I’ve been contemplating some Wolverine Files website changes for a few months now, and today is as good a time as any to roll them out.

So without further ado…

1. Instead of trying to review every issue that relates to Wolverine every week, we will focus our energies on ONE key Wolverine appearance each week. Last week it was ‘Wolverine Origins’ #44. This upcoming week it will be ‘Wolverine: Weapon X’ #10. I hope this will encourage readers to interact more with jrpbsp and his reviews on a regular basis, because he truly does a herculean job for the site…
2. To pick up the slack,  I will be adding Open Threads for every significant Wolverine appearance on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The goal is for readers to add their initial thoughts and comments on each appearance as soon as you’ve read the comic. Even if it’s a cursory thought on the artwork or characterization, I urge you to take part and make this website more interactive…
3. On Fridays, I will encapsulate all of the minor Wolverine appearances in a catch-all Open Thread called, ‘The Rest of the Rest’ intended for light-hearted commenting, and of course, chronicling any other Wolverine appearances I might have missed that week…
4. Wolverine News & Previews will remain the same, shooting for a Monday publish date, as this weekly feature seems to garner the most interest on regular basis…

If all goes according to plan, this will allow me to focus more time on the Wolverine Chronology itself, add a few new weekly features, like Wolverine Appearances by year. And who knows, I might even be able to get my web comic launched and my great American novel finished.

As always, let me know what you think. It gets awful quiet here when you don’t add your two cents in the comments below!

DiG…

As previously mentioned, I plan to announce some nifty changes to the weekly Wolverine Files experience later tonight, but before that unveiling, let’s get to jrpbsp and his surprisingly positive review of ‘Wolverine Origins’ #44 (details)…

Wolverine has two other major appearances this week with ‘Wolverine: Wendigo!’ #23 (preview), reprinting Frank Tieri’s “Wolverine: Wendigo!” and “Wolverine vs. Thor’ from Marvel Digital Comics, and ‘X-Force’ #23 (preview), a confusing but satisfying continuation of the “X-Necrosha” storyline…

As for minor appearances, ‘Captain America: Reborn’ #6 (preview) features a Wolverine cover only cameo…

Finally, in non-continuity appearances, Wolverine has a humorous role in ‘Marvel Adventures Spider-Man’ #59 (preview), a separate continuity from all previous Marvel Adventure appearances, and a painful appearance in ‘X-Babies’ #4 (preview), thankfully the final issue in the miniseries…

Hey, everyone, jrpbsp here… Not sure how many reviews I can get through for the week so I wanted to start with ‘Wolverine: Origins’. Hope you enjoy it.

Wolverine Origins #44 (preview)
Writer: Daniel Way
Pencils: Doug Braithwaite
Inks: Bill Reinhold with Gary Erskine

SPOILERS BELOW…

RECAP: The issue opens with Wolverine cutting the lock to Ruby’s cell and triggering the alarm. He explains that she is the key to his plans and gets her to agree to leave with him. They let the female guard go even though the armed response units would be there in twenty seconds.

In the security office, they see that they have trapped Wolverine in the prison and the power dampeners are on. Before he can panic, the warden is called by Romulus who offers to help with Wolverine assuming that the warden tells him who Logan is there to free.

Meanwhile Wolverine explains his plan. They sit tight until the heavy hitter from H.A.M.M.E.R. shows up and the guards have to ease up the power dampeners. Then Cloak can get them out. Several guards show up at the door where Logan is held but they get a call from Romulus before they can act. Wolverine cuts through the door but the guards are already down except for one that is removing his uniform.

The warden orders a sector by sector search for Logan but they do not find him since they are dressed as guards. The  heavy hitter shows up, it is Skaar, the Hulk’s son who was actually sent by Banner. The warden orders the dampeners to be lowered as soon as Skaar makes direct contact. Skaar makes contact quickly, but is there at Wolverine’s request. Before he can call it in though the real solution arrives in the form of Ares.

Cloak is injured as Skaar and Ares batter each other. He still manages to teleport Ruby outside but is too weak continue. Ruby then goes off to find her own action. Logan tries to stop the fight but gets batted away by Ares. Instead of fighting, he manages to get Skaar to flee before the rest of the Avengers arrive. He grabs Wolverine and jumps out, smashing a H.A.M.M.E.R. jet in the process. They arrive to where Cloak is waiting and Logan helps him up. Wolverine asks about Ruby and we see that Romulus has taken her out.

