Broken Frontier

A closer look at the historical relationship between Logan and Creed suggests a possible new evolutionary species development: Lupus sapiens.

The Evolution storyline has been rather formulaic up to this point. Logan has some sort of bizarre memory/dream/flashback involving a man-beast, which appears uncivilized and strangely similar to himself and Creed, a.k.a. Sabretooth. This dream is then typically rudely interrupted by a knock-down-drag-out brawl between Sabretooth and Wolverine wherein one of them is severely injured.

This issue finally shakes that formula a little by giving newlyweds Black Panther and Storm a forum for this new species theory. Logan isn’t really a big fan of the answers he gets despite how compelling they might be. But when he gets his backside handed to him by Wild Child, he realizes something isn’t quite right, and when some old Weapon X comrades come knocking the mystery only deepens.

Each writer that takes on Wolverine typically brings a slightly different tone to the book. Ironically, over the past three issues of Loeb’s run, I kept finding myself with the same sort of reaction to the material as Logan’s hook/saying in this issue: What the @#$%?! It was as though Loeb knew where he wanted the story to go but was in no real hurry to get there. However, though this issue is still draped in mystery like the previous ones, it finally threw the readers a bone and showed some real forward motion.

Simone Bianchi’s art has been sort of all over the map during this run. He has a very clear visual presence, and his work really shines the most on splash pages where he showcases his ability to capture a scene in a way that the reader has no choice but to stare in wonder. However, he applies this same dynamic to his smaller individual panels from time to time and rather than add to the story it can be a tad distracting.

Even though we finally get a little bit of story to go along with all the mystery and action, I’m still not convinced that this story is going to be all that different from any of the other "resolved" mysteries of Logan’s past. The new inclusion of Weapon X really only solidifies my stance on this because almost every time Weapon X is introduced into a Wolverine story, the outcome ends up a disappointment. I hope I’m wrong this time.