Wolverine: Manifest Destiny #2 – Review

By Jason Aaron (writer) Stephan Segovia (art) Noah Salonga & Stephan Segovia (inkers) Cory Petit (letterer) Dave Wilkins (cover art)

The Story: Writer Jason Aaron crafts a fine tale of Logan’s exploits in Chinatown. Fifty odd years ago, Logan destroyed the Black Dragon tongs and was cast out of Chinatown and told never to return, under penalty of death. After been recognised (and nailed to a wall with a samurai sword) by Lo Jun, Grand Master of the Wudangquan, Logan is then beaten within an inch of his life by the Black Dragons death squad. Logan manages to escape to the sewers where he is found by Master Po, who offers to train him, Kung-fu panda style, to defeat the Black Dragons.

What’s Good: I’m really enjoying this story from Jason Aaron, he’s probably one of the best writers around at the moment and really gives this mini series a 70’s schlock-fu vibe. On the art side Stephan Segovia’s art is very reminiscent of Leinil Yu’s, giving the book a wonderfully kinetic feel that’s needed to pull off this kind of story. My favourite part at the moment was seeing Logan getting thunder- kicked fifty feet through a brick wall, great stuff!

What’s Not So Good: As you may of guessed I’m really digging this mini series and to be honest there is very little to fault. If you are a fan of kung-fu cinema or the hairy runt you really can’t go wrong.

Conclusion: All in all, another solid offering from Marvel, I’ll definitely be picking up the remaining issues and I urge you to do so, there are certainly worse books than this on the market at the moment and it’s still priced at $2.99, bonus!

Grade: B+

– C.Flanigan

Wolverine: Manifest Destiny #1 – Review

By Jason Aaron (writer), Stephen Segovia (pencils), John Rauch (colors), Cory Petit (letters), Dave Wilkins (cover)

The Story: A photograph reminds Wolverine of a particularly bloody brawl from 50 years ago that ended with his permanent exile from Chinatown. Never being one to back down or take orders, Wolverine decides to have a drink at the same bar where it all went down with the intent to settle the score once and for all.

What’s Good? Wolverine’s take on regaining his memories adds an interesting layer to the story. For so long he’s wanted to know what really happened and now that he does he sees that ignorance is sometimes more blissful. Since getting his memories back, most writers have focused on the memories themselves not Wolverine’s reaction to knowing the truth. This idea’s a good move on Jason Aaron’s part. Stephen Segovia’s art, however is the high point of the book. The action scenes are crisp, and while the character renderings may not be as clean as some of the other artists out there, they really capture the down and dirty mood of a classic Wolverine story.

What’s Not So Good? Not much happens. Aside from knowing Wolverine isn’t supposed to be in Chinatown we don’t learn much. What caused the fight? Why is the spearhead important? And most importantly, who is Wolverine picking a fight with? The opening chapter to a story shouldn’t answer everything, but it should lay the appropriate groundwork. The problem is, Aaron has left so many things open there isn’t much to keep the reader’s interest going into the second issue.

Conclusion: Having Wolverine finally deal with his returned memories is a good concept for a story. It’s a shame that the end result is mediocre. It’s not that things can’t or won’t pick up, it’s just that the first issue has to set the tone for the remainder of the series. This one misses the mark by a long shot.

Grade: D

-Ben Berger