By Bill Jemas, Joe Quesada, Paul Jenkins, Andy Kubert, Richard Isanove, Kieron Gillen, Adam Kubert, Frank Martin, Rain Beredo & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-88899-753-1 (B/Digital edition)
Wolverine is all things to most people and in his long life has worn many hats: Comrade, Ally, Avenger, Father Figure, Teacher, Protector, Punisher. He first saw print in a tantalising teaser-glimpse at the end of Incredible Hulk #180 (cover-dated October 1974 – So Happy 50th, Eyy?). That peek devolved into a full-on if inconclusive scrap with the Green Goliath and accursed cannibal critter Wendigo in the next issue. Canada’s super-agent was just one more throwaway foe for Marvel’s mightiest monster-star and subsequently vanished until All-New, All Different X-Men launched.
The semi-feral mutant with fearsome claws and killer attitude rode – or perhaps fuelled – the meteoric rise of those rebooted outcast heroes. He inevitably won a miniseries try-out and his own series: two in fact, in fortnightly anthology Marvel Comics Presents and an eponymous monthly book (of which more later and elsewhere). In guest shots across the MU – plus myriad cartoons and movies – he has carved out a unique slice of superstar status and never looked back. Over those years many untold tales of the aged agent explored his erased exploits in ever-increasing intensity and detail. Gradually, many secret origins and revelatory disclosures regarding his extended, self-obscured life slowly seeped out. Afflicted with periodic bouts of amnesia, mind-wiped ad nauseum by sinister foes or well-meaning associates, the lethal lost boy clocked up a lot of adventurous living – but didn’t remember much of it. This permanently unploughed field conveniently resulted in a crop of dramatically mysterious, undisclosed back-histories. Over the course of his X-Men outings, many clues to his early years manifested such as an inexplicable familiarity with Japanese culture and history but these turned out to be only steps back not the true story…
Origin
Although long touted as a story that couldn’t be told, the history of such a popular character was never, ever going to remain a mystery. Wolverine captivated comic book audiences and did it all over again on the small screen and in movies. Thus, in a climate of declining print sales, finally giving him an origin was truly inevitable. Sadly, just as certain was fan conviction that the event couldn’t help but be something of a disappointment.
Since I loathe story spoilers above almost all things, I’m going to be as vague as I can, just in case you’re the one who hasn’t seen this story yet. Released in a stylish six chapter prestige limited series spanning November 2001 to July 2002. ‘The Hill’, ‘Inner Child’, ‘The Beast Within’, ‘Heaven and Hell’, ‘Revelation’ and ‘Dust to Dust’, touch upon torment, tragedy and triumph to build the hero’s backstory, so suffice us to say that at the turn of the 19th century in Canada, 12-year old Rose is hired by wealthy landowner John Howlett II as companion to sickly heir James.
Left among taciturn servants on the palatial estate, Rose also befriends all-but-feral child “Dog” Logan, a much-abused son of the groundskeeper/general handyman. As she rapidly settles into the daily routine she also learns the estate is not a tranquil or safe place…
Horror strikes one fateful night as a murder-suicide shatters forever the tense stability of the gothic domain, with Rose and Wolverine-to-be forced to flee for their lives. On the run for years, they found stability, settling in a quarrying camp where harsh conditions and physical toil rapidly mature our mutant hero. Work was hard and as James grew he increasingly found peace, companionship and idyllic joy in the wild woods amongst a pack of timber wolves. Even here repercussions of the Howlett Estate tragedy impacted them, leading to a final, appalling confrontation, a desperate life-shattering clash, trauma beyond endurance and a retreat from the world… and reality.
In many ways the book could never really have lived up to expectations It was never going match let alone surpass 30 years of anticipation, and the creators should be applauded for ignoring convoluted X-Men mythology to concentrate on a purely primal tale in the fashion of Jack London or Joseph Conrad.
Sadly, there’s a distinct lack of tension and no sense of revelation at all. Most characters are barely one-dimensional: provided for a single purpose and predictably dealt with when their job is done. From the first page we know how it’s going to end and none of the characters has enough spark for a reader to emote with.
Understandably, such a “big story” needed a lot of creator fingers in the pie, so credits are a bit convoluted. Bill Jemas, Joe Quesada & Paul Jenkins came up with the plot, which Jenkins scripted. Artwork was drawn by Andy Kubert, and shot from his pencils but any grit or edginess that extremely talented gentleman built was regrettably lost by cloyingly heavy digital painting (by Richard Isanove whose very pretty colours seemingly candy-coat the shocking life-story of this most savage of heroes). All of which is largely irrelevant as the story sold bucketloads and has remained canonical ever since.
Origin II
Six years after, the company did it all over again for a much larger and less invested audience via his movie incarnation, but when it came, the story did not please or even satisfy everyone. Perhaps in response, writer Kieron Gillen, artist Adam Kubert and colourist Frank Martin filled in the next comics chapter. Cover-dated February to July 2014, follow-up 5-part miniseries Origin II made an far more effective and extremely appetising – if arguably just as controversial – titbit to add to the canonical menu…
If you recall, young Rose was hired to help sickly James Howlett. Among the lower order like herself she also befriended savage child Dog Logan. Blamed for the deaths of James parents, he and Rose fled for their lives, growing up on the run, and eventually settling in a quarrying camp. However even here the reach and repercussions of the Howletts found them, leading to a deadly battle in which a hasty unsheathing of bone claws cost Rose everything…
A few years later: It’s 1907 in the icy wilds of Canada. A man more beast than human runs with wolves, accepted by the pack as one of them. That harsh yet happy life is destroyed when a colossal white bear invades the territory. The creature doesn’t know how to eat like other bears and tracks the pack to its den before destroying the cubs.
