Now it’s time for my final review of my 3 part series:

‘Reading Wolverine Origins before watching Wolverine Origins’ First I looked at the reprint of Frank Miller/Chris Claremont famous run. Then I looked at Wolverine’s Weapon X’s origins. Now this is the grand daddy of them all: The true origin of Wolverine!…..Or at least until the next generation and reboot kicks in…

I gotta say this was a damn good comic. Considering how little action there is (which surprised me) and how much character development there was. Obviously we see the reveal of Wolverine in the 1800’s getting his bone claws. But there is a twist in the very beginning of this story; and without much spoiling let me just say the person who you think is Wolverine by page one is not who you think it is. This story is actually more into the look of Logan’s family and friends, with his girl Rose as central narrator. There is also a lot of illusions to Logan’s future; you’ll see references to the Blob, Gambit, Magneto, and a few more little winks to the reader. What I liked about this origin was how we get to see where Wolverine gets all of his traits and mannerisms. So it’s actually kind of cool to think he’s been the same old guy since the mid 1800’s.

Fantastic painted art by Andy Kubert with this series. He’s able to convey a lot of emotions in with his characters and he does a good job giving us those ‘wink’ moments to the readers with the panels. I love his details in the wilderness scenes, those look like real paintings and I would love to see superimposed versions of these landscapes. It’s as close to real art you can see in a comic book. I had a little issue with the coloring in some places; especially with some skin tones to the characters. But overall this is a gorgeous looking book.

So reading the 3 reprinted series, I am totally shocked to have loved all three of them. Wolverine is a whore in today’s market, or at least writers just cant get enough of the guy. But these three stories are just enjoyable to read and this true origins trade is no different. If you need to find the ‘definitive’ Wolverine collection go pick up ‘Wolverine’ by Miller/Claremont, Weapon X by Barry Windsor Smith, and this trade by Jemas/Jenkins/Kubert. It’s three ‘must haves’ if you are going to be a comic reader.

(BTW: I wish Joey Q could come back and do art on a full time basis. Some of the best covers I’ve ever seen collected in this trade)