Last week, I professed my love for Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch — the current creative team behind the Fantastic Four.
This week, I’m gonna sing Millar’s praises again … but this time for his stint on Marvel’s monthly Wolverine series.
Now before I start gushing, I’ve got to admit that I don’t normally like Wolverine’s comic book. I like the character, but I’ve always thought that his series was flawed. (I’m referring to his main book, not the Origins comic or that Logan book slated to come out.)
The series started off bad a long time ago when Chris Claremont launched it featuring Logan in the country of Madripoor hiding in his “Patch” alias. The comic was short on action and packed with boring characters and scenarios. Years later, Larry Hama took over and didn’t fare much better.
All in all, I just thought the book — which starred a homicidal maniac — was always way too sedate.
And that brings us back to Millar.
As far as I’m concerned, Millar’s “Enemy of the State” storyline was the best tale ever told in the monthly Wolverine comic. (I’m not talking about the old Frank Miller-drawn limited series.) The story was action-packed, filled with cool guest stars, introduced one of Marvel’s most interesting villains and showed Wolvie being more deadly and hardcore than ever before.
When the 12-part story was done, Millar left and the book went to being sucky again. And I stopped reading it once more. That is, until a few months ago when Millar came back to Wolverine to tell his “Old Man Logan” mini-series within a series.
If you haven’t read it yet, the story chronicles the adventures of a pacifist Wolverine (and his partner Hawkeye) in a post-apocalyptic future where all the heroes have died. Like his previous run on the comic, this arc is wall-to-wall action, blood, gore and violence … and isn’t that what a Wolverine is supposed to be all about?
Looking for introspection? Pick up a Starman trade.
Carlton Hargro is the editor-in-chief of Creative Loafing Charlotte. For more comic reviews from Carlton, visit http://www.charlotte.creativeloafing.com/.
1 comment:
I'm totally taken by this series, it's good, crazy fun, good quality mainstream comics. I don't even read lest like Marvel, but it's just too good!
I have the feeling the series/character will live of this run for quite a while after it has ended as the house of M tends to let things fade... Wolverine deserves to be treated bad in a good way.
Post a Comment