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Wednesday 10 September 2014

Death of Wolverine #2 Review (Charles Soule, Steve McNiven)


Wolverine discovered in the last issue that Viper has put a hit out on him - a massive payday for anyone who can bring him to her alive - so he’s gone directly to see her in Madripoor. Except she has a surprise in an old enemy of his she’s got chained up - and why does she want him alive anyway? 

Wolverine’s looking a lot less worn out in this second issue; in fact, he’s looking very suave, like a cross between Bond and Danny Ocean! To get Viper’s attention he dangles an Iron Man helmet in front of one of her lackeys which works. There’s also a cool cameo from Kristoff Vernard too - fans of Charles Soule’s She Hulk will know he played a fun part in that series recently. 

Like the last issue, Soule doesn’t skimp on the action and, even if Wolverine’s no longer able to use his claws, he’s still a formidable opponent, taking out ninjas left and right, barely breaking a sweat. Then the classic Wolverine nemesis, Sabretooth, steps up to dance followed by Lady Deathstrike. 

I’m not a huge fan of out and out superhero fighting - it feels like padding most of the time - but the action was pretty good in this issue. It helps that Steve McNiven’s the artist, a man who can always be relied upon to produce great-looking sequences. It’s interesting to learn that Wolverine’s not the only one with a hit on his head too - there are multiple targets. And here I was thinking Wolverine was special! 

Like the first issue, it’s not a bad comic and Soule shows that he can do big blockbuster Marvel stories with the best of them - but the price point continues to annoy. It’s a regular length comic with the unwanted additions of a glossy cover and 6 pages of McNiven’s sketches/commentary. I’m gonna keep up with the single issues and the ridiculous $4.99 price but only because this is a mini-series - if these were the regular cost of Marvel comics, I’d scale back my weekly purchases considerably, maybe even giving them up! 

Death of Wolverine #2 is a decent comic and is turning out to be a pretty good Wolverine story but I don’t really feel any sense of urgency even at this halfway point - there’s no sense of a build-up to something big. It’s Wolverine going through the motions and, minus a couple handicaps, he doesn’t seem to be struggling any more than usual. Nonetheless, some good work from Soule and McNiven and Death of Wolverine #2 is a good comic that Wolverine fans will really enjoy.

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