Wolverine #1 Recap/Review *spoilers*

[Hush]

As always there will be spoilers, so if you don't want to be spoiled don't enter this thread!!!!!!


The first issue is divided in two stories, the first one is entitled “The Flower Cartel” it’s written by Benjamin Percy, penciled by Adam Kubert and with colors by Frank Martin.

The second story is entitled “Catacombs”, it’s also writen by Benjamin Percy, it’s this time penciled by Viktor Bogdanovic and with colors by Matthew Wilson.


So let’s start with the first story: The Flower Cartel.





The story starts in Alaska, with Wolverine awakening in the middle of a bloody crime scene where Marvel Girl, Kid Omega and Domino are laying dead and with his memory completely messed up. Looking at their bodies, you can see several cuts similar to Wolverine’s claws and also bullets, Wolverine is shocked by what happened and believes he’s the one who killed them even though he thinks he shouldn’t have been able to do it.

But something is strange, Logan sees a set of foot prints at the crime scene leading into the snow and he decides to follow it to learn more.

The story then goes back in time, 5 days ago we see Wolverine playing catch & seek with several mutant kids until Marvel Girl arrives and quickly finds him, she then tells him to go to the Hellfire Bay as his first protegee is waiting for him: Captain Katherine Pryde. Kate points out that Logan seems to be a changed man, he looks happy surrounded by people he loves and he has now a true purpose in keeping them safe.
Logan tells her she’s not wrong but it’s time to go back to business, Kate tells him that Hellfire has been losing product for a while, several mind petals and antibody metals have been missing and she wants Wolverine to find who is responsible.

The story then moves to Baltimore, another crime scene in a drug lab where we meet for the first time a new character: Agent Jeff Bannister from the C.I.A (who’s a mix of Felix Leiter, Lebowski, and Chief Hopper) who discovers that this drug factory is making drug from something different than usual, something similar to pollen. We then have our first white page which focus on “The Order of X”, a strange cult that worship mutants to the point of wearing or scaring themselves with a “X”. Even more worrisome is the fact that there is an extremist branch that believe in the consumption of Mutants in order to attain a higher plane. To be simple, they’re a bunch a psycho.

The next day, Wolverine meets with Sage who discovered that they have a lead in Russia outside of Moscow, Wolverine assembles X-Force (Kid Omega, Marvel Girl and Domino) and with Gateway’s help they teleport to Russia to deal with this problem although Jean warns him that something is strange here, it looks like an inside job. We go back to Baltimore with Jeff Banister who is waiting in an hospital with another agent, Meredith Milly, he learns a little more about this new drug created from the Krakoan petals, it’s called “pollen” it makes anyone brain twice as smart and their bodies twice as strong. Jeff then goes to one of the hospital room where his young daughter who has been diagnosed with leukemia just awoken from her treatment. We learn that his daughter is on the wait list for the Krakoa drugs, the antibody petal to be more precise, and because people are stealing them it makes him really angry.

Another white page about “bookdwork” where we have a classification of blood types and other details about it and how Wolverine’s blood is different from all of this but can still have a temporary curative effect when transferred to someone, Wolverine’s blood is compared to Vampire’s blood and how much similar and different it is. In fact, both Wolverine’s blood and Vampire could now be categorized as “E” (endless), one positive and one negative.

The next day in Russia, X-Force is teleported by Gateway the Order of X location during one of their meeting, using their Pollen drug they become much more dangerous and violent and attack X-Force and try to devour Kid Omega and drink his blood. X-Force is able to handle them without killing them but suddenly the cultists start to dissolve and die because of the drug. The next day, Wolverine decide to investigate on his own in a bar in Moscow where he finds the Russian gangsters responsible for providing the drug to the members of the Order of X, Logan learns that the drug come from someone new, The Pale Girl, who seems to possess strange psychic powers that allow her to control anyone and make them do anything she wants.

