Winter Soldier: The Bitter March 4, Wolverine 7, B-B-B-BONUS Savage Wolverine 19

Winter Soldier: The Bitter March 4
Remender (w) and Boschi (a) and Chuckry (c) and Cowles (l)

As the train goes crashing into a small village, Ran Shen and Mila manage to use a grappling hook to stay above the explosion, just as Winter Soldier and the Drain hover out of it on Bucky's jetpack. The Drain starts to open Winter Soldier's mind to his past, draining his will to live by showing him what he's become after what he'd been. Bucky is barely able to keep from killing himself but jettisons the Drain on to the village, blasting himself a bit away from his influence. The Drain calls out to Shen and Mila, appealing to Mila's desire to help people by making the villagers kill themselves and draining their willpower. When she shows herself to make him stop, he does the same to Shen, calling him out as someone whose given everything to a country he no longer believes in and citing a mission that went wrong and led to plenty of innocent deaths. As Shen is beginning to believe that he should kill himself, the Winter Soldier shows up again and punches the Drain, forcing him to flee with Mila and giving Bucky a chance to appeal to Shen for his help. As they advance, he tells Shen that his memories are blurry and that the Hydra psychic opened something up in him. When they catch up to the Drain, the psychic convinces Mila to kill herself, preferring she die than fall into enemy hands. As Shen attacks the Drain, Winter Soldier dives off the cliff and catches Mila.

I've been writing shorter reviews this week rather pointedly but between this and the earlier THUNDERBOLTS issue, I just can't stop telling you the plot. That's sometimes not a great thing because sometimes it means there's too much plot told through too much exposition and I have to relate it all for the summary to make sense. In this case (as with THUNDERBOLTS though probably more here), it's because I'm excited by the story and because so much happened in 22 pages that I want to say it all. It's a pretty phenomenal issue and it's such an interesting limited series as we get to see a Cold War-era Winter Soldier remember who he is and temporarily break out of his programming. Remender has so much happening but it never bogs him down; instead, the pacing is near-perfect and the characters all get their moment and it's all compelling. Roland Boschi's art is great and Chris Chuckry's colors complement it perfectly. Really phenomenal book and I'm sad but excited to see the way it all ends next time. This has, so far, been one of the most satisfying limited series I've read in a long time.

Total Score: 5/5


Wolverine 7
Cornell (w) and Sandoval (a) and Curiel (c) and Petit (l)

Some monkeys steal the orb that Wolverine needs to get for MI-6 before Sabretooth can get it while he plays his team and pretends that he's still trying to get the orb for Offer so he can make a deal with Sabretooth. As Sabretooth goes in pursuit of the Orb, the Hand bring Wolverine down with poisoned arrows. Faiza shows up to extract the poison and save Wolverine before withdrawing, but she can't leave before Pinch sees her and it confirms Pinch's fears about Logan. They finally get their hands on the orb and it fights Logan, who can't get the passcode, with his opposite Logan. When the doppleganger's been put down by Pinch, who, with the help of Fuel, can interact more successfully with the Orb, she and the team leave Wolverine behind. Captain Britain extracts him but Sabretooth finds Pinch and the others, kills Fuel, and shows Pinch that he has her daughter.

There's a lot of fairly interesting stuff here that's tied together by a somewhat loose few strings. The first loose string is that the orb is rather a convenient plot device of a weapon, one that announces to Pinch that Wolverine is a hero and pulls his opposite version, a feral villain, out of the ether to fight him to further confirm things (also that it needs a passcode, which is weird for an orb). The second and probably more important string for the big character moment of this issue is that I don't buy Pinch and Wolverine's relationship. Granted, Cornell may not have had a couple years to cement their relationship as something that seemed real before this arc but it still feels like their relationship was something wispy and hardly there and now it's the crux of this entire emotional journey. It feels weak from both sides so using it to raise up the entire story causes the whole thing to rather collapse. There are some interesting ideas in here and I like Sandoval's art for the story (makes things look a lot more dynamic than anything in Cornell's first WOLVERINE story and feels maybe a little more cartoonish in the action than Stegman's stuff, though Stegman didn't have as much action to draw), but it all falls somewhat flat on their relationship (and, to a lesser extent, on the convenient orb).

