I avoided the individual issues of this, because they were pricey and just didn’t look that good in the store. Now I regret that. Picked up the trade paperback last week and was amazed at how good the story was. Sort of an abrupt ending, and the identity switcheroo in the beginning was pretty obvious, but for my two cents, this is one of the best stories that Marvel has ever published. Fantastic art, too.
Is this the series where they delve into Wolverine’s origins? I saw an interesting Wolverine book on amazon.com recently and almost got it. Is this a recent series?
I thought the art was good, but it read like an 1800s period piece. Just how old is Wolverine supposed to be?
Ah well. Gonna put mine up on eBay once I can gather them all together, so it’s no loss. :-)
It’s pretty good (Paul Jenkins is consistently good, except for Hellblazer), but they left it too open for “Origin II”, and really, Marvel hyped it as the “origin of Wolverine” when it’s really the “origin of Logan.”
Then again, Barry Windsor-Smith pretty much defined the whole Weapon X aspect of Wolverine’s origin in Marvel Comics Presents #72-84. So between BWS’ story arc and Jenkin’s story, you got the whole Wolverine saga.
Also, Denny, I guess your Marvel boycott prevented you from hearing the speculation on Wolverine’s age, =P Wolverine’s healing factor significantly slows down his aging, and years ago, there was a famous panel showing Wolverine and Sabretooth hanging out with cowboys and indians in the 1800s. Even though that was later dismissed as a dream sequence, the fanboys still use that as an example of how Wolverine’s slow aging could mean he was born in the 1800s. Jenkins basically confirmed Wolverine’s age in Origin.
Like Thierry, I was also disappointed that the book didn’t cover more than the first few years of his life. I was glad, however, that it didn’t retcon Windsor-Smith’s story (which was rumoured, and somewhat repealed by Larry Hama in Wolverine’s book).
To the extent they are now accepting that as “true”, there’s still a pretty big missing period in Wolverine’s life between the end of “Origin” and the 1960s Weapon X program (brief hints of his WW2 involvement were made in a couple issues).
Thierry,
The Marvel boycott ended long ago… But I don’t read any of the X-books. Last X-book I bought before Origin was the 1980-something four-issue Wolverine mini-series, which nobody wants to pay as much as Wizard says its worth for.
(Okay, I have been reading X-Statix, to see what all the fuss is about. But it hardly qualifies.)
Reading plenty of Marvel books now – most of the Spider-Man books, Capt. Marvel, Black Panther, Daredevil, Captain America, and the superb Alias, among others. Read Avengers until Busiek left. But for some reason, I couldn’t get back into the X-Men.
Hey, how are you liking X-Statix and Black Panther (especially the “new direction” it’s going)?
You still into Wildstorm stuff? Authority is being relaunched next year.
I started reading Deadpool with the five issue story leading up to his “death” and have continued reading his story now as Agent X. I really just like the humor and absurdity of it, where do those comics stand relative to other Marvel comics? Am I missing out on great things?
Just so you know, Gail Simone (started that Deadpool storyline, and is doing Agent X) is leaving Agent X. She didn’t give a reason why, and her last issue is #7. Deadpool was known as a great comedy ready when Joe Kelly was writing it, then he left to do Action Comics. Christopher Priest has a valiant try for Deadpool writer, then he was fired, and Buddy Scalieri (sp?) and Frank Tieri did some writing duties, and those sucked.
Gail Simone took over during that “death” story arc, and when Marvel decided to revamp the three lagging X-books (Deadpool, Cable, and X-Force), she stayed on to do Agent X. Now she’ll be gone as of #7.
If you like her work, I do know she’ll be the permanent writer for Birds Of Prey, but that ain’t until June 2003. I think she has some other projects in the works.
Also, in terms of recommendations, what are you looking for? Just humor and absurdity, with minimal capeage, or what?
I don’t really know what I’m looking for, I just stumbled onto Deadpool and the humor is what kept me. My only other recent comic reading has been J. Michael Strackzynski 's Rising Stars series which I’ve absolutely loved.
