Savage Wolverine 8, Wolverine MAX 11

Savage Wolverine 8
Wells (w) and Madureira (a) and Steigerwald (c)

Wolverine has been captured by the Arbiters, who Elektra continues to fight, while Kingpin is faced with his resurrected, though deadly and seemingly brainless, wife. Elektra was offered a chance to leave but refused to do so without Wolverine, which gave her more respect in the eyes of the Arbiters. Now they seek to test Wolverine by bringing the animal out in him and seeing what he will do with it around. He instantly jumps back into combat with the giant Shikaru and easily bests him. As the fight concludes, though, Logan takes control again and refuses to kill him, showing mercy and convincing the Arbiters to also allow him to leave. Meanwhile, Fisk attempts to talk Vanessa into stopping, trying to refuse to fight her, which is what the Hand wants to see. Eventually he cannot help himself, wishing to end her suffering by taking her away from it. As he does it, though, she shows just a glimmer of memory and awareness, causing him to slip further into his own wretchedness. By the end of the issue, Elektra is cutting her way through the Hand to track down Bullseye, Kingpin is firming up more brutal and violent takeovers for the Hand, and Wolverine is sitting in silence with Spider-Man at Avengers Mansion.

Another pretty nice issue for Savage Wolverine, which stumbled out of the gate. There's less open humor in this one than in the last couple as we get down to the nitty-gritty of the story, which involves an actual full-out judgment of character from the Arbiters, something that's worth putting Wolverine up against here and there. Wolverine is constantly his own biggest critic; he knows what he is and he may not like it (or he may, some debate there) but it's the role he exists in and he fills it. Occasionally a third party, particularly one with no interest in his future, has to appear to tell him that he's maybe not as bad as he seems. The Arbiters are downright wonderful to him, considering, as they tell him that he cannot take the things he does so hard, that you cannot blame the lion for the slaughter of the gazelle. Even when Wolverine retorts that he's not an animal, they agree with him. Can't get much nicer to Wolverine than that. Still, pretty good issue with really perfect art by Joe Mad to work with the story. He draws a good Wolverine and a pretty solid Elektra, among other things. Liked his Spider-Man too, frankly. Good issue. I think we might get a few written and drawn by phenomenal artist Jock soon. Rather looking forward to it.

Wolverine MAX 11
Starr (w) and Ruiz (a) and Brown (c)

Wolverine has made it to Vegas, though he's not quite at the Vegas everyone pictures when they picture Vegas. He's a little ways away, fighting in cage matches to make a little bit of money before he sets out into the city. After a good fight, he goes home with a woman he meets and talks to her for a while. She tells him that she's a psychic though later adjusts it to hypnotist. He eventually gets himself home, though he blacks out a little in the middle. The next day, the guy he'd fought the previous night wants a second round and Wolverine obliges, only to find out he has little to no control of his body now. He can't pop his claws and he can't even really fight. After getting thoroughly beaten down, he goes to find the woman again. When he enters her trailer, he begins yelling but she calms him quickly before revealing herself to be this off-shoot universe's Mother Night.

For those unaware, Mother Night is a somewhat big villain (not really huge) who occasionally went up against the Avengers and individual heroes. In recent years, she's largely come up as a lack for Red Skull, even being the one to raise Sin, Skull's terrible daughter, one of the orchestrator's of Fear Itself. That's at least a bit of an interesting turn and, truth told, this issue worked better than the rest of the series really has so far. I've voiced confusion at this series in the past based solely on the fact that it's honestly kind of boring. Not much happens in a book where no end of things can happen. Wolverine is kind of the essential MAX character, a guy who is unbelievably violent and dark but who also has plenty of run-ins with women. The MAX line, which can show tons of violence as well as nudity and swearing, seems tailor-made for that. So to write a story that doesn't flow well and that isn't particularly action-packed for the MAX line seems a bit of a waste. This one has a bit more by way of the violence and a bit by way of the nudity, which at least justifies it being its own MAX book and not an arc of another Wolverine book. He's still memory-less and the book continues to be a little heavy-handed in reminding us of that but the inclusion of a real, identifiable villain who has powers that can effectively hurt Wolverine but that might be able to help Wolverine (who knows, maybe she could get him to recall some memories?) could certainly help the book over time. Still not entirely impressed by the issue and series but this seems like a step in the right direction.

