With Stan Lee’s death, many have been evaluating the creative genius that’s taken Marvel’s characters to world domination. Known popularly as the House of Ideas, Marvel have continually innovated, excited and surprised its audiences with creative leaps that have propelled them past their competitors. That’s why it’s a little frustrating to see that their just-announced big idea for February 2019 is Grek Pak’s three-issue series Hulkverines, or what happens if you combine the powers of the Wolverine and the Hulk into a single villain, who was then fought by the two heroes.
Said villain, known as Weapon H, made his debut in Pak’s Totally Awesome Hulk #21 in September 2017. Originally known as Clayton, he’s an ex-military mercenary who was experimented on with Hulk DNA and given adamantium bonding. It’s left him as pretty much the Hulk, but with Wolverine’s claws. Apparently, somewhere along the line they tossed in a bit of Domino’s probability field generation, making him lucky to boot.
While I’ll give the comic the benefit of the doubt, mixing together the Hulk and Wolverine is a pretty cynical idea. I mean, the Hulk is already an unstoppable force of destruction with one of the most powerful healing factors in comics. Does giving him adamantium claws really make him that much more dangerous? I suppose the thinking is that comic fans love the Hulk and they love Wolverine, so naturally they’ll go crazy for a Hulkverine.
Given that Wolverine has recently risen from the dead (with silly ‘hot claws’), you’d think they could find more interesting things to do with him than this, right? Well, after he and the Hulk have dealt with Hulkverines, the focus will shift onto his involvement with the Infinity Stones, with Wolvie currently being in possession of the Space Stone as of Marvel Legacy #1. That plotline should develop into something a bit meatier, as at least if Wolverine goes cosmic, it’ll shake up what a story about the character can be.
In the meantime, Hulkverines #1 will hit shelves on February 20th, 2019.