The next day, both the C.I.A and X-Force are investigating what’s going on with this new drug, more and more people are talking about it and Beast fears that a new drug war is brewing and for Logan, mutants are to blame. Jeff Bannister on the other hand is worried after learning more and more people are dying as this "Flower Cartel" is taking over or taking down any competition, he starts to suspect that mutants also control the black market of those drugs and decides to go undercover and poses as a buyer to this Flower Cartel to be sure.

We then go back to the present, Wolverine is following the tracks in the snow, still troubled with what happened until he finally sees the Pale Girl and tells her, she's the one who made him kill his family but it turns out to be an hallucination and soon Jeff Bannister and the rest of the C.I.A confront Wolverine asking him what’s going on and who he is to which Wolverine replies:

“I been wondering the same thing”.

[Hush]

Now the second story: Catacombs



Wolverine is running around Krakoa, treating the Island like a “training ground” until someone arrives from one of the Krakoa covered in blood: Omega Red. Red starts to taunt Wolverine, and well you know how it’s going to end, Wolverine tells Red to go back to where he comes from and start to attack him until Magneto intervenes and stops him.

Wolverine is angry telling Magneto that Omega Red shouldn’t be here, but Magneto says that Omega Red is welcomed here and beside he’s covered in blood so he sends Wolverine through the gate Red came through to investigate. Wolverine lands in Paris, and discovers with horror that Omega Red has left a trail of bodies behind him.

Back on Krakoa, the discussion become more heated between Wolverine and Magneto after Erik told Cecilia Reyes to heal Omega Red, Logan tells him that Red is a psycho and shouldn’t be allowed here to which Magneto responds that the same could be said about the two of them. Wolverine tells him that there are kids on the island (if you know Omega Red’s history, you know why Wolverine might be worried especially when it comes to the kids' safety) to which Magneto responds that Omega Red will be punished if he crosses the line and that resurrection will be available in case one of them become Omega Red’s prey (damn that’s cold Erik) but Logan tells him that resurrection are irrelevant and immortality won’t erase trauma.

Magneto continues by saying that Krakoa is a nation and Wolverine is part of X-Force, so their C.I.A and tells him how the real C.I.A has been doing some nasty stuffs for years and that now it’s his job to find what happened with Omega Red and to clean it up. Omega Red is now locked in a cell until he's fully healed and debriefed, Wolverine then interrogates him to learn more, Red says he’s not responsible for the dead bodies and tells Logan to investigate the "King’s Oubliette" if he wants to know more.

Back in Paris, Logan is stopped by a woman selling flowers who wants to sell him a dog rose but he refuses and decides to head to the "King’s Oubliette" (it's a bar) to resume his investigation, in here he’s drugged and before his healing factor could kick back the poison he’s tied up by a bunch of vampires who are now ready to drink his blood (that scene is really messed up). Wolverine popped his claws and is able to defend himself when suddenly the girl who was selling flower enters the bar and starts taking names and kicking asses, she’s a vampire hunter and the reason she wanted to sell Wolverine a dog rose was to make sure he wasn’t a vampire since they hate those kind of flowers as much as garlic.

Back on Krakoa, Omega Red tells Wolverine that he was trying to show him the truth when he sent him to the “King's Oubliette” and that the corpses Wolverine found previously were just vampires who didn’t finish their transformation yet, he also warns him that the Vampire Nation is now growing and that he’s a changed man, he also blame Wolverine for his condition saying it’s his fault if he killed people for years because Logan kept the c-synthesizer away from him. Of course, Logan put him back in his place telling him that he was already a serial killer long before his transformation which doesn’t stop Omega Red from playing the victim card (kind of similar to what he said during the Weapon X series). He then told him the story of St Julian while at the same time the corpses previously found by Wolverine awake inside the morgue in Paris and drink the blood of the coroner who was examining them before escaping.

