ULTIMATE WOLVERINE VS. HULK (2013)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*

First off, I did not read the original 2005-09 limited series, written by LOST co-creator Damon Lindelof and drawn by Lenil Francis Yu, on which this motion-capture animated OAV was based. 

Second off, I'm glad I didn't, because this adaptation works on its own level, and that means that it serves as a counter-example to my very bad experience with the WOLVERINE ORIGIN adaptation.  In that case, I did read the comic book series first, and I considered it a major accomplishment in the annals of Wolverine mythology. 

Now, would I have liked the ORIGIN adaptation better had I not read the comics original? I don't think so, for the reasons outlined in the review. The comics original had many subtle moments, but the adaptation had, as I said, only a bunch of "peak moments" that caught none of the story's emotional resonance. And I've seen other motion-capture films I found just as vapid. 

What worked about this adaptation-- WVH, for short-- was that it worked perfectly because there was no deeper emotional resonance to capture.

I've read few of the Marvel ULTIMATES line, but in part the line is famous for issuing out-of-continuity of Marvel icons. Since these variants were not tied to official continuity, their authors had the freedom to posit scenarios that would have compromised the standing of regular serial characters. This sometimes included allowing characters to commit gratuitous acts of violence. The in-continuity Hulk, for example, never really hurts anyone in his rampages. When WVH opens, it's quickly established that the Hulk of this world has committed mass murder, and that SHIELD, as represented by head honcho Nick Fury, tried to execute him. Yet because Fury has learned of the escape of both Hulk and his alter ego Bruce Banner, the agent hires Wolverine to assassinate the fugitive monster.

Damon Lindelof's script only suggests a handful of parallels with established Marvel continuity, and the only significant allusion is that Wolverine and Hulk had had some contentious history, as they did in "Real Marvel." The opening dialogue between Fury and Wolverine exemplifies the pleasing superficiality of the entire project. This is a world where all of the characters, even the women (scientists Betty Ross and Jennifer Walters), are constantly uttering "tough talk," sort of a superheroic version of the hardboiled detective ethos. Yu's art, in which male characters look craggy and female characters look pale and drained, perfectly matches the utter anomie of this world. Lindelof's dialogue here is also an admirable emulation of the way characters talked on his show LOST, in that they veer wildly from crisis to crisis with nothing in between.

The movie actually begins in media res, in that the adamantium-enhanced X-Man is literally torn in half by the Green Goliath, and much of the story consists of the virtually immortal Wolverine relating the convoluted story of what led up to that moment, and what happened immediately afterward. There'are a comparative minority of scenes taking place in "real time," but there's not a lot of rhyme or reason to the character-interactions, not even those of the failed romance between Bruce/Hulk and Betty Ross-- who has some alterations made to her character like nothing in real continuity. Incidentally, Lindelof also brings in a handful of Marvel-character cameos, mostly to little effect, though the plot necessitates an appearance by the X-MEN super-genius Forge.

It's just as well that Lindelof's script is so lacking in deep nuance, for the motion capture techniques could not have encompassed nuance. WVH works because it's all tough talk-- and though it has its share of grotesque moments, I never felt they were self-indulgent, as I did with the similarly themed OLD MAN LOGAN.

Since WVH is so good and WOLVERINE ORIGIN is so bad, it's hard to believe they came out in the same year.