LOGAN: PATH OF THE WARLORD #1 - February 1996

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), John Paul Leon (penciler), Shawn Martinbrough (inker), Gregory Wright (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: In Japan, Logan has begun work for Landau, Luckman, and Lake. His boss, Chang, has assigned him to protect a scientist, Dr. Carling, and his daughter Rose. Logan kills Carling’s pursuer, Kimora. Years later, Chang asks Logan, who now seeks peace, to rejoin LL&L and complete his mission. Chang unveils LL&L’s interdimensional transport system, explaining that Dr. Carling developed interdimensional travel years ago. In another dimension, he fell in love with a woman and fathered Rose. This world was ruled by the immortal Kimora, who wanted Carling’s technology. Carling’s wife was killed, and he fled the parallel dimension with Rose. Kimora followed him, and somehow survived his encounter with Wolverine. Now, Kimora has returned to his dimension through a small wormhole, but he still seeks Carling’s technology to make interdimensional transport stable. Logan travels with Chang to Kimora’s world, where they’re joined by the now-grown Rose. After breaking into Kimora’s fortress, Kimora kills Carling in front of Logan. Logan kicks Kimora into an unstable transport, trapping him in-between dimensions forever. Back home, Chang suggests Rose join Logan as his partner.

Continuity Notes: There are hints that Rose could be Lady Deathstrike, as she’s able to morph her fingers into claws. However, this was most likely a misdirection. Rose is apparently Rose Wu, Wolverine’s friend from Madripoor who can change shape.

Production Note: This is another $5.99 bookshelf format special with no ads.

Review: It seems like a six-dollar special about Wolverine’s past should connect with the character in some significant way. An early adventure with LL&L and his possible first meeting with Rose Wu don’t strike me as “significant.” Landau, Luckman, and Lake is the mystery organization that Wolverine uses to “handle affairs” that goes back to the Claremont days. Larry Hama began to use them regularly towards the end of his Wolverine run, playing up Claremont’s hints that the group had interdimensional origins. There are questions that could be answered regarding LL&L and Wolverine, but this story certainly doesn’t answer them. It’s also written by Howard Mackie, who had nothing to do with the character at the time, so it’s not as if he had some insight into Hama’s plans (as Hama told a fan on Usenet, he didn’t even know this comic was happening until it was published). You would think the regular Wolverine writer would be the person called upon to write one-shots about the character’s past, but clearly Marvel didn’t agree.

Now, if you are going to do a story about Wolverine’s life pre-Weapon X, I’m not sure if pitting him against an interdimensional warlord is really the best way to go. This era seems like prime material for crime stories, martial arts adventures, or just stories about Wolverine’s life in Canada with Silver Fox or any of the other interchangeable women from his past. Interdimensional travel is taking him into X-Men territory years before he’ll meet the team, and it’s not really suited for John Paul Leon’s art anyway. The story tries for a character arc, as Logan is warned by a generic sensei to control his animal urges and, shockingly enough, later has to control his rage while fighting Kimora in the climax. We’ve seen the old “Wolverine fights his animal rage” bit before, and Mackie doesn’t have a new angle for it. He also isn’t able to give the characters personality, or make the reader care if they live or die or not, as evidenced by Carling's emotionless death scene. Everyone’s there to fulfill their role in the story and that’s it. I’m not sure how well these prestige format books sold, but I think Marvel made a lot of fans reluctant to support the format with this one.

LOGAN: SHADOW SOCIETY - December 1996

Credits: Howard Mackie (plot), Mark Jason (script), Tomm Coker & Keith Aiken w/Octavio Cariello (art), Christie Sheele & Malibu (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Neil Langram, partner of Canadian special agent Logan, is killed by Sabretooth. Logan and his friend Carol Danvers investigate his murder and uncover a conspiracy to keep the existence of mutants a secret. They find Dr. Perry Edwards, an author who has written a book about the rise of superhumans, on a list held by a secret branch of Department H. Logan and Carol travel to America and protect him from agents sent to kill him. Perry’s research has pointed him towards the Hellfire Club, where Logan investigates but finds no answers. Sebastian Shaw watches the incident and asks Sabretooth to intervene. Back in Canada, Logan and Carol discover the bodies of Dr. Edwards and numerous government officials. Sabretooth appears, explaining that mutants are choosing sides and rogue agents must be killed. Sabretooth sets off a bomb, but Logan’s powers enable him to survive and protect Carol. As Carol recovers from her injuries, Logan leaves Department H and heads for the Yukon.

