Remember when Wolverine was the greatest comic book superhero ever and every kid who ever wanted to be a superhero wanted to be him? Marvel sure wants you to remember.
Written by Larry Hama, Chris Claremont, and Sam Kieth
Illustrated by Scot Eaton, Salvador Larroca, and Sam Kieth
Colored by Matt Milla, Val Staples, and Ronda Pattison
Lettered by VC’s Joe SabinoWOLVERINE LEGENDS, CHRIS CLAREMONT, LARRY HAMA & SAM KEITH REUNITE! He goes by many names… Patch…Weapon X…Logan…but most just call him THE WOLVERINE. Join Marvel’s greatest storytellers for three brand-new untold tales of the X-Men’s deadliest member. Blood, broads, and blades… you asked for it, bub!
Wolverine is one of Marvel’s most recognizable characters, right up there with the Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man in terms of popularity. With that said, the furry clawed rage monster has had an interesting couple of years, with the supposedly immortal mutant actually dying and then coming back to life. It seems that someone at Marvel decided that readers needed to be reminded about past stories that made Wolverine great, and that’s where “Wolverine Exit Wounds” #1 comes in.
When reading “Wolverine Exit Wounds” #1 you only have to look at the cover for an instant flash of nostalgia. There is a very prominent graphic on the top, right next to the Marvel logo that proudly celebrates eighty years of Marvel’s existence, that proclaims “Brand New Tales by Legendary Creators”, and the creators listed below are nothing to sneeze at. Creators like Larry Hama, Scot Eaton, Chris Claremont, and Salvador Larroca are big names in the comic book industry, and they have come together to take us on a tour of some of Wolverine’s greatest moments and stories.
So, since this book is an anthology of Wolverine stories rather than a single story, it’s probably a good idea to look at each story and judge them on their individual merits.
The first story is titled ‘Red in Tooth and Claw’ and is written by famous G.I Joe writer Larry Hama and illustrated by Scott Eaton, who helped draw the X-Men storylines ‘X-Men: Endangered Species’ and ‘X-Men: Messiah Complex’. The story itself is a day in the life of Wolverine undergoing extensive training and mental conditioning at the Weapon X program; which is a call back to Fabian Nicieza and Javier Saltares’ ‘Weapon X’ comic published in 1991. In this story, Hama’s experience with fantastical military tech and characters helps him create a practical and mundane, yet interesting, look at the scientists, assistants, and guards of the compound where Wolverine is undergoing his training and conditioning while Eaton proves that he still knows how to do the X-Men justice with plenty of action, gore, and well-drawn lab equipment along with Wolverine’s iconic Weapon X headgear.
The second story is ‘Aftermath’, drawn by long-standing X-Men artist Salvador Larroca and written by the legendary comic writer Chris Claremont. This story brings Wolverine back to Japan for what is probably the most obvious callback to a popular Wolverine story: Claremont and Frank Miller’s legendary 1982 ‘Wolverine’ mini-series. In this story, we find out that Logan can cook a mean bowl of ramen, and that certain events happened in his past that would inspire him to travel back to Japan in order to protect a certain family from a gang of yakuza. Sadly, despite the legendary status of the creative team involved in this story, it’s probably the weakest one. Larroca’s art is functional and does its job, but the characters seem stiff and some of the facial expressions are just a bit off. Also, while Claremont deserves all of the credit in the world for giving readers some of the greatest comics ever written, his writing can be overly dry and verbose. Unfortunately, this is not Claremont’s best work.
The final story is simply titled ‘Logan’ and is written and drawn by Sam Kieth. Kieth is probably most famous for his original comic book “The Maxx”, which was published by Image Comics in 1993 and is remembered as one of the better titles to come out of the nascent comic book publisher during its early history. The ‘Logan’ story is actually a pretty good tribute to comic books from the ’90s because it’s a story where Wolverine and Venom, two of the most popular and violent anti-heroes in the 1990s, try to kill each other. Also, the story is filled with the 90’s comic book trademarks of big muscles, massive snarls, extreme poses, and lots of sharp pointy teeth and claws being tossed around. The artwork is highly stylized and Kieth manages to tell a complete story with a handful of panels, something that isn’t very easy to accomplish but is fun when done well.
Continued belowThe three separate stories are all unique and special in their own way, and each of them does something better than the other two. ‘Red in Tooth and Claw’ has the best story with plenty of beautifully drawn gore and action, ‘Aftermath’ has an impressive pedigree with who is probably the most famous X-Men writer who ever lived, and ‘Logan’ has the most original and interesting artwork to look at. If you’re a comic book collector then this is a book that you will probably want to add to your collection.
Unfortunately, if you’re a comic book reader, this book is kind of boring and not really worth your time. The comic does nothing new or interesting with the character of Wolverine and is content to rehash old storylines to remind the reader of all the cool things that Wolverine used to do. There isn’t any sort of new insight into his personality or new characters for him to interact with, it’s just pure nostalgia and a call back to better stories. Make no mistake, there’s nothing wrong with nostalgia, but if a story wants to stand out and grab a reader’s attention then there has to be more. This comic does nothing to move the character forward, it’s just treading water and hoping that a trip to the past is all that it needs to take your money.
If you’ve been a lifelong fan of Wolverine and want something to remind you of the awesome stories in his past, or if you’re a comic book collector and you’re looking for a comic where a bunch of legendary writers and artists come together to make something then this is the book for you. But if you’re a reader first then you could probably skip it.
Final Verdict: 5.2 – If you collect comics, it’s a good book to have; but if you’re in the mood to revisit some of Wolverine’s greatest moments, you’re better off re-reading the comics that inspired these stories.
