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This is a very cool one for me on a personal level. It’s the first Premiere Hardcover collection that actually came out while I was reading comics, and I actually remember reading bits and pieces of this as a 9-year-old and being impressed even then. I know Marvels has come out since this one did, so that is one I read when it came out, but this edition came out first, and I didn’t buy the Marvels one since I already had it. Well, Origins came out when I was around, too, but I wasn’t reading comics at the time so it didn’t count. Anyway, I remember this being just awesome. Perhaps it was Wolverine cutting off some guy’s hand more than the awesome work of Barry Windsor-Smith, but now it’s collected in all its glory. I never read the whole epic, which ran in Marvel Comics Presents #’s 72-84. If you didn’t know, MCP (as we cool comic geeks call it) was an anthology series by Marvel with 4 stories per issue, some had a few parts, some were epics (this being the best, most remembered one) and some were just one-shot tales showcasing a character. I remember Wolverine stories being the most featured ones, but this was by far the best one ever presented, and you’ll see why.
Spoilers Ahead
The story is almost beautiful in its simplicity. A man, Logan, is kidnapped by a group of scientists, has adamantium bonded to him, he goes crazy and bezerk and kills everyone and escapes, showing what a monster he really is. The beauty in this story is the art and story-crafting done by Barry Windsor-Smith. His panels and word balloons have an implicit artistry to it, your eye follows the word balloons and the glorious art and pacing are contained within those captions. It’s truly a dark, violent, story, and I’m quite surprised looking back at just how gory it was. It doesn’t distract from the story at all, it actually fits quite well. It is more adult than some of the max titles I have seen but it is never gory for the sake of being gory. It absolutely fits the mood of the story. Like I said, the story itself is easy to summarize (and I won’t spoil the actual ending, as its too good to be spoiled here), but the story is just an amazing piece of work.
-The Bottom Line- The amazing piece of work I mentioned at the end is what Larry Hama wrote about it in his introduction, and it’s absolutely true. This is absolutely a classic tale, and probably more important to the character than Origins ever was. It shows us just how brutal the process was to put the adamantium into Wolverine, it leaves the idea open that the claws were already there, it shows why Wolverine is the way he is. Even without saying a word you can see the emotions on Logan’s face, from rage to pain to senseless brutality. It is just an amazing piece, and if this isn’t in your collection, you need it there immediately. It stands up just as well now as it did years ago, and is just as powerful as you may remember it if you read way back when. It takes more levels of human emotion for me now, than when it did when I read it back in the 90’s, but even for a cool story of Logan going off on guards and the men who imprisoned him, it’s the best. For my money, it’s the best Wolverine story ever told. Highly recommended.
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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