Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Wolverine Manifest Destiny #2 of 4
Marvel Comics

Aaron, Segovia, Salonga & Rauch

Wolverine is in Chinatown and it isn’t clear why he’s there. People hate him and are about to kill him. Oh, but Wolverine can’t die. Well this issue does its absolute best to kill him. It’s a great comic if you like your Wolverine with a little mysticism and martial arts. I liked the issue because of the action and the creativity used in making the villains. It’s a little annoying that we still don’t know what Wolverine is trying to accomplish, but watching him get beat down is awfully fun.

Wolverine is in trouble as his old girlfriend (from 50 years ago) finds him and unleashes her Black Dragon Death Squad on him. Wolverine doesn’t fight back too much, but he also doesn’t have much of an opportunity to either.

Rock of Buddha is the brawn and that doesn’t get to Wolverine too much. But Fist of Fire can pretty much take limbs out of commission on Wolverine and that creates some problems. Then Storm Sword can disorient him with weather effects. While Soulstriker pulls out the inner most memories of pain that Wolverine has had in his life. With a Death Squad like this I cant help but wonder why the woman didn’t just leave Chinatown and find Wolverine rather than waiting for him to show up.

Wolverine is out, but the cops show up and provide just enough of a distraction for him to retreat. He meets up with a sensei to help train him to defeat his new enemies.

It’s a fun issue. More questions come out of it as new players enter the mix. With no clear cut connection to everything all that we know is that Wolverine is hated in Chinatown and he refuses to leave until he clears something up, whatever that something is.

The artwork has a rough look to it but works so well for this story. It’s hard to have any shock value when it comes to Wolverine’s injuries, but this comic does a pretty good job at presenting a gruesome scene with his battle damage. To me, the martial arts stories with Wolverine need this type of unpolished style so the art is perfect for this story in my opinion.

With two parts to the four part story done I am definitely intrigued by where this story is going. There is a little mystery here, but there is also a good flashback story that is taking place to tie everything together. I wouldn’t have guessed there could be another good Kung-Fu Wolverine story to tell. I was wrong.

4 out of 5 geek goggles