By Jeph Loeb, Simone Bianchi & Andrea Silvestri (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2256-5-2
Debuting as an foe for the Incredible Hulk in a tantalising teaser-glimpse at the end of issue #180 (October 1974) before indulging in a full-on scrap with the Jade Giant in the next issue, the semi-feral Canadian mutant with fearsome claws and killer attitude rode – or perhaps caused – the meteoric rise of the All–New, All Different X-Men before gaining his own series, super-star status and silver screen immortality; a tragic, brutal, misunderstood hero cloaked in mysteries and contradictions.
Logan’s come a long way since then; barely surviving chronic over-exposure in the process and now finds himself a solid star of the Marvel firmament. However that status is not without its own peculiar pitfalls, as such A-List players find themselves afflicted with a particularly tedious modern curse: Pernicious Recurrent Re-Origining…
A separate condition from actually retconning (where characters and continuity are dialed back to a specific point and the character is redesigned, PRR-O consists of infilling perceived cracks or gaps in the canonical history to reveal previously concealed or forgotten information.
Certainly some of these tales are utterly wonderful: Miller’s introduction of Elektra in the 1980s totally revolutionised and revitalised Daredevil and Batman probably started the whole process in 1956’s Detective Comics #235 when Bruce Wayne discovered he had seen father in a Bat-costume whilst still a toddler, but personally I cannot think of anything more pointless than constantly revising a character’s backstory rather than crafting new adventures or developments. I’m obviously in a minority on that score…
Wolverine has had a whole bunch of secret origins and revelatory disclosures in his extended, conveniently brainwashed and amnesiac life but this tome (which originally appeared as Wolverine volume 3, issues #50-55, November 2007-March 2008), at least tacks this latest round of really, honestly, for-gosh-sakes-I-mean-it true surprises to a fast-paced and engrossing recap and (purportedly) final clash between the miniscule mutant and his manic homicidal analogue Victor Creed: Sabretooth.
Scripted by Jeph Loeb and beautifully illustrated by the stunningly talented Simone Bianchi the story begins at fully gory pelt and just races on regardless…
The two fast-healing Mutant furies have clashed over and again and here Wolverine decides to end his enemy once and for all. However, his determination is somewhat distracted by recurring hallucinations and sense-memories of primeval pasts and a strangely familiar race of werewolf-like creatures that he feels a haunting kinship with…
Logan drags Sabretooth from the protective custody of his former X-Men associates in ‘First Blood’ and as new, lost memories constantly assault him, spectacularly battles Creed across half the globe, past clashes blending with current blows and fantastic images of primordial race wars in ‘Deja Vu’.
In ‘Blood on the Wind’ the murderous mutants, unable to permanently harm each other, nevertheless persist in their bloody vendetta until they reach the Black Panther’s hidden African kingdom, where old X-comrade Storm now resides as queen of Wakanda…
A temporary truce in ‘Insomnia’ only results in Sabretooth killing yet more innocents but reveals a possible solution to Wolverine’s delusions, as well as a name for the hidden foe he has sensed at the back of it all. An immortal monster named Romulus…
Moreover, there would seem to be conclusive evidence that rather than mutated humans many “homo superior†might well belong to a completely discrete, ancient species…
With a band of bestial clawed heroes (Sasquatch, Wolfsbane, Thornn and Feral) in tow, Wolverine once more tracks Creed as suppressed memories come thick and fast. In ‘Wake the Dead’ Logan recalls a Second World War exploit with Captain America excised from his consciousness by “Romulus†before Sabretooth attacks again, killing one of his hairy heroic companions…
In the inconclusively chaotic conclusion ‘Quod Sum Eris’ one blood-feud ends and another begins as Wolverine, unsure of anything, prepares to face his hidden foe. Some time somewhere, someday…
These tales are great as vicarious, gratuitous eye-candy, but to simultaneously unwrite a major portion of character history without offering context or conclusion is just inviting new and returning readers to buy different graphic novels with their rapidly diminishing mad-money.
Let’s see any healing factor fix that…
© 2003 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.