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Return of Wolverine #1 Reborn in Blood and Fire

7.9/10

Return of Wolverine #1

Artist(s): Steve McNiven (Pencils) Jay Leisten (Inker)

Colorist(s): Laura Martin

Letterer: VC's Joe Sabino

Publisher: Marvel

Genre: Action, Superhero, Thriller

Published Date: 09/19/2018

Recap

The Wolverine awakens once more in the land of the living. Reborn in fire hot claws, blood and pain, the resurrected but memory bereft mutant finds himself in a destroyed lab with bodies lying all over, blood on his hands as well as an injury that wont heal as he tries to assist a badly hurt scientist (one that specializes in extinction cloning) who beseeches him to go after the ones responsible for destroying the lab, an organization called SOTEIRA and its leader whose name is Persephone who did this when he refused to help them with something terrible they are trying to do. Before he can learn more, an explosive hurled into the lab ends the conversation and the life of the scientist.

The disorientated and still smoking Wolverine is then set upon by one of the lab's other inhabitants, a sabretooth tiger, made even more dangerous by the fact that it's on fire from the explosion. The attack triggers an unbidden memory as the predator is knocked off the pinned down blue and yellow spandex clad x-man and killed by a stampeding mammoth (I love comics...)

Wolverine picks himself up and stumbles toward the exit as again fragmented locked up memories of past lives swirl up into his consciousness are triggered. Following the sound of gunshots, the Wolverine emerges from the cave the lab was in into the daylight. Wolverine sees men dressed in uniforms driving away. Grabbing a discarded rifle and motorcycle, he follows them down to a camp where people are being herded and separated from family and shot! Seeing a man shot by a sniper in a tower incenses Wolverine and he attacks the soldier in the tower like a modern day Don Quixote tilting at "dragons" on his trusty steed (motorcycle) and appears to kill the soldier but  somehow the bullet-riddled soldier returns to life and a shot sees the Wolverine tumble badly from the speeding bike and knocked unconscious...

In his dream, the Wolverine is in a jail of sorts and we come face to face with a woman in white who identifies herself as Persephone as Logan finds himself walking through what is very clearly the prison of his own mind with various memories locked in every cell including a very dangerous version of himself. He recounts to Persephone how he has been told to destroy her by the dead scientist but she does not seem phased as she tells him she is responsible for his return from the dead.

The Wolverine is dragged back into consciousness by a woman begging him to help her get back her son that Soteira has taken, that only he can help because he is "The Wolverine" which still means nothing to the memory bereft Wolverine who does not know who he is at this point. The woman leads him into the facility which is revealed to have been a research facility set up by Soteira and as She assists him in seeing to the injury on his side that won't heal she explains to him who what she knows about him from the past in a story that offers a very interesting explanation to the color choice of his Yellow and blue outfit. She also confirms that Soteira is responsible and that She also believes that Persephone has to be stopped.

The conversation triggers a memory to be unlocked... it's the memory of Wolverine the hero, an individual that is so much more than a killer of other men but a true hero that saves people. A freshly patched (and dressed in Soteira outfit which looks great in my opinion despite receiving a massive amount of online disdain by fans when first revealed) Wolverine stands and the claws are unsheathed...

Review

After umpteen mini-series and several one-shots here he finally is. First off this a beautifully made comic. From the opening page rendered in mind-boggling, bloody and visceral detail by penciler Steve McNiven, inker Jay Leisten, colorist Laura Martin to the last. There are panels on nearly every page that could be posters or covers in their own right. The Barry Windsor-Smith (one of my favorite Wolverine artists ever) comparison is inevitable and I found myself very much as excited reading this book as I was when I read Weapon X for the first time all those years ago. I think the nostalgia that the art invokes is very much a deliberate thing and if so it succeeds admirably. It’s the kind of comic that as an art fan I will come back to look through again and again. I am interested to see how the switch to Declan Shelvy as the artist on interiors will be received by readers after how beautiful this first issue is.

Charles Soule delivers a solid and impressive writing effort on this first issue. The dialogue is engaging and believable while the psychological aspect of the story is handled with aplomb as we flick between chaotic reality and what is going on in Wolverine’s head and subconscious. The story keeps moving at a steady pace which kept me engaged right until the last page which is what any good first issue of a comic should do.

So great comic right? Not so fast…

If I have any criticism of this first installment as a fan of it, it’s this… it’s a Wolverine story. Wait, what? Preparing to stone me? Hear me out. Everything about this book is very much in the vein of past Wolverine stories and while almost perfectly executed and nostalgia addled which will leave many fans of the character with the good feeling that one gets when reading a nostalgia-fueled story about a character you love. There was however for me nothing mind-blowingly original in this first issue from a plot or story type perspective. I am still left with the feeling that I have read this story before and that bothers me.

Final Thoughts

Overall a good start to the series. I am thrilled to have him back and hope that Soule keeps up the momentum and throws us some heavy curveball surprises through the full five issue arc to make it a memorable return that's more than just beautiful to look at with a story worth being called The Return of Wolverine.

Return of Wolverine #1 Reborn in Blood and Fire
  • Writing - 7.5/10
    7.5/10
  • Storyline - 6/10
    6/10
  • Art - 9/10
    9/10
  • Color - 8/10
    8/10
  • Cover Art - 9/10
    9/10
7.9/10
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