After hearing Red’s story, Logan goes to a church “Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre", where he once again meets the vampire hunter from before, her name is Louise, she’s part of an ancient order, the nightguard, devoted to fight the vampire nation, she also tells him that because of what’s going with Krakoa, humankind is distracted which is now the perfect opportunity for the Vampire nation to rise.
The duo then head to the catacombs of Paris to face the vampires, but they soon fall in a trap which allows the vampires to drink Wolverine blood before escaping which surprise both of them, the vampires then head to a secret place where the blood they took from Wolverine is transferred to their leader: Dracula.

The mutants are now united under Charles Xavier and the Vampire nation under Dracula. Sometime later, Omega Red now all healed is crossing one of the Krakoa gate and goes back to Paris where he meets with Dracula, who can now stands in the sunlight thanks to Logan’s blood. We then learn that Omega Red has been working with Dracula all along just to get the c-synthesizer which is given to him although a detonator is hidden inside of it. Dracula then tells Omega Red to join Krakoa but to obey him.

One last white page about the Pollen drug where we learn a little more about Jeff and his family and how the flower cartel has arranged a meeting with the undercover C.I.A agents in Alaska although it seems his orders are unclear.


“Beyond the pale.”

[Frobisher]

I like Logan‘s new odd-couple FBI partner with the knackered face.

The Wolverine vs Dracula story is more inherently daft, like every recent Blade story. Did they mess up the order of the data pages again?

[Hush]

Sorry if the recap is too long but well it’s a big book, really good stuff to be honest!

The first story is more exposition heavy and feels like an extension of the X-Force series, just with more focus on Logan obviously where we learn a little more about his mindset especially in this new status quo. Things look idyllic for him at first but the dream really turn into a nightmare really fast.
As I said previously, it’s a murder mystery, so the goal here is to discover what’s going on, we have the crime scene, the victim, the potential murderer but also several clues leading the reader to think that something isn’t really right especially because Logan’s memory is a mess right now. The new character introduced here, Jeff Bannister is amazing and you really feel sad for him when you learn the condition of his daughter, I can understand why he’s so angry about what’s going on.

The dialogues, the pacing, the characterization are top notch and I dunno this Logan feels more like the Logan of the 80s than the Logan we’ve got those last few years which is a good thing for me, the art by Adam Kubert and the colors by Frank Martin are just outstanding.


The second story has more of a horror feel and has more action with the return of Omega Red, it’s my favorite of the two. Think of Omega Red as “Hannibal Lecter” trying to “help” Wolverine in his investigation, the two characters always had a great dynamic together for a long time, they hate each other for sure but Omega Red also reminds Logan of his “own worst self”. Of course, Omega Red is also someone who likes to play the victim card, similar to how he did it during the Weapon X series by Pak, it can work with many people but I think three people will never buy his lies: Wolverine, Banshee and the non-inverted Sabretooth.

One thing I’m not sure about is that Omega Red already recovered the carbonadium synthesizer during the Wolverine Origins series after he killed Wild Child so I’m not sure why he still need it. I also enjoyed the talk between Magneto and Wolverine, especially when it comes to resurrection and the trauma that comes with it, I hope it’s something that’s going to be explored during the X-Factor series.

So, vampires eh? Well if you need to have a nest of vampires in the Marvel Universe, I guess the Paris catacombs makes sense, it’s a place that have always inspired writers, artist or movies maker for years especially when it comes to vampires. It’s difficult to judge this new character, Louise since she didn’t appear a lot but she has a lot of potential, I do hope characters like Blade or Elsa Bloodstone will also appear down the line and team up with Logan and Louise to take those creatures of the night down.

Dracula as the new antagonist and as the leader of the Vampire Nation as opposed to Xavier as the leader of the Mutant Nation is really interesting and could lead to a great conflict, if that’s the case I do hope Scott will still able to troll Dracula like the last time

The art by Viktor Bogdanovic and the colors Matthew Wilson are just astounding, just a fantastic work especially the use of colors when Logan interrogates Omega Red (dark blue with the red eyes of Omega) or in the bar with the heavy use of the red color for obvious reason, really good stuff.

