Marvel decides there aren't enough books starring Wolverine

There was a time when Wolverine could only be found in the pages of Uncanny X-Men. I know it's shocking. Don't be embarassed if you need to catch your breath. In the mid-80s, it was decided that the superstar X-Man could probably sustain adventures of his own, and thus Wolverine was launched (after a successful mini-series). Alright, that's fine. A lot of team players have solo books (Iron Man and Captain America, for example).

But now, two decades later, Marvel has taken the pint-sized psychopath's popularity and gone positively bat-shit crazy. Besides his role in the pages of Uncanny, he also is leading the black-ops strikeforce team in X-Force, has stayed with the unregistered team of New Avengers, has three books of his own (Wolverine, Wolverine: Origins, Wolverine: First Class), only one of which really telling an ongoing story, and has recently been the subject of an ungodly surge of one-shot stories and mini-series. Logan wrapped up last month, Wolverine: The Amazing Immortal Man and Other Bloody Tales came out a week later, Wolverine: Dangerous Games kicked off June, and last week's X-Force: Ain't No Dog's main story was - you guessed it - a Wolverine story.

August will feature Wolverine: Killing Made Simple that brings back (by no one's demand) Nanny and the Orphan Maker and September has Wolverine: Roar and Wolverine: Saudade. To add with that, September's issue of Wolverine: Origins kicks off a four issue crossover with X-Men: Legacy!

I don't know what type of fan is so into Wolverine they're willing to shill out their hard-earned dollars to get all of this drivel (in fairness, not all of it is) but they need to knock it off. Perhaps if sales tank enough on these things, Wolverine can get back down to a manageable level. But I can bitch about it all day long. How would I fix it?

First, stop the one-shots and the mini-series. Wolverine is appearing in at least six different ongoing titles a month, complete with two dedicated specifically to him in current continuity. There should not be anything that can be brought out in a one-shot or mini that can't be handled in one or more of those titles. And if you actually read the issues in question, you'll see that they're actually isn't anything brought out. They're simply basic "milk-the-franchise" stories.

Second, cancel one of the current continuity books. While Wolverine: Origins (launched right after Wolverine discovered his entire past in House of M) features an ongoing plot dealing with the inner workings of the character, Wolverine is a book of rotating writers and artists whose stories really don't match up together or with any other title for that matter, except for occasionally Origins. So get rid of Origins while moving the stories and creative team over to Wolverine. Focus, people. Focus.

Third, refine Wolverine's presence in the Marvel Universe. It's a running joke that he's everywhere at once, and that shouldn't be. Put him on the X-Men and keep him there. Yank him from the Avengers as they have their own massive list of characters that can fill the void. X-Force is a little trickier, as his presence is quite important, but since the characters involved don't really fit and the concept goes against 40+ years of continuity, why not just scrap the whole book? I like that idea.

So what are we left with? Wolverine with solo adventures in Wolverine and team excursions in Uncanny X-Men and fun, nostalgic, out-of-continuity trips in Wolverine: First Class. With such a refined area, now you can reintroduce the one-shots but only few and far between! Even guest spots in New or Mighty Avengers won't be too much of a problem. But with the saturation down, these books might actually receive the bump that Wolverine's appearance should bring if they weren't so plentiful.

Breathe something into the Sentry, please

If you're not an Avengers reader, you may not be familiar with the Sentry. The idea came as a gag from Marvel with some help from Wizard introducing him as a long-lost Stan Lee creation. With the hoax revealed, a mini-series was launched and the Sentry was brought into the mainstream Marvel Universe (I hate the term 616) at the beginning of New Avengers.

The basic gist is that he's basically Marvel's Superman, except he's bat-shit crazy.

At first it was interesting, but since his defining story in which it was revealed why no one remembered him, he's become quite stale. His craziness keeps him out of action for most of a story and then he shows up at the end to handle things. If you'll forgive the reference, it's kind of like watching a storyline in Dragonball Z - you just wait around until Goku eventually shows up and wins.

