Hey, everyone… Welcome once again to the weekly (or more) review of your friendly Wolverine issues. This is a special bonus review of Saturday’s FCBD Wolverine title. So settle in and enjoy this exclusive bonus content!

FCBD Wolverine Origin of an X-Man
(preview | thread)
Writer: Fred Van Lente
Art: Gurihiru

SPOILERS BELOW…

The issue opens with James Hudson trying to convince the Canadian military to send an untried Wolverine on a mission to a small town after a military team disappeared. No one is quite sure what happened to the town and everything including aliens is being considered. Eventually he is successful and Wolverine is sent to Harbordale to find out what happened to the place. He ignores most of the briefing instead reading about memories and researching his own issues. Once he arrives and finds the town covered in metal, he is all business.

First believing that this is an alien invasion, Wolverine engages some small robots and defeats them. When they call for help, Wolverine allows himself to be captured in order to study the town better. It seems like the entire place is coated in metal and being built to show average human scenes. There are energy lines fueling the robots. Escaping, Wolverine destroys some of the lines to buy himself time.

When he runs into robot that looks like a seahorse, he is able to figure out what is happening. Following the smallest line he traces it back to the source where he finds the original team has been converted as well. Disabling them he finds a sleeping mutant. Waking the man, Wolverine discovers he is Madison Jeffries whose power is to restructure of inorganic materials.

He was using the town to help him recover from post-traumatic stress. The seahorse in Greek is hippocampus the part of the brain that regulates memory. The whole town was being remodeled to Madison’s past. Waking him freed all the people and Wolverine was able to take him to get help from James Hudson. The issue ends with Wolverine beginning his iconic fight with the Hulk and Wendigo.

MY TAKE:  This was obviously an all ages title which is not necessarily bad but tends to hurt the story. You know no one is going to be hurt and everything will work out fine, which is always something of a stretch when you are focusing on Wolverine. That being said the issue was better then I was expecting. The story was a nice little adventure and helps to establish Wolverine and Alpha Flight to new readers and can even potentially fit into continuity.

The plot was simplistic but not irritatingly so. It follows a simple mystery and search and rescue story but it has some nice scenes. I particularly enjoyed the opening where we see James Hudson trying to explain all about Wolverine to a bunch of generals. I felt their disbelief was amusing and realistic considering how secret Wolverine’s life was. I would not expect anyone to suddenly start trusting him with their safety.

There was not a lot of action as expected but it is always nice to see Wolverine using his brains rather then just his claws to solve a problem. Tying it into Wolverine’s own lost memories was interesting as well. Of course it had to include a little bit of learning for the young readers but it did not feel too tacked on. It was nice to see them use an established character in the mystery as well rather then just throw in some random or new mutant to have taken over the town.

The art was cartoony and clunky feeling, but no worse then any of the other all ages titles I have seen. All in all, this succeeded with what it was trying to do, be a good story for young people and give an interesting if basic story for the fans.

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 tomorrow for the weekly review!

Hey, everyone… Welcome once again to the weekly (or more) review of your friendly Wolverine issues. This week we have one of the by far weirdest comics I have had the pleasure to read in a long time. Without further “adieu”:

Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk #5
(preview | thread)
Writer: Damon Lindelof
Penciler: Leinil Francis Yu

SPOILERS BELOW…

Part One: In Which Logan Pisses Off a Panda – Logan gets to spend some quality time with his spirit guide while in between life and death. Unfortunately for both of them it is a Panda that does not like to be called cute. During the inevitable brawl, the Panda gives Logan some good advice. Do not mention anything about She-Hulk from last issue or anything Logan might have heard during the fight.

Part Two: In Which Logan Loses his Head – We find out why Logan was hallucinating. He is a prisoner of Nick Fury in Triskelion and he is only a severed head. He is managing to breathe through his skin and even survived a total vacuum. How he manages to talk is anyone’s guess. But he does get interrogated by Nick Fury about what happened during the Hulk/She-Hulk fight. This apparently ended when Fury nuked the whole area. Logan sticks to his Panda’s advice and does not reveal any details right up until Fury shoots him in the head.

