Wolverine builds a team to stop Romulus!
Yesterday's reviews: Arrow, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Original Sin. Wolverine has been tortured and manipulated all of his life! Thanks to modern technology; he hasn't remembered a single thing and continues to repeat the cycle of pain and death. Now though, Wolverine has all of his memories and he's looking to collect on those that caused him pain and misery. One man stands between Wolverine and clean slate; Romulus. Wolverine must defeat Romulus and his empire if he ever wants to get on with his life, but Romulus has always been one step ahead. So what Wolverine needs is a plan that he didn't create, a plan so great that Romulus won't see coming. And that's what Wolverine is going to do!
In this collection [collecting Wolverine Origins #41-45], Wolverine is on a mission to defeat Romulus. However, he needs a plan that wasn't from his mind; as Romulus has been guiding Wolverine throughout his entire life -- and knows Wolvie better than he knows himself. This plan is created by The Answer! Answer plans for Wolverine to create a team of different heroes and villains to aid Wolverine in his revenge scheme against Romulus. These heroes and villains all have something against Wolverine, but they are willing to help Wolverine for the sake of him moving on with his life; and the occasional favor.
This continuation Origin story is still very engaging. Daniel Way's story of Wolverine on a mission to make Romulus pay for the torment he's had all these years is really great. This entire Origin series was a major series for Wolverine as we got revelations that weren't previously known to us (i.e. Wolverine having a son etc). However in this collection [of issues 41-45], it acts as the team building that Wolverine needs to fight Romulus. Which has good and bad properties for this story.
The good is that we get to see how Daniel Way works with Wolverine in an awkward phase of his life. Of having all of his memories and learning how to deal with all of the pain he's inflicted in the last 100 years. It's great to see how Wolverine is talking with himself about "morals" and being the "better man", but sometimes he still goes crazy and kills someone. However, I like how he feels bad that he does it in the end; showing that the character does want to change, but knows deep down a part of him is like Romulus [whom he's trying to avoid turning into].
This story is also good because we get to see how Wolverine deals with old allies/enemies like Bruce Banner. Bruce Banner at this point isn't the Hulk and is trying to create a life for him and his son; especially with teaching his son to not have a bad reputation like he once had. So it's great to see the connection that Wolverine and Banner both have as they are trying to create a better life for their children; even though they are pretty much insane in the head because of their fathers. How Daniel Way goes from character-to-character, each having a interesting story that connects to Wolverine in some way, it's really cool to see how all these characters react to what Wolverine is doing with his memories/life and trying to settle an old score.
That's also the problem with this story. It has a bunch of random heroes and villains teaming up with Wolverine for different reasons. Banner, Skaar, Cloak, Silver Samurai, and Deadpool are all helping Wolverine in his mission. While each have their different reasons for hating and helping Wolverine, it still makes me wonder "why?" these specific heroes/villains. I mean why couldn't Wolverine go all hero or all villain? What's so special with these specific people? This wasn't explained in this story collection, but in the long run I think it made sense in the end. Still though, Daniel Way's story of having these people tag along with Wolverine was interesting, but every time Wolverine got one person he'd jump to the next one. There'd be these jump cuts and time lapse that'd show when and where Wolverine would be going from one person to the next, but it left these small open gaps of time that makes me wonder what Wolverine's been doing? Obviously flying, but sometimes it'd be nice to see Wolverine make the phone call or whatever it is he does before actually going to see someone; instead of him always talking to himself justifying to us [the readers] that what he's doing all makes sense. Which in some cases it does, but a lot of the time it didn't make much sense.
But moving aside from all of that, I really enjoyed this book. It was fun, exciting, had a good story, and great artwork! I love how everything looked and how Wolverine is on this mission of revenge for all the years he's missed out on a better life. It's really great to see Wolverine in this struggle and eventually how it shapes him to be the Wolverine we have now. I recommend checking out this book if you are a fan of origins and Wolverine. 4 out of 5.
Check out the review I did for "Wolverine: Origins and Endings".