Wolverine 50

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

 

I know I'm bashing a lot, but I do love the character. I've just been less than impressed with Volume 2. I know it was sales, but I wish they wouldn't have cancelled the original. I'm wondering when they will re-converge it with Volume 1 (like ASM & FF).

 

Pat

I hear you. I too love, or should say loved, the character, but Wolvie has been so overused that he's becoming a caricature, and it makes me sade. His mystique is being erased in favor of coming "clean" with his origin, which is somewaht befuddling to me. I wish they would have left his origin as it was after the ORIGIN mini-series.. But I digress.

 

I haven't read much of vol.2 besides the Millar/Romita Jr. run, but the few I have were forgettable. What was that return of the native stuff? I thought it was X-23.... Ugh... I must say I enjoyed the CIVIL WAR issues, despite the complete regeneration matter, but that Ramos art - wow, all wrong for Wolvie. I also liked the issue where he saved the kid in Africa - I thought that was a well-written and drawn book that mattered, and took me back to the Claremont days of Wolvie's development. And the WWII concentration camp issue was intriguing, but wait that was Millar again wasn't it?

 

I've been reading these books for over 20 years and you get to the point where you think certain charaters would be better served if they DIDN'T have a regular series. In a perfect world, a book would only be released when a story worth telling could be written, as opposed to releasing it simply for sales sake. On a side note I feel the same about Batman. I think he works better in the context of a group - more dynamic character development. Whereas I get bored reading about him in his two solo series (Detective and Batman).

 

In other words - please cut down the # of titles out there people in charge and focus on quality over quantity. Remember the 1990s!

 

Happy collecting!

[WiseGuyX]

 

I know I'm bashing a lot, but I do love the character. I've just been less than impressed with Volume 2. I know it was sales, but I wish they wouldn't have cancelled the original. I'm wondering when they will re-converge it with Volume 1 (like ASM & FF).

 

Pat

I hear you. I too love, or should say loved, the character, but Wolvie has been so overused that he's becoming a caricature, and it makes me sade. His mystique is being erased in favor of coming "clean" with his origin, which is somewaht befuddling to me.

 

I totaly agree.

 

In the world of music and movies, stars can end up in the trash bin with over exspossure. The same thing with comics if you ask me. This whole re-cycling a story is getting old as well. They need to come up with new material and charaters. I'm not saying replace main charaters like Wolfy but simply add some new villens to his life...other than the typical "Hand" and drunking bikers.

[awe4one]

The biggest mistake Marvel has done over the last decade is revealing Wolverine's origin. The mystery of his origin was one of the character's strongest traits. Some of Wolverine's strongest stories (Vol 1 #50-90 for example) drew on that mystery. Without it, there isn't much left to draw upon that's unique and his main title has suffered because of it...

 

Jim

[WiseGuyX]

The biggest mistake Marvel has done over the last decade is revealing Wolverine's origin. The mystery of his origin was one of the character's strongest traits. Some of Wolverine's strongest stories (Vol 1 #50-90 for example) drew on that mystery. Without it, there isn't much left to draw upon that's unique and his main title has suffered because of it...

 

Jim

 

Why sure, it strips away the mystery behind the man. Once that is done, he's just like any other average joe hero.

[drice6900]

Pretty accurate review on Newsarama today:

 

Wolverine #50 (Black and White Variant)

Writer: Jeph Loeb

Artist: Simone Bianchi & Ed McGuinness

From: Marvel

Review by: Steve Ekstrom

 

“Let me say it before you do…What the @#$%?”—the first line of dialogue of Wolverine #50

 

This one line sums up exactly how I felt after reading what should have been a fantastic fiftieth issue. The Wolverine/Sabertooth rivalry has been an ongoing bloodbath for what seems to be decades. For us readers, its been going on, on panel, since the Uncanny X-Men #212, which introduced us to the fact that this second tier mercenary, Sabertooth (whose only claim to fame at the time was a recurring enmity with Power Man and Iron Fist), was somehow intrinsically linked with Marvel’s premiere bad-boy, Wolverine. At the time, Wolverine was so mired in his own cool mysteriousness that Sabertooth was the first real tangible piece of the “Wolverine puzzle”. Their battle carried over into UXM #213 and it was an intense draw. So, here we are, literally 20 YEARS later and Wolverine is still trying to kill Sabertooth and Marvel is trying, once again, to fit the murderous Sabertooth into the X-family now that their readership has admitted to recognizing Wolverine’s over-exposure. The need for a new and fresh bad *spoon* is all too apparent—to them. Who knows what kind of editorial plans they have now? I’m sorry; I know comic book characters are fairly static—in that, they are characters that don’t change very much; and if at all it’s a slow cooker type of a process but Loeb’s rendition of Wolverine is definitely a regression in the wrong direction.

