In theory, at least, Wolverine: Origins #5 completes the title's first arc.  In reality, it's the second arc in writer Daniel Way's masterplan, following on "Origins and Endings" in Wolverine #36-40.

This is worth mentioning, because it means we're now ten issues into this storyline.  And look how little progress we've made.

It must be said that "Born in Blood" is a definite improvement on "Origins and Endings", which was almost comically dull and uneventful.  At least things happen in this story.  The problem is that we're ten issues in and Way still hasn't got around to telling us a story.  He's just slowly, slowly dripfeeding information to set up a story he might possibly get around to telling somewhere around 2009.

The basic premise, you'll recall, is that Wolverine regained his memories after House of M and is now out for revenge against some vaguely defined conspiracy.  The plot of this arc has Wolverine attacking the White House in an attempt to get information - and not getting any.  The conspiracy then use Nuke to draw our hero out, which leads to three straight issues of Wolverine, Nuke and Captain America punching one another in a Vietnamese field.  Interspersed along the way are flashbacks showing that Wolverine used to be a very bad man who was involved in brainwashing Nuke in the first place.

In this final issue, the X-Men show up and deliver the completely unrelated news that Wolverine's son is alive and in the hands of the conspiracy.  So he wanders off to deal with that.  Big finale there, Dan.

At least something is actually happening, and the plot is just about coherent.  The idea that Wolverine was once as bad as the people he's hunting down is also somewhat promising.  But that's about as good as it gets.  We've got a five issue arc that doesn't hold together as any sort of coherent whole, and which stumbles to an end simply because Emma Frost arbitrarily announces that she's dreamt something convenient to the plot.  We've got Captain America acting wildly out of character.  We've got a silly magic sword which can cut through anything, as if this was a remotely useful addition to a hero who already has six built-in knives that can cut through anything.  We've got a big revelation about a long-lost son that sounds like something out of "Days of Our Lives."

Through it all, the long-term plot creeps glacially onwards.  There's a whole load of punching and fighting in this storyline, but all of it exists to distract from the fact that nothing is really happening.  Now, there's nothing wrong with a slow burn, as long as you deliver something entertaining in the meantime.  This book isn't doing that.  It's coasting on the conviction that vague hints about Wolverine's Mysterious Past are enough on their own.

Steve Dillon, although a talented artist, is painfully miscast on this book.  He's not an action artist, and when your script relies on throwing in fight scenes to distract from the lack of story, you need somebody much more dynamic to carry it off.  Way has asked for a three issue long fight scene with Wolverine, Captain America, Nuke and three of the X-Men in the jungles of Vietnam.  He gets a bunch of heroes swinging listlessly at one another in the world's most generic field.  To call it lacklustre would be an understatement.

Oh, and just to irritate the purists, Wolverine spends several pages lamenting the death of Silver Fox.  Way claims to have researched Wolverine's history in some detail before embarking on this arc, which makes one wonder how he's failed to notice that Silver Fox isn't actually dead.  That story was dismissed as a memory implant by Larry Hama over a decade ago, and he went on to cement his version of history by having Silver Fox turn up, alive and well, and parade around as a main character for a year or so.  Now, let's leave aside the merits of this retcon.  You can have the original version turn out to be true again if you really want, I suppose.  But you can't get away with Wolverine suddenly claiming that Silver Fox died in that story after all, even though he's seen her alive and well on several occasions.  And since Larry Hama devoted most of his run to explaining Wolverine's back story, it's difficult to see how anyone could genuinely have researched the relevant continuity in detail without reading those issues.

In context, though, this is a minor point.  The bigger issue is that this story is slow and dreary and ponderous, and whatever mildly interesting points it may have to make about Wolverine's secret service career, they certainly aren't strong enough to merit spending ten months on Act 1.

Rating: C-

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