Wolverine 4, Savage Wolverine 6

Wolverine 4
Cornell (w) and Davis and Farmer (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

The mind-controlling, sinister entity that Wolverine and Fury are trying to take down has escaped with a couple of air force pilots in a jet with an incubator and Wolverine and Fury are aiming to take it down. When Wolverine manages to board it from the outside, he finds that the pilots are planning to take the ship down already and have no recollection of what they've been doing. The incubator, though, is gone. Wolverine tells Fury not to report this to SHIELD because SHIELD will just send a wave of people in and that wave of people would be dangerous for the entity to take control of. Wolverine, instead, goes to the manufacturer of the incubator and discovers that they had put a tracking device into it, giving Wolverine a way to find wherever it's being brought. It leads him to another plane taking off from New Jersey. Wolverine leaps out of his plane, brought down by a missile shot by one of the mind-controlled scientists, and uses some newfound powers to catch the plane as it's taking off. His newfound power is explained at the very start of the issue; it's his healing factor working overtime against his bones and adamantium scraping together, giving him bursts of great speed followed by near collapse amidst a whole world of pain. He does it here to catch the plane taking off and manages to board it, finding the mind-controlling gun within, as well as soldiers being mind-controlled and aiming the incubator and the entity at Yankee Stadium. The entity sends the crew jumping from the plane and leaves Wolverine to crash the plane into the water so it doesn't infect everyone attending a Yankees game. Then there's a lot of confusing stuff about how the future changed when Wolverine decided to go with Fury after the mission for a debriefing and it doesn't make a whole ton of sense yet but should going forward, maybe.

I find this series somewhat slow. There's a kind of neat angle on Wolverine that features Wolverine doing more detective work and more research going in. Perhaps Marvel knew that would be true, so they wanted one Wolverine book to focus on the busywork of being a superhero and one Wolverine book to focus on the hack-and-slash version of Wolverine. It's clear that Cornell wants to update Wolverine a little bit, considering the idea of him rinsing his palette when his smell gets overloaded and this new discovery that he can get a burst of speed at the cost of some added pain and possible added recovery time. There are pretty interesting things here and I don't want to have Wolverine reduced to angst and violence, but the book does still move a little slow for my taste.

Savage Wolverine 6
Wells (w) and Madureira (a) and Steigerwald (c)

The Hand is attempting to raise Bullseye from the dead (this takes place at least pre-Superior Spider-Man, for a sense of time) in order to overthrow Kingpin as leader of the Hand, as some factions of the Hand are not thrilled with the way Kingpin has handled his business. Kingpin, then, has hired his own outside help to try to keep Bullseye out of their hands or to at least keep the Hand from resurrecting Bullseye. To this end, he's enlisted Elektra, who, in turn comes to Wolverine for assistance. Wolverine has an interesting relationship with Elektra as they don't necessarily team-up too often but they respect each other when they do. She shows up after Wolverine has a particularly bad day with the Avengers in which he threatened a surrendered prisoner. Spider-Man (Peter Parker) is offering a friendly ear to Wolverine as Elektra shows up, which leads to a rather delightful scene between the three of them. Wolverine goes with Elektra, not knowing the job. He's then surprised when Lady Bullseye turns up and when Elektra doesn't immediately attack her, nor the suddenly revealed Kingpin. Wolverine isn't happy with the team-up but will presumably accept it to keep Bullseye out of the Hand's hands. It seems they'll be matched up against the Arbiters, a group of supervillains affiliated with the Hand and transitions of powers.

This is, by large, my favorite issue of Savage Wolverine so far. First off, there are far fewer gratuitous female body shots (though there are, of course, still a handful), which still makes a difference. Secondly, it's so refreshing to see Peter Parker Spider-Man again after so long. I don't dislike what's happening over in Superior Spider-Man but it's still sad to not be reading a more lighthearted Spider-Man anywhere. I've also always like the Spidey-Wolverine relationship, as two almost diametrically opposed but still equally heroic characters. How diametrically opposed they are is further illustrated by Wolverine's inclusion in this job, which is an interesting story all by itself. Good start to an arc. I'd be surprised if Spider-Man doesn't return for at least a bit here but it wouldn't be unheard of. I'm a fan of Zeb Wells and I'm glad to see that this book will have a way to succeed. Reassuring here.

