Wolverine #49 is a one-shot issue that is nothing more than filler bridging Guggenheim’s run on this title and Jeph Loeb’s run on this title that commences with the next issue. I rarely like one-shot issues, much less ones that are nothing more than space wasters until the new creative team takes control of a title. With that in mind, let’s crank out a rather quick review.
Creative Team
Writer: Rob Williams
Penciler: Lawrence Campbell
Inker: Kris Justice
Art Rating: 4 Night Girls out of 10.
Story Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10.
Overall Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10.
Synopsis: We see Wolverine at a department store in New York. Kitty sent Wolverine out to do some Christmas shopping. While in the department store, Wolverine accidentally bumps into Toulouse Lexington, who is a rich spoiled Paris Hilton style girl. Toulouse sprays her glasses accidentally with some perfume due to Wolverine bumping her. Toulouse cops an attitude and her head bodyguard, Pinter, and his men tell Wolverine to back off. Toulouse and Pinter trade some insults. Clearly, they don’t like each other. Toulouse says that they should just get it over with and go to the Santa’s Wonderland in the store that her father paid for her to visit.
Toulouse enters the Department Store’s Santa’s Wonderland and it turns out that Santa and his elves are actually criminals who have planned to kidnap Toulouse and hold her ransom for a ton of money. Pinter’s men get killed by the gun toting elves and Pinter turns tail and runs like a scalded dog.
Wolverine hears the gunshots and goes to investigate. We see the criminal mastermind behind this entire plan, Cave, straps a vest laden with explosives on Toulouse. Cave tells Toulouse that if she tries to escape then he will push the button on his remote and she will blow up.
We see Pinter in the stairwell of the department store. Pinter is ashamed of himself for running like a coward. Pinter tells himself to do the job that he is paid to do which is protecting Toulouse. Pinter opens a door from the stairwell and enters the department store and sees Wolverine standing over a pile of defeated elves. Wolverine comments that it feels weird fighting people smaller than him and that he thinks he likes it.
We then cut to Cave telling the police that they are a religious extremist group called Black Christmess and they are here to show that the commercialization of Christmas is evil. Cave says that his group has placed explosives all across the store and that everyone is going to die.
We shift to Wolverine taking out a couple of elves setting up one of the bombs. Wolverine slices the bomb and it sparks and nothing else. Wolverine tells Pinter that the bombs don’t have enough powder to cause any real damage. That they are just a distraction.
We cut back to Cave telling Toulouse that the entire Black Christmess junk that he told the police was garbage. It was just a cover to hide that they are simply kidnapping Toulouse in order to ransom her father. Cave, Toulouse and all of Cave’s men put on Santa jackets and pull the hoods over their heads. All the bombs they set up in the department store then explode. Cave’s men then open the department store’s doors and tell all the shoppers to run for it. Cave and his men blend into the massive horde of terrified shoppers that come flooding out of the department store and past the police set up outside. Pinter then tells Wolverine that they have lost Toulouse. There is no way they will be able to find her.
We shift to Cave and Toulouse meeting up with the rest of his men in downtown New York next to a large Christmas display. Toulouse starts crying and whispers that she wants her father. Suddenly, Pinter and Wolverine appear on the scene. Cave is stunned that Wolverine could find him. Wolverine says that the perfume that Toulouse accidentally sprayed on herself was strong enough for him to track her by the scent.
Toulouse throws off her coat and yells that Cave has bombs on her. Cave pushes the button to blow up Toulouse. A 10 second time starts counting down. Pinter blows away Cave while Wolverine pulls the bomb vest off Toulouse and then covers the explosion with his body. A blown up Wolverine lies on the snowy ground and tells Pinter and Toulouse “Merry Christmas.”
Comments
The Good: Wolverine #49 your standard issue one-shot filler issue. Nothing incredible, but certainly nothing terrible. Williams delivers a typical Wolverine. We get treated to some descent action and a nice little morality play. Toulouse is the spoiled little rich girl who doesn’t want money and gifts from her father. All she wants is his attention and love. Pinter is the broken down cop taking a big paycheck to baby-sit a little rich girl. Pinter rises to the challenge and becomes the hero that he has always been capable of being.
Williams did a nice job the personalities of Pinter, Toulouse and Cave. In a short amount of time, Williams gave the reader an excellent feel for their characters as well as their motivation and why they do what they do.
Williams impressed me with a nice sense of humor. I loved Wolverine’s line about how odd it was fighting people who are smaller than him. But, the best part of this issue was certainly the ending. Williams pulls off a wonderful ending with a blown up Wolverine lying in the snow at the foot of the Christmas Angel and telling Pinter and Toulouse “Merry Christmas.” I loved it.
The Bad: The plot itself was rather generic. There were some nice moments of humor and a couple of touching scenes with Toulouse and Pinter, but for the most part this story was very common.
The artwork was pretty poor. I just don’t dig Campbell and Justice’s work. This isn’t my style. It lacked detail and looked way to sloppy and drab.
Overall: There really isn’t much to say about a one-shot filler issue featuring a guest writer and a guest penciler and guest inker. It was a total throwaway issue that you don’t really need to bother purchasing unless you are a Wolverine completeist.