Death of Wolverine: The Weapon X Program

Remember Jason Aaron’s Punisher MAX run a few years ago? That series killed off the classic Punisher, the Vietnam vet Frank Castle, and subsequently resurrected him as a thirtysomething vet of an unnamed war (so as not to date him). But the way Aaron killed off Frank was glorious: a heavily beaten Frank managed to kill his way through his greatest enemies before finally falling himself. It was so perfect it remains my favourite character death storyline ever.

So now it’s Charles Soule’s turn to kill off an iconic Marvel character: Wolverine. And… it was unfortunately very underwhelming. To be fair to Soule, he didn’t have three books to build up to his finale he just wrote a four issue story where Wolverine died at the end. Even so, for such a famous character, I think Soule gave him short shrift.

How can Wolverine die, you ask? He recently lost his healing factor so he’s now mortal. Soule’s adds a brilliant detail by taking away his claws. Every time he pops them, blood comes out, they’re usually covered in others’ blood and other germs when they need to go back in, so when they’re retracted, he risks infection. So Logan doesn’t pop his claws – he’s got to fight his enemies with his wits and his mitts, and he’s gonna get hurt too. That’s a great setup.

Unfortunately the rest of the book isn’t as cool. Somebody’s put a price on Logan’s head to bring him in alive so all sorts of nutters are on his tail like Nuke, Sabretooth, and Viper. He fights them all in a blasé fashion and moves on. He teams up with Kitty Pryde, a character who’s essentially his surrogate daughter (though we don’t see his actual children in this story), and they go to Madripoor and Japan, both places that have enormous significance to Logan. More fighting happens then we get to the death.

The story involves a lot of elements from Logan’s past but there’s no sense that this is building up to anything. Events happen but, unless the title said otherwise, it’d read like any other Wolverine story. Soule tries to give an arc to the character’s complicated history (and wow is Wolverine’s past convoluted!!) with the final issue but its unsatisfying and Wolverine’s death is barely memorable.

Steve McNiven’s art is always good. It’s suited to BIG comics with BIG action and Death of Wolverine is a big ‘un, though I think he’s done better work elsewhere – Old Man Logan for example, or even Civil War.

Death of Wolverine isn’t a bad comic. Soule’s a good writer and the script is never insultingly bad. Neither is McNiven’s art anything less than good. But for a major character death, this arc was a let-down. It didn’t feel epic, or moving, or any more interesting than the average Wolverine book.

Everyone reading this will know that Wolverine won’t be dead for long and that he’ll come back at some point in the near future. This book seems to be acknowledging and channelling that cynicism so it didn’t even try to make Wolverine’s death seem like a permanent ending. We all know this was a book designed to grab cash and headlines, but it didn’t have to feel as soulless.

When Wolverine does die, I can’t imagine anyone feeling saddened at it – my reaction was of mirth (just from the strange visual) and a feeling of “that was it?!” It was a bit of a cop-out.

I suppose the book could’ve been worse, but, for a character that’s had the impact on Marvel readers and the Marvel Universe over the years that Wolverine has had, it should’ve been much better than this and had something of an emotional punch to it.

Death of Wolverine is an adequate treatment of a good character’s (temporary) demise - which is fitting as most Wolverine books are pretty average at best!

See ya in a year or two, you crazy Canucklehead!

Wolverine is dead. Long live Wolverine! Well, at least Wolverine WILL be dead, after you finish this paperback. See, he's lost his healing factor, and now somebody's hired a laundry list of his greatest foes (and any foe, really) to bring him in.

Steve McNiven (pencils), Jay Leisten (inks), and Justin Ponsor just kill it on the art. The lines are precise and a joy to look at. These guys justify the price of admission alone.

Soule parades a wide knowledge of Wolverine comics, that I never ventured into. It's a tour through Wolverine's past. He spends one issue undercover in Madripoor with a black market Iron Man helmet, to talk to Viper with whom, surprise, he has history with. In that same line, he meets up with Lady Deathstrike, and right after, Kitty Pryde! Then, in the next issue, he goes to Japan, while in the prior issue he had built up an island bulwark in Canada! There's a lot of globetrotting in this miniseries, but you'll never get lost with how tight the plot is.

Wolverine dies a hero's death, and that's all this story really needed to deliver. For those who are familiar with Wolverine and for those who've just seen the movies, it'll make you want to reread the classics or discover them for yourself.

This review was originally posted on my blog chezkevin.blogspot.com

In honour of Jackman hanging up his claws from playing movie Wolverine I thought I would grab the much talking about Death of Wolverine (Spoiler Alert??)

I was surprised at the relatively short run, I guess I'm a bit cynical, I love comic books but so often the sagas become bloated, cross-over overblown stories. Death of Wolverine was a clipped succinct almost rushed tale with almost zero fat to trim. While the movie Logan isn't based on this story (more Old Man Logan) there were a few themes and nods that the movie took.

Wolverine is stunning in this story, his motivations well fleshed out without being speachy and his bravery in the face of his own mortality commendable. Not that anyone expects him to be a coward, yet not once does Wolvy put himself before others despite his vulnerability.

