Broken Frontier

Logan remembers most of his past. His quest for the remaining answers takes him to Serbia in search of the one man who may have those answers: the Winter Soldier.

The handling of Wolverine’s muddled past has been tinkered with several times in the past few years. There was the highly touted Origin miniseries that started promisingly but eventually fizzled out in the end, and of course several of the X-books as well as this title have at least touched on it (There will also be another mini, called Origins beginning soon). However, none seemed to link directly to Weapon X or Logan’s adulthood in any way that meant something to the character. All that has changed for the better with Origins & Endings…thanks in large part to Brian Bendis’ House of M and Ed Brubaker’s Captain America storylines.

The story Way sets out to tell is fairly straightforward. Logan is hunting the Winter Soldier because he and Bucky Barnes have a connection in Weapon X at the very least. The two come together in Serbia and a fight ensues. The Winter Soldier gains the upper hand with the aid of a sniper teammate. And finally, one of the biggest secrets of Logan’s past is revealed. It really is that clear-cut. Way doesn’t go out of his way to talk in circles in order to fill the page with dialogue; most of the story is allowed to play out sequentially once these two combatants meet up. I often find that frustrating, but here it is a welcome piece of story forging that balances plot and action in a book that requires equal measures of both.

Saltares and Texiera are up to the task of telling a sequential story. The artwork won’t win any awards for being the most dynamic or clean, but it is effective nonetheless. Much of the latter half of the issue is dark and foreboding, perhaps foreshadowing the terrible secret that the Winter Soldier will ultimately divulge. The artists along with J.D. Smith keep the atmosphere shadowy and gritty and even claustrophobic in a sense that the reader does not feel far from the action.

A character’s mysterious past, if drawn out too long can become rather boring and non-essential. It finally seems as though some real headway might be made with Wolverine. If nothing else, Origins & Endings is at least bringing something fresh to the table.