The one and only, original flavor Logan returns in his first solo ongoing series since 2014 from Benjamin Percy, Adam Kubert, Viktor Bogdanovic, Frank Martin, Matthew Wilson and Cory Petit! We get duel stories as Wolverine investigates the new street drug Pollen. Also he fights Dracula.
Tony Thornley: Hey there Pierce, welcome to our new adventure! We’re happy to have you here!
Pierce Lightning: Hi Tony! Happy to be here!
Things Aren’t What They Seem
TT: So I kind of love this opening because it shows one of the strengths of the new Krakoa status quo. Logan is covered in his teammates’ blood, while the bodies of Jean, Domino and Quire lay around him. How many times have we seen a hero wake up in a situation like this? The lead wakes up, covered in blood, sometimes with a dead body nearby, and we go “well things aren’t how they seem?”
Yet Percy is able to subvert that trope by going, yeah, things aren’t how they seem, but not in the same old way. This really is Jean, Dom and Quire. But there’s more to the story and that’s where the journey will be. I think it’s very smart, and probably one of the better uses of the new toys we’ve gotten from a storytelling perspective.
PL: In a strange way, taking death off the table in a more real way than just the usual superhero nonsense has turned it into a much more effective storytelling tool. But it is one that Percy has tended to lean into a lot in the early goings of this new status quo. X-Force are frequently put in the most dangerous situations so I doubt this will be the last time we’ll see them die. I worry that it’ll lose its luster but I do appreciate that Percy isn’t afraid to rack up a body count.
TT: I agree that it could definitely get old if he keeps dipping into that well (though killing Quire in every story arc could be a great recurring gag, let’s be honest). Here while it’s still fresh though, I really liked it.
PL: I am all for Quire’s continuous death.
TT: Anyone else, I wouldn’t be, but Quentin kinda deserves it.
World’s Worst Hay Fever
PL: So this issue is a bit of a bear with Benjamin Percy tackling two stories, one with Adam Kubert and one with Viktor Bogdanovich.
TT: And interesting enough, they’re both extralength stories. Don’t see that very often any more.
PL: I have to imagine that editorial is setting us up for art delays by getting the first issues out of the way so that we get full arcs with each artist rather than fill-ins. Not unlike what’s going on with New Mutants.
TT: Probably true, and I really dug it. The art really looked great throughout. Anyways, on to the stories!
PL: In the Kubert story, we flashback a bit to the days leading up to the bloodbath and I really like Percy’s slice of life Krakoan Wolverine. Kate mentions that Logan seems happy for once and I have to say, I’m a big fan of the Ol’ Canucklehead just kicking it around the island. It’s a great contrast to that opening scene and Kubert has some fun filling in some more of the inhabitants of Krakoa. (I’m starting a campaign now for all those kids to be the next class of New Mutants.)
TT: I adored Logan playing hide and seek with these kids. It was so sweet and fun, but Kubert showed in a really fun way that Logan really can’t ever change. He makes him seem really sinister in the bushes until Jean telekinetically wins and shows that she might be the worst at hide and seek ever. It’s adorable and perfectly in character, showing how well Kubert understands Logan. It’s such a great sequence.
PL: Of course, the plot demands that Wolverine can never be happy and Percy quickly thrusts us into a narrative that features a new drug called Pollen that is related to the Krakoan flowers, a mysterious villain(?) known as The Pale Girl and a mutant worshipping cult called the Order of X who want to become one with Krakoa [Ed. note: You might remember them from throw away appearances in Marauder and X-Force]. All in all, it felt very X-Force-y to me but the opening and closing scenes gave some nice bookends to the more expository middle. I don’t think Percy has quite sold me on this being a solo Wolverine story yet but I’m intrigued at least.
TT: That’s very true, but it does at least put the POV in Logan’s hands. It’s not a solo Wolverine story, but it is a Wolverine story.
Pollen is a fascinating take on the Krakoan drugs. So far in Dawn of X, we’ve really only seen antagonists steal drugs for the black market, or buy them up for nefarious purposes. Here, it’s a corruption of their purpose, kind of like opiate pain relievers versus heroin (not a direct comparison but the closest I can think of on the spot). We get to see it in action when X-Force lands smack dab in the middle of an Order of X revival, and everyone hops themselves up on Pollen to face the objects of their worship.
PL: I wonder how Percy will differentiate this mutant drug from past mutant drugs, though. I think the Order of X angle is interesting in that it makes the drugs more ritualistic but there isn’t a clear figurehead right now unless the Pale Girl is more intimately related than we can gather at this juncture. Percy has thrown a lot at us in this issue and it’s telling that he needs his data pages to be so focused on exposition because he’s not able to fit those details in elsewhere. Does that seem like a failure to build the story in a way that reveals those details more organically or is Percy just cutting to the chase and essentially saying “well, there’s no reason that Wolverine wouldn’t get a write up like this so the readers can too?”
TT: That’s a good point, and I think the best way to think about it is how there’s a difference between these pages and the Marauders pages. That series is probably my favorite example of using the data pages as exposition. There, they’re reports being sent back and forth, and Duggan uses them to cover ground off panel. Here (and in X-Force), it’s just additional prose. I think that’s why it might feel that way, rather than a bit more essential?
I don’t think it’s a bad use of those pages, and I like it myself. It lets Percy jump from one setting to the other in a way that’s not jarring. But I also think that it could be presented in a bit different way that’s not just a page of prose. Maybe shifting into after-action reports, or Logan taking notes while he’s investigating?
PL: Yeah, I’d like to see Percy evolve his usage of the data pages to be more unique to Logan. When Kate explains what’s going on with Pollen, that’s essentially a data page but we get some images to go along with what she’s talking about that definitely aids in our understanding. (Weird that comics work better when there are pictures…) Plus any opportunity to get more Adam Kubert art is welcome.
