About Heroes

Author: Marc Guggenheim
Artist: Howard Chaykin
Colors: Edgar Delgado
Cover: Arthur Suydam

It’s been a few months since I reviewed a Wolverine book, but you know what they say if you can’t say anything nice….fuck it, I was just being lazy. The five part story Logan Dies wraps up with this issue and how does it make me feel as a Wolverine fan of 20+ years? But before we get on that, I would like to point out that all five part covers were drawn by Marvel Zombies cover artist Suydam. Can the guy draw normal people without looking like they are dying or coming back from the dead? I would love to see him do a self portrait.

Alright let’s do a quick recap of all the crap that’s been happening in this story arc. Since World War I Wolverine has defeated a being called Lazaer, every time he is faced with he is on the brink of death, he must battle Lazaer on a spiritual plane. Wolverine died again, this time he was blowup by Shogun and found out he couldn’t come back from the dead, because his heart was broken. After spending time in Purgatory he escapes and is out to question Shogun and Phaedra (the lady that brought him back from the dead with the Hand), but finds them in collusion with Lord Shingen Yashida (who has been dead since Wolverine 4 mini-series).

While this isn’t the most horrible of Wolverine stories, it’s up there among the worst. It turns out that Wolverine’s soul has been inside of Shogun’s all of this time. I fucking kid you not! The whole book is a fight between Wolverine and Lazaer…or rather Azrael (the angel of death). Wolverine finally makes a deal with Azrael to put his soul back in his body, if he kills Phaedra. Bam soul is back in Wolverine, but he can no longer heal as well as he has been since he came back from the dead….err why do I even bother with this character sometimes? Anyways, Wolverine not having the same kind of healing factor just means he can’t come back from a single cell anymore. But, I’m assuming he still has to fight Lazaer if he dies again. There were some good things about the issue. I like the idea of putting Wolverine where he was 15 years ago well at least with his healing factor and Guggenheim went back and filled some lose ends that Millar left open in his story arc. But the execution was horrible and at times I really couldn’t make head or tails of the story without going back and re-reading the issue. Ohh yeah, and now Lord Shingen is back, I guess the only way to truly him truly back is to sing Bruce Springsteen.

I think I was blinded by the love that I have for American Flagg, because I almost made myself believe that Chaykin was capable of drawing a decent Wolverine story. Hell, at times it even looked like Miller’s work on Wolverine, but the dull fight scenes, obscure angles on swords that just seem to be made of rubber, Wolverine’s claws looking like popsicles at times, and odd looking chins that keep changing shape and size; I just can’t do it anymore. I think Chaykin is still a great artist and if it didn’t look so rushed or if it was printed in black & white I’m sure I would be happy, but his recent work has been unbearable. This is Guggenheim’s last issue and next month we have a whole new creative team that will probably try to destroy my favorite character, but who knows. I hope to eat my words one day. D+