Death of Wolverine: Logan Legacy #4 Review with Lady Deathstrike
By Roger Lee
As the Logan Legacy mini-series continues following the Death of Wolverine, this fourth issue finds Lady Deathstrike in the odd position of mourning Logan’s passing. But not because she loved him or even liked him. She is upset because now she cannot kill him.
Logan Legacy #4 Cover
The Logan Legacy books examine how Wolverine’s death affects several of his closest allies and foes: X-23, Daken, Sabretooth, Mystique, and Lady Deathstrike. In the last two Logan Legacy books, we saw X-23 mourning Wolverine by first being angry at him for leaving her, and then by imitating and honoring him as she comes to terms with his passing. We also saw how Sabretooth dealt with the death of his arch-foe, by unleashing his psychotic rage at not being the one to kill ‘the runt,’ as he likes to call Logan.
In the Logan Legacy #4, we find Lady Deathstrike’s response to Wolverine’s death somewhere in between the two extremes as seen in X-23 and in Sabretooth. While Yuriko Oyama (Lady Deathstrike), is clearly furious at missing out on killing Logan, she feels a need to honor his memory by recovering the Honor Sword of Clan Yashida, which was once held in Logan’s possession. Upon learning that the Yakuza has (by the way, this story is set in Japan), stolen several of Logan’s items, including the sword, Lady Deathstrike enters a Yakuza gambling den to retrieve it. Of course, being a super-powered villain, she encounters other powered villains and dispatches them rather bloodily. Along the way, she discovers a bit of personal honor by saving some victims of the Yakuza who had been kidnapped as part of a prostitution ring.
Following her battle in the gambling den, and seeing the now-freed women safely to a hospital, Lady Deathstrike returns the honor blade to a place important to Logan.
Logan Legacy #4 Lady Deathstrike
This story was written by Marguerite Bennett, who shows a talent for dialogue and exposition, as a lot of the text is from Yuriko’s thoughts. The colors, inks, and pencils are all by Juan Doe. His work gave the art a surrealistic feel that hearkens to a cross between Japanimation and sort-of manga-like feel, it is also unique unto itself. For this comic, and this lead character, the art works. Not sure if this style would work for say, a Cyclops book or a Captain America comic.
This book is recommended for anyone interested in Logan’s legacy, or in Lady Deathstrike and the super-powered stories set in Japan.