20 years ago, during the hey days of Image and during its early life, Image creators (a few of them) did something called Image of Tomorrow where regardless of their current title numbering they jumped forward to issue 25 and then back to regular numbering. If memory serves correctly, the intention is to show that Image titles have a lot of forward planning. Unfortunately, some never reached 25 before it disappeared which is quite sad as we actually liked that idea What has that got to do with this? Well this review is dated 28th Jan 2016 but we are typing it on 7th Mar 2016 and after this, the next review 2.175 was already typed and posted on 24th Jan 2016. See? Kinda jumped forward and now playing catch up. Hehehe!
Okay - onward!
This series came out in 2014 and was HUGE because aside from the last The End series, and some other alternate timeline or whatever, this is meant to be in continuity. I was hesitant when I got it on softcopy. The only reason I got it is because it had McNiven on art and McNiven is just plain awesome here. The technique here has the same consistency as his work on other titles except that rather than keeping each line clean, here he puts in more shading and what-not ... not sure if deliberate or a progression of his own art style but whatever the reasons, it is still a beauty to read
And this opening issue shows why as we see a troubled Wolverine realizing that something is wrong and not just with his own healing factor. For those who do not follow closely (like us), the imaginative flashbacks are great SPOILER ALERT. We get to see that Wolverine tried to find a way to cure himself but no deal and in the end, accepted life as is i.e. he gets to grow old, be in pain and die
However, unknown to him, a contract has been put out there with his name on it. The only challenge is he must be brought in alive and at this point, he has no idea who. So to ensure he doesn't bring untold continual danger to all those around him, Wolvie decided to go far away in seclusion and wait for the scum to come after him. And in this way, slowly, he intended to work his way back up the chain until he finds out whom
At this point, until the ending, we are not given a hint of who the mastermind is and that's great. We did get to see a glimpse of Viper who has been deposed as overlord of Madripoor but somehow still involved and on a chain (literally) is super mean bastard, Sabretooth. So what the fuck is going on here, eh?
Ratings: 9/10
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