Comic Book Review: Wolverine: Origins #9

It is time to review the title that I dread reading the most each and every month: Wolverine: Origins. Daniel Way and just completely and totally killed any and all interest that I had in this title. I am a big Wolverine fan, but at this point I’m wishing that either this title get cancelled or Marvel bring in a new writer. I’m positive that Wolverine: Origins #9 will be another unimpressive read that fails to advance any plotlines. Let’s hit this review.

Creative Team
Writer: Daniel Way
Artist: Steve Dillon

Art Rating: 4 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 2 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 3 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with Black Widow giving Wolverine a replica of the Carbonadium Synthesizer. The real one is in a safe deposit box in Brussels. Black Widow says that Omega Red is in Berlin looking for the Carbonadium Synthesizer. That the Carbonadium inside of Omega Reds’ body is poisoning him. Omega Red wants to use the Synthesizer to get a clean sample of the metal. He will then give it to a Korean bio-weapons firm in exchange for a cure to his condition.

Wolverine then tells Black Widow that Omega Red has Jubilee captive. Black Widow mentions that Wolverine wants to save Jubilee like he saved Black Widow a long time ago.

And cue flashback. We see Wolverine in a train passenger car protecting a young Black Widow from a hail of bullets. The train is attacked and everyone is killed except for Wolverine, Natasha and Natasha’s father, Taras Romanov.

Taras reveals to Wolverine that Taras organized the attack on the train so it would appear to the public that both Logan and Natasha were killed in a train robbery. Taras is a wanted man and there are many people who would try and kidnap or kill his daughter. Logan was sent to Taras to be trained. Taras tells Logan that this is his first lesson.

Taras is a master spy and Logan learns from Taras on how to be a spy. Logan trains with Taras for over two years. One night, Logan and Taras are having a drink together and Logan asks Taras if he knows who Logan is working for. Taras claims ignorance even though Logan’s heightened senses tell him that Taras is lying.

That night, Logan and Natasha go out into the forest for some training. Natasha shows off her dirty fighting by feigning an injury and then kicking Logan in the nuts. Natasha then proceeds to whip up on Logan.

We cut to later that night with Logan being awoken by Taras. Natasha is missing. Taras says kidnappers have gotten her. Logan tells Taras that this is a trap and asks for Taras to let Logan go search for Natasha by himself.

Logan quickly tracks down Natasha in the forest. Natasha tells Logan that Taras is not her father. Logan already knew that. Their scents didn’t match up. Logan tells Natasha that he is sorry for lying, but he wasn’t sent here to train. He was sent to find out how much Taras knew and if he knew too much then to kill him. With that Logan shows Natasha Taras’ ring. Logan then tells Natasha that she is now “dead” too. Natasha tells Logan that she owes him a great debt.

We cut back to the present. Black Widow tells Wolverine that S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted to know Wolverine’s location. She couldn’t give them Wolverine’s location so she gave them Omega Red’s location. Suddenly, we see the building next to them explode. Dum Dum Dugan and a squad of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents storm the building and brawl with Omega Red.

Wolverine then stands on top of the building he is in and waves at the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to get their attention. Wolverine doesn’t want Jubilee to get killed in the crossfire in the fight between Omega Red and S.H.I.E.L.D. End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Wow, what a shock. Wolverine: Origins #9 is another boring and predictable read. All right, this title is really testing The Revolution’s Rule of Positivity. I’m struggling to think of a single thing that I enjoyed about this issue. Let’s see, I guess I’ll go with the fact that it looks like Jubilee may actually get killed. That would absolutely thrill me. Jubilee has always annoyed the hell out of me. I’d be thrilled if Way killer her off.

The Bad: Wolverine: Origins #9 was another lousy read. It is amazing how Way continues to do absolutely nothing on this title. Wolverine: Origins is an example of how to keep a title locked in permanent stasis. Way has not managed to advance a single plotline. Seriously, old cartoon strips like Apartment_3-G and Rex_Morgan, M.D. move at a faster pace that Way’s Wolverine: Origins.

Wolverine: Origins #9 centers around a completely uninteresting and predictable flashback scene between a teenage Black Widow and Logan. Way performs some retconning in order to connect Natasha’s past with Logan. Was this really necessary? Does Logan have to have a history with every single character in the Marvel Universe? You don’t need to play six degrees of separation with Logan and anyone in the Marvel Universe. All it takes is two degrees at most.
And do we really need to see Logan mentoring yet another spunky teenage girl? This has to be the most tired and worn out plotline for Logan’s character. At this point, is there a single female Marvel super hero that hasn’t been mentored by Logan at some point in her past? Enough already.

There was absolutely nothing about this flashback scene between Black Widow and Wolverine that was even remotely interesting. And nothing that occurred in this flashback scene did anything to make either Natasha or Logan a more interesting character than before. It was totally useless and a waste of space.

And the flashback story was painfully predictable. You knew that Wolverine was sent to kill Taras, so there was no surprise when that happened. You knew that Wolverine’s mentoring of Natasha would require at least one improbable scene where this little teenage girl would somehow kick Wolverine’s ass to show how tough she really is. This is despite Wolverine being a metahuman and Natasha being just a normal human. And despite the obvious size and power differential between the two characters. And you got the hackneyed scene at the end where Wolverine tells Natasha that she is free from Taras and is now officially considered “dead” so no one will come looking for her. Everything was predictable and you saw coming from a mile away.

And what about the obligatory Daniel Way “shocking” scene? My bet is that the scene where Taras has all the innocent train passengers slaughtered just so he could cover his and Natasha’s tracks would be this issues “shocking” scene. Of course, since Way just has to try and “shock” the reader with how “hardcore” her is each and every issue, the reader just becomes numb and desensitized so the impact that Way is looking for is completely missed.

Way’s dialogue is as stiff as ever. Everybody talks in the same tough guy style. Even the women. There is little to no chemistry between any of the characters. Way’s Wolverine continues to have little appeal. And honestly, Wolverine is one of the easier characters to write. The fact that Way can’t even do this properly is stunning.

Steve Dillon’s art is boring. Dillon’s style just isn’t suited for an action packed super hero title. Dillon’s art is stiff and undynamic.

Overall: Wolverine: Origins #9 continues to be an extremely unimpressive read. Of course, it is going to get huge sales numbers because it stars Wolverine. Wolverine has huge mass appeal and would get big sales numbers even if the comic book was drawn in crayons and written by a six year old. Unless you are like me and are a huge Wolverine fan I’d have to recommend that you don’t waste your time and money on this title.