Wolverine Origins # 41 – 46, Dark Wolverine # 85, Wolverine
# 47, Dark Wolverine # 86, Wolverine Origins # 48 – 50
Wolverine needs to work out a plan to defeat Romulus. The problem is, Romulus knows Wolverine so
well that every move he makes, Romulus is already going to know. So Logan meets with “someone” who advises him
on a new plan. Logan goes to Banner to
recruit him, only to find that Banner can no longer turn in the Hulk. Luckily, Banner has his son Skarr, who is big
and Hulk-like. They initially reject Logan’s
proposal, but later reconsider it, as Banner is trying to the best he can by
his son, same as Logan. After securing
Skarr, Logan makes for Japan and teams up with Silver Samurai. The Silver Samurai trains Logan who to wield
the Muramasa Sword, then they find out that Dagger has been kidnapped by
Romulus. Wolverine and Cloak rescue her
and Logan kills Victor Hudson. Cloak
attacks Logan with the Darkforce Dimension, and it’s revealed the Logan fears
the future. Cloak, pushed by Dagger,
agrees top help him. Logan, Skarr, and
Cloak break into the Raft to rescue Ruby Thursday, to whom Logan reveals his
big plan to to gain her trust.
Unfortunately, the plan goes down the tubes and Ruby gets captured and
interrogated by Romulus. Logan and the
gang meet back up with her and eventually sent her back to the Raft, the plan
foiled completely. Logan goes the
Answer, who reveals that the plan was always to get Ruby out, because he loved
her. Logan then meets up with Deadpool,
who also provided Logan with a plan (I think.
This was really confusing).
After making a confession to Kurt about Mariko’s death,
Logan finds Daken, who is back to being a “bad-ass” now that the Dark Avengers
are no more. The two plot to take down
Romulus, which involves lots of false plans and fake-outs, but eventually leads
to Romulus confronting the pair in Ankara.
Skaar jumps in, and Daken decides to take out his father. Wolverine’s plan has been to expose Romulus –
a major blow, since his greatest asset has been to remain in the shadows. Eventually, the battle gets outta hand. Logan has to reel Skarr in, and both Romulus
and Daken escape together. They head to
a safehouse, or something, and Romulus talks about how the gods are losing
their power and how he was worshipped as a god as a cave man. Daken attacks him, but Cloak whisks Romulus
away. He is dumped in front of the
Howllett mansion, and Wolverine comes to a realization, spurned by the Silver
Samurai turning training. He realizes
that when he loses control, when he goes berserk, his balance is lost. Logan, instead of killing Romulus, banishes
him to the Darkforce Dimension. Logan at
last understands that revenge is no longer an option; that all these years of
obsessing about vengeance has led him nowhere and he seeks to stop his son from
going down the same path. He engages
Daken, and defeats him by not going for the kill. Logan then removes the parts of the Muramasa
Blade that were placed in Daken’s forearms.
He buries them, along with the
sword itself. He lets Daken live, now
that he is no longer able to kill his father.
Logan retreats into the woods to build a cabin and is
visited by Nick Fury. They talk for a
while, but the conditioning Logan was put through and, finding out it’s his
birth, Logan begins to hallucinate. He
pictures all the women in his life that have been killed and, in the process,
nearly kills Nick Fury. Luckily, Fury
has some of Logan’s heal factor or something on hand and uses it to heal
himself. Nick leaves and Logan is forced
to the face the future that he feared. A
future without revenge, without vengeance and hate. Logan let’s go of the past and moves
forward. That’s best at what he does. Hopefully.
The first part of this was really confusing. What was Logan’s plan? Who is Ruby and the Answer? How did Ruby factor into this? Why did Logan need Hulk and/or Skarr? Did he know that Romulus approached
Skarr? What was up with Deadpool having
a plan? All of this was really muddling
and confusing.
The second part was better.
Skarr felt unnecessary and the end of Romulus was anti-climatic.
(Logan. Buddy. I don’t care if you’ve given up revenge. Kill this guy. It’s okay.
There’s no one that doesn’t want you to.
I promise. It’s okay.)
What I did like was Logan’s disarming on Daken and then
letting him go. It’s about a “papa
spank” as Logan gets and it’s done well.
I think it’s too Daniel Way’s credit that Daken doesn’t have a “moment
of clarity” and decides that revenge isn’t worth it. If there’s one thing that we can from Daken,
it’s that. He is exactly what is. I like to think this sort of anti-revenge,
I’m-gonna-teach-you-a-lesson move serves an excellent transition as to what is
come, with “Schism” and “Wolverine and the X-Men” and whatnot.
As for Logan, well, I do like the turn of events where Logan
decides to give up REVENGE FOREVER. It make
sense, after all this.
But let’s not kid ourselves.
This isn’t very good.
You see, in preparation for this review, I read all of
“Wolverine Origins,” as well as the terrible “Evolution,” throughout the
week. I wouldn’t say its punishment,
because it’s not horrible. But it’s not
good.
To Daniel Way’s credit, I can say with some certainty that
he is a decent writer. He peels away the
layers to this story one issue at a time.
Up until “Family Business,” we are slowly shown how these patterns in
Logan’s life connect and how these people he’s interacted with all link
up. “Family Business” is where the book
goes from being about Logan discovering his past to Logan trying to actively
stop Romulus and save his son. For
Daken, it turns into revenge on Logan and taking Romulus’ empire for
himself. By that point, all of the cards
are on the table and everything is out and in the open. From there, Logan and Daken get proactive
about their agendas and it all ends like up above – with Romulus removed
anti-climatically, Daken being forced from being able to kill Logan, and with
Logan swearing off REVENGE FOREVER.
Honestly, therein lies the problem. Everything about the “Romulus manipulated
your life” plot has reeked of inconsistencies, an over-reliance of coincidence,
and an overall feeling of “WTF, really?!”
I hate that we have one character that has just made an appearance at
the start of the series serve as this grand orchestrator of Logan’s life. It’s silly.
It’s contrived. It just doesn’t
make sense.
(I actually ranted more about in some previous X-Periments and, btw, many of those questions remain
unanswered. Also, here are the other "Wolverine Origins" entries: Origins and Endings, Evolution, Original Sin, and Dark Reign).
Ultimately, in the most basic sense, this series failed to
be what it could have been. All of this
Romulus stuff could have been removed. I
like Daken. Really. I think the guy ended pretty well developed,
even though there are still lots of questions about there about it.
In place on this Romulus stuff, I would have rather have
seen issues with the Weapon X project and its relationship with the World Plus
Program resolved. I wanted to see the
Facility from X-23 explored. I wanted to
see more flashbacks, with more opportunities to explore Logan’s past . . .
without showing so much to remove all of the mystery of the character (which
this series did anyways). I wanted revelations and new mysteries. I wanted redemption and revenge. I wanted Logan to have to deal with all these
aspects of his life – X-Man, Avenger, and working solo – and how they fit into
his rediscovered past.
But no. We got a
weird, convoluted, over-the-top story that doesn’t give us much satisfaction in
the end. I don’t really blame Daniel
Way – or even Jeph Loeb. I liked that Wolverine
gave up REVENGE FOREVER and that we now have punk-ass Wolverine Jr. And that’s pretty much it.
OH! “Our War” is
still great.
