I had high hopes for the three-issue Logan miniseries, given the involvement of Brian Vaughan and Eduardo Risso.  And now that it's finished... well, it was okay.  It's passable.  But it doesn't get to the level I hoped for.

Now, Risso's art is pretty good.  There's a rough edge to his work, and a visceral quality, all of which suits Wolverine.  But when the story calls for it, there's also a peacefulness and stillness.  It's not stunning and at times it might have benefitted from a little bit more polish, but for the most part it does the job well.

So Risso does fine here.  It's the story that falls short.  Basically, this is one of those stories where Wolverine revisits the site of a traumatic incident from his past, and lays old ghosts to rest.  This being a superhero comic, the laying to rest is literal.

What's missing here, I think, is a sense that the original events were particularly important to Wolverine.  Vaughan seems to have been aiming for some idea of a chance of peace and rest, taken away by random violence.  In the wider scheme of Wolverine's history, it's difficult to invest this story with that kind of significance.  But even if you leave that aside and take the story entirely on its own terms, I don't think it sells the idea that Wolverine lost anything that would have been particularly life-changing.  Perhaps the biggest problem is that Atsuko doesn't feel like a three-dimensional character to me, so much as a rather leaden symbol of What Could Have Been, and her relationship with Wolverine feels like a contrivance.

As the story reaches its climax, it also veers into some heavy-handed stuff involving tearing out hearts, which somehow manages to be both clumsily literal from a symbolic standpoint, and excessively vague in plot terms - not to mention calling for a degree of violence rather at odds with the tone of the piece. 

Superficially, this looks like a classy little number, and visually it is.  But as for the writing, while there are neat tricks and skilful pacing, the story just doesn't hold together.  There are moments of real quality in this series, but I can't honestly say that it stands up as a whole.

Rating: B-

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