Total Score: 3/5


Savage Wolverine 19
Simone (w) and N. Edwards (p) and Pallot (i) and Sotomayor (c) and Petit (l)

Note: This is a b-b-b-bonus review insofar as it came out last week but I didn't get my hands on it until pretty late so I rather put it off more than I should have. So, not so much bonus as "here it is, late." Here it is either way though, SAVAGE WOLVERINE 19 written by the incomparable Gail Simone (I wrote this blurb before I read the issue so hopefully I have only good things to say about Simone afterwards)

Wolverine dreams of a home under the Northern Lights, removed from people, with Jean. Of course, it's too good to be true and Professor X communicates with him to break him out of the dream, reminding him that he and Jubilee have been captured by AIM for testing. They're trying to get a hold of where the two are but for now, he has to get out of his restraints and find Jubilee. He manages it and learns that they're under a new sedation method that makes them dream of something they really want, meaning that they don't really fight the sedation and the brain does all the work for them. Though Wolverine broke out of his, Jubilee remains attached to hers (where she's one of the most powerful X-Men, even with her powers, and Wolverine is her sidekick) even when he breaks her out. Professor X informs Logan that they're closing in and that he shouldn't break Jubilee's illusion in the fear that it's strong enough to do real damage to her mentally if she comes out unexpectedly. So Wolverine, acting like Jubilee's sidekick, follows her as she storms through the compound being ineffective. Finally she does get smart to what's really happening but, as it happened softly enough, she's okay, just a little hurt by how bad her powers are. However, as Wolverine gets blasted, she manages to hold off AIM long enough for him to recover and for them to get out of there. He cheers her up as they leave, telling her that her powers, in his eyes, are some of the best around (he harkens back to the Northern Lights as he compliments them).

It's a rather sweet issue and an overall very fun issue. One of the things that I really like about Gail Simone (though I haven't read too much by her as she's mostly with DC these days) is that she gets into the head of a character so well and that she seems to understand the humanity of a character. On top of that, she's not afraid to pull punches. In this issue, she teams Wolverine, someone who claims to be the best there is at what he does, with Jubilee, someone with the power of fireworks (the only way you can be more '80s/'90s is by dressing like Jubilee did in the '80s/'90s). Jubilee's happy place is a place where she is more powerful than she actually believes she is. On top of it, she snaps out of it and almost immediately says "my powers suck," which is rather true but also rather cutting. You don't see that sort of self-awareness from a lot of characters. On top of that, Simone cuts right to the core of things (very important for a self-contained issue) and teams Wolverine and Jubilee, two characters who don't particularly see themselves fitting in with the X-Men at any point. It's immediately a compelling story and one that instantly works. Obviously she's not the first person to team the two and it's a duo that's worked to varying degrees in the past but she dives right in and makes it her own here. Solid book, definitely worth a look.

Total Score: 4/5

SUPER QUICK REVIEWS: Wolverine 6, Nightcrawler 2

Wolverine 6
Cornell (w) and Sandoval (a) and Curiel (c) and Petit (l)

Wolverine and his team have been sent by Offer to Madripoor to find an alien item that Sabretooth is trying to get his hands on before Sabretooth can get his hands on it. Logan leads his team to his old bar, disguised as old Madripoor standby Patch but the team is attacked by the Hand searching for Logan. He's whisked away as one of the people teamed with the Hand stays in the bar to deal with the team. It turns out all three are with MI13 and this was all organized by Wolverine. Pete Wisdom, Dane Whitman, and tech guy O run over the plan and give Wolverine a tracker to find the stolen item as Faiza Hussain leads Wolverine's team to their meeting. As "the Hand" flee, Wolverine brings his team step-by-step to the item, losing them just as he comes across Sabretooth.

I think there are parts of this story that are interesting, more interesting than I've found most of Cornell's run on WOLVERINE to be, but it's sometimes bogged down by over-explanation and a desire to maybe be a little more than it outwardly seems. As I intimated last issue, Pinch somehow put some pieces together and decided maybe Wolverine was playing them all and it comes up here a couple of times but it still doesn't really work for me. On top of that, there's a weird segment in here where suddenly narrative kicks in and goes third person omniscient, giving us access to Wolverine's thoughts but in a third person narration. Just weird.

