Written by: Charles Soule
Art by: Steven McNiven
Publisher: Marvel
One more issue to go before we say goodbye to the old Canucklehead, let’s get the tissues ready.
Charles Soule and Steve MicNiven’s Death of Wolverine has played out like a sort of greatest hits of Logan’s life, ruminating on almost all of his greatest yarns while not requiring a direct knowledge of what the two creators are referencing. Issue #3 relies heaviest on the Kitty Pryde and Wolverine miniseries that followed Chris Claremont’s and Frank Miller’s seminal series Wolverine (which has also been heavily referenced throughout this title). These references only serve to strengthen the book as they provide a comprehensive feel and history for Wolverine as a character, not defining him by his past stories entirely, but showing how they have shaped him into the man he has become. One of the most poignant moments is when Logan is contemplating suicide with Kitty in Japan overlooking the cherry blossoms on a bridge in Japan. This part even recalls Brian K. Vaughan’s and Eduardo Risso’s Logan series, specifically how comfortable Wolverine could potentially be with dying, considering the life he has lead, which is a theme explored in both titles.
The highlight of this issue remains in Wolverine’s fight with Ogun, who possesses Kitty’s body. I don’t know if it’s the inner middle-schooler in me, but seeing Steve McNiven draw Wolverine in full Samurai garb and weaponry made me giddy. While a great action scene, it also makes Wolverine’s saga come full circle with all the references that Soule and McNiven have poured into this series. By showing Wolverine in his Samurai gear in this issue and as his pseudonym Patch in the previous issue, we gain a full appreciation of the multi-faceted nature of Wolverine’s character when the rewrites, retcons, and multiple histories can sometimes serve to only weaken the character. Here, they give him only strength. By using almost every major story Wolverine has starred in as canon and fodder for references, we see that the main thesis for this title is not to relish in the death of the titular hero, it’s to show how powerful he remains through his pure pervasiveness spanning centuries in comic continuity and over 30 years for his loyal readers, fans, and fellow X-Men.
All in all, another stellar entry to this series that I was initially skeptical of it’s merits. We only have one more issue to go, with hints that the final story to be referenced is Barry Windsor-Smith’s seminal classic Weapon X (which happens to be my favorite Wolverine story), we can only pay our respects to everyone’s favorite X-Man and to this wonderful team brought together to see him go.
