Wolverine #50 Review

[Jesse M. Huertas]

Better than Life Itself: It must be in your collection for eternity
Definite Read!: A great read from front to finish
Not bad, but not great: A decent read worth the asking price
Well, it’s not the worst: Only for diehards…even then
Where’s my Pistol?: Titles like this make you question your hobby!

Review: Wolverine's anniversary issue kicks off with another new creative team, this time it's jeph loeb and supercool artist Simone Bianchi! The art is absolutely stunning for the most part, save for some facial expressions and other parts that look a bit rush, but overall the artistic quality is great, even better is his black and white version...Ed McGuiness chips in for a pretty pointless back up story with Wolverine taking a look back at his first foray into comics against the Hulk. The end of that shows Wolverine getting the image of Hulk ripping him in half, ripped (pun intended) from the Ult. Wolverine vs Hulk mini series that has halted after issue 2. One can think that this either a vision of a future crossover between the two universes, or like me, took it as a way of Marvel closing the books on that failed project.

Anyways, back to the story, it was pretty 'meh' overall. I like Loeb's prior work, but reading his interviews and his viewpoints of Wolverine, I don't like what was presented so far. The issue starts off with ancient animals long extinct killing eachother for no reason, and Wolverine is trying to figure out why he sees these animals everytime he closes his eyes, then we zip to the Wolverine and Sabretooth fight, which was done pretty well. Wolverine remembers the night that Sabretooth raped and almost killed Silverfox and remembers an old latin saying that Creed spouted off. The fight in the present stops with Wolverine asking Creed what it meant, and Creed tells him that 'I am what will you be'. Wolverine tells him he's crazy and pops the claws to end the issue.

Not to crazy about what it could mean, but I am intrigued for now. If Sabretooth is the 616 version of the Ultimate Cable, I'll be pretty pissed, like others I'm sure, or if Loeb pulls a page out of the old Moon and Bear tribe theory presented by Alex Ross in an alternate universe then I'll be waiting for Stan Lee to give the seal of UNAPPROVAL.

But it's all speculation and maybe Loeb can deliver a true quality story, something that Wolverine has been missing for many moons. So far it's off to a rocky start, lets hope it picks up.

Grade: Not bad, but not great: A decent read worth the asking price

[Megalictis]

I was impressed. Bianchi's artwork was fantastic! Loeb's story has tremendous potential so far - possibly the Wolverine vs. Sabretooth story we've been waiting decades to read! Loeb provides definitive canon confirmation of two details that have been suspected for years: 1) Sabretooth raped Silver Fox before he killed her (the first time); and 2) Sabretooth isn't Logan's brother "Dog." As to the unrevealed connection between logan and Creed - that could still go either way: anything from briliant to bogus.

One think bugged me about the fight scene. Creed snapped Logan's spine and Logan goes off into one of his "death dreams" (this one about Silver Fox). What bugs me is that during this moment of incapacity Creed apparently backs off and just lets Logan heal! Now Creed would have to know that Wolverine would recover and resume the fight, so why not try to make it permanent, as he'd just threatened to do?!? Even ignoring the questions of "where are the X-men and all the students while two feral mutants are fighting right outside the mansion?" or "Where are the Sentinels?" I still don't understand the contradiction between what Creed had just finished saying and what he actually did. If this arc really sets out to explain why Logan and Creed haven't managed to kill each other yet, and if Creed really already knows the answer, why has he continually pretended that he can kill Logan, and why is he still doing so now? These are the answers I'll be looking for in this arc, and hopefully Loeb has some good ones.

[Jesse M. Huertas]

I kinda took that scene as that the death scene happened in the blink of an eye and Wolverine repeating the latin phrase stopped Creed from taking him out. Kinda like your life flashing between your eyes when death arrives. I just think it happened way to fast and Wolverine repeated the saying and it caught Creed off guard long enough for Wolverine to heal. Because after the dream the angle seemed like Creed had a grasp of Logan and let go.

Any way, I had always thought it was known that Sabretooth raped Silver Fox the first go around. Maybe it just wasn't never put on paper due to it's graphic content. I did wonder like you where were the Sentinels and the other X-Men, maybe the rest of the X-Crew knew this had to happen eventually. Or I guess since it happens so fast that nobody has responded.

In any case, I wonder where in continuity does this take place? During Civil War? In CW#6 Falcon reports to Captain A. that Wolverine won't break ranks with the X-Men to partake in the finale, is it because him and Creed are busy?

[hcbrewer]

the only good thing in this book was the half descent art
this is #50 (again) a nice sized double issue
but wait - half the book is some stupid re-hash of a marvel screw up

wolverine walks past Rogue
and a battle ensues between Wolverine & Sabretooth - ya thats original

major flaws - where are the X-men - Rogue thought they would just share a beer!

- the Sentinels are supposedly surronding the grounds making sure nothing happens - ok the battle isn't that exciting maybe they are justed bored with it like myself - and it's not over - will probably last for the next 5 issues

- we already know sabretooth killed and raped silver fox -> why else would wolverine hate him so much - I thought it a little tastless to put it to paper - somethings are better off assumed

I agree with Jesse - snapping Wolverines neck - he recovered in less than a second
he was a skeleton a couple of books ago and regenerated in less time

the only thing that could save this story Arc is if Wolverine finally kills Sabretooth

[Megalictis]

In any case, I wonder where in continuity does this take place? During Civil War?

Since Sabretooth is sitting around the mansion free of his chains this places it after the last arc in (adjectiveless) X-Men. As for how this relates to the timeline in Civil War - that's anybody's guess!

we already know sabretooth killed and raped silver fox -> why else would wolverine hate him so much

Wasn't the killing part enough to make Logan hate Creed? Rape has never been mentioned, or even really implied by their comments. So now it's official: Creed is a rapist as well as a sociopathic, sadistic killer.

[Jesse M. Huertas]

I had always assumed Creed was a rapist, even if it never was actually said, he's one of the craziest most lunatic blood thirsty villian ever, so I never paid much attention. For some reason though I feel as though Silver Fox might be making a return, already in a three short months she's been highlighted, both in Wolverine Origins #8 I believe and this month's parent title. In any case, the whole Wolverine sneaking into his own home was kinda stupid and threw me off even in the previews...why Sabretooth is roaming the mansion without restraints astound me even more...that Loeb. How many X-characters does Creed have to mutilate and near kill before the X-Men get the clue or actually Marvel gets a clue...

[Megalictis]

Creed was still in chains as of the last issue of X-Men (placing this story after the present arc, currently in part 2). But in the previous arc he was injected with nanite micro-sentinels that the X-Men can activate if he gets out of line. This "internal safeguard" may be Loeb's justification for letting him off his leash.

I'm beginning to wonder if these "lupine" Wolverine say in his vision have anything to do with the Hunter in Darkness?

[Jesse M. Huertas]

Hunter in the Darkness, now that's a obscure character we haven't heard from in a long while...

Maybe Way can bring back Albert and Elsie Dee and just permanantly throw me over the bridge

[Mark Caringer]

I think Wolverine #50 was good, we get a little teaser. its exciting, but too short. the 2nd story was the stupidest, i thought it was going to be like added insight on Hulk and Wolvie's first fight, but it ended up being a fake story a joke, wast of fans time and pages and money. I started to really look at teh art in the book and alot of the art is actully cheap looking, but then there are scences you can tell they worked on, but if you compair it to Dillion then I love Bianchi's work.

[origins27]

bianchi's art is very awesome! jeph loeb kicks really good! love their combination! can't wait to see the next issue! snikt!