Written by Jason Aaron
Illustrated by Billy Tan and Steve Sanders– “Back in Japan”, Part 2
– The new Silver Samurai faces Wolverine!
– The war between The Hand and the Yakuza threatens all of Tokyo
– One of Wolverine’s fiercest foes returns to make matters even worse!
In the first chapter of “Back in Japan”, Wolverine took no time to get involved in a conflict between the Hand and the Yakuza. As if that wasn’t enough, his old enemies Sabretooth and Mystique are back from the dead and itching to inflict a special kind of pain. Add to that the kidnapping of his adoptive daughter, and the involvement of her boyfriend, the NEW Silver Samurai, and all you’re missing is the kitchen sink… and maybe not even that if Silver Samurai Jr’s army is to be believed.
But is this week’s #301 a good outrageous or a bad outrageous? Find out after the jump.
He’s the best there is at what he does. He’s an X-man, an Avenger, a teacher, a samurai, a Canadian secret agent, and the world’s best drinking buddy. He is Wolverine, and under the pen of writer Jason Aaron, his ongoing adventures hit something of a milestone in January with Wolverine #300. And it appears that with the end to his run on the title in sight, Aaron wants to go out with a bang. He’s taken Wolverine back to one of the character’s most popular locales — Japan — for one of the wildest yarns in the ol’ Canucklehead’s storied history. And I have to admit, as a longtime Wolverine fan, I was pretty excited about “Back to Japan” when I first heard about it. But I’m afraid it’s a story that worked better in theory than it has in execution.
Aaron’s time on Wolverine has been pretty spectacular. Heck, aside from having been plagued by a revolving door of artists, I would almost put Aaron’s take on Wolverine as one of my favorites for the character. Which is why it’s hard for me to say this, but Back in Japan almost has too much going on, and feels like it could crumble under its own weight at any moment.
There are at least two different characters running around from Wolverine’s past who get very little in the way of introduction, the Hand, the Yakuza, Sabretooth and Mystique, who are both inexplicably back from the dead, and finally, the all-new Silver Samurai. Even with an oversized issue like last month’s #300 that’s a lot of characters to have running around. Naturally, I get that the whole thing’s supposed to be moving at one hundred miles an hour, and that Aaron’s just trying to have as much fun as he possibly can by pulling out as many toys as he can. But as a reader, I find so many players on the board to be utterly distracting and just downright implausible. And yeah, I realize I just said a Wolverine comic was implausible.
Aaron’s a fantastic writer and one of my favorite guys working today, but he’s picked up a lot of work in the last few years and I wonder if maybe he’s not spread a little thin here. From a writing standpoint, I can tell that he’s writing with a lot of fighting and limb-shearing in mind, but what I think he’s missing is some solid motivation and a little verisimilitude.
On his Marvel work, Aaron’s sort of made a name for himself as someone who’s not afraid to toss out some outlandish and downright Kirby-esque concepts and visuals. And calling anybody’s anything Kirby-esque is high praise. But something I’ve noticed is his characters’ tendency to actually draw attention to the nuttiness or the outlandish thing that’s happening right in front of them. I feel like it’s his way of having the character say what we’re thinking, but occasionally, it can come of as Aaron being a little to enamored with his own idea. For instance, at the very opening of the issue, there are two panels that I’m pretty sure just straight lift descriptions from the script and use them for captions. Then, later on, a group of scarcely-clothed, ultra-tattooed Yakuza assassins on racing motorcycles wielding chainsaws show up, and it’s a pretty awesome visual. And as a reader, I can say that… but the problem is, so does Sabretooth. He literally says, “Yakuza thugs on crotch-rockets armed with chainsaws…”, almost as if he’s writing for the artist.
Continued belowSpeaking of art, Billy Tan and Steve Sanders do an admirable job. Although, I have to admit, I miss the series semi-regular artist, Ron Garney, and found it a little irritating that it took two artists to draw the issue. Like I mentioned earlier, this is common to Aaron’s run, so I’m not really surprised by it. But after having something like four artists on the previous issue, that’s now two issues, back-to-back, with very little artistic harmony. Ultimately, it makes me wonder what’s so special about this one that kept it from being drawn by just one person?
Two chapters in, and it’s looking like Back In Japan won’t be my favorite story of Jason Aaron’s Wolverine run. But hey, the good news is, a less-than-brilliant Jason Aaron comic is typically still better than a most other superhero comics out there, so it’s most likely not the worst thing I’m going to read this month.
Final Verdict: 7.5 — Acquire
