Customer Reviews

Wolverine Vol. 1: The Brotherhood

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a fan of Greg Rucka's novels and comics, I've come to expect a few things: 1) lean, punchy writing; 2) attention to operational detail in depicting assorted spies, assassins, bodyguards, etc.; and 3) Women.

In most of the books I can think of, Rucka prominently features not just females, but larger-than-life Amazons who are often tougher than their male counterparts. Wolverine:The Brotherhood is no exception, giving the reader a rootin'-tootin', suspect-slappin', stereotype-bustin' female ATF agent who could probably eat nails and [...] tacks.

While this obsessive commitment to feminist ideals can be off-putting, it's mostly counterbalanced by the quality stories Rucka consistently spins. He skillfully references aspects of Wolverine's character, such as his black ops background and feral tendencies, weaving them into the story without a lot of clunky exposition. Rucka crafts an oppressively gritty setting, filled with the kind of twisted villains a character like Wolverine was born to fight.
Someone once said that art could be defined as the selective interpretation of reality according to the artist's values. Judging from his characters, it seems that Rucka has a fairly large sexual axe to grind.

Taken individually, his characters are quirky and engaging. However, after the third or fourth story, a pattern becomes apparent, and I begin to feel like what I'm reading is a well-disguised sermon or morality tale.

As good as Wolverine: The Brotherhood is, I find myself looking fondly back on the writing of Chris Claremont. In his classic and definitive X-men run, he introduced me at a very early age to strong female characters, such as Storm and Callisto. Without a whiff of preachiness, he made them both likable and believable. Their actions and attitudes arose naturally from character and situation, and never seemed to be part of some program on Claremont's part.

Those of us that have been reading Wolverine for a while know very few things for certain about everyone's favorite Canadian X-Man, but two things we know for sure are 1. He hates cults, nazis, and bullies and 2. He has a soft spot for girls in trouble. These two elements clash in this graphic novel.

When Lucy Braddock, the waitress at Logan's favorite café and his neighbor is murdered after asking for Logan's protection, he will not rest until he finds her killers. Tracking down the culprits with little more information than what kind of gun he was shot with, Logan proceeds to prove he is still the best there is at what he does, and what he does often is bloody.

My favorite chapter is the last. After the blood bath of the previous issues, after Logan has to deal with physical pain, he meets Nightcrawler in a bar for a little soul searching. For long time fans, this issue was touching, harkening back to Claremont's run on X-Men, but with Greg Rucka's unique style.

Speaking of style, Rucka's writing and Robertson's art provide a unique, gritty style. Both use a highly stylized approach that is still somehow very pleasant and not overdone.

There's enough references to previous plot points in Wolverine's past to make established fans rejoice, cheer, and flinch, but a newcomer can easily pick this up and understand everything without having to spend extra on more books.

Highest recommendations!

One of the first few books I fully read solely about Wolverine and I enjoyed it. The story itself might not be for everyone. It's dark, very gritty and some of the renderings of Wolverine makes it seem like he is an animal. The story in itself is almost like a detective story. The majority of the story has Wolverine going around asking questions to find answers on who he should target to kill. I wouldn't necessary recommend this book to most readers out there. Its a must buy for Wolverine fans though but for others who want superhero versus villains type storylines, this isn't the book for y'all.

Wolverine is a silent customer in a cafe where Lucy the waitress works. He is always reading and chilled out, never says much. He looks intimidating so Lucy calls him Mean Man.
Logan lives down the hall from Lucy in the same apartments, and Lucy has been watching him. His goings and comings. Hw he comes back injured but the next day there is nothing wrong with him.
She starts a journal, and is planning on giving it to Logan.
Lucy is being hunted by the brotherhood and one night they find her and take her away. Theypiss logan off by shooting him and serious damaging some of his books which he is not happy about.
He cases Lucy's apartment, and the feds show up to investegate. Logan is a person of interest but they never can put their hand on him. The lead investigator is a woman Cassie Lathrop and she is intrigued by the "hairy little man."
Agent Lathrop ends up being captured by the Bortherhood and taken to a compound where girls/women are being sold into sex slavery.

Logan hunts down the brother hood and get revenge for Lucy.He also rescues Agnet Lathrop which just makes her want to get in them levi's even more.
Next installment tells of their meeting again.

First off I can't stand Wolverine being a hairy looking animal. The story is alright but its just Wolverine fighting guys with guns. Anybody Marvel character could have done this.

I have always likened Wolverine to any of Clint Eastwoods 'Man with no name' characters. A character full of mystery, lurking intelligence and brimming with the capacity of sheer violence like no other, this story has no other superhero's or villian's in it. No saving the entire world here. Just a personal tale of injustice and cruelty and it is quite an emotional roller coaster for the innocents that suffer, the evil displayed in some peoples hearts and the fearlessness some exhibit to set things right, or at least deliver the punishment due. It is also quite interesting how he invites a helpless stranger in and delivers, quite simply, brutal revenge on those who wronged her. Awesome tale.

This book is about Wolverin's vengetta against a man that brainwash women teenager and lock the, the art is good also the actions secuences.

Collects Wolverine (v3) 1-6 by Greg Rucka & Derek Robertson.

Glad to find this still in stock! Now if I can only get my hands on volumes 2&3...

A sordid tale of a cult taking over a town, and a promise made to a dead girl. After this part, it basically goes :-

Wolverine 27
Cult 0 (apart from their victims).

An interesting conversation at the end between Logan and Kurt, in a mutant run bar.

The story starts, when Wolverine, having a loner fest, reading a bunch of classic novels, meets one of his neighbours. She is a woman on the run from a horrible past.

As a long-time Wolverine fan, who has nevertheless not read any of the comics for years, I have to say that Wolverine: the Brotherhood rekindled my fascination with this tragic hero.

The story unfolds on two levels: one following the "Mean Man" himself in his hunt for the men who murdered his neighbour, 17 years old Lucy Braddock, after he was unable to help her when she needed it most. The other follows ATF agent Cassie Lathrop on her hunt for Wolverine after he tracks the murderers' weapons straight through her investigation.

Straightforward as the story is, though, it is not only extremely well presented and drawn, but the dialogue fits the characters so well you can almost hear them speak. There is also an added twist at the end where Logan meets Nightcrawler, or Kurt Wagner, looking for answers to the eternal questions which always haunt him: when the rage takes him, is he an animal or a man? Can he justify his actions and the lives he takes by saying his enemies are evil?

The execution of this book is the best I have seen from Marvel in a very long time, come to think about it, probably the best ever. Logan himself is a short, surly, ugly fellow who nevertheless is able to exude a certain grumpy charisma, Nightcrawler looks as freaky as he should, while still having a reassuring air and the atmosphere is generally gritty, dirty and unpolished.

In addition there are no silly, form fitting costumes, a great relief since more and more readers have come to see these as a patently silly leftover from the early days of comics, and particularly so since these days the mutants are mostly presented as trying to go unnoticed through society.

All in all this is a very good book, its one drawback (if it can be called that since it is not to do with this book as such) is that it is being followed up by two more, Coyote Crossing and Return of the Native, and while they are good reads they are not as good as the Brotherhood. For one thing the style and artwork of one these two is very different, breaking the feeling that they are really interconnected. Despite this, though, they are also highly recommended.

So for both new and old fans of the grittiest, nastiest and decidedly most mature Marvel hero out there, this book is as good as they get, and I could not recommend it more.