The artwork is absolutely on point with some truly excellent panels - there is one moment I baulked at where Wolverine manages to magically put on Samurai armour in split seconds in the middle of a fight, but it looked awesome which is what we care about right.

I confess along with my cynicism I'm also getting a little sentimental in my old age, and sometimes want to see stories dragged out a little longer, but I think the writers did the right thing keeping this series frenetic and fast paced as Wolverine himself is.

Captivating artwork but the story is pretty scarce. I was surprised when starting this book to see it was only 4 issues, and I wish it had been stretched out to 6 so it could breathe more. Instead, it's just a greatest hits retirement tour of someone with a lot more nuance than is rushed through. Reading it all in one sitting made it feel like Charles Soule was just regurgitating anything he knew about Wolverine. "Hey, remember how he's from Japan?." "Hey, remember how he likes to be in the woods?" "Hey, remember how he likes to drink?" And then just throwing any villain he could think of at Logan while the real end-boss gets just a single issue for us to care about him. If this was a normal six issue run, they could have effectively used issues 4-6 to make me want to see the big-bad get his comeuppance while still having Logan interact with other X-Men or Avenger chums. I assume the stuff I wanted was covered in the stories leading up to this one, but that doesn't make this book better for omitting it. Everyone's seen the final image of the book by now I'm sure, and it's a beautiful shot, but I really wish the book carried more emotional weight leading up to it. This felt like a lot of missed potential.

Death is comics is redundant. Except for Captain Marvel (Mar-vell), I can’t think of one character that’s been knocked off that hasn’t eventually been brought back. Captain America and Spider-Man were both killed and brought back recently. Why? We KNOW characters that big aren’t going to stay dead when they can be selling comics! So It was with not a small amount of trepidation that I read Death of Wolverine. I’m not totally convinced how they killed him was the best way (I’m still mad at Captain Kirk falling down and dying on some rocks), but the book overall was very good. Good characterization, good plotting, good artwork. A good story you’ll be glad you’ve read.

At least until they bring him back to life in a year or so.

2 Platypires for Death of Wolverine by Charles Soule

This was so freaking lame! This can not be how one of the greatest comic book heroes life ends. Such bull crap. I've been a fan of Wolverine since I was a kid but haven't been much of a comic book reader. Just picked it back up again last year.
I do remember reading Wolverine origin story (a decade ago) and really liking those issues so my expectations were really high for Wolverine's death. This was not how it was suppose to end. I don't want to really give spoilers but the big bad at the end was a let down. I understand the author wanted to make Logan's life go full circle but it did not meet expectations.
Honestly, I would not recommend this series to anyone. Just pretend it doesn't exist.

Collects Death of Wolverine issues #1-4

For such an important character, this wasn't a very epic conclusion. It was a quiet story, but not in a bad way.

I haven't been keeping up on what's been going on with Wolverine lately, so I don't know how he lost his healing factor, but that incident led directly into this storyline in which Logan is being hunted down.

The title of this volume is a spoiler, but that's the only thing that got me to read this collection.

The writing and artwork are both top-notch.

I stopped reading comic books, Wolverine however has been my favorite for years. I had to see how Marvel would send this Legend out. My breakdown goes The Art was great, The Plot I'm sorry Marvel took a bad way to take out Wolverine. I enjoy the Old Man Logan series, but as a fan I'm not impressed by this move to make Wolverine a female. It's a cheap ploy. I expected better.

Decent story, but I was expecting a little more from the hype surrounding it. It feels more like a kick-off for a follow-up series. Oh wait...Wolverines Volume 1: Dancing with the Devil

reading wolverine for years when he became mortal the fun was gone and I mean we wanna see wolverine doing what he does best, fighting, drinking, talking smack, going against foes, havin flashbacks while narrating his life while in action and make love to a hot girl every now and then, how many times a member of the x men gonna die how many times we saw jean grey, and professor x get killed, wolverine should have fought more valiantly andf you bring him back to weapon x and I thought maverick killed Cornelius but they brought him bACK ONLY FOR LOGAN TO KILL HIM, WELL LOGAN SHOULD HAVE HAD MORE FLASHBACKS AND FOUGHT MORE PEOOPLE SETTLED SOME SCORES WITH A FEW OF THEM BUT NO THEY HAD HIM DIE COVERED IN THE METAL LAST FIGHT WITH SABRETOOTH SUCKED IT WAS NOT FINISHED CREED DAMN NEAR KILLED LOGAN PLENTY OF TIMES WITH METAL AND HEALING POWERS HE WOULD HAVE DESTROYED LOGAN WITH NO HEALING FACTOR AND PLUS ITS NO MATCH A LOGAN WQITH NO POWERS UP AGAINST CREED.

Garbage, just a very dumb comic, that shows Wolverine operating on the margins of the Marvel Universe. Cameos from Sabertooth Lady Deathstrike, Kitty Pride and Ogun(is it?). First of all I thought Sabertooth was dead, but oh well, continuity itself has become quaint, whatever. It was just a very horrible story. Although if it truly does rid Marvel of Wolverine, I guess it will have done SOME good.