Cover: Alessandro Cappuccio

Ultimate Wolverine #5

Jul 2025 · Marvel · 4.99 USD

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About this Issue

Ultimate Wolverine #5 marks the first full appearance of the Ultimate Universe version of Sabretooth — reimagined as Vladislav Credovski, an ex-soldier who runs a bar in the city of Rasputingrad and secretly operates as a conductor on a mutant underground railroad, inverting the character's long history as one of Logan's most predatory antagonists. The issue simultaneously introduces the Earth-6160 incarnations of both Artie Maddicks and Leech — two characters whose 616 roots go back to the Morlocks of the mid-1980s — now cast as vulnerable refugee children under Sabretooth's protection, a deliberate narrative echo of and contrast with Sabretooth's role in the original Mutant Massacre. It also delivers the first substantial appearance of this universe's Natalia Romanova, the Black Widow analogue known as Chyornaya Vdova, who arrives as Sabretooth's contact and helps neutralize Logan at the issue's climax. Taken together, the three debut characters and the flashback sequence revealing Logan and Creed's shared pre-Winter-Soldier past make this the single densest issue of character-building in the series' opening arc.

writer Chris Condon · artist, inker Alex Lins · colorist Bryan Valenza · letterer VC's Cory Petit · cover Alessandro Cappuccio

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (NM) $5

CGC 9.8 · 12 in census $48*

CGC 9.6 · 1 in census $30*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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History

The series was announced at Marvel's Next Big Thing panel at New York Comic Con in October 2024 and billed as the first new ongoing title added to the Ultimate Universe after its inaugural year of publication — a line that had launched in early 2024 with Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Black Panther, Ultimate X-Men, and The Ultimates. Writer Chris Condon, best known for the indie crime series That Texas Blood, was recruited by editor Wil Moss and has stated he conceived the series as his personal vision of 'the ultimate Wolverine book,' merging the Weapon X mythology with a Winter Soldier framework set inside the Eurasian Republic, a region of Earth-6160 ruled by Colossus, Magik, and Omega Red as members of the Maker's Council. Regular series artist Alessandro Cappuccio — who had risen to prominence on the Jed MacKay Moon Knight run — handed art duties for issue #5 to guest penciler Alex Lins, with Condon later telling CBR that he specifically wrote the script to play to Lins's strengths in kinetic action and visceral gore; colorist Bryan Valenza and letterer VC's Cory Petit remained on the issue.

Trivia · 8 facts

First full appearance of Ultimate Sabretooth (Victor Creed / Vladislav Credovski, Earth-6160): an ex-soldier reimagined as a heroic mutant underground railroad operator rather than a villain.
First appearance of Ultimate Universe versions of both Artie Maddicks and Leech (Earth-6160), introduced as young mutant refugees hiding in Sabretooth's bar cellar.
First substantial appearance of Chyornaya Vdova — the Earth-6160 Black Widow analogue, Natalia Romanova — who acts as Sabretooth's Opposition contact and subdues Logan at the issue's close.
Written by Chris Condon; interior art by guest penciler/inker Alex Lins (stepping in for series regular Alessandro Cappuccio); colors by Bryan Valenza; letters by VC's Cory Petit; cover by Alessandro Cappuccio with Frank Martin.
Released May 7, 2025; cover-dated July 2025; 32 pages; edited by Will Moss under Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski.
Issue features a key flashback in which a pre-Winter-Soldier Logan, wearing a soldier's uniform with a red crossed-arms X patch, makes Creed promise to kill him if the Rasputin family ever gains control of him — a narrative promise that haunts the series going forward.
Sabretooth's portrayal here — as a surrogate protector of child mutants — is noted by reviewers as an intentional narrative inversion of his role in the classic 1986-87 Mutant Massacre storyline, in which he menaced Artie Maddicks and other Morlocks.
The series was originally contracted for 12 issues but was later extended; Condon confirmed in interviews that the book's reception led Marvel to add additional issues to run alongside the Ultimate Endgame event.