Until, that is, I read this week's Mighty Avengers #14. I had thought that the Skrulls had simply pulled the obligatory 'get Sentry out of the fight so he doesn't win in four seconds' move in Secret Invasion #2, but it's becoming an interesting story to further the full aspect of the character. I'm not going to spoil what happened, but if you're familiar with the Sentry and his nemesis the Void, you might just be fascinated with these occurrences.

Ten Reasons "One More Day" Is the Worst Spider-Man Story Ever

#4 - The Spider-Man Swings Alone

As much as the intended purpose of Civil War was to tear the Marvel Universe apart, it did an excellent job of bringing things together. After setting it up in House of M, Civil War established an over arching theme to the entire universe. You really got the sense that all of these characters, even in their own books, existed in the same universe at the same time. What happened in books like Captain America and Iron Man had ties to what happened in other books like Wolverine and New Avengers, and so on. Not in the sense that you had to read everything to get the whole story but that you’d get some bonus insight and background information if you did. One can argue that Marvel’s always been like that, but to me it seemed much more prevalent post Civil War. I was such a fan of this newly integrated universe that I started collecting five new Marvel titles after Civil War.

Right there in the thick of things was Spider-Man. This was a relatively new place for him. Before joining the New Avengers Spidey had mostly swung solo, sticking to his own book(s) and doing his own thing, barring the occasional team-up or special guest appearance. He was sort of where Daredevil is now, and even he has some dealings with The Hood to tie him into New Avengers. I, for one greatly enjoyed the character’s wider integration into the universe over the last couple years. Peter’s friendship with the Avengers, his mentor relationships Captain America and Iron Man, and even the new spin on old connections brought about by the unmasking. Realistically, what more could you have done with Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson?

"One More Day" and the resulting "Brand New Day" storyline have effectively wiped away those stories and pulled Spidey back into his own corner of the Marvel U. All of his relationship and character developments over the last twenty years, but specifically the last three, have been called into question. Who does Spider-Man know and not know? What did he do and not do? How will writers tackle the issue of Spidey's place in the Marvel Universe without throwing their hands up and saying "It's magic, we don't have to explain it."? Will it even be attempted or will Spider-Man just stick to his own books and drop by New Avengers merely to shoot webs at something and say a funny one liner? My money's on the latter.

The Weekly Pile

Top of the Pile: Green Arrow/Black Canary #1

My favorite book this week wasn't even on my list when I went to the comic shop. I collect somewhere around eighteen books a month and only three of them (not counting Countdown, which I'll address in another post) are published by DC. Two others are published by Image, the rest by Marvel. I'd been meaning to address this disparity, wanting to read more DC but I had no idea where to turn. I considered Batman, Flash, and Green Lantern but the fact that they're all far into their current titles was a bit intimidating. I like to start at the beginning, and I'm a bit of a completist. I wanted something I could jump right on and didn't have to spend an arm and a leg for back issues if necessary. I'd always liked Green Arrow, and when I saw a #1 with his name on it I thought I'd give it a shot. I couldn't be more glad I did. Writer Judd Winick and artist Cliff Chiang won me over and DC earns another spot on my list.

The Rest of the Pile
Booster Gold #3- As confusing as the may be, I love time travel stories. And I love Booster Gold, so this book's always enjoyable.

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #24- Part two of One More Day. It seems like they're building toward some huge deus ex machina to undo the tragedy of Aunt May and somehow affect Peter & MJ's marriage. I've got a bad feeling about this.

New Avengers #35- An inside look at the Hood's new criminal organization. Not much of the Avengers, though.

Punisher: War Journal #12- Frank protects the innocent citizens of a New York neighborhood from a rogue soldier from the Hulk's army.

Wolverine #58- This story is leaning more toward the mystic, which failed so spectacularly with Jeph Loeb's Evolution. Why can't we just just get a good Wolverine story where he plays Dirty Harry and slaughters the bad guys? I guess that'd be too simple.

