Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Wolverine #69
Marvel Comics
Millar, McNiven, Vines & Hollowell

The first three issues set the bar extremely high for this series. They were brilliant in establishing a new time period, reestablishing classic characters, introducing new ones and effectively setting a tone along with a long reaching story arc. This issue provides none of those things. Thankfully the artwork was above and beyond the incredible standard set in the first three issues. The disappointment of this issue was also a factor of the two month layoff coming into this issue and then the two month layoff after this one. I expect way more from this creative team.

Here is pretty much what you get: six pages of the escape, three pages of chase, four pages of another escape, four pages of driving and six pages of a conversation that sets up the conversation for the next issue. And it sounds way more exciting reading it here then it did reading it in the comic.

About a third of the comic has two word balloons or less per page and those pages that do have some dialogue advances virtually nothing in terms of plot.

The cliffhanger from last issue was the scene where Spider-Woman was about to kill Hawkeye (his own daughter) and Logan decides to play hero. This issue barely touches on this. It left me thinking either a) this was all a ruse (which would be cool) or b) there was no further way to involve Spider-Woman without making Wolverine fight and it’s too early in the arc for that.

We are also treated to more moloids and more of the whole “I’m not that man anymore” bit that Logan has been playing all along.

It’s a filler issue. Plain and simple. It will read great in a collected edition, but this as a stand alone issue was just useless story-wise. Some of the information in it is also puzzling, such as the addition of Wyoming to the Midwest. Add in the wait for the issue to come out and I was left very dissatisfied.

However, the artwork is amazing. Page after page the artwork tells a story that isn’t even there. It makes me wonder whether this issue should have just been a silent issue, because the dialogue provides little purpose. Some of the incredible visuals include the fate of Loki, the new Mount Rushmore and Logan flying through buildings in the Spider-Mobile. Even some of the characters, like Spider-Woman, look so detailed and well thought out that you would think they’ve been around for decades.

A dog of issue is worth picking up if you really like visual stories that have incredibly detailed line work and amazing shading and coloring. Beyond that you might want to skip this one and pick the next one when Logan will allegedly tell his story (finally). If you do pick it up you should be prepared for a very light story.

2 out of 5 geek goggles