Customer Reviews

Wolverine: Logan

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

No, it's not mind-blowing. Yes, pretty much every possible angle has been done on "untold" Logan tales from the past. Yes, this falls into that category.

Is it bad? One star bad? Absolutely not. BKV does his own take on the "untold" Logan story, and it's quite good. It's definitely an above average three issue story with Vaughan's fingerprints all over it. BKV's angle is different than any other writer's take on the young Logan story, and I for one found it to be very good. Not great, not bad, very good.

As for the art, again, I personally enjoyed it. Risso's style works very well with BKV's story. Some may not like the art because it's a bit... wild, untamed, even muted and subdued at times. To me, however, that fit well with the atmosphere of the writing, the character of Logan, and the environment and characters in the story. But, to each her own.

Everyone is entitled to her own opinion. However, I do feel like I have to rebut the other reviewer here for undue and unduly harsh criticism in regards to two things. One, this story is not bland or forgettable. On the contrary, bland is the last thing I would call it. (Also, there is use of tension, emotion and psychology at work in the writing here as well.) Instead, the word to be used is "subdued." The topic of the book is depressing, the colors often muted, and the whole story line is very low key and thoughtful. Those elements do not make this story "bland," they make it subdued, and it's obvious that the creators went to a great deal of effort to do so.

Second, calling the rest of the book "useless filler" is another undue criticism. Most people are interested in reading the original script pages and seeing the original preliminary art work. It adds to the layers of depth and understanding that went into the work. These extras show the pre-production process that occurs between the writer and artist, and they help to show aspiring or current artists and writers in the field how the process works. So calling this "useless filler" is way too harsh.

In sum, this book may not be for everyone. The $13.59 price tag is a bit high for three issues; it would probably be worth waiting for the trade paperback (Wolverine: Logan TPB (Wolverine)) to be released. It's not BKV's best work, but it's very good. It's not the seminal Wolverine back story because all of those were written a long time ago. Instead it's another above average "untold" Logan story that begins from before his time as Wolverine, but one written by BKV. For a BKV or Logan completionist, this may not be at the top of your list, but it deserves to be somewhere on it.

This story does not deserve the harsh criticism that some people give it. "Muted," "understated," and "subdued" is the style of this story. Some people do not get that subtlety or dislike it and simply think it's bland. Some people don't like getting extra script pages and character design extra features and think that kind of stuff is a waste. If you are one of these people, this might not be for you. Personally, I pensively enjoyed this little tome.

This is an ambitious little book -- an attempt by Brian K. Vaughan to add something new to the story of Logan. In a nutshell, during WWII Logan was taken as a Japanese POW, escaped with an American soldier, and fell in love with a Japanese woman in a little known place named Hiroshima. Then there's the parallel story, which takes place in present-day Hiroshima where Wolverine faces down an old foe, what appears to be a burning shadow that's risen from the stained ground.

It's actually a little heartbreaking, and Vaughan gives us a tender, vulnerable side of Logan I honestly can't remember seeing before. My one complaint is that I wish it were longer, that it had a chance to experiement a little more and dive deeper into it all.

There's probably not too many "new" directions Wolverine can be taken, but it's nice to see someone like Vaughan trying. This is a pretty gutsy attempt at showing us a different side of Logan than we're used to, and for the most part works.

Collecting: Logan 1-3 (miniseries)

Bonus Material: Scripts & sketch gallery

Synopsis:

Wolverine and an American with similar healing powers are POWs in World War II Japan. They escape and run into a beautiful Japanese girl. The American wants to kill her, but Wolverine stops him and so begins a grudge that the GI would hold against Wolverine for the next 60 years. Their feud might have ended in 1945, except it was interrupted by the atomic blast at Hiroshima which happens to fall practically on top of the fighting mutants. The graphic novel sets up the double entendre that Wolverine becomes a man both through the passionate night with Atsuko and through the nuclear flames of war.

Pros & Cons:

The dichotomy drawn between Wolverine and the truly feral US GI works well because in this contrast we are shown the merciful and rational side of wolverine (who is famous for his rage). Moreover we are given an original Wolverine story with a powerful choice to be made at the end. Vaughn and Risso also leave Wolverine's decision about whether to keep the memory and the pain or to forget artfully ambiguous.

