Wolverine #62 Review

WOLVERINE #62
Written by Jason Aaron
Art by Ron Garney

Here's a title I rarely pick up. There's some inconsistencies with the other Wolverine starring title in these reviews, aka X-Force, but, otherwise, I enjoyed this issue for what it was. It is by no means great, but I'm interested in seeing more, which is something.

That inconsistency I spoke of deals with Cyclops and X-Force. In this issue, Cyclops meets alone with Wolverine, much like in X-Force, and they discuss, as Cyclops is prone to do these days, overt killing. Cyclops sends Wolverine off on a killing trip to find Mystique. In X-Force, an almost identical scene has Wolverine asked to go on an overt killing trip with the rest of X-Force to take down the Purifiers. He's also off in Russia with Colossus and Nightcrawler in Uncanny and fighting the Hood in Avengers, but I'm focusing on these two because they are identical scenes and both tell him to go in different directions in the post-MC X-titles.

Can't believe I went on that long about something so trivial as how Wolverine is appearing in multiple books at the same time. Moving on, this issue uses the classic in the past / in the present dual storylines technique. Apparently, Mystique and Logan met up about 80 years ago (forget the date, 1920's I believe) and had some adventures along the way. This is juxtaposed with the present day as Wolverine hunts down the trechurous Mystique with plans to kill her. Mystique isn't going to go quietly and lays a few traps for him along the way, from the old bomb and run trick to framing Wolverine for a murder. The issue ends with Wolverine finding Mystique, but us finally being clued in that Mystique murdered the peasant at the beginning of the issue while imitating Logan and the angry mob ready to lynch Wolvie before he can get to Mystique.

To be honest, I didn't catch the Mystique as Logan in the beginning, so either I'm a little slow today or that was well done. I'm not sure what purpose the flashbacks serve at this point. I don't see any bearing on the present day, other than to say "hey look, Logan and Mystique know each other!". Maybe some big secret will be revealed at the end of this, but I felt like I was reading two disparate stories rammed together with jarring scene changes.

The art was excellent. Everything flowed naturally and it was very consistent throughout. It's neither flashy nor dull or lifeless. Pretty much the kind of art you'd wish every book had as the standard.

Verdict - Check It. I'm not sold on this yet. I don't see them killing Mystique, but I don't see a point to this story if Logan doesn't, so I'm torn on that aspect of whether this story will accomplish anything. The flashbacks, while, again, neat backstory for him andMystique, serve little purpose, at this point, and only distracted me. However, I'd call this a wait and see type of story. It could be good or it could end up terrible. We'll know after three more issues.

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