Part Three: In Which We Once Again Flash Back in Time to Explain Things – We see the fight from Logan’s perspective as he’s putting his body back together. Hulk and She-Hulk either fight or have sex or both. He reveals some details including She-Hulks profession of Love just before the Hulk smashes the nuclear missile.

Part Four: In Which Logan Makes a Valuable Ally in His Toilet Bowl – Logan, once again a whole person, is shackled in the prison of the Triskelion which is a room with no doors. He’s not in there long before the mutant inventor Forge shows up in his toliet trying to escape. Forge has invented a tuning fork which allowed him to phase and was using the plumbing to flee. With a little motivation he takes Wolverine along for the ride. Returning to Forge’s base, he makes Wolverine two unbreakable collars, one for a male and the other for a female. Then Wolverine reveals the final piece of information, where the Hulk was going.

Part Five: In Which Logan Ignores the Panda’s Advice and Thusly Screws Himself Good at the End of the Issue – We see, from Fury’s point of view, Wolverine telling Forge that he is going to Casablanca. Which sets up the conflict for next issue with Wolverine, Fury, Hulk and She-Hulk all descending on the unsuspecting town.

MY TAKE:  This issue was quite simply insane, but entertainingly so. It did not make a whole lot of sense but I certainly found myself smiling quite a bit while reading it. To say that it strained credibility even for comic book would be an understatement of gigantic proportions. In the issue we saw Wolverine survive a nuclear blast at ground zero, become a literal talking head and be saved by a mutant from the commode. But of course all of this pales to comparison of Wolverine having a Panda for a Spirit Animal.

On a more practical note, I am glad that this series has finally moved forward. While all of the back story and set up has been entertaining, I have been waiting for Wolverine to be put back together since issue 1. The series is called Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk and so far we have seen very little fighting between the two. There has been plenty of discussions, the introduction of a new character or two and a lot of reasons to want to beat up Nick Fury, but not much slashing and bashing.

To that end I could have done without a lot of the weirder aspects of this story in favor of getting to the actual conflict. But it was hard not to be amused by the story that was put together. While I do hope next issue is a bit more action oriented, I almost do not care any more about the fighting. After this issue I have no clue how it is going to end next month but I will certainly be there to read it.

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 week if not before.

Hey, everyone…Two reviews in two days. I feel all popular or something. I’m guessing this is going to be a semi-regular gig so I hope everyone is enjoying the extra reviews.

Fantastic Force #1
(preview | thread)
Writer: Joe Ahearne
Penciler: Steve Kurth
Inker: Serge Lapointe

SPOILERS BELOW…

QUICK BACKGROUND: 500 years in the future the world is ending. The last seven heroes travel back in time in attempt to save the last 8 billion survivors. Their leader, Sue Storm, infiltrates the Baxter Building as a nanny to steal parts for their time machine while team member Psionics gets really close to Johnny Storm. In the end, with the help of one of the scientists, Alyssa Moy, the team manage to save the surviving humans and transport them to an artificial world called Nu-World. But their leader, Sue Storm, dies during the mission.

TEAM MEMBERS: Hooded Man (Logan) – I assume everyone knows him. Robert Banner Jr. (descendant of the Hulk and Logan’s stepson) – super strong but prefers to use his brain. Lightwave – alien with light powers and father of…  Psionics –  alien and telekinetic. Natalie X – Most powerful telepath in the world. Alex Ultron – Robot descended from Ultron.

RECAP: The story opens with the team arriving on Nu-World and saying goodbye to the Fantastic Four. As soon as they leave, the portal back to Earth is destroyed by Ted Castle. He is the the owner of the planet and attempting to evict the survivors. He is also Alyssa’s ex-husband but he is not willing to listen to reason. He attacks the group with a variety of robots. While the team is fighting the robots, Natalie X reads the plan from Ted’s mind although doing so causes a backlash that knocks her out.  He apparently has help from a very powerful telepath. The true plan is to disconnect the planets heating at the core and freeze out the refugees. But Banner with Alyssa’s help self-destruct the backup portal and trap Ted on the planet causing him to abort his plan.

