2.177 (542) Civil War Fallen Son The Death of Captain America: Wolverine #1 ... Marvel ...

In view of the forthcoming Civil War movie, we decided to take a little trip back to the original ending run of the first Marvel Civil War series (yes there is a new series with the same name). SPOILER ALERT

This series deals with the aftermath of that ... when Captain America surrendered, gave himself up for due process ... only to be shot dead in front of the world as he marched up the stairs ... so who shot him and why? And is he really dead (at that time)?

Well that's all answered later on in his own series and it led to some awesome stories. However, this particular issue is the first in the stages of Denial series ... and we get Wolverine as the lynchpin role here ... for some odd reason, this affected him tremendously and he goes out of his way to determine if the man who was shot was really Cap

And in his journey, we get glimpses of him joining Bucky the Winter Soldier and enlisting both Daredevil and Doctor Strange to penetrate the walls of SHIELD. He even encounters Iron Man and Hank Pym as Giant Man in his quest albeit at that time, they were the opposite Avengers team called Mighty Avengers while Wolvie was with Luke Cage's team called New Avengers

It is surprisingly a simple, sad journey ... wherein he concluded that what was before him was indeed that ... the body of Cap ... of course being Wolverine it doesn't end there even though this issue does as he promises to investigate to find out who really killed Cap since the official shooter in custody, Crossbones, a grunt for the Red Skull did shoot but did not deliver the kill shot

Ratings: 6/10

2.174 (539) Death of Wolverine #1 ... Marvel ...

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