Hunting Party: Hunt For Wolverine: Mystery In Madripoor #1

The following is my review of Hunt For Wolverine: Mystery In Madripoor #1, which was posted on PopMatters.com.

In the same way there are some characters whose death will always stick to a significant degree, there are others for whom resurrection is pretty much assumed before the funeral even concludes. In the same way Uncle Ben's death has to stick for Spider-Man, the death of Wolverine can't possibly stick for the X-men. No matter how his death occurs, be it callous, tragic, or heartfelt, he's still one of the X-men's most popular characters. Him remaining dead is about as likely as Marvel and Disney growing tired of money.

While Charles Soule did a commendable job making Wolverine's death feel meaningful in Death of Wolverine, the X-men comics never try to function without him for too long, as evidenced by the continued presence of fill-in characters like Old Man Logan and Jimmy Hudson. The X-men need Wolverine just as much as Captain America needs his shield. He doesn't have the luxury of staying dead for over a decade like Jean Grey. At a time when time travelers and alternate reality versions of other characters are running around, the time for Wolverine's inevitable return has never been better.

To that end, it's only fitting that Soule set the stage for Wolverine's full return in the Hunt For Wolverine #1. However, that only acts as the start of a much larger story. Jim Zub and Thony Silas are set to build on that story with Hunt For Wolverine: Mystery In Madripoor #1. It's not enough to just get Wolverine out of his grave so his healing factor can do the rest. Given his colorful history, involving ninjas, clones, cyborgs, and living weapons, there's plenty of resources to work with.

Zub and Silas are targeted with those resources, specifically those involving Wolverine's time in Madripoor as bartender/operative/eye-patch enthusiast, Patch. It's a part of Wolverine's history that isn't as prominent as those involving adamantium bonding or blood feuds with Sabretooth, but it still reflects some important insights about the man and not just the claws. When he's not a raging, snarling death dealer, he's a man who has lived a more colorful life than most.

In that sense, it's somewhat fitting that those hoping to track him down after learning of his return are X-men with which he's had a close personal connection. The fact that those X-men all happen to be prominent female characters as well is a nice bonus and also revealing, in and of itself. It shows that when Wolverine isn't lusting after married women or on the wrong end of a love triangle, he's capable of forging close personal connections.

Kitty Pryde, Storm, Rogue, Psylocke, Domino, and Jubilee are among the most prominent personal connections that Wolverine has forged over the years. They are a dream team of sorts, one uniquely talented and motivated to find their friend and learn what happened to him. These are some of the most resourceful, resilient, and loyal friends that Logan has ever had. The fact he only ever got romantically involved with one of them, namely Storm, says a lot about his character.

This is a team that's capable of tearing Madripoor apart, digging deep into Wolverine's past to find out where he is. However, they don't get many opportunities to do so and not just because Magneto is currently a prominent presence in Madripoor, as has been documented in X-men Blue. They're still on the runway of the airport when they encounter who they think is Magneto and from there, this team of prominent female X-men are basically stuck reacting to everything from that point forward.

That makes the sequence of events in Hunt For Wolverine: Mystery In Madripoor #1 somewhat predictable. Whenever the X-men, or any superhero team for that matter, are stuck reacting to a situation, it tends to limit the impact of the story. Whether it's ninjas attacking, killer robots attacking, or Hydra agents suddenly entering the picture, it follows a similar script. The team walks into a trap, the fighting begins, and the situation becomes inherently more dire.

That narrative in Hunt For Wolverine: Mystery In Madripoor #1 follows that script fairly closely, but that's not to say there aren't dramatic elements that add a little complexity to the mix. Before that situation devolves, though, there are some quiet moments among Wolverine's closest friends. Storm, Kitty Pryde, Rogue, and Psylocke all have an opportunity to remember and reflect why Wolverine matters so much to them.

Granted, he can be a violent, cynical, beer-loving brute, but he can also be insightful and sincere. Those reflections help establish why these characters care so much about Wolverine in the first place and why they're willing to risk a messy trip to Madripoor to help him. That helps make Hunt For Wolverine: Mystery In Madripoor #1 feel less like a generic rescue mission and more like a team of loyal friends seeking to help someone they really care about. Superheroes rescue people all the time. This is personal and that's an important theme throughout Hunt For Wolverine, as a whole.

Those quiet moments among the all-female cast make for some engaging insights that establish the emotional stakes. However, it doesn't end up having much impact when the chaotic violence erupts, as is often expected in any story relating to both Wolverine and Madripoor. While the source of that chaotic violence also has a personal connection with Wolverine, there's not much insight into the how or why they get involved. Even though Wolverine has a list of enemies that'll always be longer than his list of friends, those enemies usually don't just attack for the fun of it.

It still moves the plot forward and puts the cast of female X-men into a difficult spot. It's not yet clear whether that spot will have any bearing on events unfolding in related Hunt For Wolverine titles, but the personal connections to Wolverine are still there and are on full display, at least for those trying to find him. Those connections just don't do much to complement the chaos that they inevitably encounter along the way. They just walk into a trap, get caught by surprise, and try to manage from there.