MY TAKE: This is a another pretty good issue that does a decent job at advancing the story despite there being very little plot. Wolverine adds another member to his team, although they are trying to make it seem like she is not going to be any help. I did like the guests in the issue though, with Skaar adding some good action and amusing scenes. While I am not a major fan of Wolverine building a group like this, so far it is working better then expected.

I was glad to see Logan using his brain here, as well. Although I am still not a fan of his general lack of fighting skills in the series, it is nice to see him come up with a plan that does not rely on brute strength. It was good to see his reputation being respected too, often we see Wolverine merely getting brushed off by other characters.

Wolverine feels more natural here, with less thought balloons and a more flowing dialogue. He seems focused and confident and completely in charge of the situation which is a welcome change from the rather tentative way he has been portrayed. He even is able to keep Skaar focused and in control by pushing the right buttons.

I am still not a fan of Romulus however, and this issue gives me nothing new to enjoy. On the one hand we are given a master manipulator that has control and influence over everyone including a bunch of guards at a super-human detention center and even their warden. And then, at the end, he insists on going to the area personally to take out Wolverine’s secret weapon without knowing Wolverine’s plan or purpose. It is almost like Way is still not sure exactly what he wants Romulus to be and so the villain changes depending on the situation. I would prefer some more consistency and a bit more personality.

In the end, this was a much better then normal issue but still far from perfect. Not much really happens here story-wise, it is just another recruit acquisition and then escape. The whole thing is starting to feel overdone. I also wonder about the ending, considering that Ruby has a computer for a brain, getting clawed is not going to affect her much. If Romulus was so well connected he should have figured that out. This arc has definitely been a step up for the series but is starting to drag on a bit. Hopefully with Romulus making his appearance we can move on to the end of the storyline.

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.

ComicBookResources.com interviews Jason Aaron about ‘Wolverine: Weapon X’, among other things (details)…

And IGN.com interviews Daniel Way and Marjorie Liu , revealing the future of ‘Dark Wolverine’ (details)…

As for probable/possible Wolverine appearances this week (1/27/09), we have previews of…

–Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #59 (preview): Yet another Marvel Adventures continuity…
–Wolverine: Origins #44 (preview): Wolverine rescues Ruby Thursday this Wednesday…
–Wolverine: Wendigo (preview): Digital Exclusive finally sees print…
–X-Babies #4 (preview): Danger, Will Robinson, Danger…
–X-Force #23 (preview): X-Necrosha continues (part 4 of 6)…

This upcoming weekend I hope to unveil some nifty changes to the weekly Wolverine Files experience, but in the meantime, let’s get to jrpbsp and his review of the ‘Insane in the Brain’ story finale in ‘Wolverine: Weapon X’ #9 (details).

Wolverine’s other major appearance comes in ‘Uncanny X-Men’ #520 (preview) as Wolverine hunts down the last Predator X in the sewers of New York City…

As for Wolverine’s minor appearances, ‘Dark Avengers’ #15 (preview) features a brief one-panel Wolverine flashback cameo…

…and surprisingly, Wolverine only graces the cover in Incredible Hercules #140 (preview)…

Hey, everyone, jrpbsp here… I will be trying to do two reviews this week but starting with the major title ‘Wolverine: Weapon X’. Hope you enjoy it.

Wolverine: Weapon X #9 (preview)
Writer: Jason Aaron
Art: Yannick Paquette

SPOILERS BELOW…

RECAP: The issue opens with Wolverine showing up at Melita’s doorway, in the middle of the night, covered in blood. He falls into her arms obviously devastated. A day before, we see Melita talking to Nightcrawler and Psylocke and giving them information on Wolverine’s status and whereabouts. Betsy wonders what their connection is and why Logan would have reached out to Melita rather then the X-Men.

Kurt teleports them to Dunwich, right into the room with the brain machine. Nightcrawler wants to destroy it but Psylocke warns that could render  everyone within nine miles completely insane. She is going to need to defuse it carefully.

Meanwhile the inmates are slaughtering the mafia goons that showed up at the asylum. Logan is still under the effects of the machine and does not know what to do but as Betsy takes it apart, he remembers who he wants to kill. He hunts down Dr. Rot and guts him. Rot’s nurse attacks but the drug she uses does not do much.

Rot attempts to strangle Logan with his own intestines but gets knocked away. Rot then stabs Wolverine in both eyes with hypodermic needles  and the nurse hits him with a fire extinguisher. Logan cuts through it and frees his eyes but Dr. Rot has already bandaged himself and has a giant nut cracker which he uses to remove the brain from one of the surviving patients’ heads.