So all in all, it’s a really good first issue!

[Killerbee911]

This was a pretty dense book, I have to read it again to catch everything but I really enjoyed it. I like that Dracula and Vampires are back in picture as enemies and it feels more natural than past attempts. Dawn of X keep ramping up the big group threats coming at the X-men.

[Hush]

I like Logan‘s new odd-couple FBI partner with the knackered face.

The Wolverine vs Dracula story is more inherently daft, like every recent Blade story. Did they mess up the order of the data pages again?

I wondered the same thing about the data pages, "bloodwork" and "Pollen" should have been switched.

[Veitha]

I'm amazed at how good this was and how tightly connected all these books feel. Dracula is now another enemy of Krakoa. They're going to be submerged in villains soon.

I'm glad that it explored the Cult of X thing too.

[Veitha]

I wondered the same thing about the data pages, "bloodwork" and "Pollen" should have been switched.

Yeah I think they were definitely in the wrong order. How cool was the blood types page?

[Havok83]

Wolverine starring X-Force. Looks like its gonna be a must buy

So glad Kubert is back in the X-fold! His art was amazing

[Hush]

Yeah I think they were definitely in the wrong order. How cool was the blood types page?

It was a really cool page both the layout but also the content for sure, making that kind of comparison between Wolverine's blood and Vampire's blood is really interesting especially the way their blood work differently but also the similarities between someone cursed or infected with vampire blood and Logan's own blood.

[PopCulturePooka]

For a long time I was NOT a Wolverine fan. Way to over-exposed and too "edgy/cool" for my taste.

Then, when he died and wasn't in the books for a few years, I started missing him. It was clear that his abscence was a big gaping hole in the X-books, one that OML and 23-Verine didn't quite fill.

But this was great. The kind of X-stories that can only be done with Logan at his Loganiest. So is this Pale Girl someone we've seen before or a new villain?

I like the two new supporting characters, both humans, which is interesting as well.

So will this book be alternating it's storylines? Be double issue each time? How are they going to do the Pollen and the Vamp stories at once?

[Veitha]

For a long time I was NOT a Wolverine fan. Way to over-exposed and too "edgy/cool" for my taste.

Then, when he died and wasn't in the books for a few years, I started missing him. It was clear that his abscence was a big gaping hole in the X-books, one that OML and 23-Verine didn't quite fill.

But this was great. The kind of X-stories that can only be done with Logan at his Loganiest. So is this Pale Girl someone we've seen before or a new villain?

I like the two new supporting characters, both humans, which is interesting as well.

So will this book be alternating it's storylines? Be double issue each time? How are they going to do the Pollen and the Vamp stories at once?

When I first started reading the X-Men I o v e d Logan's solo adventures. Then he got the same treatment as Beast and became unbearable for me. I'm glad we got the real one back.

I guess the lady is indeed a new villain. Someone had to manage the cartel. She sounded like Emma when he was giving her description and I was getting a bit scared hahaha I can't wait for Jean to check her.

[Steroid]

After reading Percy's X-Force I had very high expectations for this book and damn they delivered. I really hope no one is sleeping on this book cause based off this first issue it's gonna be a fun ride. The issue really earned it's price point and the whole creative team did amazing. I couldn't ask for a better debut!!

[Triniking1234]

That second story was 90s as hell. Although I thought Jason Aaron had Dracula as one of the Avengers' enemies.

[Su_Whisterfield]

After reading Percy's X-Force I had very high expectations for this book and damn they delivered. I really hope no one is sleeping on this book cause based off this first issue it's gonna be a fun ride. The issue really earned it's price point and the whole creative team did amazing. I couldn't ask for a better debut!!

Count me as another who’s a bit meh over Wolverine, way too overexposed, but I’m glad to say Percy won me over with X Force so bought this and I’m glad I did.