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It’s Wolverine, like you need to ask why any of his works would be collected. This came out during the time between 1996 and 2002 when I stopped reading comics so this is brand-new to me.
-Wolverine #’s 119-122- This was a four-issue series that ran in the first run of Wolverine’s solo title and hit the shelves back in 1997. Wolverine doesn’t have his adamantium claws anymore and won’t get them for another two years or so. Warren Ellis wrote the story that was illustrated by a very new to the scene Leinil Yu. The story starts in the past (Wolverine’s always murky past) and a hitman named White Ghost. Wolverine has a love interest and it turns out that White Ghost, a drinking bud of Wolvie’s while he’s in Hong Kong, kills her father. Wolvie goes after him and kills him and a Hong Kong mafia boss. He leaves Hong Kong and the woman behind. We head back to the present where the White Ghost is somehow alive 10 years later and going after Wolverine. We follow Wolvie and his search for White Ghost and finds a mafia boss that was pissed that Wolvie offed that other boss way back when. They even kill the old flame of Wolverine. He always seems to be losing those. So Wolvie kills the new boss (same as the old boss! HA!) and kills White Ghost, who somehow managed to survive 10 years ago. Hopefully he’ll stay dead this time.
-The Bottom Line- It’s funny, when I wrote the synopsis it seems like a really basic story, and in fact it’s the not the first time we’ve seen a Wolvie story like this, where a love interest is killed because of Wolverine and he gets revenge. However, the writing of Ellis is just so much better than most and he can really pace the story and keeps it interesting and makes you want to turn the page to see what happens next. He perfectly sends us back to the past to see events that lead up to the present or fill in holes in the story. It was just really well done and it proves why Ellis is so highly regarded. I should also mention the art of Yu was great. It is more refined than what he does now, in my opinion. It seems more polished than normal. I definitely would recommend this despite the sparse extras (just other Wolvie covers Yu drew during this run). There’s also a great intro by Ellis that is worth reading. Recommended.
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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