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Over in Wolverine, Mark
Millar and John Romita Jr continue "Enemy of the State", which
appeals on a rather different level.
Last issue seemed to be taking
things a little bit too seriously. Fortunately, we're
back to the stupid violence this month. That's what
makes this story work. I wouldn't want to see every
Wolverine storyline like this, but after a couple of years of
(let's face it) rather po-faced stories, the change of pace is
welcome.
Wolverine runs around.
Wolverine fights things. Wolverine wins because he's
fantastic. And. That's. It. What more
do you want from a Wolverine comic? I think it was Grant
Morrison who did a recent column arguing that the recent trend
in superhero comics was the Definitive Take, where you just
get the character to do all the old routines and go over the
top with it. And then, he points out, you can't do it
twice, so you have to come up with something new again.
Which is true. You couldn't do two of these stories in a
row. But you can do one, and if it isn't exactly
Watchmen, who really cares? It's basically this sort
of story that made Wolverine popular in the first place.
Okay, technically there's a plot
here as well. Wolverine fights his brainwashing.
But not very hard, because that would detract from the
fighting. Good move. Character-wise, the big idea
is that the brainwashing works rather well with Wolverine,
because there's a whole side of his personality which rather
likes going around killing everyone. Not all that big an
idea, then, but it's enough to give the story a very slight
degree of depth, without detracting from the main event: the
fighting.
And it's good action, well paced,
with Romita going happily over the top throughout. It's
breakneck stuff with enough variation to stop it from being
monotonous. If you're going to do this kind of story -
and why not, with a Wolverine solo book? - this is a good
example.
Rating: A
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