Ultimate Wolverine
In the shadow of the Maker's power, there exists the mutant side of things: Illyana Rasputin, Magik, and her brother, Piotr Rasputin, the Colossus. And they allow all kinds of evil experimentation to happen to their own kind, leading to the creation of their greatest weapon: the best there is at killing, the Winter Soldier.
If you need evidence the new Ultimate Universe was rushed to a conclusion, this book would seem to be the smoking gun. The ending, while conclusive, feels rushed, in that the buildup to the final battle with the Rasputin siblings is longer and more fleshed out than the confrontation itself. While Logan, our main character, gets a great deal of character development beforehand, that leaves several notable side characters to go without, especially one who's fully introduced late into the series.
I also think this book doesn't exactly work as an elseworld/alternate universe title for Wolverine. It is neat, yes, that he is the Winter Soldier at first; but being brainwashed isn't exactly something new for Wolverine, so you fall back into similar stories we've seen before. It's not that this book doesn't change things (some big names and faces are killed in issue #1 unceremoniously, and Sabretooth proves to be more interesting than his 616 counterpart) but it doesn't really change enough to step away from the genre conventions of what a Wolverine story is.
Now, don't get me wrong: I like Wolverine. But this universe promised exciting changes and new stories, and I felt the rug pulled from underneath me. I'm reminded of a scene in the movie Chef; the main character challenges a critic who left a negative review to come back and try something new, and the critic, being interested in the new, obliges. But due to pressures from his boss, the main character ends up having to serve the exact same thing he served the critic before, leaving the critic dumbfounded and bemused.
This story reminds me of that scene, except I was positive on the meal beforehand. I like Wolverine grappling with what he was and what he is, a weapon and a person, a doer of violence and a loather thereof. But when I see a band step up to play, and they're carrying all different kinds of instruments than what I usually see, you would sit up a little straighter to see what they do with it. If they play the same old tune, even if the music they play is good (and this comic is, don't get me wrong) you're going to feel disappointed.
Anything else about the story would be bound up in that disappointment. Is the art good? Oh, hell yeah: it's loose and ambiguous in a way that feels wild and expressive. Are the characters interesting? A couple of them; the main character, Sabretooth and the Rasputin siblings. Are the fights good? More or less, they're fine. It's a good book, great even; I might even like it more on reflection, but there will always be that nagging feeling it should have been something more.
