Hello Enthusiasts,
As a direct follow-up to yesterday's review of The Death of Wolverine, I decided that I would today review the comic book All-New Wolverine: The Four Sisters. As is the norm lately, there will be Spoilers Below.
This story is all about the mantle of Wolverine being picked up by X-23. For those unfamiliar with X-23, she is an imperfect clone/daughter of Logan. X-23 has all of Logan's abilities, including his healing factor, adamantium coated skeleton and claws, heightened senses and reflexes, etc. Rather than three claws for each hand, she has two for each hand and one for each foot. She was created to be the world's greatest assassin, and did very well in that regard for a number of year. Like Logan, However, she eventually found her way to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and tried to turn over a new leaf. Logan saw a lot of what could have happened to him with the Weapon-X program and took her under his wing, since he's the only one that could really understand what she was going through. She was eventually able to work through her dark past, and became a member of the X-Force.
As mentioned, this is where she actually becomes the new Wolverine now that Logan has passed. She does this her own way, though a lot of what she does is because of the influence of Logan when he was mentoring her. Logan knew that she could kill and that she was good at it, but he taught her the importance of holding back whenever possible (a strange lesson from the Wolverine we all know and love). Because of this, X-23 doesn't kill the way that I thought she would in this comic, but that doesn't mean she is any less awesome than I expected. She is able to handle just about every fight she's presented with easily, including a fight with the Taskmaster. She relies on her physical abilities as well as her mental abilities to overcome enemies in battle, though she isn't infallible, which makes the comic a solid balance of awesome and being concerned for X-23.
The volume is well written and and well drawn, with both areas staying consistent. I particularly enjoyed a scene early on where X-23 is unconscious after taking a bullet to the head and has a dream where she speaks with Logan about wanting to kill the shooter. The scenery in the dream is soft, but the characters still look sharp. All of the fight scenes flow well, and X-23's acrobatics practically jump off of the page (intentional word play). I would say that the fight scenes are by far the best parts of this book, even with a lot of the other portions (like the dream I mentioned) being fantastic. I really like the decision to have X-23 pick up the mantle as well, she is a good fit to carry on the legacy of Wolverine. While she is more reserved, we all know that she could tear everyone apart if she chose to, so she actually seems like a far more responsible Wolverine, one who doesn't Snikt their way through all of their problems.
Where the story does lack is with the side characters. The story revolves around several imperfect clones of X-23, none of whom have her healing factor. They are trying to escape their creators, but are really awkward in any discussions they have. This is attributed to being new to the outside world, but I still feel like they would pick up some cues from those in the facility they were raised in. They're bland and bored in just about every scene they're in. just like most of the other characters throughout the book. The only flushed out characters are the two Wolverines, and one of them is dead. Even though the side characters were my only real problem with the story, they brought it down a few levels for me, probably in part because of the amount of time that's wasted on them
Still, even with the issues the side characters have, this story felt really flushed out and I enjoyed it a lot. If you were a fan of Logan, I suggest picking this one up, you could very easily be a fan of X-23 as well. After all, she is the best at what she does, even if what she does isn't very nice.
I give All New Wolverine: The Four Sisters a 7 out of 10.
Sincerely,
The Bored Enthusiast
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