It’s been a quiet week for comics while delayed and mis-timed event books empty the schedules, so this week we’ve only got a few capsule reviews: Captain Britain #7, Fantastic Four: True Story #4 and Wolverine #69, the latest chapter of Old Man Logan. Continue reading »

This week: Reviews of Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes #1, Invincible Iron Man #7, Iron Man: The End and Wolverine: Chop Shop.

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Unless Power Pack Vs Marvel Zombies is in the works, this is likely to stand for quite some time as Marvel’s most curious crossover. Mike Carey’s physiological take on Charles Xavier’s past has misfired several times during its brief life. However, it’s hard to see how its problems could be remedied by briefly merging it with Daniel Way’s distinctly retro Logan solo book. Judging by this one-shot opener, the two titles have brought out each other’s worst traits.

Original Sin’s linchpin is Draken, the estranged son which Way introduced early in Origins’ life. The bulk of the issue is context, with the young man falling in with even worse company than usual, while his father turns to the figure who helped him rise above a similar life. Way writes only a minority of the book’s pages, but the absurdly conservative characterisation he deploys sours the entire issue. In order to show Wolverine acting solo, he engineers a spat with Cyclops, with a momentary misunderstanding turning quickly to violence. Unfortunately, a number of plot details make the clash look like merely a playful conforming to type. If Logan really wanted to harm Scott, he’d only have to open his mind to Emma about his recent extra-curricular activities, while Cyclops doesn’t even threaten to deploy his eye beams. The scene merely exists as a lazy and unconvincing backdrop to the issue, sending Wolverine out into the city for the bulk of the action.

With Origins providing the a-story, Legacy’s contribution to the title is delivered as flashbacks to the formation of the All-New, All-Different X-Men. Unfortunately, Carey’s retcon work here is severely hampered by both the lifting of the twist from Mark Miller’s first Ultimate X-Men arc, and the fact that this story was comprehensively rewritten by Ed Brubaker only a couple of years ago. While the threading of Vulcan into the proceedings cleared up one of the X-franchise’s long-standing niggles, it’s hard to see any benefits arising from such a laboured and clichéd amendment. Mike Dedato’s sketchy, ink-heavy art complements the story well, but unfortunately Scott Eaton turns in some his weakest work to date for chapter two of the tale. The lack of texture in the images suggests a pressing deadline, and although his gift for expressions never quite deserts him, several backgrounds consist of only a couple of lines. Sadly, this perfunctory pencilling suits the book’s content perfectly.

Depending on how you took last issue, Wolverine #67 will offer you more of exactly what you like - or didn’t like. Personally, I found the future depicted to be an incredibly unlikely mish-mash of current Marvel Universe concepts designed more as a nod to the fans than as any real, organically-reached time period.

Fortunately - or unfortunately, depend on how you look at it, those references are way more interesting than the hopelessly contrived idea of Wolverine as a pacifist. It’s amusing to see a homely, humble Ultron and wonder how that happened, but waiting for Wolverine to pop his claws and come out of retirement isn’t the same. We know it’ll happen - it’s virtually the point of this story - and it’s not going to have the significance it wants to have, because there’s only the flimsiest explanation of why he put away his claws. “They broke me, bub” he says, as if that were possible. Let’s hope we get a little more clarification on what actually happened, because, let’s put it this way - Batman’s “badass” trait is that he just won’t go down. Wolverine’s, on the other hand, is that every time he goes down, he’ll get back up. That’s what he does. Removing that aspect of the character doesn’t evolve him, it removes one of the core things that make the character consistent.

McNiven’s artwork is clearly the best reason to keep reading this book. Wolverine hasn’t looked this amazing in years, and it’s a pity that the story doesn’t feel like it has a little more to do with the character. it’s more about Hawkeye giving us a tour around the latest bleak Marvel future, and we’re just along with Wolvey for the ride. The level of detail in the pencils is staggering and virtually every panel would make an amazing poster, but it’s hard to hang an entire comic off looks alone.

The idea of a future gone rotten isn’t exactly a new one - the last time we saw one with Wolverine in was in Grant Morrison’s New X-Men run, which conceived and resolved it brilliantly in one arc. This story, however, feels more like it’s been conceived to add texture to the future so that Millar’s Fantastic Four run has some extra context when the two tie together.

Ultimately, there are some fun moments, but it’s not hanging together well as a story for me. In fact, that’s the problem with the whole Wolverine title at the moment. Gone are the continuing adventures of Logan (spun out into Wolverine: Origins) and we’re left with a series-of-miniseries, where no story can ever really impact the character - and that goes double for stuff set in alternate futures.

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Unlike “Enemy of the State” which was little more than a murderous free-for-all, Millar’s first issue of “Old Man Logan” shows a nice amount of depth to Wolverine. He’s become a pacifist following some horrifying event in the past where most of the heroes died, and as a result he’s settled down and become a family man, running a farm. He’s still struggling with his inner-rage, but it’s pretty much under control. Of everything in the book, Wolverine is the best character, and it actually feels a lot more like Wolverine: The End than Paul Jenkins’ dubious effort a few years ago.

However, the problem with “Old Man Logan” is that it’s set in a future that’s been gratuitously constructed out of Marvel continuity, rather than any specific logic. The Hulk’s grandchildren ride around in the Fantasticar, beating rent out of farmers. Hawkeye turns up in…the Spider-Mobile? Wolverine has named his son after Cyclops, for some reason that will either be very symbolic or… not. It’s yet another mix & match Marvel Future, and god knows we’ve got plenty of those as it is. The unique selling point of this one? It’s a little Mad Max-meets 1930s US-depression inspired. Yay.

There are some really cringeworthy elements in the book, including the big double-page reveal of a map filled with the kind of nonsense a 4 year old would write if he was asked to imagine a Marvel future. Electroville, the Mutant Forbidden Quarter, Paste Pot Creek… seriously? Unlike Kick-Ass and 1985, Old Man Logan returns to the Millar of Civil War, who has a lot of ideas but struggles to find a clear narrative to wrap them around.

At least, on the other hand, McNiven’s art is fantastic. It’s not really clear why Wolverine suddenly looks the same age range as Hawkeye when everyone knows Wolverine barely ages, but we can let that slide simpley because McNiven’s version is so damn accurate. Even without the classic hairstyle, it’s immediately recognisable. The art has as much characterisation as Millar’s dialogue.

It’s not a hideous comic - certainly, no worse than the rest of Wolverine’s solo series has been for a while, but coming from Millar and McNiven, we’re trained to expect better than this days of future past/age of apocalypse type alternate future riff. Apparently it’s going to tie into Millar’s Fantastic Four run, which is currently setting the low end of the top 30 alight, and that in itself feels a bit strange - Wolverine is actually outselling F4, shouldn’t the tie-in be the other way around? If you’re reading F4, I’d certainly recommend picking this up, but let’s be honest - this run is going to have to pull something seriously entertaining out of the next issue or two if it wants to be held up alongside Millar’s work in title’s like Ultimates, and it’s beginning to look like he might never get that good again.