Logan, our original Wolverine, had been dead since 2014 before being resurrected in the Marvel Legacy #1 primer issue. Death Of Wolverine was a big deal. It was a really powerful and fitting end to one of Marvel’s most popular characters. Now Hunt For Wolverine begins and tries to bring back our favorite Canadian mutant in an equally effective fashion.
***SPOILERS LIE AHEAD***
Writer Charles Soule assembles a mighty fine team of David Marquez, Rachelle Rosenberg, Paulo Siquiera, Walden Wong, and Ruth Redmond to help him tell these two stories that kick-off our search for Wolverine.
Since his official Marvel Legacy return, we’ve seen Logan appear in the “Where’s Wolverine?” after-credit pages across Marvel’s line of comics. This first issue doesn’t give us much actual Wolverine-time. Charles Soule first tells us what shady secrets the X-Men leaders were keeping about their departed ally. It wouldn’t be a crucial X-Men story without scandalous secrets coming back to bite them in the ass!
Soule cleverly tells a story within in the cracks of continuity. These two tales avoid feeling like cheap retcons and instead add more color and understanding to pivotal moments like young Jean Grey welcoming back a vacant adamantium Wolverine statue. A scheme by The Reavers forcing things to go public, and jump-start this search, was a delightful choice.
This may not be Soule’s strongest effort, but he’s by no means phoning this one in. Hunt For Wolverine #1 lets us all know that bringing our Logan back is a big deal that will be handled delicately. Charles Soule is a name you can trust pretty much any time you see it on a comic book cover, especially a Marvel one.
The involvement of teen Jean and Tony Stark is a bit confusing as far as the timeline is concerned, even for a weekly Marvel die-hard. There’s additional frustration in the fact that this story will be told across a number of differently titled one-shot issues. It almost seems like a conscious effort to confuse readers trying to jump back in on X-Men comics.
Both stories are illustrated wonderfully by their respective art teams. The Reavers look great, in all their broken-down and rusted glory. There’s a strong cinematic feel to these layouts and panel composition. It reads like the opening sequence to a sci-fi/martial arts epic, which is exactly the tone one would expect from an event centered around Wolverine.
We leave this issue with way more questions than when we came in. The good news is these mysteries are interesting and Logan seems to be in good hands. The bad news is that you’ll have to be a little more alert and aware in making sure you don’t miss any chapters in this story.
Welcome back Wolverine!
