Wolverine Weapon X #6

Neither the idea that Wolverine is crazy nor the idea of dropping a super hero into an insane asylum where he/she questions whether their adventures were all fantasy are original ideas. However, I don't recall ever seeing the combination before. There have been approximately 4 bajillion Wolverine stories so I could certainly have missed an arc somewhere. Aaron doesn't waste any time trying to convince the reader that Wolverine isn't a real superhero, an asylum trick that is overused and a little insulting to the reader (Everything you thought was true about the character was wrong! He is just insane! Feel free to throw away all the previous issues). Instead the mysteries are how did Logan get here, why are they trying to make him think he is crazy, who is the weird doctor, and what exactly are they hiding in the basement? Think "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" remade as a horror film.

I thought Paquette did a masterful job pacing this issue, creating a sense of place (filthy asylum), and getting some real menace out of the doctor and his possible brain collecting. The panels where we pull back from the door scrawled with a message in blood from Logan to himself to the exterior of the gothic asylum building were really great. There is nothing even remotely splashy or superheroic in this issue. Expect lots of dudes in nightgowns, orderlies, and institutional asylum decor (which appears to be mainly peeling paint and excrement). You can really feel the despair of the place, which is kind of the point.

No claws this issue. Logan is powerless and as lost as the rest of the inmates. Aaron is biding his time before letting his beast back off its leash, knowing it will be so much the sweeter if he makes us wait another issue or two before the payback starts. All and all I really loved this issue. This is a very different sort of book than the first arc, which was all black ops and mano a mano violent action. Here we have a story about dread, insanity, and helplessness. Good, good stuff.