"I'm back, bub!"
Ultimate Comics: Wolverine was a comic book by Cullen Bunn and David Messina, set in the Ultimate Marvel universe. Although he's in the title, Wolverine is a Posthumous Character in this story, as he had died in Ultimatum (and stayed dead), and only appears in flashbacks. The story has ties to the then current arc of Ultimate X-Men (2001).
Jimmy Hudson has a video will of Wolverine, and plays it several times. Black Box (a technopath mutant) hears it and realizes that the will has concealed information about "Project: Mothervine". They both leave the reservation and try to get info about it. It was a project of many years ago that turned the fetuses of selected pregnant women to turn the babies into sleeper agent mutants who could be awaken with a trigger phrase. It was stopped back then by Wolverine, working for the government, and Magda, working for other people but with a similar goal. They had sex after the reunion, and Magda later applied the Mothervine on herself. Only the part of it that turned her baby into a mutant, and not the rest.
Jimmy is not the only one searching for the Mothervine. Quicksilver also does, trying to restore mutantkind. And also to try to recruit his newfound brother.
Note that this page is about the miniseries. For tropes about the character, see here.
Tropes:
- Aborted Arc: At the end of the series, Jimmy gets a Wolverine suit. He never actually used it.
- Action Dad and Action Mom: Wolverine and Magda are both this for Jimmy. They even conceived him, and Wolverine knew of his parenthood, in the middle of an adventure.
- Cardboard Prison: Quicksilver kept Black Box and Jimmy in a high-tech prison. Yes, that's right: a technopath mutant in a prison filled of high-tech stuff that bends to his will. He could have left them in the mall and saved some trouble.
- Conflicting Loyalty: There is a standing order to turn all mutants over to the authorities. Jimmy made all the way to his parents house to see them from afar, but he knows that if he took one step further and actually made his presence known to them, they would have to do that. They wouldn't, he's their son, but the old James Hudson is a cop. Also, what if there is surveillance at their house, and the authorities discovered that they met him and did not call anyone? Trying to keep them out of trouble, he left.
- Curse Cut Short: All of Wildchild's goons are killed in the fraction of a second. He says "What the...", and then suffers a Neck Snap in high speed.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Magda pointed that she and Wolverine are mercenaries and killers, but none of them would leave a baby to be the guinea pig of science experiments.
- Expecting Someone Taller: The agents complain that Gregory Lee looks taller on TV.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Wildchild's mooks are suddenly naked, and Wildchild suffers a Neck Snap in high speed. And then, the blur stops: it's Quicksilver.
- Genre Savvy: When Wildchild finds Jimmy and Black Box, he realizes that they are "The Smart Guy" and the "Dumb Muscle", so he will take the smart one for interrogation and kill the muscle right there. And he's sure that Jimmy is dying to cry "over my dead body".
- Give Him a Normal Life: Wolverine gave Jimmy to be adopted by the Hudsons. He had known James Hudson during a war. He knew that if he kept the kid, he would eventually be captured by his enemies, or worse, grow up and turn out to be like him. He wanted something better for him.
- Glorified Sperm Donor: The only way that Wolverine may become a father, after all.
- Happily Adopted: Jimmy made it clear, many times, that Wolverine may be his biological dad, but his adjectiveless dad is James Hudson.
- Held Gaze: When Jimmy asked Kitty about Wolverine, it seemed as if he was about to kiss her.
- Humble Goal: Jimmy made a detour and took many risks, just to have a brief look of his parents from afar one last time.
- Juxtaposed Halves Shot: The recap page has one with Wolverine and Jimmy. There is another between Jimmy and Quicksilver later on.
- Kick the Dog: Zoe, that friend of Quicksilver that sells frozen yogurth. She had the Mothervine and he told her the trigger phrase, that gave her an uncontrollable and lethal mutation, just to show off the way Mothervine works.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: Wolverine and Magda had sex after meeting again, and of course, she got pregnant with that single intercourse.
- Light Is Not Good: A politician salutes a girl he finds, who was actually a Mothervine subject. She starts attacking with solid light.
- Like Father, Like Son: Magda pointed that Quicksilver is turning out more and more like his father, Magneto.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: Magda also pointed that Jimmy is not turning out like Logan.
- Long-Lost Relative: Quicksilver shows up to say hi to his brother. They are both sons of Magda, after all.
- Male Gaze: When she first shows up, we can see Magda's back up close.
- Manchurian Agent: "Project: Mothervine" turns normal people into this.
- Mercy Kill: Zoe had to get one after her Mothervine mutation started.
- Mirrored Confrontation Shot: Jimmy had one with both Wildchild and Quicksilver.
- My Secret Pregnancy: Magda had Jimmy in secret. She only told Wolverine after birth.
- Posthumous Character: Wolverine has died in Ultimatum, and remains dead. He only appears in flashbacks.
- Power Incontinence: When activated, Mothervine subjects are victims of this.
- Pregnancy Test Plot: Magda checked that she got pregnant with Wolverine, and realized that Nothing Is the Same Anymore.
- Refusal of the Call: Jimmy's blood has the traces of the original Mothervine and may help to remake the mutant race. Jimmy wants nothing to do with that.
- Sequel Hook: Quicksilver, laying in a hospital bed, is recruited by someone for something. To be continued in... Ultimates: Disassembled!
- Spy Catsuit: Magda wears a red one.
- This Cannot Be!: Wolverine did not really expect to see Magda ever again.
- Throwing the Distraction: Black Box threw the video will of Wolverine during the fight with Wildchild, modified to display several holograms of Wolverine at once instead of one. This distracted Wildchild for a second, enough for Jimmy to destroy his artificial claws.
- Trigger Phrase: "Mother is calling her children home"
- Video Wills: Wolverine had left one for Jimmy. We had seen it when he was introduced, but it seems that Jimmy is playing and re-playing it all the time in his spare time.
- Villainous Rescue: Jimmy and Black Box are rescued from Wildchild by Quicksilver.
- We Can Rule Together: Quicksilver would have no problem killing Jimmy if needed, but he would prefer if he joined the Brotherhood.
