Monday, July 6, 2009

Dark Wolverine #75

Today I take a look at Wolverine #75. I mean Dark Wolverine #1... No wait, I mean Dark Wolverine #75... I find it incredibly strange that Marvel didn't end Wolverine at #74 and start this series fresh at #1. I mean it's common knowledge that Marvel LOVES restarting series' at #1 issues, so it would have made sense for this to have been a #1. I guess I'll never figure out Joe Quesada... Which is probably for the best. This comic is written by the team of Daniel Way, who created Daken over in "Wolverine Origins" and Marjorie Liu, whom I know next to nothing about.

-We begin with Norman Osborn holding a meeting with Daken where he explains to Daken that he has to act more like a hero since he's playing the part as a member of the Dark Avengers. Before their meeting concludes, Daken pushes Osborn's buttons by mentioning Spider-Man.

-We learn that Daken spent the night with one of Osborn's employees in order to gain access to Osborn's personal files on the Dark Avengers. Daken also uses his pheromone powers to garner the attention of a female HAMMER agent.

-From there, the Dark Avengers and a few HAMMER agents hold a meeting in which Osborn tells them that they are all to be on their best behavior at a gala that was being held later on during the night. A bunch of weapon manufacturers are expected to be attending the party and Osborn is hoping to woo them in order to gain contracts for his company, Oscorp.

-Before the meeting ends, Daken gets into a verbal altercation with Bullseye which leads to Bullseye putting an arrow through Daken's shoulder. The HAMMER agent from earlier helps Daken back to his room and the two sleep together.

-From there we head to the party, where Daken plays with Bullseye's head some more by sending him all kinds of mixed signals with his phenomenal powers. Daken then plays with Venom and Moonstone's heads as well. This issue ends with the Fantastic Four showing up at the gala and accusing Bullseye of putting an arrow through the Human Torch's leg. Osborn glares at Bullseye, and Bullseye quickly realizes that the arrow being held by Mr. Fantastic is the same one he put through Daken's shoulder earlier in the day. HA!

Boy, reading this comic sure made me wish Daniel and Marjorie were also writing "Dark Avengers"... The depictions of the Dark Avengers characters in this issue were way more accurate than in "Dark Avengers". Especially Daken. Daniel writes Daken perfectly, which is no surprise since Daken is Daniel's creation. It's the same thing with Bucky and Ed Brubaker. Ed just writes a better Bucky than BENDIS does in "New Avengers".

There was a lot to like about this comic, but in particular, I was glad Daniel began to expand on Daken's "other" power. His phenomenal abilities. Since Daken's debut, the phenomenal abilities were always there, but they were kind of under-defined. This issue went a long way in establishing the extent of those abilities. I also enjoyed the way Daken played constant mind games with practically all of his Dark Avengers teammates. He messed with Osborn by mentioning Spidey, he accused Bullseye of being molested by his father, he dazzled Moonstone with some philosophical mumbo-jumbo and he hit on Venom. It's Daken's psychological assaults on his enemies that makes him different, and more dangerous, than his father. All in all I really enjoyed this comic. I'm a big fan of Daken, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this series catapults him onto bigger and better things in the Marvel Universe. For a score I'll give this comic a strong 8 1/2 out of 10.

6 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Sorry, I had an unforgivable spelling mistake on the 1st comment.

    Do you think this book has any staying power? A mini I could see, but how can they possibly string these series out past their initial arcs?

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  3. I'm honestly not sure how long this series can play out. I'm hoping for a good long time(I like Daken's character), but it's really hard to say. Maybe the character will really catch on with fans, like Daken's pops did.

    To me this series would have a much better shot at making it if they kept Daken off of the Dark Avengers and had him as an Old School Wolverine loner type. But for some reason Marvel is under the impression that
    Norman Osborn=Big Sales$$$, so I guess we'll see what happens.

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  4. I just realized I didn't really answer your question Kello! Sorry, it's late and I'm getting kind of scatterbrained!

    I do think it is possible for this book to stick around for a while, with some smart writing(which I know Daniel Way is capable of). If I was plotting this book, I'd do something like this: the first two arcs can detail Daken's time with the Dark Avengers, then he can switch to the Dark X-Men for a storyline or two, he can then leave that team and have some solo adventures against some old foes of his father. Right there you've got maybe two years of stories. It can be done, it all depends on the response from the Wolverine fans.

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  5. Yeah, they've milked Wolverine for everything he's worth, so I'm sure they can do it again with Daken.

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