Review: Logan #1

So often the Wolverine one-shots are a desperate attempt to continue the never ending information drop of Wolverine’s shady past. How did he become Weapon-X, did he have a relationship with Marilyn Munroe, did he date your mother? Rarely does any writer simply stop, and decide to tell a decent unimportant Wolverine story.

Thankfully in this world, we have Brian K. Vaughan.

LOGAN #1
COVER BY: EDUARDO RISSO
WRITER: BRIAN K. VAUGHAN
PENCILS: EDUARDO RISSO
LETTERED BY: VC – JOE CARAMAGNA

From the start, I’ll tell you, I have a massive fanboy-crush on Brian, and pretty much everything he puts his hands on (except anything to do with Lost). But, it isn’t as if I’m the only one. The man’s a freakin’ genius, and he could tell a story about a rubber ducks desire to be more loved!

Within a few pages, Logan’s opening issue surrenders to every writer’s favorite cliché, the flashback. I won’t begrudge Vaughan this, considering how effortlessly he manages it. Logan – the Canadian soldier in the First Parachute Battalion – finds himself locked up in a Japanese POW cell with an American soldier.

Naturally, this is not a state of affairs that lasts for long, and within no time, we’ve got the pair on the outside trudging through snowy landscapes, decked out in Japanese uniforms that surely wouldn’t fool anyone for the time it would take to ask “Hey, who are you!?”

Logan seems to be somewhat shy at the outset; hiding his abilities from his new comrade in arms. One would almost imagine him being ashamed of being a mutant, if not for the brash and somewhat homicidal Wolverine that most of us are used too. But I think that this is Vaughan’s plan, to take us back to a point in Wolverine’s life where the decades of death and mayhem hadn’t completely robbed his soul of humanity.

The pair soon encounters a young Japanese woman who is at first scared of those she meets, threatened with death by the American, who is then chased away by Logan who apparently doesn’t want to harm her.

It isn’t long before Mysterious-Japanese-Girl-Number-345 is towing Logan back to her shelter for some home cooked food, to be followed by some home cooked lovin’.

It is, in and of itself, not entirely unreasonable, thanks mainly due to the way that Vaughan has depicted his young female seductress. At a time of war where all the men have gone, fighting is rampant, and her own father was KIA as a Kamikaze, demanding the company of a man is not the stupidest thing to foresee happening.

So it’s all good and well, right? Here’s where I spoil it for you, so if you actually don’t want to know, hit your back button now! But for those of you who come here to save you buying the comics take one guess where Logan has ended up!

Oh you better believe it, Logan, aka, Wolverine has once again been placed in to a landmark historical location; Hiroshima.

I’m pretty much a fan of Logan no matter how he is drawn, and this is no exception. However his American compatriot – who is pretty much the third and only character in this book, not including a few hapless Japanese guards who may as well have been wearing red shirts – seems to have been drawn with intention of looking deranged.

Apart from that, I was really happy with this book. As I said, I’m a bit of a Wolverine fan and it is good to see him in a book where the fate of the world or his sanity isn’t on the table. Another 4 out of 5 for me, which seems to be a trend, I know, but I don’t like reading crap, so I don’t!

Finally, and as nothing more than a blatant authors note, I want to hear from all of you. I review at several locations, but here is the only place where I can get picked on by you, the reader. So let me have it! And for the grammar and spelling Nazis, leave me alone; I’m tired!