Back from ‘Wolverine’ #11 we are still in the shopping mall where Sabertooth’s Hand ninjas, the Silver Samurai, and Mystique are all tormenting a battered and non-healing Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, and a few innocent humans. You know, I’m going to be honest, if the events in this book weren’t having a direct consequence on Wolverine in the X-books I probably would be dropping this title. Yet with it being this close to its ending before the next NOW! relaunch and having it be relavent to the other ‘X-Men’ titles, I just can’t force myself to drop it.
So, how does the latest part of the story stack up? Well for one thing it’s dragging out far too long! We open with Wolverine still being hunted by the Silver Samurai who ends up tormenting him with some of the Hand. Honestly they end up playing games with him as he is hesitating now that he is killable (which isn’t reflected in the latest couple of issues of ‘Wolverine and the X-Men’) and also he’s apparently lost his stealth as he can’t sneak up on anyone now.
I didn’t think stealth was a mutant power but maybe it’s because he’s feeling so much pain that he can’t keep up his iron focus and training that he’s followed for years.
After properly tormenting him they end up leaving and Wolverine finds his way back to Kitty and the group of survivors they are trying to keep safe. When he gets there, we find out that he almost attacks one who keeps taunting him and blaming mutants for his problems. In fact he goes so far as to cut the man’s hand off!
Or, the woman’s hand off. Apparently it was Mystique in disguise all along just further proving the point to Wolverine that he hasn’t found a new lease on life. She runs out of there before Kitty or Logan can respond and we end up with him chasing after her only to be knocked to the ground at the feet of Sabertooth who has orchestrated this entire event once he found out about Wolverine’s condition. He’s also holding the sword that Mystique had stolen from Logan and I’m sure in the next issue at the moment before he dies (or before Sabertooth lets him go saying he’s proven his point) the sword will have a deep and profound impact.
At least that will be the point. I honestly can’t say I’m sold on what these issues have been doing to Wolverine or how they’ve had him act. This isn’t his first rodeo without a healing factor. I think that’s the biggest annoyance for me here. Wolverine has been ‘killable’ before and having him running scared the way they do he’s not being the best at what he does. It’s out of character and I don’t believe it’s written out of character in a believable way. Sadly, with the next story arc having been announced for the NOW! reboot, I don’t know if we’ll see him behaving properly again for quite some time. Oh well, at least that might mean he won’t be in every other comic Marvel releases for awhile.
Next week is the big showdown with Sabertooth. We’ll see what happens in the last issue of the ‘Killable’ story arc.
WOLVERINE #12
Writer: Paul Cornell
Artist: Alan Davis
