Spoilers for Ultimate Universe: One Year In #1! Marvel’s Ultimate Universe is celebrating its first anniversary with a special one-shot comic checking in on the various players and events brewing within its reborn world, with the X-Men’s Winter Soldier by issue’s end. Calling into question whether it's Logan under the mask as the Wolverine/Winter Soldier combo or Bucky Barnes as a Winter Soldier turned Wolverine hybrid, Marvel has directly settled that fan debate with an exciting reveal that bodes well for the character moving forward.

The relaunched Ultimate Universe — designated Earth-6160 — was created all thanks to the meddling of an evil version of Reed Richards dubbed The Maker and offers fresh takes on iconic Marvel characters, with the next Winter Soldier getting a badass redesign for the Ultimate Wolverine series that fits the character well.

Finally confirming in the “Ultimate Wolverine Prologue” at the back of Ultimate Universe: One Year In #1 that this is indeed Logan’s Wolverine acting as the Ultimate Universe's Winter Soldier — not Bucky Barnes as Wolverine — this is a welcome confirmation for fans and an incredibly interesting one for Wolverine.

Logan Is Confirmed To Be the Winter Soldier in Marvel’s Ultimate Universe

Ultimate Universe: One Year In #1 "Ultimate Wolverine Prologue" - 2024 (Chris Condon and Alessandro Cappuccio)

Narrated by Dr. Alonya Prostovich, the director of science and technology for the Eurasian Republic, a section of Earth-6160 ruled over by the Maker’s hand-picked mutant trio of Colossus, Magik, and Omega Red, this Ultimate Wolverine prologue shows how this reality’s Weapon X program, or “Directorate X,” was an off-the-books division that experimented on “specimens” to make a “good soldier perfect.” Succeeding in turning a “man into a weapon,” the final page’s caption reads, “They called him Logan once. Then the ‘specimen.’ No more… now he is ours. Our Winter Solider” accompanied by a jaw-dropping illustration of Wolverine’s latest persona.

Knowing now that this isn’t some version of Bucky Barnes’ Winter Soldier given Wolverine’s iconic adamantium weapons means two things: firstly, that Bucky is still out there in the Ultimate Universe just waiting for his debut, and second, that Logan’s journey as a character will be an entirely different one compared to his X-Men-d Earth-616-based counterpart. Mixing elements of Winter Soldier’s Russian brainwashing backstory along with Logan’s Weapon X origin, this new hybrid character already feels like an intriguing addition to this universe, with the idea of a mutant Winter Soldier opening unique storytelling avenues that beg to be explored.

Logan’s Ultimate Universe Journey as the New Winter Solider Begins in Ultimate Wolverine #1

It’s unclear whether Logan was Wolverine before becoming the Winter Soldier in this remixed reality or if his Ultimate Wolverine series will follow him as he finds his way to a more familiar X-Men-related role that fans know and love him in, but regardless, his journey as a Eurasian Republic asset who was “Born and died, then born again” is sure to be a wild one. Logan’s version of Wolverine officially confirmed as the Winter Soldier is the reveal fans have been waiting for, settling an Ultimate Universe mystery that’s just the tip of the iceberg for this relaunched initiative.

Ultimate Universe: One Year In #1 is available from Marvel Comics.