Comic book deaths. They simply don't mean what they used to. There once was a time we rarely saw them. That made the heroes seem invincible. Readers knew good would always triumph over evil. The comic industry eventually started to change. We started seeing that even the heroes could die. It made the stories more suspenseful with the idea that maybe, just maybe, the hero might be in over their head.
But then they would return from the dead.
Wolverine has always been the best there is at what he does. That soon started translating into the ability to appear in numerous titles each month. He became a big money maker for Marvel. The idea eventually came to make him Killable. But would Marvel really kill him? The answer is 'yup.'
We saw Wolverine lose his healing factor and the consequences that came with that. He had to learn to be cautious rather than dive into a horde of deadly villains. Charles Soule and Steve McNiven took over telling his final story. With the title, it seemed that this could really be the end of Logan. Yes, there would be the possibility that the "death" could be symbolic with the death of his superhero persona or something. Some might saw discussing what happens is a spoiler but if you're in tune with the series and story arcs that happened afterwards, you know what the answer is. The real question is how the ending happens and that's what is worth checking out.
From the opening pages, McNiven's art blasts you in the face. It's a haunting look at Logan. There's been so much death in his life it's almost fitting that eventually, it would be his turn.
In an interesting twist, Wolverine finds himself being hunted. Some of his former enemies and other vile people he's never really mixed it up with are after him. This is where Soule's story took a bit of a detour from what we expected. You would think that not having a healing factor would be the immediate death of Wolverine. With someone else targeting Wolverine and wanting him alive, it changed the rules of the game.
That doesn't mean the action or violence in the story will be toned down.
McNiven's art explodes across the page. Soule uses characters you'd expect to go after Wolverine along with ones you wouldn't. As he proceeds to discover the truth and fight for survival as well, Wolverine will have to accept help from some enemies and even finds himself fighting some friends.
The chapters are divided into different themes as well. Soule takes a different focus as you try to figure out what's going to happen next. It gives the story a bigger feeling. I would even say it feels a little fancy.
Readers may dismiss the nature of the story since we've seen countless death and resurrections over recent years. These days, it's not so much the fact that a comic character can die, it's more about how they die and what happens next. As mentioned, we've seen several stories dealing with the repercussions of this stories. We had two miniseries, DEATH OF WOLVERINE: THE LOGAN LEGACY and DEATH OF WOLVERINE: THE WEAPON X PROGRAM, immediately touch on the events.
These two stories have lead into the new weekly WOLVERINES series. The story isn't over. That's what makes this part of it important. It's what kicked it all off. Thankfully Marvel doesn't take too long with releasing these types of collections so you can catch up right away if you missed the individual issues.
With the importance of the story, getting the hardcover treatment makes it look great in your personal collection. I'm always happy when the actual cover under the dustcover is something different.
You don't just get the miniseries collected here. There is plenty of special features. You get a variant cover gallery, cover sketches with commentary by Steve McNiven as well as interior sketches with commentary. There's also the really great interview with Wolverine co-creator Len Wein and the director's cut from parts of the first and second issues.
Will Wolverine remain dead? Probably not. Was this story perfect? Not quite. But with a weekly series and other stories planned, you can see this isn't just a comic book stunt. It's been thought out. Regardless whether or not Logan returns, this is a big part of his comic book history. The hardcover went on sale last week so you should be able to find it at your local comic book store or places like Amazon.