Finally for this week, Wolverine: Soultaker wraps up. 

It's been one of writer Akira Yoshida's better efforts, but frankly, that's not saying much.  From a relatively decent first issue, the story has been wearing away at my goodwill ever since.  It became obvious at a very early stage that Yoshida really had nothing to say about Wolverine, and just had a pseudo-mythical Japanese story he wanted to do, which required a Marvel hero in the lead in order to get it published.  Wolverine is at least one of the Marvel characters with an established connection with Japan, but his role here is still ultimately interchangeable.

The plotting flounders badly in the final issue, though.  It's largely an issue of Wolverine fighting demons, and if you like Nagasawa's art, there's some enjoyment to be had there.  But they're not particularly interesting demons, so if you're more interested in the actual story, you'll lose patience fairly quickly.  The big showdown is really about Hana and Mana, with the faintly ridiculous pay-off that, for magical purposes, Wolverine has gold-plated the claws on his right hand.  How exactly he's supposed to have done that, we never even touch on.

As we near the end, Yoshida seems to twig that his story desperately needs an emotional pay-off, so out of nowhere we suddenly discover that Wolverine's largely-ignored foster daughter Amiko is an heir to Hana's position, and must go off and study with her. 

Yes, that's right, Amiko.  A character who doesn't even appear in the miniseries until halfway through issue #5, and who has a grand total of two lines of dialogue prior to the final page, when we're suddenly supposed to care about her decision to go with Hana.  I mean, come on.  That's just shoddy.  If this is the ending you're building towards, you don't introduce the character ten pages from the end and give them nothing to do!  Professional writers and editors shouldn't need to be told this.

Hilariously clunky ending aside, it's still only serviceable at best.  The point of the series eludes me entirely, and it's not entirely a shock to see that Yoshida's next project - a Kitty Pryde mini, also set in Japan, which starts next week - has been cut back from six issues to five before it even starts.

Rating: C-

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