Wendigo cub, yes, adamantium plot, no, in Marvel’s Wolverine #4

The return of the villainous Constrictor means trouble for Wolverine, but more than Logan could possibly realize. What’s wrong with Constrictor, and what does it mean for Wolverine’s future … and past? Wolverine #4 is written by Saladin Ahmed, drawn by Martin Coccolo, colored by Bryan Valenza and lettered by Cory Petit.

Logan! Go on, say it! Can you say Lo-gan?

A teenager turned cannibalistic Wendigo sure can’t seem to say it. Guess we’ll just have to accept that the X-Men’s resident “loner” is now Lo-di-gan. It’s got quite the ring to it. 

Oh man, what things to feel about this, the fourth issue of the umpteenth volume of Wolverine to have graced shelves over the decades. Pretty sure the only character ahead in the count of relaunched solo series volumes is Punisher with 10. Daredevil is neck and neck with Logan (with eight each) and surprisingly Spider-Man is only at six, if we’re only counting the main books of each (and not his enormous amount of recycled secondary or tertiary books). 

When it comes to all of the Logan stories that have ever existed, where would this one fall into a ranking? 

First off, I have neither the time nor the inclination to rank Logan/Wolverine books in any capacity (nor have I read them all). That said, it would probably fall somewhere in the middle. Which is pretty much where this new run, and some of the new X-era it belongs to, would fall. 

Let’s talk about the Wendigo parts, because honestly those are the best parts of this story. 

Had Ahmed rolled in and offered up a little arc that was Wolverine playing teacher to a reluctant Wendigo, I would have been all over this story. Being the guy who found his way, even if he struggles, out of the wild darkness who works to make sure others aren’t pulled down into that darkness is fitting for the character. As noted in the previous reviews, being the Lone Wolf and Cub guy is cliché but really works. 

In some capacities at least. More on that in a bit. 

Unfortunately, we get very little of that development and story here. Instead, we’re now back to the mystery born out in the first issue and then mostly abandoned till now: some ancient being, looking to reclaim the “false metal” adamantium and those who bear its mark. 

Sorry, I’m stifling a yawn over here. Big ancient evils and changes to Logan’s Swiss cheese past just aren’t something that does anything for me. 

Truly one of the worst things Marvel ever did was open up Logan’s past. Keeping it shrouded in mystery, focusing more on the man than the origins, was working great. But then they opened that door, and it hasn’t been closed since, with every writer finding ways to shove more things into a past that resembles an “Oh crap, I need to clean up” sitcom closet more and more by the year. 

Another terrible thing is this duty that creators feel to skew as close to the old days as possible. By that I mean this tighthold grasp that ’80/’90s Wolverine has on any book, from the nostalgia that permeates to the recycled plots to the whole “I’M A LONE WOLF, I NEED NO ONE!” energy that never leaves. 

Much like Batman, this is a character who has a massive family, both biological and found, that are around him all the time. He mentors young people constantly, finding new wards to take on everywhere he turns. Yet he wants to keep pretending he must brood and suffer alone, and it’s tiresome. 

Sir, as a haver of depression, I understand. You’ve been through some shit, more shit than a ton of other people around you, but you have a massive support system. Stop running off to run with wolves and bemoan your lot in life in the snow. You were a bummer on Krakoa for far too long, and only accepted it once it was too late, and now you’re a bummer again. 

Visually too, the book is fine. 

Slick and energetic, often static, with a depth and amount of detail that is solid. At least the action at times feels more dynamic than it has any right to be since it’s a lot of been-there-done-that plot points. Still not the type of work I expect from the rough-and-tumble stories being told with Logan, but it’ll do. 

Probably doesn’t help that we’re four issues into this story and most of the action/story takes place in blank, snowy spaces. Hey, at least they were in some empty mountainous spaces this issue, so that was a change. 

Valenza got to bring some other colors into play. I’m sure he enjoyed that. Which I’m happy for, because I like Valenza’s coloring; it’s a highlight of any book he works on.

Just a massive ball of shrugtastic, “that’ll do, Logan, that’ll do” for this series. 

X-Traneous Thoughts

• Holy crap are there too many spill-it-all-out captions here! Logan is not verbose, but the man sure does think his thoughts at us way too dang much. Got me over here making the “blah blah blah” hand motion.
• Meta moments are fun and all, but Constrictor calling out the concept of “right place, right time” superheroics just felt all kinds of forced.
• Where in the hell does this take place continuity-wise? Because the scene with Nightcrawler sure seems to scream the current Uncanny X-Men situation … where Logan also is.
• Wait … is Logan a Skrull … again!? That would explain so many things. Logan appears in 50 places at once? All Skrulls. Cracked the code, folks.

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Scott Redmond

Scott Redmond is a freelance writer and educator fueled by coffee, sarcasm, his love for comic books and more "geeky" things than you can shake a lightsaber at. Probably seen around social media and remembered as "Oh yeah, that guy." An avid gamer, reader, photographer, amateur cook and solid human being.