Friday, July 3, 2009

Wolverine Origins #37

With Wolvie's wayward son Daken becoming the main character over in "Wolverine"(or Dark Wolverine), this title has become Wolverine's main solo book. I'm actually glad that Wolvie is now in only one solo book(yes, I know about Wolvie First Class and Wolvie Weapon X, I just choose to ignore them!). With only one Wolvie solo title, maybe we'll FINALLY get to the bottom of this whole Romulus deal. Ah yes, Romulus... Jeph Loeb introduced the idea of Romulus back in Wolverine #50 or so(which was over two years ago!!!), but in all that time, the character of Romulus has been vague at best. Romulus has supposedly been the driving force behind all of Wolvie's actions, but other than that, we know nothing about him. However, it looks like all of that is about to change. This issue of Wolverine Origins begins a multi-part story simply entitled "Romulus". If we don't learn the history of Romulus now, I don't think we ever will! This issue is written by Daniel Way.

-We begin with Wolverine heading to Russia in an effort to finally hunt down and kill his enemy for life, Romulus. Wolverine contacts the Russian Defense Minister and tells him to put out false reports regarding Wolverine's whereabouts. Wolvie's plan is to follow Victor Hudson(Romulus' right-hand man)back to Romulus while Romulus believes Wolvie is elsewhere thanks to the false intelligence reports... Ah very clever!

-Meanwhile, Omega Red is locked up in a Russian jail. Why bring this up? You'll find out in good time...

-In Amsterdam, two crooks find the Carbonadium Synthesizer, and one crook kills the other in order to gain possession of it. A cop happens across the scene and kills the remaining crook in order to take custody of the C-Synthesizer. The cop then calls Romulus to tell him he has acquired the C-Synthesizer. Before I go any further, allow me to elaborate on exactly what the C-Synthesizer is. The Carbonadium Synthesizer is something Omega Red has been searching for for over 40 years now. The C-Synthesizer is supposed to cure the Carbonadium poisoning Omega Red is suffering from thanks to his Carbonadium coils. Wolverine(along with Maverick and Sabretooth)has always managed to keep the Synthesizer away from Red out of fear of how powerful he could potentially become without the poisoning constantly sapping his strength.

-While Wolverine is clandestinely following Victor, Omega Red receives a letter in prison which really seems to make him happy. Wolverine follows Victor to a small cabin which has a secret tunnel within it. Upon emerging from the tunnel, Wolvie finds himself at a prison. Figuring Romulus must be hiding within the prison walls, Wolvie charges in, only to find death and destruction everywhere. After searching some more, Wolvie discovers the C-Synthesizer and is subsequently attacked by Omega Red. As this issue ends, Wolvie realizes that Romulus was aware he was following Victor all along, and that Romulus lead Wolvie straight into a trap with Omega Red right in the center.

This was a good, fun issue. I've always liked Omega Red, he has a great look, and his first appearance is among the very first comic books to grace my comic collection. I also enjoyed the story, which showed us that Romulus seems to be several steps ahead of Wolverine at every turn. Poor Wolvie just can't seem to catch a break here. Every plan he comes up with to get at Romulus always ends up being countered.

Next issue should be one hell of a good throwdown between Wolvie and the now healthy Omega Red. There was a time when Omega Red was able to take down Wolverine AND the X-Men, hopefully we'll get that Omega Red and not the one who was easily defeated by Nightcrawler. For a score I'll give this comic an 8 out of 10. This was a good story that left me eagerly anticipating the next issue.

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