Dark Wolverine #86

I'm on a roll now! Picking up where I left off yesterday, I'll be posting 5 new reviews tonight, 3 Marvels and 2 DCs. Not only that, but I also managed to finish off my Flashback Friday post today as well, so I think it's safe to say that I have successfully shaken the dreaded vacation doldrums. Well, I might as well not waste too much time on an introduction, I've got a lot of reviews to get to!

Dark Wolverine #86: Writers: Daniel Way & Marjorie Liu. Pencils: Stephen Segovia.
Last Issue: 8 1/2 out of 10.

Review: We pick things up from Wolverine Origins #47, with Daken betraying his father, Wolverine, and siding with Wolverine's arch-nemesis, Romulus. Daken and Wolverine pair off and fight, while Romulus takes on the son of the Hulk, Skaar. Romulus MORE then holds his own against Skaar(huh!), while Wolvie and Daken dance the dance once more. Skaar begins to go into a Hulk rage, which brings out the military and Wolvie's entire “capture Romulus” plan begins to rapidly fall to pieces. After watching from the shadows for a time Wolvie's associate, Cloak, teleports over and take Wolvie out of the battle, explaining to him that he was causing WAY more damage then he was preventing. On top of that, during Skaar's fracas with the military, Romulus and Daken managed to sneak away in the carnage, further infuriating Wolvie. Cloak comes right out and tells Wolvie that it's about time he realizes Daken can't be trusted, and that the sooner he figures that out, the sooner he'll be able to take out Romulus. From there we head to Romulus and Daken, who were laying low in a hotel in Damascus. Romulus tells Daken his life story(he claims that he's been alive since caveman times), and that the only thing that matters to him is his vast underground empire. Daken confronts Romulus about the fact that Romulus always wanted Wolverine to one day be Romulus's heir, which leads to Daken attacking and gutting his long time mentor. Romulus is surprised, but Daken decries that fact that in Romulus's eyes, Daken was always second best to Wolverine, and Romulus doesn't deny that fact, which angers Daken even more. Finally, Daken pops out his third, Muramasa blade claws and goes to kill Romulus once and for all, but before he could strike the killing blow, Cloak arrives on the scene and teleports Romulus out of harms way, leaving Daken ranting and raving about Wolverine.

What I Thought: This issue took a bit of a step backwards from the prior issue, but it was still pretty good. The battle in the beginning of this book didn't really do anything for me, I've seen Wolvie and Daken battle numerous times, and I really don't care about Skaar at all, so I'll just skip past all that. The scene with Daken and Romulus was my favorite scene here by far. It proved a number of little things that had been hinted at for a while now, mainly the fact that Daken was never anything more then a chip Romulus could eventually play against Wolverine. This revelation was extremely hurtful to Daken, who in a warped way has always seen Romulus as a father figure(and possibly even something more), and realizing that Romulus was now, and always would be interested in Wolverine, and not him was a terrible blow to Daken's psyche. I'd imagine that's why Daken flew into a jealous rage and tried to kill Romulus. The next issue of this x-over(which takes place in Wolverine Origins #48)should deal with the final fate of Romulus at the hands of Wolvie, and as well as Daken's next move against his father. It should be good.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Daken sure has some MAJOR daddy issues...