Hey, everyone, jrpbsp here…Here for the second review of the week we have ‘Wolverine: Origins’. Hope you enjoy it.

Wolverine Origins #38 (preview | thread)
Writer: Daniel Way
Penciler: Scot Eaton
Inkers: Andrew Hennessy

SPOILERS BELOW…

RECAP: The issue opens with two Russian agents at the airport taking a prisoner into custody. Neither the men nor the prisoner is identified but the Russians obviously have power and connections.

We then get to Wolverine and Omega Red fighting. Wolverine is unprepared for the battle and it quickly goes against him as Red strikes Logan’s eyes and blinds him.

We jump back again and see the two agents dead and whomever they are transporting has obviously escaped. We later see that he left the train he was on and entered into a cave or mine near the tracks.

Returning to the fight, Wolverine has to start using tactics. He manages to get a bit of his vision back and fakes Omega Red in order to get his hands on the Carbonadium Synthesizer. He uses it to goad Omega Red into a foolish attack that Wolverine uses against him. That buys himself enough time to get some distance between them.

Red recovers quickly and follows but Wolverine finds some chains to even the odds a bit. After a couple of minutes Omega Red realizes Logan does not have the C-Synth anymore and goes to look for it. He falls into Wolverine’s trap and is impaled by a set of prison bars. Wolverine does not finish the fight though, instead opting to save his remaining strength and continue the pursuit of Romulus.

Logan falls in the snow outside and we see who the escaped prisoner on the train was, Wild Child.

MY TAKE: This issue is decent but a long ways from great. The story is simple and pretty good but the execution has some problems and there were enough plot holes to take me out of the flow. I know there are plenty of people that love this series but I still find it difficult to really relate to the stories we are given.

Most of the issue is one big fight scene between Omega Red and Wolverine. The fight itself is fine although some of the details annoyed me. Still it was nice to see Logan planning ahead, using his environment and his brain to win rather then just his claws.

Still a couple of things bothered me while reading it. The biggest of which is just how fast Wolverine’s strength fades in the fight. He has been shown to fight Omega Red for hours before with his Healing Factor countering Red’s Death Spores. But here he is weak in minutes and it did not ring true.

Secondly, the fact that Omega Red was able to blind Wolverine in both eyes with one shot by a tentacle. People’s eyes are set back into their skulls to protect their eyes to start with so one a whip across them should do nothing. The end could, in theory, catch one eye but not both.

The rest of the issue was mostly setup for the story arc giving Wolverine someone else to fight and offering a few sparse character moments. It is nice to see Logan so driven and focused but I wish he would stop making so many careless mistakes in his quest. He is supposed to be pursuing an evil mastermind that controlled his whole life so I would have expected Wolverine to play it smart and sneaky rather then rushing around blundering into traps.

Overall my biggest complaint, however was the tale of Wildchild’s journey. Not that the story was bad or illogical, although I do hope they explain how he got on so many wanted lists. No, it was simply that I had no idea that was what was really happening until the end. I thought it was flashbacks about Omega Red since that is what the issue was about but obviously the timing and the situation was wrong. But the story was so similar until the escape that I assumed it was the same tale.

Still, although the issue is flawed, it is one of the better ones from Origins. In fact this whole arc has been a vast improvement over the one before. Still it needs a lot of work to tighten up the plot and the story and more research into continuity to get beyond average.

Thanks for reading my review for Wolverine Files. I will be keeping to this format for the most part but please keep the comments coming and I will see everyone again next time.