Logan pursues but Rottwell has enough time to rig up an insanity bomb with the brain and triggers it. Psylocke and Kurt recover after thirty seconds and decide not to talk about whatever they may have done while out of their heads.

We return to Logan at Melita’s and see her sleeping while Logan tries to compose himself. Dr. Rot and the nurse are in an R.V. where she is attempting to stitch together his belly. While she works, Rot calls Logan and speaks a trigger word that makes Logan go blank. Forty-five minutes later, Melita wakes up and finds Wolverine with blood on his hands. He remembers nothing but outside there is a man with his head sliced open and the brain missing.

MY TAKE: This is a decent conclusion for the Dunwich arc although I did have some issues with it. I was glad to see Nightcrawler and Psylocke coming to aid their friend although they are pretty underused. Betsy does take down the brain machine but I would have liked to see Kurt do a bit more with stopping the killing that was going on in the asylum.

The issue had some really good action and some very interesting and unique situations. The brain nut cracker was a great visual in particular. I am not sure about having Wolverine being so easy to control with a trigger phrase but it does have some intriguing potential for the future. We have seen Logan being used as a weapon before but never by such a complete lunatic. I have to wonder why the doctor bothered to fight him though, rather then just freeze him in place.

It does a good job at wrapping up the story and giving us a satisfying conclusion to the plot. The bad guy escapes to plague Logan again, with the pretty interesting nurse at his side, and the Dunwich sanatorium is gone. It gives a pretty reasonable explanation to Wolverine and Melita’s relationship moving to the next level and advances the characterization of Melita in general.

I was not a fan of Rot’s portrayal here however. I do think he has potential and it would have been a waste to kill him off, however you do not have your guts pulled out and survive. While it is certainly possible he is more then human, if he could heal there would be no need to be stitched up later. He also seemed to have some sort of unusual speed considering that he builds a brain bomb in a few seconds and escapes the huge building in thirty with his intestines around his knees. It was unlikely enough to pull me out of the story.

My biggest complaint is once again Logan’s characterization. He has been through so much worse then this incident and yet he does not even clean himself up before staggering to the door of a girl he has only known a few weeks? It does not make sense for him to break down at all let alone go to her for comfort. Especially considering how much of an effect it had on him afterward. He has been shown to be brainwashed into murdering friends with less after effects. Even more, I really wonder why Wolverine did not track Rot down considering the blood trail he had to be leaving.

In the end though it was a good read but it just had a lot of plot holes to me. I do not expect everything to be explained to me in an issue but I do like to have it be a bit more logical. I enjoy the idea of a Joker-esque villain for Logan but it is hard for any normal human to stand up to someone like Wolverine. When you have to make up explanations for things, it is a much less interesting story. Still it is nice to see something different for Wolverine and I am definitely looking forward to the next issue where the focus will be on Logan’s love life.

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.

MTV reports that the sequel to ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ looks to begin shooting in 2011, based on the classic ‘Wolverine’ mini series by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller (details)…

And Marvel.com interviews Daniel Way and Marjorie Liu on the ‘Dark Wolverine’-‘Wolverine: Origins’ crossover that is slated to conclude several storylines slated for later in the year (details)…

As for probable/possible Wolverine appearances this week (1/20/09), we have previews of…

–Dark Wolverine #82 (preview): Siege tie-in for Daken…
–Uncanny X-Men #520 (preview): Wolverine and Fantomax…
–Wolverine: Weapon X #9 (preview): ‘Insane in the Brain’ concludes…

Jrpbsp starts off Wolverine Week 2: 2010, with a rousing review of the penultimate issue of ‘Uncanny X-Men: First Class’ (details).

Make sure not to miss ‘Psylocke’ #3 (preview) as the mini series kicks into high gear with a fascinating Wolverine appearance that delves into his vendetta against Matsu’o Tsuraya over the death of Mariko…

…‘Nation X’ #2 (preview) features a brief one-page Wolverine cameo in the Gambit short story, ‘Cajun Justice!’…

…and Wolverine has an even briefer cameo in flashback form in X-Men Forever #15 (preview)…

…finally I should note that ‘Wolverine’ does appear in the kids comic Marvel Super Hero Squad #1 (preview)…

Hey, everyone, jrpbsp here… Only one review for the week again, this time ‘Uncanny X-Men: First Class’. Hope you enjoy it.