The group then gathers to rename themselves and pick a new leader. After a message from Sue Storm, they decide on Fantastic Force as their name and pick Lightwave as the leader. The meeting is interrupted by Banner’s mother in Harpy form.

MY TAKE:  I enjoyed this issue more then I had expected to. There was definitely confusion on what was going on to start with but the story quickly sucked me in. It started with a big fight which I felt showcased each characters’ personality although I confess to some initial confusion on the which character were really which when they started using real names. The tactics showcased went from Logan’s violence to Banner’s planning. And it was nice to see intelligence work over brute force in the end. It is rare in comics where thinking trumps smashing things.

Even though these are all pretty much new characters, their personalities and relationships seemed to come through despite or perhaps because of the quick conflict they are exposed to. The plot is simplistic but is moves fast and it becomes a page turner. It’s not great fiction but considering it is a a short limited series it works for quick plot development.

I think it would have been a better read if I had been able to read the initial run in FF but I was entertained anyway. They struck a good balance between recapping the issue and moving the plot forward. If the hints that they dropped in this issue pan out I believe we will be in for a good run of the series. It seems like Marvel reduced the number of issues for this series from five to four. I think this was a bad move because this could be the start of a new and exciting super team for Marvel.

This is my second review for Wolverine Files this week, so  please feel free to give me any feedback. I expect I will be doing one or more reveiws each week so I would like to know if this format and style is working for the readers.

Hey, everyone…Welcome to my second review. The first one went over pretty well so I hope everyone enjoys this one too.

Astonishing X-Men #29
(preview | thread)
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Simone Bianchi

SPOILERS BELOW…

OVERALL GHOST BOX RECAP: Emma, Scott, Logan, Ororo, Hank and Hisako (Armor) get called in on a murder by the SFPD. The victim happens to be an obvious powered individual and after a brief investigation, Hank discovers he is an artificial mutant. The team tracks his killer to a space ship graveyard on Chaparanga Beach. The X-Men, minus Hank, manage to find the killer and and stop him before he activates a device and escapes. He kills himself rather then be caught. Hanks analyzes his blood and discovers he is a different type of artificial mutant. They call in agent Brand of S.W.O.R.D and she identifies the item as a Ghost Box capable of traveling to alternate universes. The trail leads the team to a hidden area in China called Tian. Arrviving there, they discover a hidden mutant stronghold wiped out by M-Day. The team splits up and finds three living mutants who are defeated. They all identify one enemy: Forge.

RECAP: The three mutants are further questioned seperately and reveal that Forge was creating one of the artificial mutant types to defend against an invasion from an alternate world. In this world the mutant population recovered after the first mutant birth happened. Two of the mutants die in the questioning and the third is taken to Forge’s base which is on Wundagore Mountain. The X-Men are allowed to dock and go in to meet with Forge directly.

MOMENT OF NOTE: Wolverine informs Cyclops that his prisoner died during interrogation. Scott’s response “…Right but he talked?” This is definitely not your momma’s Scott Summers.

MY TAKE:  This issue suffers from the same problems I have had with the series since Ellis took over. The ideas are creative and original but the execution has been a little off. The characters all feel like stereotypes or two dimensional versions of themselves. Emma is a rich snob. Scott is a good man doing a bad job. Hank is a scientist. Storm is regal and proud. Wolverine is a savage killer. Hisako is a kid. But those are just parts of who they are and I do not feel that Ellis has a firm grasp of the nuances yet. That said much of his dialogue is good if a bit too realistic for the comic hero world. We do not need to know the details of Hank and Brand’s personal life for example.

The plot is interesting but so far has been very slow. It feels like we are getting only half an issue each time. There are not many panels and a lot of splash pages in the book. What’s worse is there is a fair amount of minutia that doesn’t really further the story. Some items are covered multiple times from different angles and others should simply be skipped.

