Wolverine #51 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!

This month continues the 'brawl of the century' between the two archrivals Sabretooth and Wolverine. We find Wolverine having more dreams about these Lupine characters that he has no idea why he's dreaming about them. He soon wakes up after his trance strapped onto the top of the X-Jet. He crashes into the cockpit and once again Sabretooth and our boy Logan go at it. The plane crashes on the land and these two creatures burned down to their bone and metal continue to fight (Yes they still fight with Wolvernator burned to his metal with no muscle or skin on his forearms, yes you are reading the ridiculousness of it all). Suddenly after Wolverine is remembering when Psylocke and Sabretooth go back at it (circa UXM 328) and he nearly kills her. He has no idea why he's seeing this and Wolverine then returns from his day dreaming with Storm stopping the fight. Presumably our hero is stranded in Wakanda

Yes this story is a light as that summary I just gave you. This is all style with no substance. A whole lot of nothing is happening. Just hoping that this eventually makes some sort of sense as to why these two hate eachother. Loeb for all intent and purposes I believe is the wrong choice to even touch Wolverine. I'm trying to figure what he has ever contributed to Wolverine (remember the Victims mini?) to allow him to write this important story. So far its no good and a waste of your hard earned 3 dollars. But if you must purchase this crap, at least you'll have some pretty pictures.

Review: Well, it’s not the worst: Only for diehards…even then

[Megalictis]

Ever since Logan went from "I heal real fast" to near-instantaneous total cellular regeneration, artists have been going over the top in portraying the amount of damage he can sustain. And Bianchi - while I really enjoy his artwork - is no exception. I also took the scene you mention (just after the plane crash) as an unpleasant example of this. Logan's forearm is bare bone, yet his fist remains somehow impossibly clenched, and his claws (equally impossibly) remain extended (rather than simply falling out because they're no longer attached to his missing ligaments. One practical mistake like that makes the rest of the scene laughable. I just groan, write it off to artistic license taken too far, and move on.

Storm's comment about how they should know they can't kill each other on the last page makes me wonder if she knows something about Logan and Creed that she hasn't told them. And if she does I'll be wondering what sense it makes for her to have withheld this information from Logan for so long.

Reading a comic book requires a certain level of suspension of disbelief, but even then I like my stories to make sense. In the previous issue we are expected to believe that Creed is allowed free run of the mansion, while over in X-Men he's constantly chained and has been injected with nanite Sentinels that the X-Men can use to kill him if he gets out of line. Yet here he is - smashing through the window to fight Wolverine on the front lawn - and not one single X-Man notices? (And Rogue was just there a minute ago)!

Now in #51 we have to assume that Logan was unconscious long enough for Creed to sneak his body down to the hanger, steal a blackbird, and escape the mansion - all without being detected by any of the X-Men (or the students), the internal security systems, or the O*N*E Sentinels on the mansion grounds...

WTF?!?

On the positive side the fight scenes are better than the "present tense" scenes in Origins. But like it's counterpart title, Wolverine is descending into the same format where flashbacks, visions and dreams seem more important than what's actually happenning "now." And without context, the "dreams" in Wolverine - of two "lupine' who are obvious analogies to Logan and Creed - are becoming a little annoying.

And if the pattern of backstory taking precedence over action is becoming endemic in both Wolverine titles I have to wonder whether it has more to do with the editor than the writers?

[Jesse M. Huertas]

I'm with you on all counts Mega...I really don't know what to think of this. The only thing I would really accept that Storm would know about Wolverine and Creed would be if BP has any information. What I am trying to figure out is what Sabretooth trying to accomplish. Obviously he is sending a message to Logan, so I'm assuming that Sabretooth knows this true history, but I've always wondered is how Creed is able to have his memories even though him and Logan were always by products of the same manipulations. The X-titles have consistently lacked very poor editorial, I'll try to ask this question to joe q but he never answers Wolverine questions as of late.

[Epitaph]

i want more answers as well for this story. The story is ok the fight scenes are the peak of the comic in my opinion. Wolverine comics as of late just arn't cutting it the way they should be. Jeph Loeb's attempt at this is good...better than origins for sure but it could be so much more. I mean look at The Long Halloween the Batman story Loeb did.. it was great beyond great as well as the Dark Victory or even the Grey Hulk he did with Tim Sale...all i can say is What the f**k...