Wolverines #1 Comic Book Review: The Post-Logan Team-Up

Wolverines #1 is the new weekly Marvel comic book that continues the storylines from the two other “Death of Wolverine” mini-series titles that just concluded: Logan Legacy and the Weapon X Program.

While both of those titles followed two different sets of Wolverine-connected characters (both heroes and villains), the new Wolverines title brings them all together on a quest for an important high-value object (which, while heavily hinted at, is not revealed until towards the end).  Along the way, they fight a well-known villain team looking for the same object for a high-paying employer, and suffer tragedy, all while seemingly getting to know one another.

Charles Soule is normally a fantastic writer and story-teller, but this issue seemed rushed (and the same could be said for the artwork), but it seems as if too much was being crammed into this first issue.  That may not be Soule’s fault, because, as mentioned in other recent reviews on these related titles, the editing and continuity monitoring by Marvel has been sketchy at best on all the books related to the Death of Wolverine, plus other, related Marvel titles.

Some Wolverines SPOILERS below that are necessary to explain the plot.  You were warned…SNIKT…

Wolverines #1

Regarding Wolverines #1 though, the premise is good: Bring together the new heroes/villains of the Weapon X Program title (Shogun, Neuro, Skel, Junk, and Endo, who were all experimental subjects of Dr. Cornelius at the Paradise complex where Logan  died), with the heroes/villains of Wolverine’s extended “family,” including X-23, Sabretooth, Mystique, Daken, and Lady Deathstrike.  They all have life-or-death reasons to find this object in the ruins of the Paradise complex, but in many cases, they have reasons to distrust and dislike each other.

At the point that this group of ten (and are they to be called “The Wolverines?”) sees the oncoming threat of the mercenary bad guy team the Wrecking Crew, and decides to split up and search for The Object.  While this “split up and look for something, but partner with someone you don’t know and/or trust” trope is a traditional large superhuman team-up meme, (see any old Silver Age JLA/JSA team-up to see what we mean), it is rather dumb in this case.  After stating that any one member of the Wrecking Crew could take on Thor, the group of ten decides to split up and weaken the advantage they have in numbers (Ten Wolverines vs. four Wrecking Crewers?) to continue to look for the object?  Shogun (tactician), Neuro (braniac), and Mystique (old enough to know better) should have been able to come up with a better plan.

Anyway, they split up, encounter the also split-up Wrecking Crew (how convenient!), and commence to get thrashed by the bad guys.  Again, some disappointment here, as Sabretooth should have put up a better fight, and since so much was made of Skel’s strength and physiological need to fight, it was surprising that he went down so quickly.

Another problem with this issue is the chatter among the group members as they search the ruins.  We will not get into great detail here, but the conversations and emotions seem out of character, especially for Daken and X-23.

The end of this issue had a big reveal as to the employer of the Wrecking Crew, and in hindsight, this villain’s appearance makes a lot of sense.  What he does to Daken though was both savage and sudden, but the real surprise came on the last page..OK MAJOR SPOILER HERE…

Wolverines #1 Wrecking Crew

When X-23, huddled over the broken and maimed body of Daken, shouts that Daken’s healing factor is gone.  And she had known that for a while, as evidenced by their earlier weird conversation.  As far as this reviewer knows, we did not know about Daken losing any powers previously.  If he did lose them in a prior comic issue, it would be nice if the editor could make a note of that somewhere to alleviate the confusion.  But the son losing his healing factor not long after daddy Wolverine lost his?  Hmmmm…

So we are left with a cliffhanger to make us eager to pick up Wolverines #2.  Here is hoping that the story is a bit more logical from here on out, and that the artwork matches the mood of the story.  Nick Bradshaw is a good artist, but the style used in this issue does not match the dark tone of the content.  Also, in previous issues (the Weapon X Program), Shogun, Skel, etc, did not have costumes as such.  Now they do.  Just does not look right on them at this point.  Also, as mentioned in previous reviews, the editorial continuity among all of the Death of Wolverine related titles (and character tie-ins with the AXIS event) is seriously jumbled and raise serious questions.

Despite the problems mentioned above, this new series has huge potential.  Charles Soule is a master at Wolverine-related writing, and we have faith that things will sort out.  We review Wolverines #2 next week.