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There really is no denying the popularity of the X-Men's Wolverine. Ever since he first appeared in the late seventies, this enigmatic character, whose personality touched on a cultural zeitgeist of anti-establishment and anti authority rhetoric, he has been popular. Half of the appeal was in the mystery of who this character was, the other half was that personality, all brought together by the deft writing of Chris Claremont, and others throughout the years.
Now, while his popularity is unquestionable, naturally not everyone is going to like him. I'm not the biggest fan of Logan, myself. I'll follow him in team books, I'll peek in on his solo series once in awhile, but for the most part I only enjoy him in team settings, where his personality plays against others. Which isn't to say I dislike him either, but he's never been a must see draw for me.
Still, under the right hands, Logan's a worthwhile character, and he has plenty of history to play with, and there's a lot you can do with the character, even after all this time. I much prefer when he's not being used as a random guest star to boost sales, but we're fortunately well beyond those days. It still happens, but nowhere near as much as the height of popularity in the 90s.
But when Paul Cornell was announced to be launching a new Wolverine title, well, I had to check it out. I've interviewed Paul before, and I've loved most of his work, from Doctor Who, to Captain Britain & MI:13. I thought giving him Wolverine was definitely an interesting choice, it didn't fit in with what I saw him as normally doing, and I was intrigued with what he would bring to the table.
In short, Paul gave me exactly the Wolverine I wanted to read. I hate when they use Logan as Batman. I hate characters with that reputation of being the ultimate ass-kicking hardcore badass that always knows what to do and never gets hurt. Both of those characters ended up falling into that category for long stretches of their careers, and I find it utterly disinteresting.
But Cornell started out his first issue by pretty much making Wolverine the butt of an issue long beating. Logan was taken to task right out of the gate, and he was confused by it for most of the story. Things slipped into a more detective oriented type story from there, and expanded into some hardcore sci-fi areas, and explored the hidden corners of the MU and Logan's history. This is, for me, the way Wolverine should be used. Keep him off his feet, pull the rug out, and just keep pulling. He CAN be interesting, and Cornell is hitting just the right notes with that.
Oh, and then he had the big bad of the series, a viral species from the Microverse, disable Logan's healing factor. So, not only have we been beating up Wolverine pretty handily, but we've taken away his greatest asset. It's been done before, but it's usually been done in the style of just dialing it back a bit, which never lasted long as writers ramped it back up to 'survive a nuclear blast at ground zero' type levels, or if it went away it was a short term thing.
Now, that could happen here, and surely I don't think Logan's healing factor is gone for good. But as I keep saying with comics, I don't expect ANY change to stick, like death. If the event drives characters and stories though, bring it on, and lets have fun with this new status quo for however long we're gonna have it.
Cornell has crafted an intriguing mystery here, and it's all part of the virus's larger plans, which are also slowly unfolding. I'm eager to see where things go from here, and where Logan's adventures take him next, since we've already gone from New York, to the bottom of the ocean, to Wakanda, and now he has all his worst enemies coming to be the one to finally kill the Wolverine.
I really want to pause and go into how Paul Cornell also finally found a way to make Batroc the Leaper work, but that's getting a little too specific. Suffice to say, he found a way to crack the nut and turn him from being a complete joke of a French stereotype with a Pepe LePew accent and actually see him as a real threat for the first time in like...forever. As a Batroc fan, that's so welcome, and it sold me even more on an already enjoyable series.
Yes, I am trying to convince people to check out a Wolverine comic based on how Batroc the Leaper was presented. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not.
Oh, and the art on the book has largely been done by Alan Davis. Alan is my favourite comic artist of all time. So my opinion may be a little extra biased to love this book. But that's why I held off 'til the very end to point it out, and give you all the goodness he's NOT involved in. So yes, the art is also great, and just another reason why this latest volume of Wolverine is working for me.
The book spans the Marvel Universe, but is mostly self-contained. It's an easy recommendation and worth giving it a check out before the latest arc ends where Cornell has promised to up the stakes and change things yet again. I hope Cornell and Davis stick around on Wolverine for some time to come, as this book is just plain fun.
Jason M. Bourgeois
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