There's still plenty of room for more insights that further reveal the reach of Wolverine's impact. For such a prominent character with such prominent friends, there's more potential than most with respect to connections and conflict, especially in a place like Madripoor. Hunt For Wolverine: Mystery In Madripoor #1 does plenty to give Wolverine's closest female allies a chance to show their strength while helping a friend. For someone who claims to be the best there is at what he does, though, there's still room for improvement.

Final Score: 6 out of 10

Doubling (And Tripling) Down On Time Travel: X-men Blue #16

The following is my review of X-men Blue #16, which was posted on PopMatters.com.

There's a certain point in a narrative where a certain subplot either needs to be abandoned or shoved back into the spotlight. It's like that point in a poker game where pushing all the chips to the center of the table is the only sound tactic left. It's a major risk and one that potentially undermines the entire foundation of a story, but the payoff is significant. For the time-displaced X-men in X-men Blue, the time is right for that kind of gamble.

There's no getting around it. Since arriving from the past in the pages of All-New X-men, the mission of the original five X-men seems to change every other week. One week, they're trying to stop Cyclops from ushering in a full-blown mutant genocide. The next, they're joining Cyclops to become mutant revolutionaries. The week after that, they're working with Magneto, the same guy who tried to kill them on their first mission. While it's not uncommon for teenagers to have erratic priorities, time travel seems to exacerbate the situation for the time-displaced X-men.

Beyond these varying missions and allegiances, though, there remains one common, unresolved thread. These time-displaced X-men are, for reasons not yet explained, cannot go back to the future. The events of X-men: Battle of the Atom establish that there is something keeping these time traveling teenagers stuck in the future. The nature of that mechanism is vague and rarely hinted it. For the most part, it's like Spider-Man's marriage in that it's overtly ignored for the most part.

In X-men Blue #16, Cullen Bunn and Thony Silas finally revisit this issue in a way that requires them to push those proverbial chips to the center of the table. It all happens quickly and under the backdrop of some typical teenage melodrama that always seems to find its way into the pages of X-men Blue. The mixture and transitions aren't always seamless, but few things involving teenage melodrama are.

That melodrama is only a small part of a much more serious conflict that has roots that extent back to X-men: Battle of the Atom and beyond. Anyone who has seen Back To The Future more than once understands the erratic and chaotic nature of time travel. Mess with the timeline too much and eventually, it'll get impatient. Whatever patience kept the original five X-men intact in the future seems to have run out, albeit quite suddenly.

There's little build-up or foundation to the sudden fracturing of time. It just starts happening, forcing the time-displaced X-men to react on the spot. Part of that reaction involves them engaging in more time travel. On the surface, that seems like fighting fire with napalm. In this rare instance, though, it makes sense and it addresses an important issue that has remained vague since X-men: Battle of the Atom.

Even those who haven't seen Back To The Future understand on some levels that time travel, especially one that involves changing the past, tends to incur an unpredictable impact on the present. For the most part, the impact of the original five X-men being in the future hasn't been that significant. The final few issues of Dennis Hopeless' run on All-New X-men even imply that their presence may not affect the timeline at all, which undermines the entire premise of a time travel story to begin with.

Like the events of X-men: Battle of the Atom, the temporal details remain vague. However, X-men Blue #16 ditches much of those subtleties and makes one thing very clear. The original five X-men's presence is indeed having an impact on the timeline. They aren't just a bunch of clones or alternate versions of themselves from a dystopian future, of which the Marvel universe already has plenty. They are from the same timeline and what they do does effect the present. That reaction may have been delayed, but it's happening.

It's an important facet that Bunn and Silas belabor, which helps establish the premise and the stakes of the Cross Time Capers arc that begins in X-men Blue #16. It's an overdue dose of clarity for an issue that many recent stories involving the time-displaced X-men go out of their way to ignore. It's both refreshing and profound in that sense that it gives the story genuine stakes, but still doesn't forget that those involved are teenagers. That means that no matter how serious the story may be, there's going to be some entertaining awkwardness along the way.

There is some of that in X-men Blue #16, but not nearly enough. Much of the melodrama involves ongoing emotional entanglements between Cyclops and Jean Grey. While those kinds of entanglements are a major part of X-men drama, regardless of timeline, they seem somewhat forced. It's as though these two always have to have the same kind of drama thrown in, as though that's the only drama they know. Being teenagers, that's less believable than anyone shooting lasers from their eyes.

Even if the melodrama is forced and the pace is quick, the sheer intensity of X-men Blue #16 make it a solid beginning to what promises to be a chaotic arc involving time travel. Given how X-men Blue is coming off an event that involved Mojo, that's saying something. Bunn's concise storytelling and Silas' colorful lay a solid foundation that has the potential to incur more significant implications than anything the time-displaced X-men have experienced to date. Like Marty McFly though, they will likely have to learn about those implications the hard way.

Final Score 6 out of 10