 

The issue starts with Logan giving a running commentary of a visualization of one of his recurring dreams—as some feral creatures he refers to as ‘Lupine’ eviscerate a Saber-toothed cat. One of the Lupine takes a tooth from the freshly killed cat and stabs another Lupine with it—one Lupine is light colored and the other is dark (Sabertooth and Wolverine analogies drawn here obviously) with a mysterious Lupine watching in the background. All the while, Logan expresses his inability to figure out what the dream means. It is okay, as a fan of the character, if this dream is supposed to be significant; I want Wolverine to NOT figure it out. Jeph Loeb’s Logan comes across as over-the-top and almost a cliché—it’s almost as if Loeb can’t quite find his own way to write Wolverine’s voice so he resorts to a very stale, generic bad *spoon* type of “tough guy voice” which captures Logan but almost makes him a parody of himself. I really cringed at Logan’s monologue as he unlocked the door to the mansion with his claw. Doesn’t this guy have a key? Rogue confronts him at the front door with what seems like a botched “Marvel scripting” style error where the art was drawn first then the writer came in with the dialogue second—it is semi-comical, in that she asks why he didn’t use his key.

 

The next thing that I disliked was the need for “pseudo-swearing”. I think I can get my #$%@* point across without having to use so many #$%@* edited swears—in the rarity that we see “blue” language in a comic book, its effectiveness is understood. In this book, however, it’s gratuitous in a way that makes Loeb’s generic Logan sound even phonier because it’s “bleeped” out. Enter: Sabertooth—a.k.a. the generic alpha male antagonist. He too has a surly voice that is “Sabertooth” but he seems overwrought (so much so that if the word balloons didn’t point to the proper character they would almost sound like the same guy) to a degree because we’ve seen these guys have this same #$%@* conversation like 50 million #$%@* times—we get it already! We know they hate each other. Sabertooth even addresses their dubious enmity mid-battle, “How long’ve we dancing this dance, Logan?” Too long, I’m afraid, this fights been settled 40 times already—in ‘ad nauseum’ (there’s a little Latin foreshadowing for another bit I didn’t like).

 

Through interviews, Loeb has indicated that this battle will be their last—that their dynamic will subsequently change from this final knockdown drag out. We’ve heard this type of thing so many times before; it just seems like another episode of “the Howlett who cried wolf”. We know from a flashback mid-issue that now Wolverine is changing his tune about Sabertooth raping and killing Silver Fox—or is this just a way for Loeb to give credence to the already founded enmity between the two feral alpha male characters? By changing the “reasoning” behind Logan’s abhorrence of Creed—Loeb is really justifying the rivalry; which could actually, in the long run, be good for the two characters, as long as other writers honor this development. Their dialogue filled brawl leads to the cryptic translation of Creed’s message to Logan so many years ago, “Quod sum eris”—or “I am what you will be”, leading readers to ponder Sabertooth’s prophetic words. Personally, this dangling moment will only be fortuitous if Loeb and Marvel do something tangible with it—is Wolverine going to be come a homicidal killer like Sabertooth? Are we going to have to wait 20 more years to see if this Latin lesson comes to fruition? Just the fact that Sabertooth knows Latin brings a cynical smirk to my face. Maybe Sabertooth did well in high school—maybe he’s an avid reader when he’s not drinking beer and watching the Spice Channel. Even murderous bad-asses who swear little symbols love to watch infamously edited pornography. You’d think Sabertooth would watch snuff films not Spice Channel.

 

Simone Bianchi’s work is nice but feels out of place. At times, the momentum feels stunted and during the fight scenes (present and flashback) there seem to almost be pauses within the battles so that the characters can strike poses—which kills the energy for the price of a moment. Some of the between panel occurrences even seem to defy space and time—like the moment where Wolverine has Sabertooth reeling and he’s about to deal a fatal blow and the next image Sabertooth clearly is smashing Logan’s face into a tree—how did we get from point A to point C without a point B? It just isn’t very fluid and it arrested me to the point where I had to keep going back to it in confusion. Also, Bianchi’s work is so naturally photo-realistic that his Wolverine almost seems silly in his costume while Sabertooth looks more natural. The facial expressions were incredible however—his Sabertooth is truly savage looking. I do plan on going back and looking at a colored version of the book. I just really wanted to see the “rawness” of this issue in a “raw” state—and I was a little disappointed. Again, Bianchi is incredibly talented; there are just moments in this book that I didn’t enjoy. I’d rather just be blown away by his amazing cover work then have to wade through his disjointed interiors.

