Wolverine: The Amazing Immortal Man and Other Bloody Tales - and yes, that's really the title - is a curious project. 

It's a one-shot Wolverine comic containing three stories, all written by David Lapham.  Lapham is something of a cult favourite, with a reputation build around his Stray Bullets series (although his current Vertigo project, Young Liars, has seen rather mixed reviews).  He's contributed a Wolverine story before, which saw print as Giant-Size Wolverine #1.

Given that the whole book is "David Lapham does Wolverine", it's a little surprising that they haven't bothered to put any credits on the front cover.  Perhaps they're assuming that his fans will know to find it.  Or perhaps it's actually just an exercise in using up stories that were commissioned for some other, abandoned project.  I don't know. 

However it came about, this is an all-Lapham Wolverine anthology.  And it's a mixed bag, but with enough to make it worth a look for fans of either the creator or the character.

"The Amazing Immortal Man" itself is a story about Logan working in a 1930s Kansas circus, back in the days before he really knew how to stand up to the bad guys.  Actually, it might be argued that Wolverine's a little bit too passive and compliant in this story; it's borderline.  But thanks in no small part to Johnny Timmons' art, there's plenty of atmosphere here.  It's one of Wolverine's strengths as a character that you can get away with dropping him into random stories like this (a point which Wolverine: Origins doesn't seem to grasp at all).

"The Animal Man", with art from Lapham himself, is the high point of the issue.  It's a story about a bus driver who's rescued from thugs by Wolverine, only to go steadily mad as a result of his experience.  Taking Logan as an exemplar of how to deal with the modern world, and increasingly convinced that he can see evil all around him, the driver sets out to follow his inspiration, with predictably disastrous results.  Wolverine himself is barely in it, but it's a neat story about how the character is often seen, and well worth reading.

"Coney Island Baby" is less successful.  Wolverine chases a bad guy around Coney Island; it ends with a rather convoluted explanation of the villain, and we're all supposed to stroke our chins and go "Hmm."  But as the twist is so bizarre as to bear no relationship to the real world whatsoever, it just doesn't work. 

So, a hit and miss collection.  But the good stuff... well, it's not spectacularly good, but it's interestingly good, and that goes a long way.

Rating: B+

back | continue