Wolverine: Manifest Destiny #1 Review
Wolverine: Manifest Destiny #1 review by Hugo Bravo
Written by Jason Aaron
Art by Steve Segobia
When Wolverine regained in his memories after the House of M, it opened up an opportunity for writers to inject their own stories and ideas into Logan's centuries-old past. With this in mind, writer Jason Aaron penned "Get Mystique", where Wolverine was sent on assignment from Cyclops, to kill Mystique for her betrayal of the X-Men. In his search for her, we learn that Mystique and Logan had had a history of love, friendship and betrayal, opening a new chapter for the X-Man. Reaction and sales were positive, and now Aaron has begun the follow-up to his story, with a similar formula of exploring Wolverine's disturbing life before he joined the X-Men. Without another top X-Men character to help carry the story, however, it doesn't quite feel as fresh as it was with Mystique, which prompts the question. In the crowded Marvel market of books starring Wolverine, do we need another glimpse into his life?
Following the events of Divided We Stand, the mutants have moved from their familiar Westchester, N.Y. home to San Francisco. But before Wolverine can truly make the west coast his home, he finds an arrowhead in his minimal personal belongings, and is reminded to resolve some issues in Chinatown. These issues involve the killing of a very prominent individual many years ago. Logan shows an unusual remorse and discomfort returning to California's Asian district. He is unrecognized by most locals, seeing as that they expect the man they knew from before to have aged over half a century, but when they find out who the man in the cowboy hat is, the locals make immediate preparations for his return. We only know that whatever happened, Wolverine has killed some very important people, and doing so, he has pissed off the entire town. Strangely enough, now it's Logan who wants to do the talking. Everyone in town wants him dead, from the martial arts masters to the chefs to the local archery team.
Steve Segobia's pencils work well within the story, though I dread how this style would work with a character like Spider-Man. It seems to only function well with angry, violent anti-heroes, making his appeal limited. His work is very similar to Secret Invasion artist Lenny Yu, creating a bizarre, unintentional connection between the two unrelated series. I almost expected a Skrull to show up somewhere in the issue. As far as I know, this is taking place after Secret Invasion, but these days it's hard to tell.
The first issue has the exposition and direction that Get Mystique had after its first, and with a writer once again focusing on the same character, once again touching upon his mysterious past, it's impossible to not make the comparison. For now, we'll say that Wolverine: Manifest Destiny is a decent follow-up, but pales in comparison to Mark Millar's current Wolverine: Old Man Logan, both in story and look. That's not to say Wolverine's story in the Manifest Destiny will be a bad story in the long run. But man, Logan is everywhere these days, isn't he? Thankfully, X-Men: Manifest Destiny has other series more worthy of your time. This is one more Wolverine series that can be skipped.
Rating: 5