Can we talk a bit about the art in this issue? Because Kubert and Wolverine is really a match made in heaven.
TT: Oh my gosh yes. I loved both art teams, but the lead story by Kubert and Martin is just something else. It just plain looks great. The continuity in the opening scene of his wounds healing was the perfect example of how well Kubert gets Wolverine- it’s more than just a savage becoming more human. The entire lead story is just fantastically illustrated.
PL: I really enjoyed that Kubert threw a lot of non-traditional layouts at us and allowed each portion of the story to stand on its own. The long double page spreads in the opening then with Kitty and then with the Order of X gave us big moments three different ways. The page with Wolverine getting X-Force together and Gateway sending them through a portal that is all focused on circles gave us probably the best Wolverine/Jean moment of the entire Dawn of X so far. Kubert is such a nostalgic pick for a Wolverine book but it’s great to see him expanding his repertoire and continuing to get better.
How did you feel about the Dude as CIA operative? Interesting counterbalance to Wolverine or are we just doomed to think every man who looks like that is The Dude?
TT: Oh I laughed when I realized who he reminded me of, then two panels later it was painfully obvious. Yes, Agent Jeff Bannister is 100% Jeff Bridges, and I’d like to know if that was Kubert’s choice or Percy’s. It was great.
PL: There’s one panel that bugged me. We see that Bannister has what looks like a hole in his head in one panel before he visits his daughter. What’s going on there? Is Bannister a mutant maybe?
TT: I saw that too. I wonder if it’s just a quirky character detail, or something that will come back later? I couldn’t quite tell if it was a nasty scar or something more like a mutation.
Bad Blood
TT: In the second story, illustrated by Bogdanovic and Wilson, Omega Red comes to Krakoa, and naturally brings trouble. Now, I thought the lead story, while a little slower paced, was a lot of fun and introduced a lot of really interesting concepts. This story, while a lot faster paced and action packed, felt to me mostly just like Curse of the Mutants II. It’s about vampires waging war on a newly founded mutant nation… What did you think of it?
PL: I am fully in on Wolverine versus Dracula. Also, Omega Red should become a dracula. I have to imagine that Percy is playing with the old “What If Wolverine was Lord of the Vampires?” story at least in an overarching way [Ed. note: Which rules, actually.]. I preferred the first story but I’m all for the big, dumb fun of something like this vampire story. That said, I really have no love for Bogdanovic. His lines are so frail. His characters look just off enough in body proportions or design that it’s distracting. It really feels like he’s doing a budget Greg Capullo thing. (This story definitely gave some similar “Court of Owls” vibes.) But I might be a bit hard on him because I just spent the previous pages with Kubert and that’s a hard artist to have to compete with.
TT: Yeah, I liked his work, but I absolutely see where you’re coming from. Kubert is an essential Wolverine artist, perhaps even the defining Wolverine artist. Bogdanovic is still a fairly new artist who is defining himself. That’s a tough situation for him to find himself. I think he mostly pulls it off, but I don’t disagree that it’s the weaker of the two artistically.
I liked this story overall too, even if it is very familiar. We get Logan in Paris (have we ever seen him in Paris?), we get sexy vampire hunting nuns, we get blood speakeasies. It’s a lot of fun. But let’s talk the big concept that this introduces- Wolverine’s magic blood.
PL: We love to see a big dumb concept! Wolverine is the perfect character for this kind of stuff too because you can always just retcon in some justification for why he’s connected to this or that character.
TT: I don’t think it’s ever been explicit that Logan’s blood has healing properties, but not only is that explicit here, but it’s the entire point. Wolverine blood is able to cure vamps’ weaknesses (at least temporarily) and even heal humans/mutants. That’s why the vampires attacked (and secretly recruited) Omega Red- he would draw Logan out, and right into their clutches. I kind of loved this. It’s cheesy superhero nonsense science, but it’s kind of lovable for that reason.
PL: Actually, it turns out that we have seen his blood have healing properties before and given the creator involved, I wonder if that ended up being the impetus for some of what Percy is doing here. In Savage Avengers #2, Logan does a sort of makeshift blood transfusion, dousing Brother Voodoo’s heart with his “high octane mutant blood” to save the magical hero’s life. Gerry Duggan wrote that and I have to imagine it’s come up in the X-Slack. I’m all about the data pages for that story, too. Give me more weird graphs and less straightforward prose!
TT: Agreed!
PL: That said, I don’t know if I am totally in love with the idea of more mutant medicine. It feels like we’ve barely scratched the surface with the Krakoan flowers, does Logan’s magic blood undermine that concept? It doesn’t seem like it makes it stronger. Would the flowers just cure the vampires and that’s why they don’t want it? I’ve got questions! I want answers!
TT: Let’s hope we get them in the months to come! There’s so many cool concepts to mine in this issue!
X-Traneous Thoughts
- The Order of X is fascinating enough to take an entire article to chat about. Maybe the next time they show up.
- A little disappointed not to see Gabby with the hide and seek kids.
- Louise the Vampire Hunter was 100% the Magdalena
- Hoping that Percy creates some separation between what constitutes a Wolverine story and what constitutes an X-Force story.
- It feels like Percy revisiting something like Uncanny #268 would be right up his alley.
- Apropos of nothing in this issue, I’d really like to see Percy write a Terror Inc/Wolverine team-up.
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
Pierce Lightning is a longtime comics journalist and critic, singer for a band called Power Trash and staving off the crushing heel of capitalism with every fiber of their comic book loving being.
Pierce Lightning is a longtime comics journalist and critic, singer for a band called Power Trash, and staving off the crushing heel of capitalism with every fiber of their comic book loving being.
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