Countdown to Messiah Complex

With the X-Men mega event Messiah Complex right around the corner, the ongoing titles are winding down and preparing for action. While things are simmering, it's a good time to look back and see how we got to this point, and where it may be going.

So all through the month of October, from now until the Messiah Complex one-shot hits the shelves on October 31, the Comicdom Wrecks! resident X-Men junkie (me) will be going through all the storylines that have gone on from M-Day to this point in all four of the relevant titles - Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, X-Factor, and New X-Men. We may even add in a relevant storyline or two here and there (Avengers: Disassembled and The Collective).

When Messiah Complex hits the shelves, you'll be up to date on all (relevant) things X, so stay tuned!

New Avengers: Revolution (27-31)

Leading into Civil War, New Avengers was arguably Marvel's hottest title. However, with the fallout from the event - Captain America's death and the rogue heroes going underground - the book had to establish a new status quo, differentiate itself from the launching Mighty Avengers, and try to build back the momentum lost while the book was treading water during Civil War.

With Revolution - the first storyline featuring new artist Lenil Francis Yu - writer Brian Bendis has managed to accomplish that, as well as add a few twists and turns and still end with a 'What the f*ck?!' moment to finish it out.

Let me take a moment to say that this book seems to have dropped the six issue chapters format that fits so nicely into trade paperbacks in favor of an ongoing storyline. I'm assuming this is the story break. There was no '5 of 5' to close the story out.

Coming off of Civil War, New Avengers had to do two main things: explain how this team came together (with new members Iron Fist, Dr. Strange, and a new Ronin), and get the action pumping. This story certainly delivered in a rather unusual way. The story sets up in the present, while flashing back to the team's post-Civil War days and a side mission that sets their status against Iron Man's government-approved Avengers. It does this by clearing up that little 'Cap's still alive' comment from the epilogue issue. For those wandering, he's still dead. And Iron Man's still acting like a douche bag, as he seems to be in every Bendis-written story.

So the remaining anti-registration Avengers (Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, and Wolverine for added flavor) join up with some of the leftovers (Iron Fist and Dr. Strange) and go off to rescue Echo, who apparently has been killed by Elektra and the Hand. So where does Ronin come in? Turns out Hawkeye, who's been alive since House of M ended, still wants to play hero, but doesn't want to be Hawkeye anymore, so a new Ronin is born. The Avengers take off for Japan, have a useless conversation with Silver Samurai, and fight tons and tons of ninjas. Oh yeah, Echo comes back to life, stabs Dr. Strange, comes to her senses, then stabs Elektra. Now ready for the big reveal? Brace yourself.

Elektra was a frickin' Skrull!

This is one of those moments where I'm shocked at the end of an issue. Thor showing up at the end of Civil War #3 and Colossus charging out in Astonishing X-Men #4 produced a similar reaction. It finally seems like the mischaracterization of Elektra has been part of a grand scheme all along. This is a very intriguing development, and I can't wait to see where it goes from here. Unlike some titles, I honestly can't imagine what the grand scheme of all this is, but I am interested in finding out.

But I must add something to the art of Lenil Yu in this title. His pencils really set this book apart from Frank Cho's cleaner style over on Mighty Avengers. The art gives the comic a much darker tone, which fits perfectly with this renegade, underground team. The art's a little blotchy here and there, but it really works with the story, and I hope that Yu stays around for as long as this team remains underground (I really don't think it'll last far too long).

Does this story get New Avengers back to where it was before Civil War? Nope, but it's on its way. The loss of Captain America, Iron Man, and the Sentry does hurt, but the team is a much more original lineup, and I love the dynamics between them. The groupings of Luke Cage/Iron Fist and Spider-Man/Ronin are especially enjoyable. Here's hoping this book keeps on track and sets a new kind of standard for comics of its type.