Daredevil 26, Fantastic Four 8

Daredevil 26
Waid (w) and Samnee (a) and Rodriguez (c)

This plot has seemingly reached its climax as Matt escapes Ikari and goes to try to fix himself up a bit before the next encounter, whenever that may come. He's unsettled and freaked out and extremely paranoid about Ikari's attack and the threat that a new one could come at any time. He snaps during an interview with a possible replacement for Foggy's workload, lashing out at a man reaching for antacids to soothe his nerves during the interview. As the man rushes out of the office with Matt apologizing behind him, the man mentions Ikari and escapes. The same thing happens as Matt gets to the hospital to help Foggy through his chemo and attacks a nurse who's about to inject Foggy with something. Though the nurse seems to be legit, the syringe has braille on it that says "got you." Matt confesses to Foggy everything that's happening and Foggy tries to help him figure things out. As they try to piece together the related events, Foggy's notes start to form a bullseye. BULLSEYE (though, to cover my bases, I find it important to note that they never officially confirm it's Bullseye). Admittedly, it's a little weird the way they get to the end result, but the end result is super exciting as one of Daredevil's biggest foes seems back on the scene. DD evades Ikari, who is still following him, and heads to Bullseye's hideout (thanks to a tip from Hank Pym about where the radioactive waste came from). There he finds Lady Bullseye, who he takes out efficiently, before advancing on Bullseye. The issue ends as Ikari sneaks up behind Daredevil.

I really like Daredevil as a character and as a series right now and one of the reasons I've found him so compelling are his key villains. Elektra was always cool as a villain because she's so brutal and has such a past with Daredevil. Kingpin is a great villain because he's the exact kind of mastermind you want a criminal to be, always a few steps ahead and very cunning and ruthless. But Bullseye is the key villain to Daredevil. He's the same sort of build as Daredevil, with beatable skills but definitely very real skills. He's also got the Joker sort of mentality of never knowing what his real motivation is. He's sometimes in it for the money, he's often in it because he hates Daredevil so much at this point. He's very interesting to me and I can't help but be a little excited at the prospect that Bullseye is back finally, long after his "death" in Shadowland. This is my problem as a comic reader: I want death to mean something in comics and not to be cheapened by the fact everyone eventually comes back, but I also don't want anyone to be gone forever. Comics fans: we're exceedingly hard to please. The very end of this issue also features a second story (by the same creative team) about Foggy's time in the hospital. It focuses on Foggy going to entertain some cancer patient children as they wait for Iron Man to come see them. It's a very touching little mini-issue that isn't preachy but still comes with a great lesson while also giving us a good look at Foggy, one of the best support characters in comics.

Fantastic Four 8
Fraction (w) and Bagley and Farmer and Rubinstein (a) and Mounts (c)

It's Ben's one day in his human form a year and he has a full plan for the day. The F4 bring him back to Yancy Street of the past and he goes to pick a fight with the Yancy Street Gang. This isn't the YSG from FF, this is a group of gangsters with guns and a penchant for shakedowns. Ben steps in to protect a shop-owner from the gangsters and promises the shop-owner and his wife that he'll protect them. He relates his troubles, in short, with the Yancy Street Gang and tells them that he's seeking a bit of retribution, even if it means getting his hands dirty. The shop-owner's wife doesn't like the sound of that and asks Ben to leave. Ben has to admit to himself that he's come an awful long way just to beat someone up but ultimately decides it's still worth it. He sends the YSG running again but the shop-owner points out that they'll just come back with more guys and more guns. Ben checks the time and promises that they're going to get some backup by then. Of course, when the YSG shows up again, the Thing is back and fights them all off, swearing to always protect Yancy Street. The YSG runs off and Ben returns to the F4, who have questions of their own for him. While he was gone, the kids relate a dream they each had about the adults going away and leaving holographic messages for them (as related in their AU tie-in; pretty cool that these kids dream in alternate realities) and reveal that Ben had said something in the dream about a fateful run in with Doc Doom back in college. The F4 are about to set off for COLLEGE.

I found myself really liking this episode, though I've never been a Thing fan. It's very sweet and gives a really good sense of his character. We already know that Thing doesn't like the YSG and that he loves Yancy Street but we get a really good look at it here as he goes to try to shape the way his home evolves over time. It's genuinely touching and it helps to ground him on Earth and illustrates some of why he's so homesick when they're gone. It's also a good story on its own that stands alone while also fitting into the rest of the series. Add to that the intrigue of the children remembering the events of the AU tie-in issue (despite the fact they remember it as a dream and that it's part of a universe that will never have happened by the end of all that business) and where the team is going next to potentially correct errors in Ben's past and we have ourselves some story and some major character building.