I haven’t been enjoying this run on ‘Wolverine’ so far and that should be clear as my highlight of the second issue is that The Superior Spider-Man was making a guest appearance. This issue plays off the strength by not only including Doc Ock again but also throwing in Jubilee, the X-Men, and S.H.I.E.L.D., which all greatly benefit the story. In fact the prediction I made in the first issue about this all being a ploy for Wolverine to take out Sabertooth was hinted at in these pages.
Predictable? It may be starting out that way but at least the writing has improved with Logan having to interact with people we care about and not the ragtag group of second string villains he’s been working with. I’m not sure what he did differently this time but Stegman’s art seems to work. Wolverine isn’t quite the hulking short neanderthal he has been the pats few issues and the rest of who we see all are drawn quite well on top of that.
We open with Jubilee picking Wolverine up after his little talking to with Spidey last issue. He’s just hanging around and seems quite surprised that she’s out in the sun. Oddly enough, I’m pretty sure they’ve already had her out in the sun as a vampire. This time up though the selling point is that Beast invented a car and sunscreen that can help her take care of it as he sees vampirism as a challenge. A great lead in to the fact that Hank can probably help him out of Wolverine was willing to give him half a chance. Her only major comment on his losing of his healing factor is that she could turn him into a vampire if he wants to be self healing again.
They roll up on the X-Men tangling with sentinels and out of the blue he’s called off to the side by S.H.I.E.L.D. They have an operation in play to take out Sabertooth and want Wolverine to help take him out.
Shockingly, he turns her down. Unshockingly I’m sure we’re going to see in the end he’s not doing this on his own but working with all of his friend s to take down Sabertooth. It’d tie more in with how his character has been developed. At any rate he goes a little berzerker on the sentinels out of anger and frustration and ends up almost getting himself killed. Jubilee saves him at the last moment and he returns to the Jean Grey school where Quire harasses him a little as he comes in. At the end we see that someone has made him a new costume which is the armor he’s now wearing. That someone isn’t Beast and it is actually quite surprising that he of all people helped Logan out.
The writing still isn’t great. I feel with Jubilee they ignored how she’s already been in the sun and on top of that it feels too predictable. Still, with Wolverine interacting with the rest of his friends we get an OK issue. Are we seeing an upswing to the series or was this a fluke OK issue?
WOLVERINE #3
Writer: Paul Cornell
Artist: Ryan Stegman
