Wolverine #69

So much for reading the next part of War Games tonight... Damn schoolwork. As I get closer to the end of my college semester, the workload is really starting to get pretty heavy! Anyway, instead of reading the next War Games TPB, I'll read this issue of Wolverine instead.

Overall- Damn, Mark Millar is crafting one hell of a great story here. If you haven't read any of my past reviews on the last 3 issues, it might be a good idea to, since we are in a post apocalyptic alternate world here, and things might be a bit confusing, especially if you don't know what is happening up to this point.

We start this issue with the blind Hawkeye(Clint Barton) about to be beaten to death by his own daughter, who wants to take over the land of the recently deceased Kingpin. Logan drives the Spider-mobile through a wall and grabs Clint, getting him out of harms way. Unfortunately for Logan and Clint, Clint's daughter sends a massive force to hunt them down. Before the bad guy's can catch up to Logan and Clint, the ground opens up and swallows everyone involved in the chase, including Wolvie and Clint.

Upon waking up, Wolvie grabs a glow stick and sees a horde of Moloids eating the remains of the people who fell into the hole. Logan chases the Moloids away with the light, which the Moloids fear, since they are subterranean by nature. Wolvie finds Clint still alive and still strapped into the spider-mobile. Wolvie gets back in and uses the spider-mobiles ability to wall climb to get out of the underground hole.

Wolvie and Clint travel the countryside, seeing various horrible sights, such as a bust of the Red Skull on Mount Rushmore, and Loki's skeleton laying underneath the destroyed Baxter Building in the middle of the desert. Clint and Logan wind up at a bar, where some punk harasses Logan, which causes Wolvie to put he guy down hard and almost pop his claws into the guy's head. Realizing what he had almost done, Logan storms out of the bar and is followed by Clint who asks what exactly happened to Logan all those years ago to cause him to retire and become a pacifist. As the issue closes, Logan tells Clint he is finally ready to talk about what happened to him on the day the heroes fell. And that's our cliffhanger ending leading into next month.

Like I stated in an earlier review for this storyline, I've always been a sucker for a good alternate dimension storyline. I loved to collect the old What If's... when I was a kid, and to this day, whenever Marvel puts out the occasional What If..., I make sure to buy them. The Age of Apocalypse is far and away the best comic book crossover I have ever read, helped by the fact that it took place in an alternate dimension. I guess the thing that I like the most about alternate world stories is the fact that nobody is safe. Anybody could die, because the characters involved won't be around anymore when the story concludes.

Getting back to this comic though, I have to say this is the BEST Wolverine comic I have read in quite some time. Mark Millar is doing an amazing job of showing a world that has almost literally gone to hell, and Steve McNiven's pencils are absolutely gorgeous here. This story has been great from the get go, and I know I can't wait to read the next issue to find out what exactly happened to Logan to turn him into a pacifist. This issue was great, and the next issue promises to be just as great if not better. I personally hope this story never ends. For a score, I'm going to give this comic a 10 out of 10! Out of the hundred + comics I've reviewed on this blog so far, this is only the 2nd time I've given out a perfect score. That should say alot about how great this comic was. If you enjoy alternate world stories, Wolverine, Hawkeye, or good comic books in general, do yourself a huge favor, and pick up this, and the three preceding comics of this series, you won't be sorry!