It’s always amusing to me when a comic series comes to its grand finale mainly because it really doesn’t mean anything. To prepare for the coming Wolverine #1 re-launch, Marvel is streamlining their multiple books on Logan aka Wolverine starting with Wolverine Origins #50. If you’ve been following the series, Wolverine has killed Romulus, the guy who has controlled him from day one, by tossing him into the Dark Dimension. Then Nick Fury (real Nick Fury, not Sam Jackson Nick Fury) pays Wolverine a visit but the Weapon X programming goes nuts and he claws Nick Fury by accident.
Issue #50 opens with Wolverine realizing what he’s done and then going on a long soul searching journey while Nick Fury uses a synthetic compound of Wolverine’s blood to heal up. Lucky he had that on him huh?
The issue is fraught with all kinds of life lessons for Wolverine and all the cliché bells and whistles you expect for a series finale, including the ghosts of the women he’s loved and lost who try to get him to let them go. It’s all very deep and mellow dramatic and concludes with Wolverine saying how his future is up to him now and he doesn’t know what it’ll bring.
I know what it'll bring; it’ll bring violence, death and lots of snikt snikt. Let’s be honest here, Wolverine isn’t going to suddenly change and take up basket weaving. He’ll still have berserker rage, he’ll still be wisecracking and still at the center of most Marvel throw downs. There’s nothing wrong with that, in fact that’s why we love him, so why this dribbling mess of emotions to end a series about a guy who keeps his emotions in check?
I was particularly amused by the “crazy” side of Wolverine that confronts normal Wolverine as a metaphor for what he has to defeat before he can move on. Not only is that silly but the way he defeats his “bad side” is hysterically stupid.
The story being so forced and melodramatic is a real waste of what could have been an awesome issue. Why not have Wolverine take on a bad guy or have him duke it out with ninjas or his son or have him learn how to tap dance, anything but this typical “it’s all gonna change now” crap that Marvel loves to sling. Just let the series end, let it go and move on with it. Don’t try to make it a big deal or life changing, because truth be told none of our favorite superheroes lives are really going to change that drastically.
Art wise Will Conrad does some cool work here but nothing particularly amazing. It’s better than hack artist Steve Dillon (who controlled the art for the first twenty five issues), but that isn’t saying much. Even if the story isn’t anything wonderful at least the art could have been but no, the entire thing is humdrum.
The last issue of Wolverine Origins goes out with more of a sigh then a snikt.
