THE CREATORS: Daniel Way and Steve Dillon on the regular title.  The annual is written by Way with art by Kaare Andrews.

WHAT HAPPENED IN 2007: More tedious conspiracy.  There's the final chapter of "Savior", the whole of "Swift and Terrible" (the one with Daken and Cyber) and a lengthy flashback storyline in World War II with Captain America.

Oh god, is this still going?

Wolverine: Origins continues to plough the same tedious and unproductive furrow by attempting to rewrite all of Wolverine's history as part of the same tiresome conspiracy theory.  It is a book that I approach every month with a sense of weary duty, and a vague hope that it might get cancelled soon.

In fact, the last few months haven't been so bad.  An extended flashback to World War II has allowed storyline guest starring the late Captain America, which was more concerned about the relationship between the characters than the conspiracy.  Until the last issue, when the overall storyline barged its way back in, leading to a vaguely clever but nonetheless unworkable ending.  At that point, we were back where we started.

That was the high point of the year.  Otherwise, it's basically more of the same.

I despair of this series, I really do.  It's damaging the character, by making it incredibly hard to tell any worthwhile stories set in his past without having to deal with Way's absurd conspiracy theory.  It's done precisely nothing to persuade me that the conspiracy is actually interesting.  And it's depriving the world of good Steve Dillon comics.

The odd thing about this series is that an obsession with continuity is supposed to be very unfashionable in this day and age.  Yet Wolverine: Origins clearly works on the underlying assumption that Wolverine's back story must be inherently fascinating, just because it involves Wolverine.  This series continues to disprove that theory on a regular basis.

Let's just move on.  We're stuck with the series until it finishes its big storyline, at which point we can all get down to the important business of pretending it never happened.

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