Wolverine Origins #48

Wolverine Origins #48: Writer: Daniel Way. Artist: Will Conrad.
Last Issue: 9 out of 10.

Review: This takes place directly after Dark Wolverine #86(so check that out first!). Wolverine and Cloak take Romulus back to the place of Wolvie's birth(the Howlett Estate), and Wolvie tells Romulus that he wasn't going to kill him, instead he was going to wait for Romulus to die. Romulus scoffs at that, telling Wolvie that his death would take a LONG time, which leads to Wolvie taking Romulus to the darkforce dimension that can be accessed via Cloak's... well, cloak. Wolvie leaves Romulus lost in the land of shadows, and walks over to his childhood home, admitting to himself that he was always a victim of circumstance and others, and forgives those who had used him, as well as forgiving himself. Finally Wolvie asks Cloak for one final favor, and has Cloak teleport him to Daken. Wolverine arrives at Daken's location with the Muramasa blade and tells his son that he had taken care of Romulus, and that Daken was next. And so the two battle one more time, but this time Wolverine remains in full control of his emotions, while Daken(who was still fuming over Romulus escaping his vengeance)fights like the berserker. Eventually Wolvie baits Daken into striking the Muramasa blade with his Muramasa claws, which leads to a huge shock-wave that knocks both combatants down. Before Daken can get back to his feet, Wolverine walks up to his son and stabs him through his chest with his claws, knocking him out. Wolvie then picks up the Muramasa blade, and decides that he has to finish the job with Daken, to make sure his son can no longer be a threat... From there the scene shifts to Wolvie standing over an open grave. Wolvie picks up a shovel and heads over to the grave and looks in, and we see that the Muramasa blade and Daken's two Muramasa claws are at the bottom. Wolvie proceeds to bury them, and this issue ends with Daken sitting on a bed surrounded by empty booze bottles looking at the huge scars indicating where his Muramasa claws used to be.

What I Thought: Meh. This comic was a rare letdown in this series... I didn't like the fate of Romulus(let's face it, Cloak isn't the ONLY character with access to the darkforce dimension, so it's just a matter of time before he's back again), and I definitely didn't like the fate of Daken. Now he's a neutered version of the character he used to be... Yeah, he's got his other claws, his training and his hatred, but the Muramasa claws made his a perpetual threat to Wolverine... Now I'm really not sure what the future holds for Daken. He can't go after Wolverine, because he has no way to defeat him, he can't go after Romulus, since he doesn't know Romulus is in the darkforce dimension, he just has nothing to do. I'll have to hope that the extremely talented Daniel Way and Marjorie Liu will find something good for Daken... I hope. As for Wolvie, he came across as a bit of a whiner here, which is something I'd never expect from Wolvie. Plus the fact that he DIDN'T kill Romulus after Romulus put him through hell for 100+ years just didn't ring through. Oh well, even the best of writers is bound to have an off comic...

Score: 6 out of 10.DAMN YOU WOLVERINE!!!