Savage Wolverine 3, Wolverine MAX 5

Savage Wolverine 3
Cho (w and a) and Keith (c)

Much of the same out of Savage Wolverine, which feels like it's been going on forever but has really only been three issues. This issue, apparently trying to see how quickly it can get on my nerves, opens with Amadeus Cho being offered "the finest maidens" in the village, all of whom are in loin bikinis and unhealthily well-endowed. This series seems to take every step it can to convince people it's never going to change from its initial promise of brawls and babes. Amadeus pushes them away to hear about what's been happening on this island. He's told that the Star Giant, a giant robot that seemed to come from space, fought the Dark Walker, a Cthulu, but couldn't kill the Walker, so instead he shoved him into the mountain, from where he occasionally calls out to a hero that could possibly save him. The natives of this land have been tasked by the Star Giant to keep the Dark Walker from being revived. They now think Cho is a god and follow him when he learns that Wolverine and Shanna are on the island as well. Wolverine and Shanna have gotten into a brawl with a group of natives which ends with Shanna taking a spear to the heart while Wolverine gets tackled by a big cat off a cliff. Cho gets there just in time to demand his squad of natives use whatever magicks they have to to heal Shanna. Wolverine swears revenge on the natives.

Still not feeling anything to particularly love about this book. The story is starting to come together but it's overshadowed by the teen boyness of it all. That's not a stereotype I'd like to keep hanging over comics for as long as possible so I'd have a hard time recommending this book even if it was the best story ever conceived, which this isn't. If you want to know what I think of this book overall, feel free to find my reviews for Savage Wolverine 1 and 2 because this is more of the same.

Wolverine MAX 5
Starr (w) and Boschi and Ruiz (a) and Brown w/ Loughridge (c)

One of the things that makes Logan interesting as a character is his near-constant loss of memory. When you have a guy who's been alive about 150 years, it's important to occasionally make him forget chunks of his past. How else would he stumble into the same situations time and time again? Wolverine MAX is exploring the idea of a Wolverine, a ruthless and savage killer with a noble streak, without a memory of what he's done and what he'd do. It's a little-Memento like, with Victor Creed playing a possible Joe Pantoliano to our Wolverine's Guy Pearce. Creed at least swears to Wolverine that he's on Logan's side and that he's the only one who's stuck with Logan this whole time. It doesn't stop Wolverine from piecing together some clues and shredding Creed up by Mariko's grave, where Sabretooth is later arrested as the Yakuza's number two. Wolverine, having found Mariko's father's sword, tosses it back into the ocean in chains. He begins to write down his memories like so much Leonard Shelby.

Like I said, Logan's memory loss is a key part to his character. He has the power and responsibility aspects of a Spider-Man but his powers are decidedly more brutal and his memory makes him question which side of that responsibility he's landed on in the past. It means he can either trust no one or trust everyone and there are huge problems with both tactics. Can he trust Creed when Creed says he's the only one to stand by Logan? Can he trust Creed's account of how Logan killed Mariko? Can he trust his memories of Mariko with no recollection of how things ended? These are all the kinds of questions that Wolverine fans are probably somewhat familiar with (he's been used as a weapon enough in his time that we all know what to expect, to some degree, when he's questioning himself) but they tend to lead to good Wolverine stories. Now, as Wolverine heads to LA, we'll have to see the shape his memory is in as he lands in the city he was heading to when he lost his memory in the first place.