Every cloud has a silver lining.  For example, I sometimes have to read some truly awful comics for this website.  But I know from my inbox that quite a few of you reading this really enjoy the negative reviews.  Since these readers tend not to buy the comics, their world is made just that tiny bit better when I read a truly awful comic.

Well, good news, kids, because Wolverine: Origins is out, and it sucks.

The reasons for creating a second ongoing Wolverine title remain somewhat mysterious.  The official explanation is that they needed the main Wolverine title to run a Civil War crossover, and so they created this book to avoid derailing Daniel Way's storyline.  Of course, this makes no sense whatsoever, because Civil War is only lasting six months, and this book is going to be around for the foreseeable future.  If that was the real reason, then this issue would be Wolverine #41, and next month would see the first issue of a Civil War: Wolverine miniseries. 

Instead we've got a whole new ongoing series, presumably because somebody thought the numbers would add up.  And now Daniel Way's got to fill it.  Dance, Daniel, dance!

This is effectively the seventh part of Way's storyline, with the first six running in Wolverine itself.  For those who haven't been keeping track, Wolverine regained all his memories of the past in House of M, and now he's running around trying to... uh, well.  Presumably he's out for revenge against somebody or other, but quite who and for what is still thoroughly unclear.  Seven issues in.

As we join the story, Wolverine is running around with the Muramasa Blade, a sword that he picked up in the closing pages of Wolverine #40.  Way apparently can't find space in the story to explain what it is, so that gets relegated to the recap page, of all places.  The very idea of equipping Wolverine with a sword is so wonderfully clueless that you have to laugh.  It's apparently "a weapon of unimaginable power", but to all appearances it's just a sword that can cut through stuff.  And, you know, he's Wolverine. He's already got six bladed weapons that can cut through anything.  That's kind of his schtick.  If you think he's somehow improved by having a seventh knife... well, let's just say I don't follow your reasoning.

Wolverine goes to the White House to confront Condoleezza Rice.  No, really, I'm not making this up.  There's some nonsense with the conspiracy people throwing robots in the way, but basically the whole story is Wolverine breaks into the White House, Wolverine interrogates Condoleezza Rice, Wolverine learns nothing, Wolverine steals a box, Wolverine moves on.  So basically, nothing actually happens to advance the plot, except possibly for Wolverine taking the box, and we're not told what the significance of that might be.  That's Way's modus operandi with this storyline: try and give the impression that it's all heading somewhere.  But I don't believe him for a second.

There's nothing here, or in the previous arc, to give any real reason for confidence in Way's master plan, if indeed there is one.  He's not telling stories with any emotional impact at all.  It's just "Here's something cryptic, it might or might not lead to a revelation down the line which you might or might not care about."  He's coasting on the hope that people care sufficiently about minor Wolverine continuity to stick with him in the hope of revelations, even though he isn't actually telling us a story of any sort. 

And besides, why would we care about yet another story from Wolverine's past?  Despite what the creators seem to think, it's all been explored to death. Just take a look at the Official Handbook entry on Wolverine.  It takes six pages of small print just to go through the existing stories which have covered Wolverine's background.  There is no mystery!  It's all been done!  There are no particularly interesting questions left to ask.

Worse, Way just doesn't know how to make his action sequences interesting.  His stories - not just with Wolverine, but generally - are slow and talky.  He seems to have no real grasp on comics as a visual medium, certainly not for action stories.  In this issue, we have villains firing a Cruise missile at the White House and a panicked effort to evacuate the President.  But all of that would be far too interesting for Daniel Way, so instead it takes place off camera while we watch a bunch of people in a control room reacting.  This is fine if you're doing a stage play or some sort of claustrophobic character drama, but let's not kid ourselves that there's any content to this issue that makes it anything more than a flat, dull action story.

It pains me to give a negative review to something drawn by Steve Dillon.  But I'm sure I'll get over it.  Dillon is horrendously miscast on this book; he's a character artist, perfect for body language and light comedy.  He's not an action artist, and he doesn't do an especially good Wolverine.  The decision to use him on this book is frankly bizarre. 

But then, no more bizarre than Marvel's unfathomable conviction that Daniel Way is a major talent who should be pushed on a high-profile title.  This book is just plain boring and pointless, and if they can't see that, they really need to step back and give the project a long hard look.  It's fundamentally misconceived from the ground up.  The only real merit here is Steve Dillon's art, and even he should be doing something more appropriate instead.  I'm sure the early issues will sell well, simply because it's a second Wolverine series, but in the long run I can't imagine this working. 

Rating: D+

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