Wolverine #71

Overall- Last issue, we saw Hawkeye and Wolverine being chased by a Tyrannosaurus Rex that had been infected with the Venom Symbiote. We open this issue with Wolvie trying to outrun the big T-Rex in the old Spider-Buggy. Clint is firing a gun mounted on the back of the car at the T-Rex, but since Clint is blind, he isn't able to use that old Hawkeye accuracy to take it down. Luckily for Wolvie and Clint, they are in a part of the country under the jurisdiction of Black Bolt and his wife, Emma Frost.

Emma sends Black Bolt to help, and Black Bolt obliterates the T-Rex with a word. Emma then teleports Clint and Wolvie to her hidden domain to speak to them. Upon meeting Emma, we see that she doesn't seem to have aged a single day, while everyone else around her is really old looking. Wolvie questions her on this and Emma responds that she is actually as old as Wolvie or Clint, but with her telepathic powers, she can hide her true appearance from everyone. HA! Even at like 70+, Emma is still one VAIN woman! Emma and Clint throw some insults at each other and we find out that Emma "sold out" her friends by marrying Black Bolt and forming a pact with the villains who wound up conquering America.

After the Spider-Buggy is repaired, Wolvie and Clint depart, and finish up their journey rather quietly. Clint arrives at a warehouse in New Babylon(formerly New York)to meet with his contacts there. We find out that Clint wasn't running drugs cross country like Wolvie had suspected, but that he was carrying a case containing 99 vials of Super-Soldier Serum, which were to be used to create an army of Super-Soldiers to oppose the villains in charge of the country. Clint hands over the case, but on the condition that he is given one of the vials, so he can help with the assault on the President's headquarters. That's Hawkeye, even though he's old and blind, he's still trying to fight the good fight.

After Clint hands over the case, Wolvie realizes something is wrong and he winds up getting machine gunned from behind. Before Clint can find out what happened, he gets shot in the chest and falls to the floor. Mortally wounded, Clint asks what was going on, and he is told that he walked into a sting, and that the President was always aware of his intentions. Clint tells the evil SHIELD agents to do their worst and winds up taking a bullet right between the eyes!

Well, this issue sure crammed in a lot in a small amount of space! Of course, Clint getting killed kind of pissed me off(yes, I know it was an alternate, futuristic story, but still), but I'm guessing Clint's death will be the catalyst that finally snaps Wolvie out of his pacifist shell, and brings back the berserker Wolverine we all know and love. It seems that the President is going to be the Red Skull, but I'm half-expecting a big surprise when we finally meet the President... Mark Millar wouldn't just give us the Red Skull as the mastermind here, would he? Story and art-wise, this book was damn good, but what else would you expect from the creative team of Mark Millar and Steve McNiven? For a score, I'll give this issue a 9 out of 10. This issue wasn't quite as good as the last issue was, but it still blows away any other Wolverine-related Marvel comics out there today.