Comic Book Review: Wolverine #62

The Revolution hasn’t bothered to post a review of Wolverine in quite some time. Honestly, it has been a rather long time since I found Wolverine to be a particularly good read. I have not been thrilled with the direction that Marvel has taken Wolverine ever since he regained his memories. At any rate, I figured it was time to go ahead and crank out a review of what used to be one of the coolest characters in the 616 Universe. Let’s do this review for Wolverine #62.

Creative Team
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Ron Garney

Art Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10.
Story Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10.
Overall Rating: 5.5 Night Girls out of 10.

Synopsis: We begin with a flashback to 1921 in the Sondran Desert, Mexico. We see Wolverine and Mystique blindfolded and tied to posts and set before a firing squad. (Mystique makes for one hot cowgirl.) Mystique comments about how Logan doesn’t seem like a person who is about to die. Mystique says that she hopes that means Logan has an ace up his sleeve. We see the firing squad fire their rifles.

We cut to the present day with Wolverine arriving at a small village in Afghanistan. Wolverine threatens to gut a little boy unless he tells Wolverine where Mystique is hiding. Wolverine says that he can smell her scent all over the village. Wolverine suddenly drops the boy and grabs a nearby woman. Wolverine tells Mystique to drop her disguise and show the villagers who she truly is.

The woman doesn’t transform into Mystique. Wolverine loses his patience and guts the woman. The woman dies. Wolverine is then surprised that she doesn’t transform back into Mystique. Evidently, Wolverine was wrong that this woman was Mystique in disguise. Wolverine then tells the rest of the villagers that they have five minutes to turn over Mystique or else they are going to be needing a lot more graves.

We zip back to three days earlier with Cyclops meeting with Logan. Cyclops wants Wolverine to hunt down Mystique and kill her once and for all. (Wow. First we see this side of Scott on X-Force and now here in this issue. Since when did Scott become the Godfather?)

We cut to eight hours later with Wolverine in Iran entering a mosque and popping his claws on one of the old men inside and telling Mystique to come with him now. The other men attack Wolverine. Mystique then runs outside of the Mosque and transforms back into her normal appearance. Mystique then pushes a remote that blows up the mosque. We see a pissed off Wolverine walking out of the fiery wreckage.

We zip back to 1921 where Logan has broken loose and killed the entire firing squad. Mystique thanks Logan for saving her. Logan retorts that he wasn’t trying to save her. That is was dumb luck that she untied herself before the bullets started flying. Mystique then introduces herself as “Raven.” Wolverine introduces himself as “Logan.”

Raven comments how both she and Logan are “special” and that she has friends in Kansas City that she would like Logan to meet. The two walk off into the sunset and Raven comments that this could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. End of issue.

We zip back to the present. Wolverine arrives at the small village in Afghanistan from the beginning of the issue. We see Mystique in Wolverine form hiding in an alley. Wolverine sees the dead woman that the Mystique posing as Wolverine killed. Wolverine yells out for Mystique to come out of hiding. The villagers all appear on the scene with plenty of guns and tell Wolverine that they think they will only need one more grave. Wolverine realizes Mystique has set him up and he is pissed. We see Mystique still hiding in a nearby alley with an evil grin on her face.

Comments
The Good: Wolverine #62 was an average issue. This was a fast read and when I was done I can’t say that this issue impacted me either positively or negatively. Aaron certainly serves up plenty of action. The pacing on this issue is quick. Aaron keeps the story moving and makes sure that there are no dead spots in this issue.

Wolverine #62 is well plotted as Aaron keeps the story rather simple and direct. The reader has a good idea what is in store for us over the course of this four issue story arc. We can expect Mystique and Wolverine’s history together to be explained and we certainly can expect one nasty brawl between these two characters. The only question to be answered is if Wolverine will actually kill Mystique or not.

I liked the twist of having Mystique pose as Wolverine and kill the woman in order to turn the villagers against Wolverine. That set up a quality hook ending as Wolverine now has to fight a bunch of villagers who mistakenly think that he killed the woman. This puts Wolverine at a decided disadvantage as he is not going to want to employ lethal force against the villagers while they are going to be more than willing to use lethal force against Logan. While not the most original concept, it still provides for a good hook ending.

Aaron writes a good enough Logan. Of course, Logan is more of a caricature rather than an actual three dimensional character nowadays. Aaron also impresses upon the reader the fact that Cyclops is a drastically different leader than Professor X. Aaron continues the theme that all of the other X-writers are hammering home in the issues spinning out of Messiah Complex. That Cyclops is willing to blatantly break the rules and to employ lethal force when it comes to protecting the X-Men. I have to admit that it still seems a bit strange to see Scott basically ordering a hit on someone.

Ron Garney’s artwork is slightly above average. I didn’t find the art to be anything special, but it was certainly good enough to get the job done. And I have to say that cowgirl Mystique certainly looks fantastic.

The Bad: Wolverine #62 was a fairly shallow issue. There is little complexity or substance to the story. This story arc appears to be nothing more than cotton candy for the mind.

The flashback scenes did nothing for me. Now, this is purely a personal bias, but I am sick of learning more and more about Wolverine’s past. The more I know about Logan’s past the less of a cool enigmatic character he becomes. And that is always what attracted me to Logan’s character.

I am also tired of Wolverine having some type of connection in his past with just about every single female in the 616 universe. Is it really necessary that Logan have a history with practically every single character in the 616 universe? This is part of what makes Logan just way to overexposed. And I’d also rather that Marvel use “Wolverine” to concentrate on Logan in the present day and time and save these flashback stories for “Wolverine: Origins.”

Aaron’s dialogue is average at best. Most of it is rather predictable and borders on being the typical cheesy dialogue from a 1980’s Schwarzenegger action movie. Also, there is no real character work at all in this issue. Wolverine is his usual caricature of himself. Mystique comes across as a typical generic evil comic book villain. The evil grinning by Mystique seemed a bit over the top and not entire in keeping with her cold, controlling and calculating personality.

Overall: Wolverine #62 was a pedestrian read. If you are a fan of Wolverine and enjoy the direction that Marvel has taken his character over the past several years then you will definitely enjoy this issue. If you dig action themed comic books as a form of mindless entertainment then you will also probably like this issue. However, if you expect a bit more from your comic books and require quality character work and dialogue then I don’t think Wolverine is the title for you.