Uncanny X-Men: First Class #7 (preview)
Writer: Scott Gray
Art: Scott Koblish & Nelson DeCastro

SPOILERS BELOW…

RECAP: The issue opens with Xavier confronting the ‘girl’ at the heart of the Hykon citadel and demanding she stop the fight. The Knights are beating Phoenix but the ‘girl’ removes their weapons and ends the conflict for five cycles. Charles identifies her as the referee for the Knights war games. He tells Kurt to take the sword and teleport back to the X-Men and to trust in Moira.

Meanwhile, Jean awakes and is truly angry and Scott has to calm her down. He manages to break Phoenix’s rage and bring Jean back to herself. Moira studies the sword and tells the others that the reason the Knights are unbeatable is that they are phased slightly outside of reality. But that is only true in the X-Men’s universe.

The Professor confronts the ‘girl’ and learns that the Knights were once a race of champions until they ran out of people to fight. They hated peace so they turned on each other in contests and war that wiped the whole race out except for a few survivors. They live now only by following the rules of combat she designed.

Meanwhile, Moira has set up a device to create a localized field that will allow Kurt to teleport all the X-Men to the Hykon’s Citadel. Storm tells Jean about the Knights’ having caused the flare that transformed her into Phoenix before the X-Men and Lilandra teleport out.

Xavier finds out that the ‘girl’ is in fact the repository of Hykon’s history and culture. She does not understand the consequence of their games but Xavier promises to put an end to it. The X-Men arrive at the same time as the Knights and the battle is joined, but this time the Hykon’s are vulnerable. Storm summons a wind and scatters them while Jean attacks Sleeping Mist and puts her down hard.

Kurt follows Bone Dancer and the two fight while Wolverine and Colossus take down the massive Drowning Shadow. Storm downs the girl Sky Song and Xavier avenges himself on their leader who decapitated his Astral Form. Kurt finishes his opponent quickly and Scott blasts down the last of the Knights while ranting that they destroyed the woman he loved.

Lilandra confronts the Lifeforce and destroys it ending the Hykon’s purpose. Xavier decrees that instead of death, they be left alone in hated peace for eternity. The X-Men teleport back and Xavier rejoins his body. Everyone celebrates the victory except Jean and Scott who have not reconciled after his heated words. After a look, Phoenix flies off alone.

MY TAKE: This is a surprisingly good wrap up for the story line, with some well thought out explanations for the climax. I still have some problems with the scope and repercussions of the tale but overall I was satisfied with the way things ended. The explanation for the Knights defeat was especially logical and I am glad they came up with a realistic way to have the extremely powerful foe be defeated.

The characterizations for the most part felt pretty natural as well. Xavier was well done and got to have his moment in the spotlight and Wolverine finally was not treated as a humor character. Nightcrawler seemed a trifle timid at the start but he came back by the end and seemed to be acting normal. Jean was a little over the top but her tantrum was nothing new for the Phoenix persona.

The biggest issue was the way Scott was portrayed. We have never seen him reject Jean this way even when she was the Phoenix and certainly not to her face. I would have not minded so much if he simply apologized and tried to smooth things over but by the end the couple looks to be on the outs. This is another plot point that simply does not gel with the established continuity.

I am glad that we got some of the history and back story of the Knights of Hykon but I was a bit disappointed at how simplistic it seemed. While it was obvious that there were two distinct factions, making the whole thing a giant game did not seem to mesh with the initial part of the history. Heroes and champions do not destroy populated worlds for fun. Fighting on the sun is one thing, but it struck me as odd that they would have so little regard for life after they nearly wiped themselves out.

In the end, this was fitting and enjoyable end to the arc. I still think it was a trifle too ambitious of a story for a series that is set in the past but there was a definite attempt to explain why the villains never showed up again. I am a bit concerned with the altering of Scott and Jean’s relationship, but maybe that will be explained next issue. The series has been a bit hit or miss for me but if nothing else I am looking forward to seeing how everything will be wrapped up next month.

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.

New York Times has a fascinating profile on the man who “stole” ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ (details) and…

…two stories on Jason Aaron, the popular writer behind ‘Wolverine: Weapon X’ (Newsarama story | Marvel story)…

As for probable/possible Wolverine appearances this week (1/13/09), we have a preview of…

–Psylocke #3 (preview): Wolverine should guest-star…

Feel free to list any other titles Wolverine may have appeared in this week below…