Wolverine #66 Review

WOLVERINE #66
Written by Mark Millar
Art by Steve McNiven

By all rights, this is an excellent issue and I highly recommend it to everyone, but, if there's one problem Wolverine #66 and the Old Man Logan storyline has, it's that it's probably going to fall victim to its own hype.

Based on the hype and constant stream of interviews and Mark Millar's own self promotion of his "One Man Event", consisting of 1985, Kick-Ass, Fantastic Four and Wolverine, I'm confident that the biggest detractors of this book are simply expecting too much from what amounts to a fun, alternate future storyline alla things like Age of Apocalypse, Days of Future Past and so on. None had long lasting affects nor did they redefine characters, but they showed characters in different settings and gave new insights into the way people perceived those characters.

Anyone coming in expecting this to be a Watchman or a universe altering event level book is going to be sadly disappointed.

That said, I'm sure everyone has already heard what happens in this issue. It's a fairly straight forward set up issue whereby we see Logan in his later years, now retired and settled down with a wife and family, scraping by, trying to make a living in a world where the heroes lost a climactic battle many years ago.

That event changed Wolverine and he is now a hollow shell of the former berzerker rage filled mutant killing machine. So changed is Logan that he no longer goes by his Wolverine codename and, when the Hulk Clan comings looking for rent Logan doesn't have, he simply grits his teeth and accepts the beating they dish out on him. Even when they threaten to kill him and his family if he doesn't come up with the money next month, he still kowtows to his aggressors.

However, there are flashes of the old Wolverine, specifically when he imagines himself unleashing his claws for the first time in 20 years and slaughtering the Hulk Clan before snapping back to reality and taking his beating.

After all these years, Wolverine's age has caught up to him and his mutant healing factor, while still active, has slowed considerably and he's still bedridden by nightfall when Hawkeye, now blind, comes to see him.

He offers Logan a job to help him deliver an unspecified package across the country, to which Logan has no choice but to accept with no other means of coming up with the money for next month's rent.

Thus starts the cross country trek through a world gone mad. One of the best parts of the issue came out of this as we get to see a GPS map of the new layout of the United States. The Hulk Clan has taken over the west coast while Kingpin takes of the midwest and several other villains control similar territories across the country, ending with the unnamed, but speculated to be the mysterious Wyncham character popping up in all of Millar's One Man Event books, presidential territory, which just happens to be the duo's destination.

I'll post the map in the Moments of the Week, as it's great speculation fodder, especially with the various towns and cities named along Logan and Hawkeye's route, such as my favourite, Paste Pot Creek.

Verdict - Must Read. Unless you hate meaningless alternate future storylines or anything written by Mark Millar, there's no reason to skip this issue as it was just a great read made all the better with McNiven's beautiful artwork. I can't wait to see what madness Millar has in store or one of McNiven's fight scenes from upcoming issues.

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