Comic Book Review: Wolverine Origins #3

The Revolution has not been very impressed with the first two issues of Wolverine Origins. I will readily admit that I have never been a big fan of either Way or Dillon. But, I am a long time Wolverine fan. I really hope that this title gets interesting soon. Let’s hit the review.

Creative Team
Writer: Daniel Way
Artist: Steve Dillon

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: The issue starts with Nuke and Wolverine brawling. We then cut to a flashback of Nuke as a little boy. Nuke’s mom is a mean drunk of a woman. Nuke’s father is a meek hen pecked man. The babysitter, Betsy, shows up and Nuke’s parents leave for the night. Nuke tells Betsy that he loves her. Betsy says she loves Nuke and then she tells him that his mother is an awful woman and everyone would be better off if she was gone. Nuke asks if she means dead. Betsy says no, that Nuke thought that up on his own. We shift to later that night and Nuke is in his bed. His parents come home and his mom is drunk and belligerent. Nuke’s father leaves to take Betsy home.

We then shift back to present time with Nuke and Wolverine brawling. Wolverine ends up slicing off Nuke’s legs. Nuke fires his rocket launcher at Wolverine. Wolverine kicks the rocket launcher causing the rocket to explode into the ground next to Nuke. Nuke is then crawling on the ground with his skin torn off revealing his metal robotic face. Nuke asks “Betsy…How could you do this to me?”

We then flashback to Nuke’s father driving Betsy the babysitter home. Betsy slides across the front seat and sits real close to Nuke’s father. (Hah! Bench seats! You don’t see them in cars anymore.) Betsy takes out Nuke’s father’s flask that she stole from his desk and takes a drink. Nuke’s father stops the car and tells Betsy that he can’t do this. Betsy interrupts Nuke’s dad and tells him that she is sorry and she has done something bad. That her real name isn’t Betsy. Suddenly, a man knocks on the driver’s side window. Betsy says “Oh, god. It’s him. Nuke’s father rolls down the window and it is Logan in a police uniform. Logan draws his gun and kills Betsy with one shot. Logan then hands Nuke’s father the gun. Logan tells Nuke’s father that he is in trouble. That the gun Logan used is Nuke’s father’s gun. That it looks like Nuke’s father gave his babysitter alcohol and tried to take advantage of her, but she resisted and he shot her. Nuke’s father says that his wife would never believe him and that she’d never pay for a lawyer for him. Nuke’s father then takes the gun and shoots himself.

Logan then radios an unknown supervisor and tells them that the loose ends have been tied up. Logan says that this seems a lot of trouble to go through just for one kid. Logan’s supervisor tells Logan not to ask questions and just do his job. We then see Logan knock on the door to Nuke’s house and Nuke opens the door. Nuke tells Logan that he did it just like Betsy said. We see Nuke’s mother lying dead on the floor. Logan takes Nuke with him.

We then cut back to the present where Wolverine decides that eh cannot save Nuke. That he can’t bring him back. Logan decides that he has to kill Nuke. But, Logan knows that this is all happening too easily.

We then cut to the US Embassy where the computer that controls Nuke is located. The US agent has his gun pointed at the scientist running Nuke’s system. The agent tells the scientist to power down Nuke all the way. The scientist says that if they do then Wolverine will kill Nuke. The agent responds that Wolverine won’t kill Nuke. That this is all part of the plan.

We then shift to the White House where the President is demanding to know what the hell is going on and that everything has become a mess. The President’s aide, Trevor, says that this is all part of the plan and that Wolverine will never see it coming.

We cut back to Wolverine to kill Nuke when suddenly he is something hits his hand and knocks his sword out of his grip. Wolverine turns around with a stunned look on his face. We see Captain America. Captain America says “I don’t know why you look so surprised, Logan…You’ve had this comin’ for a long time.” End of issue.

Comments:
The Good: Well, Wolverine Origins #3 was not as terrible as issues #1 and #2. But, honestly, that really isn’t saying much. I thought that the insight into Nuke’s childhood was interesting. I’m curious as to why some group would go to such amazing lengths just to get Nuke into their custody. I’m not too sure what is so amazing about Nuke as a child and how anyone would ever know about it.

And the big twist is that Nuke was just the bait to lure Wolverine out of hiding. That the real “weapon” sent to deal with Wolverine is none other than Captain America. That was actually a pretty neat twist that I did not see coming. At this point, Way writes such an annoying Wolverine that I’ll be rooting for Captain America to lay a beat down on Logan. At any rate, this should make issue #4 pretty interesting.

The Bad: I thought the fight between Nuke and Wolverine was rather boring and anti-climactic. I know that Nuke was just the bait, but it still could have been a little more interesting than it was.

Even though I did enjoy the flashback scenes of Nuke’s childhood, I also didn’t like them. It is obvious that Way tries to hard to always be so “hardcore,” “twisted” and write totally effed up storylines. Sometimes that leads to storylines that are a bit forced. It also tends to lead to overkill. When ever single issue is nothing but one effed up thing after the other then they lose their effect and end up making the story seem a joke or a parody rather than something you take seriously.

To me, Daniel Way’s writing reads like fan fiction that is obsessed with Garth Ennis’s style of writing. Way is a poor man’s Ennis. And I don’t really think that Ennis’ style works on a mainstream comic book like Wolverine. On a title like Hellblazer or Preacher or Hitman I think it works great. On a title like Wolverine, X-Men or Avengers, I don’t think this style of writing works too well.

I also don’t think that Way has any clue how to write Logan. Way has no feel for Logan’s character and it really shows. Way’s Logan is one-dimensional and pretty annoying. It is obvious that Way has not done any research on Wolverine or familiarized himself with any older issues of Wolverine’s comic books. Good writers, like Busiek, Johns, Brubaker, Morrison and Waid, all read back issues of a title before they assume the writing chores. I think that is absolutely necessary just so the new writer can become familiar with the general feeling of the character. A new writer doesn’t need to copy the previous writer, but there are general character traits to each hero that need to be continued for the sake of internal continuity. I think Way has failed in this endeavor.

Personally, I am not a fan of Dillon’s style of art. I think it is too static and boring. However, I do think that Dillon’s style works on a realistic title like one centered around cops or a non-powered super hero like Punisher or an offbeat title like Preacher or Hellblazer. But, I definitely don’t think Dillon’s style is dynamic or interesting enough for a mainstream super hero title like Wolverine.

Overall: I thought Wolverine Origins #3 was better than the first two issues, but I still found it to be a very average comic book. Way hasn’t impressed me so far. But, like all new titles, he has six issues to hook me. I want to stick with this title because I am a huge Wolverine fan and was really hoping that this title would give us some interesting insight into Wolverine’s past. At this point, I would only recommend Wolverine Origins to people who are huge fans of Way or Dillon or they are like me and are huge Wolverine fans.