Wolverine MAX 13, Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe 2

Wolverine MAX 13
Starr (w) and Ruiz w/ Mogorron (a) and D. Brown (c)

Wolverine is back at Sean’s house and unsure of the events of the last few hours which have ended with the man whose picture he found in his pocket dead and blood all over his hands. Wolverine has very few recollections of the past couple of hours, bar a couple flashes here and there that seem like they might point out his guilt. Sean reveals that Suzie’s gone, which he links to the crime as well and worries him immensely. Sean reluctantly tells Wolverine that Suzie, Mother Night, has been hypnotizing him and this all must be her doing; the man Wolverine killed was her husband and now she’s going to be rich and they’ll be framed for the crime. They drive out to a more remote area where Wolverine, still confused and doubtful of all of this, shoots himself in the head with a shotgun. He wakes up a little while later and Mother Night’s hold over him is gone. Everything falls into place and Wolverine leaves to hunt Suzie down. He finds her and brutally kills her before meeting up with Sean again and killing him too (he was suspicious of him the whole time). After the two deaths, Wolverine gives himself up to pursuers who he assumes to be cops but, instead, he’s met by a man in a suit coming out of a limo who seems to know him.

This book continues to be slow and extremely deliberate without any real sense of a payoff. Wolverine spends most of this issue being confused and saying over and over again, both out loud and in his narration, that he doesn’t believe what’s happening but he can’t remember anything about it so who’s to say? This is another one of those books where the writer seems to think maybe we can’t keep up with a pretty straightforward comic book plot and that he should therefore probably explain it to us about a million times. This is the wrong way to approach a book that’s already a little boring because, GUYS, it makes it a lot more boring. I continue to be perplexed by the very existence of this book, with two other solely Wolverine books (WOLVERINE and SAVAGE WOLVERINE) and another coming next month (WOLVERINE ORIGINS II), all of which are better (or are going to be better, thanks Kieron Gillen) than this one and one of which is just about as brutal without, perhaps, the same amount of swears (SAVAGE WOLVERINE). Even WOLVERINE, which I’ve been pretty non-plussed by, has at least moments of interesting plot and character moments to buoy the sometimes boring parts of the book.

Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe 2
Hastings (w) and Camagni (a) and Milla (c)

Longshot’s moment with a cosmic cube has altered the universe by, apparently, splitting his split-faced foe into his two component parts and unleashing him on the world. One of those parts has taken over at SHIELD and is attempting to contain or destroy everyone with magic-based powers as they are too unpredictable and unstable. He finds Longshot and a little girl who has a demon or something of the like hiding in her teddy bear and he attacks both of them. They’re narrowly rescued by the intervention of Doctor Strange, who freezes time and brings them back to his Sanctum Sanctorum. He identifies, with some help from Longshot, the foe as the In-Betweener, someone split between Chaos and Order. His two parts have separated and it’s Order who is trying to take the magic out of the game and who intends to eventually take mutants and other super-powered entities off the board as well. Strange summons a handful of other magic-based fugitives (Ghost Rider, Scarlet Witch, and Deadpool, who had recently stolen a magic wand) and enlists their help in trying to stop Order and free Chaos from the helicarrier. They pick up Dazzler, who is working for SHIELD, along the way as she realizes Order’s plan for mutants and others. The strike is going relatively well until one of the SHIELD agents takes down Strange, who was shielding all of them. Longshot abandons ship as Order twists the minds of Strange, Ghost Rider, Scarlet Witch, and Deadpool to act as his agents. On the plus side, Chaos has been freed. Now it’s just a matter of reuniting the two…and not getting crushed by the falling helicarrier.

I don’t know if it’s a matter of having adapted to the tone of this book or if it’s because we have more of an explained plot but this issue works a little better than the first. The plot is starting to take some shape, giving us a better sense of what Longshot is up against and of his (and others’) personality and powers. There are a lot of fun bits in here, often highlighted by Longshot’s endlessly upbeat attitude, even against countless foes, and his trust in his unpredictable powers. There’s a nice beat where Longshot helps Ghost Rider with his chain by hooking it on jets and hoping for the best, which he gets when Wanda makes the jets light enough to trail behind them before being unhooked and making them heavy enough to come crashing down again. Perhaps an even better moment than that is when, near the end of the issue, Longshot throws himself off the helicarrier saying “I know what will work!” before, as he free-falls, adding “Probably!” and landing in the arms of a passing-by Thor, who releases him gently onto a padded awning and, consequently, the ground. Lots of fun stuff, a really fun attitude, and a compelling enough story make for an altogether entertaining read.