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Stillanerd Reviews: Generations: The Best (All-New Wolverine and Wolverine) #1 review

By Mike McNulty

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The reunion between a Logan in his prime and X-23, while touching, doesn’t make for an all that special Wolverine team-up … even if they do fight ninjas.

Generations: The Best #1

Writer: Tom Taylor

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Artist: Ramon Rosanas

Colorist: Nolan Woodard

Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit

Covers: Jorge Molina; Declan Shalvey and Jordie Bellaire; and Olivier Coipel

In case you haven’t noticed before now, the Marvel Generations one-shots have followed a particular pattern. Various contemporary “legacy heroes” somehow wind up in the past. Once there, they meet the very superhero whose mantle they adopted and/or inspired them. They also learn a valuable lesson about themselves and their predecessor, the supposed reason the new heroes traveled through time in the first place.

Credit to Generations: The Best (All-New Wolverine and Wolverine) #1 then for attempting to flip the script. As before, a present-day superhero teams up with a superhero from the past In this case, Laura Kinney, a.k.a. X-23, a.k.a. the “All-New Wolverine,” and James Howlett, a.k.a. Logan, a.k.a. the original Wolverine. Also, unlike the first two Generations one-shot, Logan, not Laura, is our narrator.

Credit: Ramon Rosanas and Nolan Woodard (Marvel Comics); from Generations: The Best (All-New Wolverine and Wolverine) #1

[Generations: The Best #1] has one of the most poignant, bittersweet endings of all these Marvel Generations one-shots so far…Unfortunately, everything else preceding this ending is textbook mediocrity.

If you don’t count Old Man Logan, Wolverine has been dead for three years now. A very long time by modern-day comic book standards. Seeing him back doing “the best at what he does,” even it in a time-travel story, is a very welcome sight indeed.  It’s also set in Japan. Those typically always make for the more fascinating Wolverine stories, allowing writers to really explore Logan’s character beyond just a mutant berserker with claws.

Without giving too much away, this comic also has one of the most poignant, bittersweet endings of all these Marvel Generations one-shots so far. Between all the slicing and dicing, this is a story about parenting. It’s about what it means being a father, and the influence they have on their children. Most important of all, it’s how their absence affects their children and their future. If you’re familiar with the histories of both Logan and Laura as characters, then their final conversation would be worthy to earn this comic my highest recommendation.

Unfortunately, everything else preceding this ending is textbook mediocrity. The plot, in which both Wolverine’s attempt to rescue Logan’s adoptive daughter, Akiko, from the Hand is very bland. Tom Taylor handles the father-daughter relationship dynamic between Logan and Laura well enough, but it’s also nothing one hasn’t seen done before.

Credit: Ramon Rosanas and Nolan Woodard (Marvel Comics); from Generations: The Best (All-New Wolverine and Wolverine) #1

…if writer Tom Taylor wants readers seeing Laura as a worthy successor to the mantle of Wolverine, having her seem perfect without any discernible flaws does her no favors.

The other problem is by having Logan be the point-of-view character, Laura comes across as two-dimensional and static. With Generations: Hulk, Amadeus Cho began to realize he didn’t have control over being the Hulk as much as he thought. In Generations: Phoenix, the younger Jean Grey confronted and accepted her apparent fate. What lessons, insights, and wisdom does Laura learn during her time with Logan? Nothing. It’s her who teaches him.

That’s not all. As the story opens with Logan overwhelmed by the Hand, Laura arrives and slaughters dozens of them with ease. Logan all but blatantly states that while he’s physically stronger than Laura, she’s the better fighter in every other respect. She has the best one-liners, never makes a mistake, and does the finishing move on the story’s main villain. I know the term “Mary Sue” gets causally thrown around a lot these days, but it definitely applies to Laura in this story.

I’m not calling for Logan being indestructible and flawless instead of Laura. I never liked the notion of Logan surviving virtually everything (including a direct nuclear explosion) because of his healing factor. What I am saying is that if writer Tom Taylor wants readers seeing Laura as a worthy successor to the mantle of Wolverine, having her seem perfect without any discernible flaws does her no favors. If anything, it makes readers more likely to resent her than embrace her.

Credit: Ramon Rosanas and Nolan Woodard (Marvel Comics); from Generations: The Best (All-New Wolverine and Wolverine) #1

Ramon Rosanas’s art doesn’t do the issue many favors either. On a technical level, it looks fine. His figures appear anatomically and proportionally correct regardless of the angle. He’s competent when it comes to using light and shadow. Even facial expressions have a simple, convincing realism. However, his illustrations look completely lifeless.

Most of the action is rigid to the point where characters seem incapable of bending their knees. Many of the panels also have far too much wasted or empty space. In many instances, Rosanas draws the perspective too far away from where it ideally should be. With few exceptions, such as the moment Logan leaps out of a plane, claws retracted, there’s almost nothing which really draws the reader in. This is one of those rare instances where, instead of having too much happen on panel, there’s too little.

I do think Generations: The Best #1 has the ingredients of being a great Wolverine done-in-one. If the quality of the last four pages applied to the rest of the comic, it very well could’ve been. Except this comic, in its current form, is just not that story. It’s neither good nor bad, just an expendable story for those who miss the ‘ol Canucklehead. Definitely could’ve used a better, more accurate title than “The Best.”

Stillanerd’s Score: 3 out 5

Next: Stillanerd Reviews: Generations: The Phoenix (Jean Grey and Phoenix) #1 review

Stillanerd’s Nerdy Nitpicks (possible spoilers)

Credit: Ramon Rosanas and Nolan Woodard (Marvel Comics); from Generations: The Best (All-New Wolverine and Wolverine) #1

  • Okay, Logan are Mariko are engaged during the time this story takes place. He became Akiko’s foster dad after Uncanny X-Men #181, and the text suggests this is a recent development. If that’s so, why is Wolverine wearing his blue and yellow outfit? He should be wearing his brown and yellow one instead.
  • Hey, don’t fault your dad for shielding you, Laura. Yes, I know you have a healing factor, what with you being his clone. Only your skeleton isn’t laced with adamantium like your father’s. Besides, I see you’re also shielding your head from the blast, too.
  • Even if Logan’s nose was half-burnt away (which the art doesn’t really show) wouldn’t he still be able to smell? The explosion would’ve damaged skin, muscle and cartilage, not the nasal cavity.
  • Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think Japanese airport security guards can carry firearms.
  • Since when did Wolverine’s enhanced smell allow him x-ray thermal night vision?
  • Also, nice of the Hand ninja to all conveniently stay and position themselves in the exact same spot for Logan and Laura to cut a “trap door” beneath them.
  • Considering Marvel’s sliding timescale, I would think Logan would know what Laura was talking about when mentioning “cell phones.”
  • Huh? So Logan, after looking for his foster daughter this entire story, just leaves her in a plane flown by an agent of the Hand to go fight Sabretooth. Father of the year, I tell you!
  • “I haven’t seen my mother’s eyes in a long time.” First, wouldn’t Laura have Logan’s eyes since she’s his clone? Second, Logan shouldn’t remember what his mom looked like, since he still has Weapon X induced amnesia during this time.
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