Total Score: 3/5

Nightcrawler 2
Claremont (w) and Nauck (a) and Rosenberg (c) and Petit (l)

Nightcrawler and Amanda Sefton made it out of the fight with Trimega by the skin of their teeth and have set out to find their foster mother from their youthful days in the circus, Margali. They go to Wizendorf, reminisce a bit and flirt a bit more, and then make their way to the typical resting place of the traveling circus. They're promptly attacked by old friends not believing they're who they say they are but eventually they're swayed and celebrate the return of their friends. Amanda and Margali, though, have developed a feud that won't be so easily forgotten but it has to be put aside when Trimega does eventually turn up.

It's a little hard to feel terribly invested in this series as we don't really have a good sense of who Trimega is or why he's so dangerous. Add to that a bit too much exposition and some sickly sweet writing (there are few people who hate exclamation points used outside of shouts more than I) and so far the book is off to a shaky start. I will credit Todd Nauck for some solid art and I'll credit Marvel for getting Jamie McKelvie to do the covers on this series (as well as on MS. MARVEL, while we're talking about it) because they very nearly make it worth it to pick this one up regardless of your personal connection to it.

Total Score: 2/5

Hulk 1, Wolverine 4

Hulk 1
Waid (w) and Bagley (p) and Hennessy (i) and Keith (c) and Petit (l)

Bruce Banner has been shot by a mysterious marksman who had been hired to land a perfect shot in the back of Banner's head so it would shut his brain down before Hulk could come out. With Banner down, he's been delivered to the secret organization that hired the marksman in the first place. They've also recruited the world's foremost brain surgeon, a contemporary of Banner's, to remove the bullet from his brain and save the man. The doctor manages to do it but refuses to implant the device the organization wants him to implant, which would allow them to trigger a Hulk-out. When he refuses, he considers killing Banner to spare him from this but doesn't have to worry about the moral implications long since his anesthesiologist, a woman who was, as a child, was saved by the Hulk, revives him in time for Hulk to appear and get out of the area. With Banner out in the world somewhere, Coulson and Maria Hill set out to find him. They eventually do, only to find that Banner is badly brain damaged and, according to his doctor, will never be smart again.

Story
Waid's previous INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK run found the genius Banner using the weapon Hulk as a means to work in a lab and deliver amazing scientific advancements while creating a legacy for himself. Now the roles are drastically changed as Hulk rescues Banner from probable death but not before Banner's brain is severely damaged. No one can argue that this changes things pretty radically. We still have plenty left to understand about the new situation but we're off to an interesting start. 5/5

Character
It's a little hard to get a big read on "character" in an issue where the main character is only conscious and present for a couple of pages. There's still some interesting character work insofar as the brain surgeon goes and insofar as that brain surgeon knows Banner and how he views Banner. It's a sort of third hand look at Banner where we see the surgeon's opinion of Banner from back when they were in school together and from newspaper articles he's read since. Not a ton to be gained with a character like Hulk, who has been around for so long. This is just kind of an interesting way to re-establish our character and his place in the world at the start of a new series. 4/5

Writing
We're still a little too much in the story for a lot to have been explained so far but the writing works pretty well for what it needs to do here. It catches the reader and draws him or her in while still not giving too much information to put the reader off. As I said, it rehashes a little bit about Banner that we don't necessarily need if we're longtime Hulk readers but it at least presents it differently to keep things a little new while still welcoming new readers onboard without much problem. 5/5

Art
Bagley's art works here as he draws lots of characters who will likely never appear again. It gets the point across; there are plenty of people around. Interested to see how the series continues as his Hulk looks pretty great. 5/5

Miscellaneous
It's a bold new direction for the book and one that I think we'll have to wait a little longer on to really make a judgement about it. I liked Waid's last direction and the focus it put on Banner so I'm wary of this new approach but I'm willing to follow Waid as he continues.

Total score: 4/5


Wolverine 4
Cornell (w) and Stegman w/ Baldeon (p) and Morales, Stegman, and Hanna (i) and Curiel (c) and Petit (l)

Before Wolverine set off to join Offer's gang, he cut his ties with the X-Men, angry that they're all over him while he tries to figure himself out, and even goes to Kitty Pryde with Scott's team (the location of which he apparently knows) so he can threaten her for some weird reason. He then meets up with SHIELD Agent Monkton to discuss going undercover in Offer's group. Monkton will go in, as an LMD, to allow Wolverine to kill him in front of Offer to establish his loyalty, hence why Wolverine killed the reporter in the first issue. Now he's firmly established himself as an ally to Offer, who is trying to get into Sabretooth's good books.

