writer: Charles Soule / artist: Alisson Borges / Marvel Comics
Who are the Wolverines? They’re Mystique, Sabretooth, X-23, Lady Deathstrike, and Daken – 5 of Wolverine’s closest associates who are being coerced into finding the his dead, adamantium-covered body. Dr. Cornelius, the madman who created the original Wolverine, embedded a kill clock inside 5 of his test subjects who are in search of Wolverine’s body, as it holds the key to saving their lives. Their names are Neuro, a “brilliant psychopath,” Endo, a “troubled speedster,” Skel, a super-strength man physically addicted to violence, Junk, who has “animal abilities,” and Shogun, an ex-soldier fused with a demon ninja’s spirit.
As a follow-up to the Death of Wolverine mini-series, Wolverines has begun moderately, at best. Issue 1 was largely uneventful; that is, until the last pages that introduced Sinister in the hunt for Wolverine’s corpse. What does he want with Wolverine’s corpse? What can he do with it? His possession of Wolverine’s body was the most intriguing part of the series, and that continues through this issue. The new characters are rather uninteresting, and since the story plot is based around their quest for survival, it’s hard to care much about the story as well. It’s hard to tell whether the problem is with the characters, or trying to introduce so many at one time. The result is the same, though – you don’t get a good sense of any of them.
Readers are given insight into Shogun as his two personalities argue amongst themselves over Daken’s dying body. Daken lost his healing ability, so after Sinister ripped off his arm and plucked out his eye in the first issue he was on the verge of death. Shogun has a syringe with regen serum that could save Daken’s life, but Ogun – the spirit who now shares his body – would much rather save that needle for themselves, or at least for someone more critical to their mission of survival.
The rest of the issue is dedicated to war-room strategizing. Now, I’m a sucker for battle planning scenes. Watching a team of strategists scope out their plan of attack is thrilling, sometimes even more so than the plan’s execution itself. It’s real-life chess, or Risk, or – whatever, don’t judge me, it’s just fun, alright?
Mystique explains what they’re up against if they want to steal Wolverine’s body back from Sinister, and it’s a steep uphill climb. As it turns out, there’s only one person that can help them pull this off: BLACK FEMALE CHARACTER!
Fantomelle is the world’s most unstoppable thief and will be making her debut on Wolverines #3. This makes twice in a row that an issue is generally “eh,” but then hooks me at the end. I hope the series stabilizes and becomes consistently entertaining through each issue, because this can become frustrating. Until then, I’m gladly onboard for another issue of this weekly series.
Score: 5 out of 10
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