Production Note: This is a forty-eight page bookshelf format book, with a cover price of $5.95.

Continuity Notes: Where to start on this one? The story takes place during Wolverine’s days as a secret agent. This is after his Cold War stint with Team X, but before the Weapon X project that gave him an adamantium skeleton. The ending is problematic since it has Wolverine abandoning Department H (and Department H apparently turning against him) and moving to the Yukon. The Weapon X serial opens with Wolverine still working as a Department H agent when he’s kidnapped and implanted with adamantium.

Carol Danvers’ role lead many people to question if this story was even canon when it was released. The story keeps reminding us that she’s younger than she seems (she claims to be under the legal drinking age at one point), but Wolverine keeps making references to the number of years they’ve worked together. I wonder if the “she’s so young” lines were added after the story was plotted when someone realized that Carol isn’t old enough to fit in with this time in Wolverine’s life. However, there’s still a cameo by Angel as a boy during the Hellfire Club scene, which would make Carol at least ten years older than him. Making this even murkier is Wolverine #-1, which takes place after Wolverine is bonded with adamantium, and has Wolverine meeting Carol Danvers for the first time. Wolverine has memory issues, but Carol doesn’t, does she?

Another potential continuity problem is Wolverine facing a group of Hellfire Club guards years before their first “official” meeting during the Dark Phoenix Saga. Also, the Hellfire Club has an “Inner Circle” at this point, but I believe that term didn’t exist until Sebastian Shaw took over years later. In their earliest appearances during the Claremont/Cockrum UXM issues, they were the “Council of the Chosen.”

Let’s just declare this one “out-of-continuity,” okay?

Review: Before Wolverine officially had annuals, Marvel would release one bookshelf format Wolverine comic each year, usually with a pretty high-profile creative team. Wolverine already had annuals by 1996, but that didn’t stop Marvel from producing a few more bookshelf comics. It’s possible a series of these were planned, as another Logan one-shot was released in 1996. If you’re willing to overlook the continuity headaches (although that seems to defeat the purpose of a prequel story), this actually isn’t half-bad. The basic idea focuses on what exactly Wolverine and Sabretooth were doing when the existence of mutants first became public knowledge, which is an era that’s largely been ignored. We know that Wolverine and various other characters from the X-universe had superheroic adventures in the shadows for decades, so exploring what they were doing as Professor Xavier and Sebastian Shaw began searching for mutants has potential. I’m not familiar with Mark Jason’s other work, but he manages to write a natural, believable script for much of the story (I really wish he’d drop the “best there is” lines, though). Considering some of Howard Mackie’s clunkers on X-Factor during this era, perhaps it’s best that he didn’t finish the issue.

Wolverine is normally clothed as a redneck while in civilian clothes, but Tomm Coker pushes the secret agent angle and instead dresses him in tight dress shirts and sunglasses (which look rather feminine to me, but I doubt he was going for that). It reminds me of the metrosexual makeover the character received after the first X-Men movie came out, although thankfully we’re spared the soul patch. The new look doesn’t really suit the character, but Coker’s art is still the highlight of the book. His style is somewhere in-between Bill Sienkiewicz, John Romita, Jr., early Chris Bachalo, and Klaus Janson. If I’m naming that many people it means I have no idea how to describe his style, but it suits the tone of the story and seems appropriate for a more “artistic” prestige-format book. A few of the pages look a little awkward, which might be the ones handled by the co-artists. The final product, though, looks very nice overall. If the story went through a few rewrites, I could see this worthy of its lofty format.