Review by Alex Spencer

Writer: Daniel Way
Artist: Steve Dillon
Colourist: Matt Milla
Lettering: Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics

The first comic I ever bought was a Wolverine issue, one of those UK Panini reprints. In it, Wolvie teamed up with a just-brought-back-from-the-dead Punisher to stop …some threat or other. All I really remember are a couple of mind-bending concepts, dizzying colours, and hiding it from my parents. It was the beginning of an addiction.

Looking back as a seasoned (and maybe slightly pretentious) reader, I see it was probably fairly crappy. So it goes. To avoid the whole rant on Logan’s place in the Marvel U (quite nicely discussed just a week or two ago by Mark Stoddard, here), I’ll just say this: a fan of Wolverine, I ain’t. And yet, this the third Wolverine title I’ve read this month. Blame Marvel for putting Jason Aaron and Brian K Vaughan (names that tickle my inner Vertigo-lover) on his solo books, and Fate for pushing this into my hands.

This. Yeah, to the point, finally: Wolverine Origins. It’s not a comic I read. It’s not the type of comic I read: a straight-up fight scene between Deadpool and our eponymous, Adamantium-laced hero. I don’t particularly understand the context. It’s part 3 of a larger story. Again, I’m not a Wolverine fan… In spite of all this, I enjoyed it.

Deadpool is the star here, for sure. His skewed narration drew me into a fairly standard story. The issue delivers moments of comics meta-humour, pop-culture references and enough glimpses inside his imagination to give a good sense of the character so while I didn’t particularly care about the outcome of the fight

Steve Dillon’s Wolverine is a little weird. Perhaps because I’m so used to his other work, or maybe because there is something weirdly sinister about this slightly bestial Wolverine. Anyway, the second page justifies the choice, with a moment that’s classic Dillon. It’s a visual punchline no-one else could have quite delivered. And the final page is so very pretty I started to care, just a little, about the final outcome.

There’s a couple of deus ex machinas and one page that that made absolutely no sense to me that I guess is picking up a storyline I don’t know about. There’s no real intensity to the fight. But all of that doesn’t matter too much, because this is less about content and more about style, as largely delivered by Deadpool.

All of which gives us an issue of enjoyable popcorn fare with good art. If you’re looking for character-defining moments, look to the Aaron’s current Wolverine or Vaughan’s Logan. But if some kid picks this up with his pocket money, chances are it’ll hook them just enough to want to know more about these character and this universe and about comics. And so it should.

6/10