about working for the government, he’s been a superhero for all of 10 minutes, and he’s just a kid, what does he know? But when Sabretooth looks primed to execute Wolverine in the street, a web slaps onto his hand.
Bendis is better at Spider-Man banter than anybody since Roger Stern, and you can see him getting into his groove in here. As Wolverine throws Sabretooth into a neon sign, the cops appear. And, in the time honored Stan Lee tradition, people in the crowd wonder if someone’s filming a movie or if this is real.
“Wacky on the junk” is very much a Dave Letterman quote, which delighted me on first read, and still does.
The cops and the feds start arguing about who’s in charge and Spider-Man keeps trying to avoid things getting worse and Wolverine keeps trying to kill Sabretooth now that he’s got the advantage. Spidey drops down and asks Logan if he’s like a way out of here, and then webs them both away from the scene. He’s intent on getting Logan to a hospital, what with the bloody gashes in his chest, but then he watches them heal and is totally grossed out, echoing Sabretooth’s healing moment earlier.
Teenage Peter Parker thinking Wolverine is really cool is such a funny, fun idea. Kids love Wolverine in real life, why wouldn’t Peter? To wit:
A+ ending. So many fun things to do in this new version of the Marvel Universe. This is not the last, nor the wackiest, adventure these 2 will share. With the successful launch of a 3rd Ultimate title, it wouldn’t be too terribly long before a 4th, the terribly named The Ultimates. Which are the Avengers of this world. Terrible name. But it’s there that so many seeds of the MCU are planted, from Nick Fury literally being Samuel L. Jackson (The famous comics fan found out they were using his likeness without permission at his local comic shop. Marvel could’ve been sued into oblivion if he wasn’t a nice guy) to the team being a SHIELD project to specific things like Captain America jumping out of a plane without a parachute or the idea of Hawkeye having a wife & kids, all sorts of things found their way into the MCU from that book. If USM and UXM hadn’t been successful enough to spawn the Ultimates, who knows what would’ve happened?