 

To me, things go from bad to worse with the second story, as Loeb fumbles through a re-telling/dream (?) of Wolverine’s first appearance in Incredible Hulk #181 with a running monologue of Logan’s memory of his first battle with the Hulk. Readers get to know about the whiskers on his mask and how he had the article “the” on the front end of his codename originally—he was “the Wolverine”—from his own perspective. Loeb’s tale has an odd sarcastic undertone that makes the Wolverine’s reflection almost seem like he’s making fun of not only himself but the medium of comic books in a bygone era—trying to give an edge to an already edgier present day—a sophisticated redundancy. You cannot compare a comic of today with a comic that was written 32 years ago. They are clearly not the same. This new cynical Wolverine isn’t one that I care for. He continues his rant about how his past was like a lot of convoluted characters and has a moment of surrealistic incoherence as a final moment of his first battle with the Hulk is substituted for a moment of his Ultimate Universe counterpart’s first battle with the Hulk in which he was torn in half. Wolverine wakes up (in the middle of a snowy field, mind you—why?) and walks off into the distance saying “I hate Canada”—which he has clearly loved in the past. So I guess Loeb isn’t a big fan of our neighbors to the north, eh? What was the purpose of this little story other than to #$%& up pre-existing Wolverine characterization? It left a bad taste in my mouth and had more #$%&*#@ pseudo swearing. When the #$%#@*& hell did anyone start taking naps in the middle of snowy nowhere?

 

Ed McGuiness’ Wolverine is perhaps one of my favorite renditions because of the nature of McGuiness’ style—his figures all look sort of short and muscular. So his Wolverine is always a perfect “version”. Also, I’ve become very aware of his ability to draw the Hulk very well because of the very large “hulking” difference in the sizes of both characters. However, this fight, if it is indeed a “remake” of Incredible Hulk #181, lacked a lot of substance (a.k.a. a background) and seemed a little bit like a pose fest. This romp (without the awful @#$%*%@ dialogue) is fast paced enough that the sequence is spot on and pretty to look at, if anything.

 

No, I obviously didn’t like this issue because if “the Lupine dream” is some distance connection to Wolverine and Sabertooth then I don’t want to bear witness to it. If Wolverine and Sabertooth become beer drinking buddies with a respect for each other’s @#$%*&@ differences—I might just go on a killing spree myself. And if Jeph Loeb insists on using a very clichéd, over-the-top @#$%*#@ voice for Wolver-@#$%*@-ine then he’s undoing a lot of great developments and growth that have occurred within this character during Loeb’s tenure at DC with unnecessary #$%@* pyrotechnics. If you want to see the greatest fights between these two feral mutants go find Uncanny X-Men #212 and #213 and the fight in Uncanny X-Men #222—these three issues still haven’t been topped. Um, @#$%, I’m spent.

[Hobgoblin]

I bet you guys really hate the fact that Sabretooth is a team-member now in X-Men ....

[followtheleader]

I actually don't hate that Sabretooth is in X-men as much as I thought I would. Same with Mystique. I guess, it's just a little redundant because we recently saw Juggernaut in this role, Magneto in the past, and actually Sabretooth & Mystique on X-Factor a bit ago.

 

But Carey has done a good job. So far, he's not really been a team member. More of a prisoner and they are using his abilities. I loved when he said that he'd backstab them the second he got the chance to.

 

Pat

[Lazyboy]

I actually don't hate that Sabretooth is in X-men as much as I thought I would. Same with Mystique. I guess, it's just a little redundant because we recently saw Juggernaut in this role, Magneto in the past, and actually Sabretooth & Mystique on X-Factor a bit ago.

 

But Carey has done a good job. So far, he's not really been a team member. More of a prisoner and they are using his abilities. I loved when he said that he'd backstab them the second he got the chance to.

 

Pat

 

So it's exactly the same as X-Factor?

[followtheleader]

In the 1st arc, yes. Sabretooth runs to the X-men for protection. But I think it gets a bit more fleshed out in the 2nd. I don't know how they could make him a team member otherwise, though. I think Carey is trying to make him a peripheral character that is forced into the situation. I don't expect to see him there long.

 

Pat

[Hobgoblin]

Yeah, I enjoyed the first arc. I like Mystique being on the team, and I've always wanted to see more of Cable (just not in X-Force). Cannonball is almost a new character for me; I haven't read many comics featuring him. The one thing I wasn't too sure about in this first Carey arc was including Lady Mastermind along with the other two "former-villains." But apparently that's not going to last long according to Rogue. I really like the idea of Rogue holding onto Sabretooth's leash, though, and using him when brute strength is required (even though she could do that herself).