Yes, it's another Wolverine miniseries.  And given the standard of the last few, that's hardly an inspiring prospect.

This time it's Wolverine: The End, the latest in Marvel's curious series of "End" projects.  The basic idea of the End books is a perfectly reasonable one: because of the nature of serial publication, none of the Marvel characters' stories can ever end.  Unless, of course, they manage to get themselves cancelled.  Otherwise, they linger on forever, with an origin and a permanent status quo.  A beginning, a middle, but no end. 

The End books are supposed to provide a possible epilogue to close off the other end of the character's history.  They don't have any status in continuity; however, in principle they're a perfectly sensible idea.  There are possibilities in the format.  The recent Marvel Universe: The End series did surprisingly well, so this time they're giving it a go with Wolverine.  In his case, it'll form a sort of thematic bookend with Origin.  Not, admittedly, that I was that keen on Origin either.

Paul Jenkins picks up with an aged Wolverine living as a hermit in Canada, and having occasional conversations with himself.  It's deliberately vague whether he's just nuts or whether he's meant to be possessed.  When Sabretooth dies (helpfully eliminating him from the plot right from the outset), Logan goes to his funeral, and receives a letter from Sabretooth which points back to Origin and the Weapon X project.

Well, these are the obvious things that you'd expect a miniseries about Wolverine's final days to deal with; they're the two components of his origin, so they're the points that need to be there in order to take the book full circle.  All of this is dealt with passably enough, but it doesn't really take flight.

Castellini's art is a little problematic.  He's not a bad artist by any stretch of the imagination - in fact, he's a perfectly good storyteller, with an attractively clean line.  Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to get the character at all.  If ever three words failed to sum up Wolverine, they would be "tall", "wiry" and "mullet."  Regrettably, those words seem to form the basis of Castellini's take on the character.  It's not a pretty sight, and it simply doesn't feel like Wolverine.

More baffling is the book's attitude to timescale.  We're told that Wolverine has been hiding out in the woods for decades.  The events of Origin are supposed to be "a couple of centuries ago", and a tombstone dates them to around 1897.  So, logically, it's getting on for 2100 AD.  But try telling that to Castellini, who has drawn the entire story as if it was taking place in 2003, with no futuristic elements whatsoever.  It simply doesn't make sense that characters in a century's time will still be wearing the same clothes.  If it's a conscious artistic decision, I have no idea what the purpose is meant to be.

The End is better than some Wolverine miniseries we've seen lately, but that's not saying much.  Jenkins' story does seem to be looking in the right logical directions, but there's not much tension here, and some of the art decisions are bemusing.

Rating: C+

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