Not a dream! Not a hoax! Not an imaginary story! Marvel’s famously unfinished 2006 miniseries Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk may actually … finish.
“Ultimate Hulk and Wolverine is really going to happen, folks,” artist Leinil Francis Yu writes on his deviantART journal. “I have all the scripts and this baby should be in hardcover real soon! I just hope I can still mimic my 3 year old self. It’s gonna be a bit weird.”
As you may recall, the planned six-issue miniseries, by Yu and Lost executive producer Damon Lindelof, launched in December 2005. The second issue followed in February 2006. However, the third issue — originally solicited for April 2006, resolicited several times and then, finally, canceled — never materialized.
The status of the project became a recurring topic at Marvel convention panels until, at this year’s Comic-Con, Lindelof handed Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada the script to Issue 6 in a staged production. That was a year after Lindelof said he’d turned in the script to the fifth issue.
With that part of the puzzle solved, the only remaining question was the availability of Yu, who’d been busy with New Avengers and Secret Invasion. And after Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk?
“After that is some Mark Millar goodness with an arc of Ultimate Avengers,” he writes. “Of course things could still change and Marvel could shuffle things around since we really won’t know how the schedule would turn out. It’s still months away.”
Update: Marvel’s February solicitations, which were released at noon, include listings for “all-new” printings of the miniseries’ first two issues.
November 18th, 2008 at 11:57 am
“I just hope I can still mimic my 3 year old self.”
I know what he means… but I really hope it does it using the other way it can be read. It’d be fun to see what Li’l Leinil would do with these scripts.
November 18th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
So what a minute. By Yu saying that it should be in hardcover real soon, does that mean issues #3 thru #6 will ever be published in floppies?
November 18th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
No. Who the fuck wrote it? And for people bitching about DC having shitty team-up minis what about these? Oh yeah that’s right, i forget they get paid in Blowjobs by Marvel Editorial.
November 18th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
People have a right to bitter about DC’s abysmal track record of late (the whole Chris Kent debacle in Action Comics (how long it took to end the arc, how they went about completing it, and how it screwed up continuity in Superman proper) is a prime example. Especially when they boast about getting a weekly out on time (regardless of the quality of said weeklies).
But… You got a point, RayJ. Marvel’s not innocent either. I can’t speak to your point about how Marvel rewards their fans though.
I’d hope, for those who bought the first two books, that Marvel will put out the other floppies in the series first. That’s just bad business if they don’t.
Has this series been any good? It’s gotten such a reputation, for reasons other than the story itself, that it’s got me curious. As a Lost fanatic, I’m particularly interested in what Lindelof’s written. I will definitely sit back and wait for the trade though – probably coming sometime in 2011, after Lost has finished its run.
November 18th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
At last, now I can exhale.
November 18th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
So the update says Marvel’s February solicitations include new printings of the first two issues, suggesting that yes, indeed, the remaining four will come out in traditional comic book format — “floppies”, indeed!
But Marvel needn’t have bothered re-printing those first two issues, as I’m sure any current fans who might be picking up issues 3 through 6 (in 2010 through 2021) could always borrow their parents’ copies of the earlier ones…
November 18th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Due to the economic turndown, I visit the comic shop every other week now, and I buy fewer books.
I’m starting to feel true withdrawal; as in, I might be able to do without books. The problem is, I feel loyal to my friendly local comic shoppe owner and would hate to not give him the business he needs.
November 18th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Wait, if he handed in the finished script for issue #5 long before issue #6… did they not get the scripts for #3 and #4? Or if they did, why not print those and make the delay slightly less insane?
November 19th, 2008 at 1:27 am
6 issues at $3.99 each is $24. Hardcover for $25 sounds like a bargain. I hope they go directly to hardcover.
December 17th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
I’m not buying it on principal. Everyone else should follow suit. Send a message to Mr. Lindelof. He obviously didn’t care enough to finish his story in a timely manner. I obviously don’t care to purchase his material in a timely manner. I don’t want to spend my hard-earned money on his lazy sub-standards. If I missed my work deadlines like the way he did, I’d be fired. Very, VERY unprofessional. Obviously, stuff happens, things run late. But two years? Pathetic.