Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Wolverine Weapon X #3
Marvel Comics
Aaron, Garney & Keith
Wolverine, at the conclusion of the previous issue, was hunted in the jungle by twelve assassins made exactly like him. You’d expect a bloody issue with a lot of fighting and popping claws and snarky dialogue. Well, you’d be wrong. Instead, this issue shows off how Wolverine uses his brain a little bit and how the new army of assassins has leadership that knows how to work the political circuit. This goes on while a nosey reporter is on the verge of uncovering this whole mess. It’s a very good issue that relies on great writing instead of a ton of fighting.
The issue opens with five pages or so of Wolverine hunting the assassins. However, rather than cutting them to pieces, we have a narration of how Wolverine began picking them off from the assassin’s perspective. This is great because it takes some level of imagination to not be shown something but to hear about it from the antagonist’s point of view. It’s a very nice relief from the usual way Wolverine handles situations in these types of stories.
From here we see how one of the assassins is hit with cancer bullet and how he is eroding before the very eyes of the medical staff back at the henchmen’s hangout. Wolverine has himself a captive who he’s been torturing. In the end, Wolverine lets him go, but not without a tracking device planted firmly on him.
The remaining elements of the comic deal with the company that makes the assassins called Blackguard. Blackguard has a sellout who is giving up secrets to the press. This causes some problems for the leak and for the reporter. Also, the leader of Blackguard finds himself trying to convince the government that everything is going smoothly as the cover up seems to be working in overdrive for now.
The comic is very good. The story uses such simple story elements like the media, manipulating Congress during hearings and a little nighttime jungle hunting. Yet, the comic works really well because the writing is so simple and strong. Wolverine isn’t really the chief character in the comic. In fact, I’d say the Blackguard fellows and the reporter all get pretty much even face time in the comic. This helps to keep the comic moving quickly and interesting while making Wolverine’s dialogue pop out a little more when he is on page.
The art is great. I enjoy the buttery-faced reporter and the ugliness of Wolverine and the assassins. It’s a fun comic to just look through at the art. Sure it would have been interesting to see the comic have twenty-two pages of action from an art perspective, but the comic did much more than just fine with the dramatic moments.
The new Wolverine series further proves that Wolverine stories can be consistent with ideas that just make plain sense. He’s tracking a group of assassins that were created with the blueprints that made him. The company is corrupt and the government is getting dragged into this, but a smart reporter is breaking the story. It’s so easy you want to say “duh!” and yet it seems so rare that we get this type of story from the character. The comic has a lot of creativity and twists as well. It’s worth picking up, especially if you are looking for a nice and consistent look at Wolverine. This is something I definitely recommend.
4 out of 5 geek goggles