The Wolfish Man’s peace of mind is broken forever but after almost dying killing the invasive beast even greater horror unfolds. The loss of his family has forced the not-wolf to start thinking again…
The polar bear was no unhappy wanderer, but actually introduced by men into the unfamiliar wilderness. Now showman Hugo Haversham, trapper Creed and his disfigured woman Clara are scouring the frozen wilds for other potentially profitable attractions. Creed & Clara share some strange secret and react badly when their erstwhile employer – creepy English scientist Dr. Nathaniel Essex – turns up in the frozen frontier town. He clearly knows something of her amazing affinity with animals and Creed’s uncanny healing abilities and is quite angry that a mere entrepreneur has appropriated the butchered bear carcass for his circus show…
Haversham knows a dangerous rival when he sees one, and takes the first opportunity to leave when Creed announces they are heading out. Essex continues his own endeavours, using his paramilitary “Marauders” to disseminate poison gas of his own devising in the deep woods, intent on finding what killed his white bear…
The tactic proves disastrous as the fumes drive a bizarre clawed aborigine to butcher the gas-masked Marauders. Moreover, the attacker seems utterly immune to the deadly vapours…
Essex’s remaining men pursue, driving the enraged wild man straight into Creed’s traps. Although the snares don’t stand up to his claws, the human beast is helpless against Clara’s uncanny influence. To Creed’s mounting fury, the connection seems to be mutual…
Soon, suitably caged, the Clawed Man of the Woods is the star attraction of Hugo the Great’s Travelling Circus. Regularly tortured, baited by Creed and fawned upon by Clara, the no-longer-mute beastman has only one thought in his head: the sight of another beloved blond girl dying on his claws…
Essex is still in the picture too: following the show and trying to buy the feral exhibit for his ongoing experiments. When his frustrated patience finally expires so does Hugo – thanks to Essex’s gas – leaving the rapid-healing Clawed Man to undying agonies on the sinister scientist’s vivisection table…
When all hope seems lost, Clara (having convinced Creed to help) breaks her new pet out. The trio flee into the night and – thanks to the torture or perhaps Clara’s devotion – the poor, benighted creature has begun to speak again. He now calls himself Logan…
A month later the fugitives are starving in New York City and Creed has had enough. He is not there when Essex’s men attempt to capture Clara’s wild lover and does not see history tragically, bloodily repeat itself. He does however join heartbroken, traumatised Logan in going after Essex, whilst happily concealing the true nature and extent of Clara’s powers…
The man who will be Mr. Sinister is unrepentant and working on his next project: an cruelly tempting solution that will lobotomise the imbiber and eradicate all painful memories. It all ends in more horrific score-settling before Logan escapes into the night and into history, but this tales still has a couple of shocking twists to reveal…
Brutal, visceral and compulsive; cleverly laying as much intriguing groundwork for future stories as answering long-asked questions, Origin II is a far more rewarding and superior yarn to delight aficionados of the complex Canadian crusader.
This engaging Complete Collection includes a wealth of bonus features and especially a raft of articles on how the project came about. Once the stories are told, Introduction ‘What do you think of the idea of a Limited Series telling Wolverine’s origin?’ by X-Men: The Movie Producer/co-writer Tom DeSanto leads to a response in ‘The Beginning’ by Bill Jemas, backed up by the latter’s full ‘Origin Treatment’, and co-plotter Joe Quesada’s ‘Confessions of an EIC’ (that’s Editor in Chief) before scripter Paul Jenkins adds ‘A Few Words’…
Quesada’s ‘Climbing the Hill’ shares story notes on the process to tell the untellable tale, bolstered by thoughts from the admin team in ‘The Editors Speak by Mike Marts & Mike Raicht’.
That’s supported by ‘The E-mail Chain’ that set things rolling and some much-needed visual secrets in ‘Character Designs’ by Andy Kubert, Richard Isanove’s ‘The Painted Process’ and cover pencils for Origin #1-6 as well as a selection of pages of pencils (62) from throughout the tale.
Isanove’s painting ‘The Feast’ precedes cover pencils for Origin II and variant covers by Salvador Larroca & David Ocampo, Skottie Young, Steve Lieber (Deadpool variant) and Salva Espin & Peter Pantazis (a Deadpool ditto), before sharing ‘The Origins of Origin II’.
For all its faults, Origin: the True Story of Wolverine immediately succeeded in its primary purpose of galvanising the public and making the wild wonder unmissable again. Publishing is a business, and the market always dictates what and where the stories are. Still, it is only a comic in a multi-media universe, so when someone decides to reveal the Real, True, True Real story of… we’ll all get another go at learning his secrets. Or not.
Over to you, film fans…
© 2019 MARVEL.
