As the cover exclaims, Wolverine has 1 month to die! This however isn’t directly tied to the ongoing storyline in ‘Wolverine’ that will see Logan end up dead. It does, however, show us Logan trying to look after his adoptive daughter Jubilee and try to show her another way to survive on her own. She enjoys complicating things by taking her adopted son Shogo along.

Elliott Kalan is in top form on this story, giving us a parallel between the wold of Wolverine and his unofficially adopted daughter Jubilee as well as two soldiers, Kim and Brad, who are married. We get a lot told here about love, loss, and the fear of death. It’s honestly impressive how much is fit into the issue! Not only that, but with how lackluster the ‘Wolverine’ comic has been in leading up to Logan’s send off (aside from the last issue which I actually enjoyed unlike the rest of the series) this feels like a good place for Logan and Jubilee to get their last moment in together.

You can tell someone knows his Wolverine history and does a phenomenal job at setting the tone, banter, and relationship between the two. While I wasn’t necessarily a fan of how they use the military couple here to advance the point that Jubilee has long ago come into her own and Logan can finally see that. That being said, it was nice to see her taking care of him for a change.

I clearly liked the writing, what about Jonathan Marks’ artwork? Honestly, this is what I disliked about the comic and why the rating was so low. While Marks’ artwork was fantastic on its own or if it were for a different comic, I didn’t feel like it fit in for a Wolverine and Jubilee story. I’d love to see Marks work on a Warren Ellis comic and think that would be a great match up in styles. Was it beautiful? Absolutely. Did it work for the type of story being told? Yes, if the leads were different.

I have a feeling that after Logan bites the big one we’re going to see a lot of comics in a similar style of this one as his friends, enemies, and family deal with the loss of the mutant who was the best at what he did.

Honestly, if it wasn’t for the art and coloring not being to my taste for a ‘Wolverine’ title, this would have a near perfect score. This is my favorite Wolverine piece that I’ve read since the previous run of the stand alone series and I suspect is a better send off than we’ll see next month. Even with the lower rating from my viewpoint on the art, this is a great buy for the writing for long term fans of our soon to be departed Wolverine.

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WOLVERINE ANNUAL #1
Writer: Elliott Kalan
Artist: Jonathan Marks