My favorite characters have always been Batman and Wolverine, but I don’t know where to pick up on either one. When I go to the comic shop and see like 20 different comics that have something to do with Batman it’s a bit intimidating. I suppose that’d be what I’m looking for though, some advice on those, but I’m open to just about anything.
Thanks for the info on Simone, I’ll probably keep reading Agent-X at least a little while after she leaves to see how he fares, and maybe pick up Birds of Prey eventually. That comic already exists, right? You’re just saying she won’t be working on it till next year?
>Just so you know, Gail Simone (started that Deadpool storyline, and is doing Agent X) is leaving Agent X. She didn’t give a reason why, and her last issue is #7
The reason is apparently a disagreement with her editor over whether or not the book should be as humorous as she likes it (which is kinda goofy, since it was extremely funny under Joe Kelly as well).
The best Marvel books are currently all three Ultimate books, New X-men, Captain Marvel and Black Panther (and if you’re an X-men grognard, Chris Claremont’s Xtreme X-men book). The two main Spidey books (. Michael Strackzynsk and Paul Jenkins) also have their fans, and Kevin Smith is about to take over Amazing Spider-man.
Stefan
Yeah, Marvel did cop-out with that. Though I liked the series so much I didn’t mind that they were leaving things so open for an Origin II. I’m looking forward to what this creative team can do to tell Wolverine’s story during the wars.
"Yeah, Marvel did cop-out with that. "
It’s called “milking it for what it’s worth”.
And again, so what? If the end product is good, who cares if it was inspired by greed and marketing?
Wholly,
Pick up Batman #608–quick, before it’s gone. It’s the start of a new 12-issue run with great Jim Lee art, that doesn’t cross over to other comics. So no need to pick up 4 different titles to follow the story.
I’ll second that. The two best Batman titles are Batman itself and Detective Comics, and they both are going through creative team changes, so now is a good jumping point to get them.
More info on the Batman run in particular:
http://www.dccomics.com/features/BatmanHush/index.html
Jeph Loeb (doing Batman with Jim Lee) also did a good job with Batman: The Long Halloween. That’s a pretty easy trade paperback to hunt down.
I think I’m going to cancel X-Statix. It has its moments, but I’ve taken no great joy from reading it. I got the new Black Panther but haven’t read it yet. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with the old direction, though. Hope it’s not too screwed up.
Yep, still reading some Wildstorm stuff. Authority went to hell towards the end. The new Stormwatch: Team Achilles is actually pretty decent.
Why do they do so many titles ____ X. It’s FU-X-ING confusing!
Agent-X
Weapon-X
Mutant-X
Paradise-X
X-Men
New X-Men
Ultimate-X-Men
X-Treme X-Men
X-Man
X-Factor
X-Force
X-Statix
Mekani-X
Generation X
Earth X
Factor X
Excalibur
X-Calibre
Exciting X-Patrol
Gambit and the X-Ternals
GenetiX
X-51
X-Babies
X-Nation
X-Patrol
X-Terminators
X.S.E.
X-Universe
ALL OF THOSE are real titles of real Marvel Comics. It comes off as kinda desperate… “We can’t sell anything unless it has an X in the fucking title!”
You forgot Uncanny X-men, of course, the principal title, as well as the quarterly X-men Ulimited. Most of those were crazy mini-series, or short-term spinoffs. There are currently the following “X-titles”.
- Agent X (likely cancelled, with Gail Simone leaving).
- New X-men (Grant Morrison)
- Uncanny X-men (flagship title, although it hasn’t earned that title in a while)
- X-Statix
- Xtreme X-men (Chris Claremont)
- X-men Unlimited (quarterly)
- Ultimate X-men (set in a different universe)
- Wolverine solo book
And the current Mechanix mini-series for a couple of issues. Still a lot (too many), but there are too many Spidey/Batman/Superman books too (especially if you list all of them over the years, like you did).
It’s already gone. DC’s apparently sold out the first run and is into a second printing. Probably still some copies kicking around, but they’re supposedly getting scarce.