Blog

Hello everyone and welcome to the conclusion to volume two of Wolverine Classic, in this week’s edition of Ye Olde School Cafe’! It has been quite refreshing to see Wolverine doing his thing before he went “Hollywood.” I think these stories stand the test of time and always will. This week, Logan will be brought to you by Peter David and the great Gene Colan in the first story, and then back to Claremont and Buscema in the last. Let us begin our journey back in time and watch Logan slash his way into our hearts.

Our next tale begins with a bunch of thugs in some abandoned house talking a bunch of stuff about being scared of something. The group knows that someone is after them, and they know he’s a killer. Just as they start to get settled, a pair of claws bust through the door! One by one Wolverine takes down the group of mercenaries until only one remains. Wolverine then tells the guy why he’s after him. He explains that years ago in Iraq (while Logan was working for Weapon X), there was a Nun who was tortured by this goon and her dying request was for Wolverine to find him and kill him. Wolverine then tells the guy that his time is up, but the goon tells Wolverine that he isn’t going out like that, so he shoots himself in the head. He falls off of the cliff, and then Wolverine mumbles to himself that he didn’t take anything away from Wolverine by killing himself, because killing him wouldn’t have made him happy anyway. We next see Patch in the Princess Bar in deep thought about the anniversary of the nun’s death. The waitress asks him if he wants another beer, and he tells her to bring another because it’s gonna be a long night.
In the next story, we see a Patch sitting in a bar and reflecting on it being his birthday. On this day though, he always gets a gift from a special someone. We then see a flashback from his past. The woman he loved, Silver Fox, was killed and left for dead. The perpetrator was Sabretooth, and he said he did it because she was an Indian and said no to his advances. The story switches back and forth from this point between a bar fight that has broken out in present time, and Wolverine’s memories of Creed and Silver Fox.
We get to see how when these two savages first squared off, Sabretooth was the more experienced fighter and really gave Logan a pounding. The scenes flow back and forth, and now in present time, we watch Patch make his way down to the docks of Madripoor. He hears some commotion and investigates. He finds a couple of punks that are showing some tourists why it isn’t a good idea to roam the streets of this town alone at night. Patch quickly dispatches the thugs and then helps the newcomers by taking them to a brothel (Yeah, I know that sounds weird. Maybe the girls are whoring their way through medical school?). The memories of Logan show him the past when he thought his ferocity could beat anybody, but Creed isn’t just anybody. He beats the living crap out of Logan and knocks him unconscious.
Next, inside the brothel, Patch meets up with Jessica Drew and eventually her partner Lindsay McCabe. They show Patch their new business, called “Drew & McCabe Resolutions.” The heroes discuss the crime situation in Madripoor, and also the power struggle between General Coy and Tyger. Patch then pays a visit to the police to get some info on the crime bosses. We then see another clip of Logan actually running away from Sabretooth in the past. He doesn’t get far though, and ends up right in Creed’s firing line. The two mutants engage in a barbaric confrontation that only finally ends when Creed kicks Logan in the face and knocks him down.
Back in Madripoor, we watch as Patch and Drew are creeping around the docks. Before you know it, they are under fire from some of the town’s scum. They dodge bullets feverishly, but then one of the dudes pulls out a flamethrower and cooks Patch. He falls into the sea, but is soon pulled out by Jessica. This day in the present is now also Patch’s birthday, as we are also seeing pieces of from his past. In the past, Logan is at the mercy of Creed, but musters up enough strength to lunge at Creed, sending both of them over a cliff. When Creed wakes up, he leaves Logan, thinking that he is dead. Meanwhile, back in Madripoor, Patch and Jessica are wondering why the men who attacked them didn’t finish them off. When they get topside, they see why. The men have been gutted and gift-wrapped with a note on them. The note reads…”Nobody kills you but me – especially today!” Patch responds by saying…”Not if I get you first, bub!” This is where the story concludes for volume two.
As I said earlier, these stories might not have all the glossy pages and sophisticated technological advancements that today’s books do, but they do keep you reading and entertained the whole way through. You don’t get the feeling half way through the book thinking you missed something or have to buy tie-ins to figure anything out. For that, I give my applause to Claremont and Buscema!
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net