Story
Wolverine is a spy for Maria Hill but there is always the worry that he'll grow to like his new teammates (as Monkton warns him) enough to not want to harm them if the time should come. Still, it's a better story than "Wolverine has joined up with a crime boss because he's having a midlife crisis." 4/5

Character
I've found some of the character decisions strange so far but I'd written it off as some sort of unknown plot point to that point. I was right and now I do like what's happening a bit more, though I cannot get past the threatening Kitty business. I just don't follow it. Maybe he's trying to burn his bridges to make his alibi more believable but I'm just not sure who would have checked? This way, he just comes off like a crazy old man. In a way, these sort of freak outs make more sense because you put them in context of a wounded man who has been severely shaken but it almost doesn't go big enough to give that. Instead, he almost comes off as petty and strange. 3/5

Writing
There is still a little over-explanation here, even as the series needs over-explanation to say what's going on. That's not the sort of over-explanation I'm talking about. There's over-explanation in people explaining Wolverine's current behavior. I don't need to hear five different people talking about why Wolverine is so defensive right now. Still, happy to see now that the story is going somewhere rather than just trying to be gritty and different. 4/5

Art
I like Stegman's work a good deal and I like the way he draws action particularly, an important aspect for a Wolverine title. I was a little put off at how ugly Wolverine tended to be in this book but then thought about it more and actually almost preferred it. Wolverine was never meant to be a poster boy sort of good looking guy. Bob Hoskins was nearly cast to play him in a movie, you guys. Like everyone, his look changes frequently, but it has certainly erred more towards good-looking and gruff or animalistic in recent days. Making him kind of ugly doesn't hurt this book. I still, though, hate the new design of Sabretooth and don't understand why every would-be crime boss has to be a GIANT. 4/5

Miscellaneous
Still a little bit slower than I'd like this book to be moving but I am happy that it's moving in some sort of direction. It's hard to get past the somewhat slower tone of the book still but knowing that it's not trying too hard to reinvent the wheel certainly helps things.

Total score: 3/5

Wolverine 13, Savage Wolverine 14

Wolverine 13
Cornell (w) and Davis and Farmer (a) and Loughridge (c)

The conclusion of this run of WOLVERINE before it kicks off again at number one with new artist Ryan Stegman finds Wolverine badly beaten and sprawled out in front of Sabretooth, who is, of course, soliloquizing. Sabretooth talks pretty much forever about how weak Wolverine is and how quickly he resolved to murder someone earlier (who ended up being Mystique but he didn't know that) and so on and so forth. As Sabretooth finally finishes his soliloquy, one of the random guards comes up to Wolverine and reveals that she's carrying the alien virus that took his healing powers in the first place and offers a deal; with the virus being extinguished around the world by SHIELD and the Host, the virus needs a place to hide and would choose to hide in Wolverine, promising to give back his powers, maybe even stronger, in exchange for shelter. Wolverine refuses it and the virus is destroyed. He and Kitty return to Westchester and Storm and Beast rush to meet them. Logan proclaims that "The Wolverine is dead now."

Here's been my whole issue with this series and why I'm hoping (somewhat against hope) that Stegman's sharp and crisp art will bring a severe tonal change to the book: this is a story where Wolverine lost his healing powers, became killable, fought against a seemingly unbeatable virus, and went up against a slew of his own villains while depowered and it was boring. I can't necessarily say I'd be totally onboard with the premise anyway (it's incredibly tricky to take a superhero's powers away and still keep him interesting) but boy does it not feel well-executed. At every turn through this series there's been over-explanation and boring writing and strangely different or personality-empty characters. Even this one, the big presentation by Sabretooth as he finally wins, comes off as hugely lacking and like a different Sabretooth than we've ever seen before (the dude is wearing a suit here. I'm fine with a change in character but like, an entire overhaul of a character suddenly announced? Pretty weird). I couldn't bring myself to care about the problems Wolverine has gone through and when you're reading a book and unable to care about the drama of the protagonist, that book's in a bit of trouble.