For a book with such a nuanced Wolverine, I was a bit disappointed by the "bad guy." The nemesis is a totally warped, racist, gung ho American GI (who also has a healing factor). While I get it that the Japanese tortured and experimented on him and thus makes him crazy, the GI character never gets beyond a two dimensional comic book villain. I can't say exactly how the villain could have been done better, but against a wonderfully complex Wolverine it seems as though the story would have worked just as well if not better without the enemy GI.

Summary:

I believe this is one of the better Wolverine history episodes ever written. There are plenty of pre-x-men wolverine tales, but few of them render a whole person. Even a reader new to Wolverine mythology will find much to enjoy.

The story is set in the present when Logan is Wolverine and in 1945 when Logan was a GI. In 1945 he gets taken prisoner by the Japanese and busts out of jail only to find that his fellow American prisoner is a racist murderer who threatens women. Factor in the fact that they're in Hiroshima and that it's 1945 and you'll get an idea of what happens in the book.

It's a very short read, 3 issues with a lot of extras such as Brian Vaughan's outline to the mini-series, script pages, and Eduardo Risso's sketches of the characters and layouts to pad out the book and bump up the price. A tad dishonest considering the extras really aren't that interesting but there you go.

I like Wolverine books but this isn't one of the better ones. A lost love, a revenge story, and a big explosion probably summarise the book. It's a surprisingly dull read given that Vaughan is a tremendous writer and I've really enjoyed his past books "Y: The Last Man" and "Ex Machina". Logan never jumps off the page like he does when he's in the hands of other writers like Mark Millar or Frank Miller.

"Wolverine: Logan" is for completists only rather than casual fans of Wolverine. If you're looking for an awesome Wolvey book, try Mark Millar's "Old Man Logan" or the classic by Frank Miller and Clare Claremont, "Wolverine".

I love Brian K Vaughan's writing.

Y the Last Man is, in my opinion, the best thing to ever come out of DC's Vertigo line, topping even Sandman. I have all ten volumes and think it's brilliant. I love Ex Machina and have all six volumes so far released. I didn't expect to like Runaways, but really did and have the first six volumes of that as well. I have Pride of Bagdad and think it was a very touching, well done story. I have the Hood collection Vaughan did early in his career and was shocked at how entertaining he made what originally sounded like such a lame premise. I even have Batman False Faces, the collection of his very early Batman work, and enjoyed that quite a bit as well.

So when I saw Vaughan was doing a Wolverine story, I knew I had to give it a try. For the first time I regret picking up something he wrote. This collection fails on every single level. First off, it's only three issues for twenty bucks. When you pick it up, it seems about as thick as a standard twenty dollar hardcover(which are generally a little shorter than I'd like them to be for the price,) but when you take the plastic off you find out the story portion of the book is only about sixty pages long, and the rest of the book is useless filler (script pages, preliminary sketches, etc.) The book took me fifteen minutes to read, and I was by no means rushing.

On top of that, this is the blandest, most forgetable, most basic, most unimpressive writing I've ever seen out of Vaughan. There's not a thing in it that I'll ever want to go back and read again, not a thing that matters, not a thing that's memorable. There's no exciting action, there's none of Vaughans usual great psychology, there's none of the tension or emotion Vaughan usually evokes. I didn't care about the story at all.

Honestly, this book is no where near worth the cover price, and Marvel should be ashamed for packaging it the way they did. Twenty bucks for a sixty page story that takes fifteem minutes to read (if you take your time) is ridiculous and a rip off. I will be far more careful in the future to make sure I know how much story I'm getting for my money, and will not buy anything like this again. I have several hardcover Marvel collections that have seven or eight issues for twenty bucks, and that's pretty fair. I have quite a few hardcover Marvel collections that have thirteen of fourteen issues for thirty bucks, and that's very fair. Three issues for twenty bucks is taking advantage of the fans. I support Marvel, I buy a lot of their products, but three issues for twenty bucks is unnaceptable.

In short, suprisingly bland, forgetable story that's also way to short. Not worth the price in content or length.