Mark Millar and John Romita Jr's Wolverine is not a subtle comic.  Thisis, of course, a good thing.  The core appeal of Wolverine isn't exactly subtle either.  He's violent.  He hurts things. That's our Wolverine.

Although issues #26-31 are theoretically a six-parter called "Agent of SHIELD", in reality Millar is doing a twelve-part story here.  First half - Wolverine gets brainwashed, runs around killing the good guys until he's brought down.  Second half - Wolverine isn't brainwashed any more, he runs around killing the bad guys.  It's a subtle difference, but good to see that the book hasn't lost sight of its core mission of running around killing people.  With blades.

This issue, the SHIELD Helicarrier comes under attack from HYDRA's legion of crap supervillains.  And be in no doubt, the ones that even get names at all are thoroughly crap supervillains.  Apparently it's a lot easier to get permission to kill off the Slingers than to kill off any villains that you're likely to have heard of.  (Perhaps because so many of the B- and C-list villains are tied up in New Avengers and its spinoffs?)  But really, Slyde?  Spot?  Poison, who appeared in a few issues of Marvel Comics Presents fifteen years ago?  We're scraping the barrel here.  It might have been just not to name them at all, or to go for completely new throwaway characters, given that Millar's obviously trying to take them seriously.

Still, weight of numbers makes anyone into a good Wolverine villain, and the supervillains are perfectly acceptable in their plot mandated role of claw fodder.  It's a great big issue-long fight scene and things explode on a regular basis.  It's the sort of thing this run does well.  You wouldn't want to see Wolverine publish this sort of story all the time, but for a year of insane violence, it's just great.

Rating: A-

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