Comic Book Review: The Death of Wolverine

The image above belongs to its respective owner, not me

Hello Enthusiasts,

Today I will be reviewing the Marvel story, The Death of Wolverine. This story isn't exceptionally long, especially for the conclusion to one of Marvel's most popular characters. Surprisingly, Wolverine has not yet been resurrected, despite the trend of every popular character getting to cheat death. As it generally has been lately, there will be some Mild Spoilers Below.

So the story begins with Wolverine visiting Reed Richards, who is confirming for him that he has indeed lost his healing factor. Wolverine still maintains his other mutant abilities, like his agility, super strength, and heightened senses, but he can now be killed. Also, nit having a healing factor makes having sharp claws puncture through his hand a lot more troublesome, so using his claws should be a last-case kind of scenario. Word somehow gets out about Wolverine's new mortality, and he becomes hunted by just about everyone. As it turns out, there seems to be an organization that is, of course, trying to capture and clone (again) Wolverine, so there is some story dedicated to that as well.

This story is pretty well written for the most part. Aside from a few bits here and there, I enjoyed the story, the dialogue, and the small twists. I also like that Wolverine starts the story without his healing factor, but being the bad-ass that he is, manages to make it through to nearly the end of the book, taking along a whole lot of others with him. Even in the last scene, just before he dies, he is really pushing himself and being a machine of absolute destruction. Wolverine lives up to the name of a wild animal, clinging to life with everything they have and killing anything in their way.

The art work is pretty solid; it's not my favorite, but there is certainly a lot worse out there. It stays fairly consistent throughout the story and delivers as well as it is required to. The artwork was done primarily by Steve McNiven, who has a long history of working with Marvel and Wolverine as a character, so it's easy to relate it to a lot of other comics featuring the hero. There are a couple of crossover characters as well, like the previously mentioned Reed Richards, and they look alright. However, the focus is Wolverine, and he looks pretty good at being the best at what he does.

While the story is great for the most part, the actual death of Wolverine left something to be desired for me. I won't give it away, but it's something that would have taken him out of the game anyway. I guess it's better that he didn't have his healing factor at the end there instead of having to suffer for all eternity. Still though, it wasn't quite the death I was hoping for. He saves the day, but I always imagined that Wolverine would go out in a blaze of glory rather than how he did actually go. A lot of the other characters in the book have bit parts as well, it's a real loner story for Logan, whether he wants it to be or not. Some may see this as a positive, but I feel like someone could have been there to help him out, considering how many teams he's been on throughout the years.

By the end, I thought this was a pretty good send off for one of Marvel's larger characters. Old man Logan recently came back into the main universe, so we do have a Logan, but he isn't the same as the Wolverine that served with the X-Men, the Avengers, the X-Force, and just about everyone else. That's the Wolverine that will be remembered and missed. Luckily, this story paved the way for the All-New Wolverine, but that's a review for another day.

I have The Death of Wolverine a 7.5 out of 10.

Sincerely,

The Bored Enthusiast