Ultimate Wolverine Vol. 2: Logan leans less on reinvention and more on excavation, digging into the psychological and emotional wreckage left behind by a life defined by violence and manipulation. It’s a focused, introspective story, but no less brutal for it.
This version of Logan exists in a world that feels deliberately stripped down. His memory—fragmented, unreliable, and often weaponized against him—becomes a vital battleground. Rather than offering easy revelations, Condon lets those gaps linger, forcing both Logan and the reader to sit in the discomfort of his dejection and indomitable thirst for revenge. It’s an approach that trades traditional plot momentum for atmosphere and character tension, and for the most part, it works.
Logan’s pacing is perhaps its strongest aspect. The book starts with some emotional recapping and stark artwork that is shadowed in something deeper than darkness. It ramps up at a steady pace, revitalizing the excitement of volume 1 through shocking sequences of Illyana and Omega Red at their most cruel.
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Ultimate Wolverine’s depictions of cruelty help this book to stand out from the other Ultimate books. Wolverine stories have always thrived on visceral action, but here the brutality feels less like spectacle and more like a consequence. The visual tension gives even the most familiar beats in Logan’s life a sharper edge, grounding the action in something more existential than heroic. Perhaps stories like Ultimate Endgame would benefit from adopting a tone closer to Ultimate Wolverine’s tone.
Vol. 1: The Winter Soldier took a few more risks than this book does, and it might be a little bit better for it. Logan’s broader story in Ultimate Wolverine as an ex-weapon now fighting the good fight didn’t go as far-out as I wanted it to, considering that his first appearance in Ultimate Universe: One Year In was one of the most exciting reveals in the Ultimate universe at the time.
The art in this book continues to be top-of-the-line. Alessandro Cappuccio creates a unique visual language that ties together mood and theme. The brooding color palette, the ever-present and undulating darkness, the shadowed shades of red and splashes of purple that light it up—all of these things make up this language without ever wavering in its execution.
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Condon’s most potent tools for writing this book are the tense, explosive fight scenes and the rich world-building that it plays out on. Volume 2 fleshes out the microcosm of Logan’s circle and the wake of his revenge, as well as the broader corner of the Ultimate line that his story takes place in. Logan depicts the cracks in the Maker’s machine, the ego and infighting, the mistrust and impossible expectations that are ultimately leading to the demise of his empire.
The X-characters in this book orbit Logan not just as reinvented allies and enemies, but as reflections of his possible futures, as well as echoes of the ghosts he’s out to avenge. Some figures, like his allies in the Opposition, push him toward reclaiming his humanity, while his former captors try to reinforce the idea that he’s too far gone to change. Condon’s writing thrives within Logan’s internal monologues, where it becomes clear that his quest is tempered by something just different enough from his main-line counterpart to make all the difference.
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Logan and Sabretooth’s relationship is the best example of one of these differences. In Logan, it’s a bond that is based on angry compassion rather than murderous hatred. The complexities of their relationship in this book is one of the best alternate universe offerings Marvel has to offer these days. There are some issues where the supporting characters feel more fleshed out and consequential than Logan, and that’s not a bad thing. In the end, it’s clear that the supporting cast of Ultimate Wolverine is what makes the book work.
As a collected edition, Ultimate Wolverine Vol. 2: Logan reads less like a continuation and more like a deepening. Despite so many explosive moments, the ending of the book had me hoping that the third act of this tale will go a little further out from the Logan we know than the first two have gone. Either way, I am absolutely looking forward to more of this book.
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