Marvel haven't given much promotional effort to Wolverine: Netsuke, and two issues in, I'm beginning to see why.  This is a bit of a minority interest affair.

The story sees Wolverine transported back in time to medieval Japan by a magic toggle, where he finds what seems to be a duplicate Mariko.  It's all a bit vague whether this is meant to be really happening, whether he's occupying a pre-existing character's body (in which case, why does he have his claws - if not, why do other people recognise him?), and why there's a kind of ice demon woman hanging around the edge.

If you're actually interested in all this feudal Japan stuff, no doubt this will make you ecstatic.  George Pratt's art is wonderful, and he does some excellent swordfight sequences in this issue.  The book looks wonderful.

But what it's got to do with Wolverine, other than the tacked on Logan/Mariko references, I have no idea.  Quite honestly, it reads as though Pratt always wanted to do a historical story about feudal Japan, and attached Wolverine with a rivet gun in order to get it published.  I don't really get much sense from this book that Pratt has any real grasp on the character, who wanders around delivering generic dialogue throughout.  Granted that Wolverine's had Japanese connections for a while, this story doesn't make a great deal of them.

Looks gorgeous.  But the story's not much cop.

Rating: C+

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