Jonathan Hickman and Declan Shalvey’s X-Men: Unlimited #1 takes Wolverine on a heart-racing, hard-hitting journey through outer space.
As the internet continues to make all types of art more accessible to creators and fans alike, traditional publishers are looking to get in on the action. Now, not to be outdone by DC’s first Webtoon, Marvel is releasing its very own collection of webcomics via Marvel Unlimited. The first comic to be released in this new format is X-Men: Unlimited #1, written by Jonathan Hickman with art by Declan Shalvey. The formidable creative team flexes their creative muscles in a different form to present an action-packed first episode, starring Wolverine.
Wolverine is the narrator and star of X-Men: Unlimited #1, which begins shortly after agents of AIM infiltrate S.W.O.R.D’s outer space base and kidnap three mutants. Wolverine flies into space to do what he does best: fight a bunch of bad guys. But when he arrives on AIM’s space station, he discovers that their plan is far more insidious than he had anticipated. Chaos ensues and it becomes clear that Wolverine is going to have to pull out all the stops.
Jonathan Hickman’s time as a writer for the X-Men has reshaped the Marvel Universe in a myriad of ways, so it seems fitting that he be the one to bring the mutants to the world wide web. Though it will likely tie into the greater X-Men continuity eventually, the first episode of X-Men: Unlimited is easy to jump into without too much familiarity with Hickman’s X-Men. So far it reads like a good old-fashioned Wolverine story. At one point, the hero is talking to a sentient computer in a scene that is exciting in the context of the story, but also a clever way of addressing the fact that this particular comic is designed to be read on a screen.
Shalvey’s art is engaging to read in any context, but he clearly endeavors to make the most of the new scrolling-oriented format. The panels vary in length, sometimes requiring quite a bit of scrolling to be able to see all of them from top to bottom. In this way, he plays with the reader’s sense of scale and controls the pace of the story. Where the first episodes of DC’s Batman: Wayne Family Adventures use dialogue balloons to extend certain scenes, Shalvey uses the images themselves. This technique feels very natural in the vastness of space, but might be jarring in more confined areas.
It is initially a little bizarre to see Wolverine in action in a webcomic, but Hickman and Shalvey’s work is good enough to be appreciated in any medium. Similar to DC’s Webtoon, the creative team is making the most of the new format using established, well-loved characters. Wolverine’s story is far from over, and Hickman and Shalvey seem to be steering it in a thrilling direction.
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