While I’ve been continuing to read this book, I’ve been neglecting to keep it in my review queue with how little I’ve been enjoying it. So what brings me to throwing it back into the mix this week? Have they finally decided to do something original with Wolverine now that he is killable without his healing factor? Not quite. Is it because this story is going to be leading into the ‘Dead of Wolverine‘ mini-series? Still no as we have the ‘3 Months to Die’ story arc that has to hit before that happens. So why did this get thrown back into the mix?

Sabertooth, Ninjas, Wolverine doing his own thing. It is a typical outing in Logan’s life as he takes his team of criminals across Madripoor to track down Sabertooth. While we’ve already learned that he is really working with MI-13 and S.H.I.E.L.D. to gain an artifact before Sabertooth does, things aren’t working well for him. For starters he is more interested in bringing down Sabertooth by himself than helping them. Follow that up with Pinch starting to suspect that he is still a hero and not the criminal he has supposidly become. Honestly the fact that they spend so much time on Pinch’s view of the man she loves is one of the two only redeeming portion of the book as it felt real. Also that image from the cover? That was playing into Pinch finally deciding that Wolverine isn’t who he has been saying he is. The other portion that feels real is near the end with a murder by Sabertooth that reminds us he isn’t a cheesy two-bit villain. The only problem is that these both felt to be too little, too late.

Things aren’t only going back for Wolverine they are going bad for the comic a well! Of all things that stop Sabertooth, a random monkey that lives on the island is able to steal the artifact from him? The look of Wolverine as Patch continues in the super corny 90’s style of everything being EXTREME really just doesn’t fit anywhere in the X-Men universe anymore (or comics in general if I had my way!). Oh, and Logan being fatally poisoned with no healing factor? He’s doomed! Well, aside, of course, from the conveniently predictable last second save from the poison in an entire scene that really didn’t need to be wasting page space.

So the reason I decided to review this title is because it was my absolute least favorite to date. Wolverine does what he feels is right because he always knows best. He actions put his new and old friends at risk and Sabertooth is once again 3 steps ahead of him. While he is killable now, he is poisoned and almost dies to be saved at the last moment. While there have been piles of stories about the best at what he does, Cornell really isn’t anything new here. Combined with the art by Sandoval that really fell flat this month, this was just a painful read. Thankfully it looks as if next month the story arc is going to finally be coming closer to a conclusion and we can continue on to the last few of Logan’s life.

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WOLVERINE #7
Writer: Paul Cornell
Artist: Gerardo Sandoval