Now this might sound negative but that is not the case. I do like the story and I am enjoying the journey Ellis is crafting. His characters interact in a realistic way and I feel he is slowly getting a better handle on them. The idea of artificial mutants is one that have been done before but never quite like this and invasion stories are almost always fun. I just wish the pace of the story would speed up since we are only getting issues every two months. It becomes harder to stay invested in the overall arc. Perhaps this is something that will work better in the trade.

Bringing in Forge promises some interesting new dynamics especially with the now married Storm in the group and Wundagore is almost a character in and of itself. With the quality of the  ideas and story that is being told I expect this series will only get better with time.

This is my second review for Wolverine Files, so,  please feel free to give me any feedback. I expect I will be keeping this same format for the reviews since it works well. Once again thanks for reading and hopefully I will talk to everyone again next week.

Hey, everyone…I am still pretty new here and I want to thank DiG for giving me the opportunity to review the issue. I hope people will enjoy it or at least find it helpful.

X-Men Legacy#223
(preview | thread)
Writer: Mike Carey
Penciler: Scot Eaton
Inker: Andrew Hennessy

Note: Wolverine did NOT appear in this issue…

SPOILERS BELOW…

RECAP: The issue has two separate plot lines. The first is Rogue continuing her journey of self-discovery deep in the confines of Danger’s virtual reality. She confronts her past shown by the monstrous form of Ms. Marvel as shown from Rogue’s time in the Savage Land. It was the same Ms. Marvel that Rogue defeated once to expunge Carol from her mind. In this case Ms. Marvel becomes Mystique and is defeated when Rogue lets her own version of Mystique loose. But the real test is Magneto from his days in the Savage Land. He is both a temptation and a source of innate wisdom. In the end it is Magneto that benefits Rogue by setting her on the correct path.

The other story is Xavier, Gambit and the Shi’ar facing Danger’s true self. Xavier is able to use a telepathic back door to confront the program directly. After a conversation between the two where Xavier explains his actions to the A.I. he is eventually able to over ride her sentience and return her to an obedient program. Ending the simulation, Xavier attempts to completely destroy her only to be attacked and disabled by the Shi’ar pirates. Gambit is able to defeat all of them except for their powerhouse, the drug deprived Horse. The alien is about the crush Gambit when their fight is ended by the sudden and ominous return of Rogue.

MY TAKE: The issue had its pros and cons definitely. The overall arc of Xavier confronting the mistakes of his past has been interesting but hit or miss in execution. While it is good that he is finally admitting his flaws and judgment lapses, the pure number and magnitude of those errors has made it harder to sympathize with him. In this case, however, you can certainly see Xavier’s reasoning and it is hard to argue with the choices he was forced to make.

Rogue seems to finally be on her way towards a significant change in her status quo as well. For far too many years she has been tearing herself up over the past and her powers. No one has bothered to really explore her past and give her the option of moving past it. She is finally shedding many of the layers of despair and darkness. I believe she is a better character without all the doom and gloom. Hopefully this is the start of a happier and more self-confident Rogue.

The problems I had were mostly inconsistencies with the plot. The biggest plot hole was the fact that Xavier had a telepathic back door into Danger’s programming but had simply never bothered to use it. In defies reasoning that while Danger was attempting to kill both him and the X-Men, he would not simply use his access to her main programming and shut her down. The simple fact that the entry point existed and he had never even bothered to try to use it was a glaring error.

Secondly the Shi’ar themselves do not really serve any purpose and are filled with their own issues. Their betrayal at the end is very obvious and does nothing for the plot except to setup up a conflict for Rogue’s return. Although it is a minor point, if there was a dangerous psychotic on my team controlled only by drugs, I would make sure everyone in the group had a ready supply. Therefore the fact that no one could give Horse his ‘happy pills’ grated on me personally.

In the end, however, I felt this was a decent issue and the story arc is one of the better ones of Xavier’s journey. There seems to be some good character advancements and hopefully Rogue’s personality will be changed for the better. The ending left me wanting to read next issue and ultimately that is the measure of any comic book.

This is my first review for Wolverine Files, so,  please let me know what you think. I have followed the format graciously set up by Brian. Please feel free to post any feedback you have about the review or the issue itself and thanks for reading.