COMIC BOOK REVIEW: All-New Wolverine vol. 1 #35 (We Live In An Age Of Wonders)

This is it, the series finale you’ve all been waiting for! Will Old Woman Laura finally defeat the one last super villain in this almost perfect future!?

All-New Wolverine vol. 1 #35
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Ramon Rosanas
Color Artists: Nolan Woodard
Cover Artist: David Lopez
Publisher: Marvel Comics

?WARNING: This Review Contains Major Spoilers!!?

Previously:

Old Woman Laura, Gabby, Maria Hill, Captain Marvel and Hawkeye infiltrated the secluded country, Latveria. However, the country’s ruler, Doom had found out about them and sent his Doombots to stop the heroes.

Maria Hill gave Hawkeye a special bullet for her to shoot at one of the Doombots. It was strange for both Gabby and Hawkeye to see Hill talk to the bullet before handing it over.

The team fought hard when the Doombots arrived, and Hawkeye managed to shoot the bullet perfectly to one of the Doombots. It was then revealed that the bullet was actually Janet Van Dyne A.K.A. the Wasp who was stuck in her shrunken form. The Wasp was able to hack and take over one of the Doombot.

The Doombot that Captain Marvel fought, shot a laser blast at Maria Hill but Laura was able to block it. Unfortunately, the laser went through her and still hit Maria Hill in the process. Maria Hill died in Laura’s arms, but her last words were encouraging Laura to finally end Doom, end the last villain in their almost perfect world.

What You’ll Find Out:

Old Woman Laura, Gabby, Captain Marvel, Wasp (inside a Doombot) and Hawkeye who held the lifeless body of Maria Hill mourned their loss. Hawkeye suggested that they bury Maria Hill’s body, but Laura refused to bury Maria in Latveria. She told them that they will bury Maria Hill properly once the world was already right.

Laura then asked Wasp if there were any civilians in Doom’s throne. The Wasp confirmed that there were none and that it was only Doom and his Doombots. Laura instructed that Gabby, Wasp, and Hawkeye will go after the prisoners; while Captain Marvel and Laura head on straight to fight Doom and his Doombots.

Captain Marvel with Was carrying Laura smashed through Doom’s palace. Laura and Captain Marvel fought the Doombots to distract them from seeing Gabby and Hawkeye sneaking in to gain access to where the prisoners were being kept. Gabby hid and told Hawkeye to wait for a bit. She wanted to see Laura attempt to lift Thor’s Mjolnir which was left there after Thor was defeated by Doom during the Doom World War. Unfortunately, Luara was unable to lift it. Gabby, a bit disappointed thought it would have been cool to see Laura being worthy of the hammer. Gabby and Hawkeye then went on to their main objective, following Wasp’s lead to the location of the prisoners.

Captain Marvel was then shot down, below by one of Doom’s Doombots. Captain Marvel was actually okay after being shot down and saw both Gabby and Hawkeye. Laura was also captured by two Doombots. From the shadows, Doom came out to talk to Laura who was being held by the two Doombots. Doom revealed that he actually wanted to Laura to come to Latveria. He added that it was him who spread the rumors and details about her sister’s whereabouts. Laura asked what was Doom’s agenda. He then responded that he was after Laura’s healing factor because he was dying.

Meanwhile, Gabby, Hawkeye, and Captain Marvel were able to find the prisoners. The prisoners were the remaining superheroes who survived and were captured by Doom. Gabby was also able to find their sister, Bellona and the two were finally reunited.

Above, Doom was trying to acquire Laura’s healing factory through Laura’s brain. Doom was surprised to find out that instead of getting stronger he became weaker. Laura then revealed to Doom that his backfired because Laura was also dying. Before Doom could do anything, Laura then stabbed him using the claw in her foot.

The two Doombots that held Laura were then destroyed by Mjolnir. Laura then saw Gabby with Bellona and the rest of the superheroes released from imprisonment. Gabby ran towards Laura who was getting weaker. Laura happily greeted her long lost sister, Bellona. She also instructed the Wasp to finally shut off the barrier surrounding Latveria.

Laura then started to say her final words to Gabby and that she was contented to end everything at Latveria. Gabby refused her drama and told Laura that they are in an age of wonders. She and Laura will find any possible way to cure her of her condition. Gabby then lifted Laura up and the two walked away from Doom’s palace with a hopeful and positive outlook in life, alongside their fellow comrades.

What Just Happened:

It’s not the usual ending that you would expect, especially known that this ending is just one of the many possible alternate futures for our heroes. Usually, in superhero comic book, the ending was usually cliffhanger to leave newer writers to explore when they take over the series. but in this case, it does not really give you any important character development that you would expect the characters would grow into the series as a whole. Basically, Tom Taylor just wanted to end the series giving us an ending of what the heroes deserved. A happy ending for that matter.

Was it epic? Not so much in my opinion. Was it fun? Yes, I guess it was very entertaining though. But instead of giving us an explosive ending, we get a very hopeful kind of ending. There are still many questions though like what had happened during the Doom World War or who survived that event. Heck Doom World War would be an interesting story to read. In all honesty, I expected that All-New Wolverine ended with something that would link to Logan’s return in the current Marvel 616 universe. It would have been interesting to see how Laura and Gabby go through finding out Logan’s body is missing and possibly alive and how the Orphans of X would react to this. Another thing I was looking forward was how Laura decided to give her title as the Wolverine away easily and go back to her X-23 title. Basically, I think the ending was not bad nor was it great but wasted an opportunity to give us a better story. Especially considering what was going on with now with heroes looking for Logan.

The art by Ramon Rosanas was still exceptionally pleasing to look at. It’s one of the book’s strength and I’d love to see him do another book for Marvel.

I guess, at the end of the day, the real ending for the series was during the Orphans of X arc and that the story with Laura and Amber working together was the epilogue to the series.

Pros:

Ramon Rosanas art is still good to look at.
Nolan Woodard coloring has been one of the series highlights

Cons:

Not the real ending we were looking for

Rating: 8/10
Final Thought:
It was not as epic as how the previous arcs were but Old Woman Laura’s ending gave us a glimpse that not all Marvel future timeline is apocalyptic. A simple send-off from one of the best series Marvel has ever produced for this generation. One thing is for sure, the message is about hope and that’s how the series ended it.