Customer Reviews

Ultimate X-Men, Vol. 7: Blockbuster

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Wow. There have been lots of changes in the Ultimate version of the Marvel Universe, but one constant has been the back story on Wolverine. He remains a mutant with extraordinary healing capabilities and claws popping out of his hands whose skeleton has been coated with the unbreakable metal adamantium by a covert military group called Weapon X. In the process of creating the ultimate living weapon they also wiped clean his memory. Once known as Logan he is now called Wolverine and has been trying to be a member of the X-Men.

But now two things have happened. First, Professor X has discovered a wedding ring that belonged to Wolverine in the government's Weapon X files. The ring bears the inscription: "To James, with all my love." This leads us to wonder if James is Wolverine's real name and who was he married to? Second, since his feelings for Jean Grey led him to leave Cyclops behind on a mission to die, he has left Charles Xavier's school. When "Ultimate X-Men Volume 7: Blockbuster" begins Wolverine is just trying to enjoy a cup of coffee and a sandwich. That is before a hail of automatic gunfire rips him to shreds.

"Blockbuster" collects together issues #34-39 of "Ultimate X-Men," written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by David Finch. The story arc follows the pursuit of Wolverine by a strange strike force armed with sophisticated military technology that includes a way of tracking Logan and adamantium bullets. Unwilling to ask the X-Men for help after the initial assault Logan ends up hiding out in the basement of none other than Peter Parker. When the battle moves to Hell's Kitchen that means not only Spider-Man but now Daredevil is also involved in Wolverine's problems. Eventually Nick Fury and Shield as well as Professor X and the X-Men become involved as some more clues regarding Logan's past are revealed.

Throughout this storyline Bendis and Finch take full advantage of Wolverine's powers of recuperation to really put him through the wringer. This is especially true of Chapter 3, that begins with Logan being driven through a series of buildings by a rocket and reaches a crescendo when he has an up close and personal encounter with the psychotic blonde heading the team that is trying to kill him. She clearly knows who he is but Logan has no memory of her whatsoever and if you think this might be the woman who gave him that wedding ring you will not be alone.

Although this is a very personal storyline in terms of Wolverine there are significant implications for the X-Men as well. Bendis continues to expand the idea of mutants being a divisive political problem as the modern equivalent of the slavery issue while the X-Men's role in the "real" world continues to be restricted by the order of the government. But more importantly, in the short-term, it is not Wolverine but another X-Men who takes a fateful step over the line.

With "Blockbuster" we basically have a giant chase story. These people are out to get Wolverine and to take him down hard. Throughout the entire story they are chasing him, but there are also times when he is trying to turn the tables on them as well. The appearances by both Spider-Man and Daredevil are well integrated into the story and as much as this is an action driven story there are plenty of character driven moments; the exchanges between Wolverine and Spider-Man are especially good, but those between Logan and Xavier are clearly more important. Consequently, "Blockbuster" lives up to its title because it not only stands on its own as a great action story but because it advances a couple of key plotlines for "Ultimate X-Men." To be continued...

this starts off a pretty great book and ends a great book. we first see spider-man in the first issue and he brings humor to the story, then we see daredevil who brings a real seriousness to the story while characterizing Wolverine at the same time. The last 3 issues are the best and when i see Jean's new character i immediately fall in love with her because she no longer looks ugly. As always the art from David Finch is amazing. To understand the ending of the book you HAVE to read the next volume New Mutants.

Without giving away too much, this volume is focused on Wolverine being tracked by Weapon X. Spider-Man is a major guest star with a minor apperance from Daredevil. The story isn't filled with many turns and is fairly predictable and leaves more questions than answers. This volume basically sets up for future storylines involving Wolverine.

Spiderman and Wolverine, these two characters are awesome together no matter what universe they are in. Be it 616 or the Ultimate universe, Wolvie and Spidey are always good together. Sprinkle a little bit of Daredevil into the mix and you've got comic book gold!

***SPOILERS***

Wolverine takes a MASSIVE beating from some Weapon X foot soldiers while he's in NYC and he escapes. He needs a place to crash and heal up so he calls on his buddy Peter Parker and uses his basement as a place to rest while his healing factor kicks in.

Later when Wolverine goes looking for who did this it turns out that they are a group of operatives being led by a hate filled woman who blames Logan for a something that happened to her in the past. While the fight goes on, our good buddy Daredevil stops in and helps out.

Later the X-Men are called in by Spiderman and they all converge on these foot soldiers and they take them out.

***END SPOILERS***

I picked this book up because it had Spiderman in it and it turns out that Spiderman was just the icing on the cake. I loved this story and the artwork was great too! If you love the X-Men, Spiderman or Daredevil, I'd advise you to pick this up!

A very interesting and fast read, it centers on Wolverine for the entire arc. At the end of the last arc, he rejoined the X-Men (after being kicked out by Cyclops), but he immediately leaves because of his discomfort.
This issue has plenty of fight scenes which are very interesting and well done. I love the guest spots on this arc: Daredevil, Spider-man, Black Widow, and more. Volume 6 was a difficult arc to follow because it was so good, but this one does nicely, and develops the Wolverine character further than we have been up until this point. Well worth the read.

i thoguht that the story in this graphic novel was exceptionally good. it starts out in a bar with logan eating and a women walks in acting she is like a fan of him and the x-men. when she leaves the diner he is in takes heavy fire and he is seriously wounded. he then goes to the house of peter parker and hides there until he is healed. he learns that people from weapon x are looking to kill him with new equipment. there are also appearences by spider-man and daredevil. the artwork in this novel is also very good and there are some funny parts to the story. this one probably has the most action and wolverine dies, don't worry he comes back like a page later.

Ultimate x men continues to deliver great story with original ideas. The Ultimate X men idea was a great one. Uncanny X men and other Marvel titles have run for so long it is hard for younger new readers to pick it up. They often fill lost and left out. With the Ultimate titles there is now a place to go. In Ultimate X men they recreate some of the best characters in the X men franchise and finds new ways to tell their stories. WARNING the Ultimate titles do NOT follow traditional marvel story lines. But to me that's what makes it so great. I highly recommend to anyone to pick up the Ultimate X men series.

If you love these 3 cover characters, buy it I guess.
A very boring, redundant story to me though

it was a fair story story though from the cover i expected more daredevil than the little we seen, he never even gets to do more than throw his stick a couple of times, spidey kind of leaves before the end of the story too.

at least for once bendis didn't skip the action, in fact it's pretty much nothing but action from the third page where wolvie gets blasted.

spidey is played a little too dumb here i think, yeah i know he's a rookie but DD or wolvie are having to get him out of harms way a lot and he does not listen well.

fair read and I have skipped the rest of the ultimate x-men since i don't care a bit about them after having read the first 26 issues and dropping the book, seeing them coem in near the end showed me why, oh well i still have the trades coming out of the older claremont x-men to fall back on :