Savage Wolverine 14
Isanove (w and a)

It's a 1930s adventure for Wolverine by cover-proclaimed "master of noir" Richard Isanove, who takes writing and art duties for this issue. In the late days of prohibition, Wolverine is an alcohol smuggler helping out a friend in northern Minnesota. His friend, called Elias, drives him from the Canadian border (from where he was smuggling) to his five and dime store which runs an illegal bar out of the back. We're introduced to Elias' kids through a good deal of dialogue and a couple of anecdotes. After Wolverine and Elias make it to the bar, they're quickly greeted by a French gangster, who tells them they're running an illegal business on their turf and tells them to shut down or to buy their product directly from them and give the profits over to them. Elias refuses, saying that he's only making enough to keep the store in business and to take care of his kids as is. This isn't enough for the Frenchman, who opens the bar doors wider to reveal a posse of gangsters with machine guns who gun down Elias. Wolverine attacks and is gunned down as well. Three of the four kids, hiding out in the corner, are discovered and the Frenchman takes the youngest girl for part of their operation. After the gangsters leave, the other kids try to figure out what to do and bemoan the loss of their father and watch over Logan, who seems ready to die at any moment. Of course, he heals up and swears to find the Frenchman, which he does with relative ease (the number of places in the area that deal in illegal booze and women is, apparently, pretty small). Next issue will pit Wolverine against the Frenchman and his hired goon Marion.

Despite all of the exposition and dialogue, the issue moves pretty well and Isanove's art is a solid match for his storytelling. One of the things writers seem to like about Wolverine is that he's been alive since the 1800s but lost his memory so many times as to not remember any of his own history, which means that any era between Reconstruction and now is fair game for a Wolverine story. We've had plenty of stories with Wolverine in the 20s and 30s before (it's a nice age for Wolverine, pitting him up against gangsters and dames) but not too many, to my limited knowledge, about bootlegging. Indeed, not too many about Minnesota either. I think I can name the number of Marvel stories I've read that take place in Minnesota without much trouble: it's one. This one. Anyway, the story isn't particularly complex, as yet, but then SAVAGE WOLVERINE never really tried to be. There's enough time per arc to get in, tell a story, and get out. Given the distance traveled in this issue alone, I'd peg this as one that's going to pretty quickly get out. Still not bad though and a nice relief from the other WOLVERINE series and even from the last little extremely heavy-handed SAVAGE WOLVERINE arc.

Wolverine 11, Savage Wolverine 11

Wolverine 11
Cornell (w) and Davis and Farmer (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

Wolverine is still mortal and his chances at becoming invincible again are seemingly dwindling, both as Fury and his team use the Host to try to attack the virus and as Wolverine's new series rounds the corner. Context clues, you guys. Anyway, he and Kitty are still trapped in the mall with human security guards and members of the Hand and Sabretooth's strange gang (including Lord Deathstrike and the Silver Samurai) still coming from all directions. To add insult to actual injury, apparently the weird acupuncture guy who showed up before also opened avenues of pain previously unknown to Wolverine. Wolvy has always felt pain but he's pretty used to it by now. Unfortunately, this guy amplified Wolverine's pain, making his fighting that much more reserved. The intense pain is making him more feral and, in his moments of clarity, he decides to set out by himself to lure the other villains to him and protect the people he's with. It's by himself that he's attacked by the Silver Samurai as the issue ends.

This mall thing feels like it's been going on for months and I know that it hasn't. One of my biggest issues with this series has been the pacing of the stories and of the individual issues, which have dragged tremendously. There's an excess of exposition, needed or not, and it's crushing the flow of this book. I will say, particularly on the heels of the new WOLVERINE book announcement, that I think that Alan Davis' art isn't necessarily the best fit for Cornell's somewhat slow book because it makes Davis' art feel slow and dramatic, but not in the good way where it actually creates drama. Overall, I think the book itself is just slow, which is too bad because I think there are some decent ideas in here and some neat little character pieces here and there (I continue to not need Wolverine's super secret group of smart friends or whatever they are. Happy he's been pretty reserved with using them). I'm hoping that the start of the next series will find a more dedicated book, one that's more sure of itself and that needs less explanation, then. I also hope that it sees a bit of an adrenaline boost from Stegman's art.

Savage Wolverine 11
Jock (w and a) and Loughridge (c)

Wolverine has found a lab on this mysterious planet that seems to answer some of his questions about exactly what sort of experiments were going on here. Like Wolverine's young friend, who he seems to have named Kouen, the lab is full of more children in stasis meant to be a new Wolverine, as it were. Almost immediately upon seeing these kids, Kouen enters and is even more immediately speared through the chest and lifted up off the ground by one of the creatures running the lab. Wolverine yells while the man soliloquies about how all of these children are imperfect copies which can be disposed of now that Wolverine himself is here. Meanwhile, Kouen learns that he can heal and bares his own claws and frees himself from the pike, giving Wolverine an opening to run over split the man in two. Wolverine and Kouen talk about the children in stasis and Wolverine admits that, since they're only kids but their skeleton is metal, their bodies likely won't hold up. Kouen produces a syringe that the scientists had said would cure the children, which Wolverine doubts. He tests it on himself and reveals that it's just poison, a powerful poison at that. Kouen uses the poison on the mainframe of the tubes to end the lives of the other children before they can suffer his pain. He and Wolverine escape the lab and wait for more scientists to show up, as the man warned they would, ready to attack.

