1. Jason Aaron and Ron Garney give us Wolverine and others being hunted by Deathlok’s in a story of how the heroic Deathlok gained conciousness.
2. I have no idea why this story was in this book. It’s a Deathlok story and Wolverine is as tangential in it as the rest of the Avengers, just with more screen time.
3. Still, Jason Aaron handles his usual bevy of really cool ideas, with the computer brain that grows a consciousness, the webs, repulser beams, and claws of the Deathloks, and so on, this is, as always just a fun comic.
4. The kid’s story is really… depressing. It’s a future is set in stone kind of story, which has never really been the case in the Marvel universe and, well, for most of these heroes, it’s worth risking the time stream to save a kid and always has been.
5. The art is good, with Deathlok looking appropriately zombified without it being ridiculous.
6. Deathlok turning good, while utterly predictable, was still done in a really, really cool moment. The surprise was the computer brain turning good, not the sociopath human figuring it out. That twist saved this from being trite nonsense.
7. The reveal at the end, however, of Deathlok being the leader of the resistance in the future was just groan inducing.
8. For such a talky issue filled with flashbacks, this is quite fast paced. The read goes really quickly with some good action. The heroes are clearly being overwhelmed for the most part too, which comes across well without needing to be hammered home.
9. So, does Deathlok get a mini? Is he part of a team? Where do we go from here? With this book ending soon, time could have been better spent on Wolverine himself, though I guess these guys having laser claws means they’re the evolutionary product of the first arc’s characters.
10. Rating: 6/10 – The rating would be higher were this a Deathlok story, but with Wolverine in big letters on the front cover, I expect more of him. Still, this is a solid arc that probably would have fit better in New Avengers.
