Wolverine Origins: Dark Reign...

[fajrdrako]

Today I picked up from the library, and read, Wolverine Origins: Dark Reign, which reprints Wolverine Origins #31 - 36, dated Feb to Jun 2009. Six issues, each one featuring both Wolverine and Daken. Except for random panels online, I hadn't seen those two together before. This is the storyline in which Wolverine and Daken go after Romulus, Cyber, and the Muramasa Blade, a mystic sword forged from Wolverine's own blood.



Logan and Daken work even better together than I'd hoped. I love Wolverine's mixture of protectiveness and distrust towards Daken - intelligence playing against intelligence.

I should make it clear right off that I pretty much hated the art by Yanick Paquette and Doug Braithwaite. "Stellar," the blurb on the back of the book says, but I'd say they were more of a train wreck - that snub-nosed, dumpy guy is supposed to be Cannonball? No way. And the writing by Daniel Way, though conceptually good, is full of comic book cliches. It ranges from pedestrian to snappy, with the occasional foray into "now, that's more like it."

Moreover, the story is told with alternating flashbacks of varying relevance - "several years ago", "five days ago", "eight hours ago" - a device I find annoying and unnecessary. I don't like it in television or books, either, but least of all in comics, where it can easily be simply confused and confusing. The style seemed a little old-fashioned compared to the comics I'm currently reading, sometimes downright crude, though they came out originally less than two years ago.

No wonder I didn't buy Wolverine Origins when it was on the stands. Now, with Daken, I have incentive. Seems to me Way's writing improved immensely when he teamed with Marjorie Liu.

Yanick makes my boy Daken ugly, for which I have no intention of forgiving him.

Comments:

1. Nice to see Nick Fury in this story, interacting with Wolverine and familiar with Daken.
   
   
2. Loved the beginning, where we get a parallel between Daken and Wolverine in Logan's narrative:
   
   
   I guess every father hopes that his son turns out, in some way, like himself. In my case - well, I got more than I ever could've hoped for - my son's just like me.
   
   We both got a mutant healing factor, capable o' bringin' us back even from beyond the grave. We both got heightened senses, allowin' us to hear an' smell things that others can't.
   
   We were both born armed... an' we've both been trained to kill since pretty much the first moment we breathed air.
   
   

Since, in the comics I've read, Daken seems considerably more sociopathic than Logan, I'm wondering if Logan thinks Daken is better than he actually is, or is he fooling himself, or is he being insightful?

I like the way Daken is dressed through most of these issues: bare-chested, with khaki trousers.



Love his shadow in the second picture there.

There are a few panels with Daken naked - not very impressive, but still. Only because the art is substandard.

At one point Daken is surging ahead to attack Cyber, and Wolverine puts a hand on his shoulder, saying, "Wait..." Daken turns on him with a snarl: "Don't ever--!" Presumably he would have finished by saying "touch me", if Cyber hadn't interrupted. I liked that.

I loved the scenes of Logan and Daken sitting around a campfire, plotting.

When Logan offers Daken a bottle of beer, Daken refuses it. Why? Does he not drink? Does he not want to drink with Logan? Does he not like beer?

I liked the trust issues. Logan and Daken hatch a scheme. Daken betrays Logan. Then the betrayal turns out to be fake. Then it turns real. Back and forth. Nice bit of dialogue:

Daken: Cyber...
Logan: Can't be trusted.
Daken: And you think I can?
Logan: I can only hope.

I loved this passage, when Logan has been captured by a group of African child-soldiers, and is trying to talk them out of trusting Cyber:

They ignore me - which I guess I expected but it's disappointin' just the same. You'd think that I -- a fella who's committed more violent acts than... anybody -- would have some kinda insight on how to steer a child away from violence, but I don't.

I can't save these kids... Any more than I could save my own.

Daken, in reference to his ability to manipulate others: "Those who are weak... break."

Not much about Daken's love life. I'm used to him doing a lot of flirting, which we didn't get. There's the businessman who got blown up; seems he'd been sleeping with him, but I think I blinked and lost track of the plot for a minute there. Why was he exploded? Perhaps I should read again, to figure it out. It must make sense somewhere.

Was there a female character anywhere in the story? Well... Wolvie's mother, in a flashback. Hmmph.

We are reminded at least twice that Wolverine is Canadian, not American. I like that.

Nick Fury is Mr Exposition here. Boring.

I like Cyclops' role in the story. I like it that he is at odds with Emma Frost over what he is doing. I love it that Emma says to Scott, "If you kill his son, Wolverine will kill you. Nothing will stop him."

And I loved Cyclops' later conversation with Hisako and Colossus:

Colossus: Emma is not able to give us a specific location for Daken?
Scott: She might be able to, Colossus, but she won't.
Hisako: It would seem the two of you do not agree on the merits of this mission?
Scott: We don't have to agree, Armor. Emma and I share many things, but leadership of the X-Men isn't one of them.
Hisako: [Bowing] My apologies -- I do not question your leadership, only our circumstances.

Nick Fury steals from S.HI.E.L.D. I love it. If anyone has the right - !

More hints of Daken's megalomania and ambition, very similar to those in the current comics in Daken: Dark Wolverine. Some wonderful dialogue, though, as the fight among Cyclops, Logan and Daken comes to an end:

Logan: Boy... You will listen to me now. It's over, Daken, it's done. It ends here. I will not allow you to become me.
Daken: You think I want to be you? No, "Father"... I am destined to be something far, far greater.

I love it, too, that Daken in the end didn't have to kill Cyclops or Logan or steal the blade - and got what he wanted anyway.

Love the dialogue between Cyclops and Logan - oh, the delicious relationship issues! -

Cyclops I want you to track Daken down, and I want you to deal with him.
Logan: I won't kill him, if that's what you're --
Cyclops He's beyond salvation, Logan. Haven't you ever looked into his eyes?
Logan: I look into 'em every day.
Cyclops You force yourswef to believe that Daken can be saved because --
Logan: [Silenetly] Because that would mean I can be saved, too.

Dialogue:

The Tinkerer to Daken: Your sense of humor is sickening.
Daken: Wait'll you get to know me.

It's one of the few scenes in which Daken smiles.

The last story, with the Tinkerer, and Daken in the Weapon X tank getting his Muramasa claws, was intriguing, and the art seemed better, though the credits didn't specify what was different about the artists. I hope the library has more (or all) of these trade paperbacks.

On the whole, the story seems just a little stilted, clunky and old-fashioned compared to some of the excellent comics I've been reading lately - including the current Dark Wolverine. The story is mostly fight scenes laced with relationship angst, which I quite like, especially when Cyclops joined the fray. This seems to be after Cyclops became leader of the X-Men, but before Utopia.

There seems to be a lot of talk about Romulus, but he never seems to actually turn up.

Towards the end, Logan has to choose between capturing Romulus or saving Daken. He saves Daken, who stabs him with his claws, saying, "You made the wrong choice." Logan agrees. Has he turned against Daken, as it appears - or is that another of the mind-games? Aah, yes, such is the nature of suspense.

Must read more.


Notable bits of art:

1. Daken and Wolverine - silhouettes
   
   
2. The best art in the whole TPB: but of course it is. It's a cover by Mike Deodato, whose work is superb. Too bad he didn't draw the stories.
   
   
3. Phallic or what?
   
   
4. My second favourite page: Daken with the sword.