Really beautiful and fairly haunting final issue for Jock here. There was a neat thing happening with this run where it was a little hard to kind of follow and keep up, leaving a sense of mystery and a sense of the ominous to it. It wouldn't have worked long-term, I don't think, but this was a fairly short arc and thus the mystery has the perfect amount of time to kind of sit and make you curious before really clearing up. Of course, not everything cleared up (who were these scientists? Where is Wolverine? How did they bring him here? etc.) but I think we don't need everything cleared up. This is a story, and an interesting one at that, and it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Unlike WOLVERINE above, this set of issues has moved remarkably well, allowing exposition to pave the way when it's needed but preferring to show and not tell, which also gave Jock, who is a tremendous artist, a chance to shine. I read this issue through once a couple days ago so that I would be ready to review it but I read it through again when the time came to actually review it. Typically I do that with books but oftentimes I'll end up just flipping through the book the second time to remind myself of things I wanted to say or little plot points here and there. This time I read the whole book through a couple more times to get the whole feel of the book. It's a really good story and I think a great show of Wolverine as a character. Solid stuff.

Marvel news - Young Avengers and Wolverine and the X-Men ending, Wolverine and F4 relaunch news

The first bit of news here is the heartbreaking news - Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie will be ending their run of YOUNG AVENGERS, effectively ending the fourth volume of YOUNG AVENGERS (it might just be the third? I don't really remember and I'm too broken up to check), with issue 15. It sounds like this was a decision made by Gillen and McKelvie, not by Marvel, as addressed on Kieron Gillen's Tumblr. All along they've referred to this ongoing story as the first season of YOUNG AVENGERS, leaving themselves with enough story and enough of an opening to keep going if they wanted but also giving them a backdoor if they wanted a way out. They're taking the latter and, while I accept and maybe even kind of adore their choice (go out strong, make sure you don't let it sit too long and stagnate), it's still heartbreaking news. Brilliant book all the way through, will definitely cherish the final few issues. I will also say that it doesn't come as a HUGE surprise because they've definitely been very guarded about their plans after the first season's conclusion, which certainly has the feel of a goodbye issue.

WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN will also seemingly be coming to an end in February with issue 42, as reported by Aaron on his blog. In the very least, it will be Jason Aaron's last issue with the book, whether or not that exactly means the book is ending. He was hoping to run this book and AMAZING X-MEN side-by-side but it seems like his work schedule is catching up to him and he had to let one book go. I'm not terribly upset about this one.

Meanwhile, it's been confirmed that WOLVERINE will be relaunching as a part of All-New Marvel NOW in February, following the conclusion of Paul Cornell's "Killable" arc on the current WOLVERINE series. The relaunch will feature Cornell still writing but swapping out Alan Davis for Ryan Stegman. While I like that move (I prefer Stegman's work to Davis' by about a mile), I'm still not totally into Cornell's WOLVERINE as is and I'm not sure how I feel about him continuing the run. This new series will apparently feature a shift for the character, though, as Wolvy seems to be coming out of this arc still without his healing power; the teaser image proclaimed "MORTAL" and Cornell has said that it will impact the way he works, giving us a more strategic Wolverine rather than a more guns-blazing Wolverine. Could be interesting, though this one promises to also put Wolverine on a team of not-so-good-guys so we'll see. According to the article linked above, they've apparently also announced a Fantastic Four relaunch that I think I missed. OH NO WAIT, I remember seeing something about it. Hang about.

James Robinson, who will also be leading the new ALL-NEW INVADERS series (pumped), is relaunching FANTASTIC FOUR with a bit of a strange bent to it, from the summary. The FF are evicted from the Baxter Building, Johnny is powerless, Thing is arrested for murder, Dragon Man is sentenced to death, Franklin's imagination is running wild, Val is on her own, etc. Weird, right? We'll see how this goes too.