Logan #3 (OF 3)

Eh, I found this issue a real letdown. The setup and execution seemed forced and phony: even the antagonist says he doesn't even know why eating Wolvie's heart would make him whole again, he "just knew" it would. Great. And in the "present" timeframe, why is Wolverine in Japan again anyway? I believe that's left unexplained. Regarding the antagonist: one would think that wandering around the earth for 60+ years as some sort of mutant ghost would change a man, maybe give him some sort of deepened perspective, yet this villain seems to be the same exact person he was when he faced Wolverine the last time, during WWII: no more, no less a monster inside, despite his outward change. You can say, "Well, he's just a jerk, that guy--that's the point." Well, sure, but that's just not very interesting storytelling. There was a clear opportunity for the villain to be given more depth, but it just wasn't taken. This second meeting may as well have taken place a week after the bomb dropped, because the two characters in the present act like no time has passed since they last fought.

The female love-interest ("Atsuko") seemed to have less characterization in this part than she did in the previous two. Here she's basically just a shallow "pleasure-woman", which is sort of troubling. In comparison, think of Mariko or Yukio--both of whom were always so much deeper and multi-faceted. Atsuko seems a caricature of both of them: After one night Wolverine's going to act like he loves her as much as he ever did Mariko, and in chapter two she's going to suddenly reveal herself to be a fighter with spunk like Yukio--yet this "toughness" angle is instantly dropped afterwards. (And at the end of part three, she reappears as an omnipotent entity almost like Jean Grey, but without any of the emotional impact.) For those who realize the meaning and uniqueness of Mariko and Yukio to Logan's life, it's hard not to take this Atsuko as an insult. And toward the end, when Wolverine's near death or whatever, she returns to him as if she were some sort of goddess. Is this a dream sequence? Possibly, but unfortunately I feel the writer leans too heavily on this sequence to endow some sort of vague "meaning" on the entire story. What meaning is this, exactly? "Err... Err... Something about 'love' and... and... JUST LOOK AT ALL THE PANELS WITH LITTLE OR NO DIALOGUE THAT SHOW CHARACTERS JUST *STARING* IN THE DISTANCE, OR JUST *STARING* DOWNWARDS, OR JUST *STARING* AT EACH OTHER! DOESN'T THAT SEEM *MEANINGFUL*??????" Ugh.

I enjoyed part one of this series because it seemed like we hadn't seen a story like this in a while: Wolverine with a perspective love interest, Wolverine during WWII, Wolverine in Japan. Part two was okay, and I enjoyed the fight sequences there. But this third part, in trying to conclude the story, seems try to pass on to the reader a sense of spiritual meaning that just wasn't there. Japan-Love-WWII-Hiroshima-Death-Murder-BOMB: doesn't that seem like a recipe for a meaningful story? Well, maybe if it took longer than 15 minutes to read the entire thing, then yeah maybe it could have been. The problem isn't so much that style and setup have trumped substance, but rather that toward the end style seems to pretend that it IS substantive and that a promising setup seems to demand that the reader acknowledge how meaningful this story *should* be based on its premises. "There is love here, we were in World War II, and the Bomb dropped--how DARE you not agree that this was an amazing story?" It's almost like blackmail.

Here's another pitch: maybe next time we can have Wolverine in the Middle Ages fighting for Joan of Arc and wishing he could pass his healing factor on to people dying of the Black Death. Sound like a good idea? Okay, but we're going to give everyone in it real, real flimsy characterizations and decompress it so we can sell one little story over three issues at premium prices. But we'll put supposed "a-list" creators on it so everyone will think it's "edgy" and cool.