Hulk vs Wolverine a nice slice

It may have been a while since I wore a Wolverine t-shirt, but I used to be a die-hard Wolvie freak, back when most people wouldn't have known who he was and thought that my custom license plate that read "Wolvie1" was for the Michigan State football team.

I studied his history, and read everything I could get my hands on about him. So let's just say that - despite a few zillion brain cell deaths since then - I'm still a fountain of Wolverine lore. Thus, when I watched the short animated movie Hulk vs Wolverine (part of a newly-released Hulk vs DVD where he also faces Thor), I was seeing it through pretty critical eyes.

I mean, if you know anything about Wolverine you know that his history and origins have been monkeyed with more than Spider Man, which is saying a lot given the web-slinger's whole "clone" debacle a few years back. So while I was anxious to check out the film, I wasn't so anxious to see too many historical errors.

Briefly, since few care about Wolverine's history who'll actually watch the thing, it is a few points off the historically accurate mark, but not bad. Technically the "Weapon X" team isn't even around when Wolvie confronts Hulk back in 1983, and the Hulk is a little busy fighting a creature called Wendigo at the time (his reason for being in town, if you will).

When Wolvie is unable to hurt the Hulk too badly (technically he can't pierce the Hulk's hide), he turns on Wendigo and pretty much puts him down for the count, but back to the film.

The characters are very well portrayed. While Logan's attitude and demeanor were spot on, it's Bloodpool who really steals the show, with his constant joking and (relatively) foul mouth, Nolan North (no stranger to great voice work) does a superior job of acting him out. The inherent skill level of each character - a very important facet of any comic book portrayal - is likewise right on.

The art is good enough. That's not to say that it is the highest caliber I've seen, as in, say, the first season of Spider Man's animated series or several of the X-Men's animated show, as well. But hey, look at Batman the Animated Series: the art might not have been perfect, but the show was amazing and no worse for any lack of artistic detail.

The action is pretty sweet, with slow-mo, acrobatics, and pretty fluid movements in general. There is a little too much guy-gets-knocked-twenty-miles-away moments a la the Hulk's overzealous desire to "smash," but that's his MO and I guess he's stickin' to it.

All told, this short flick deserves the solid IMDb score it received and certainly deserves renting or even buying if you have a single comic-loving bone in you. If you just liked seeing Hugh Jackman with his shirt off, you might be a little let down, but that's what you get for not reading the cover.