Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted

When I heard that Jason Aaron would be coming back to tell a Wolverine solo story as a digital promotion for last year’s movie, I knew I’d have to check it out at some point.  Given that the man wrote the character better than anyone else in recent memory I was a little disappointed to find out that he only co-authored the story here.  Jason Latour, who is probably best known for his artistic contributions to various Marvel comics, “B.P.R.D.” and Aaron’s “Southern Bastards,” the the other co-author of the story and the scripter here as well.  Regrettably, it becomes fairly clear early on that the Jason who spends all of his time writing is the better storyteller.  As the title implies, Wolverine becomes Japan’s most wanted after his latest battle with the Sabretooth-led Hand ninja clan leaves a politician dead.  In addition to clearing his name, Logan also has to protect a girl known as the Hon alive because she has the secret history of the Hand tattooed all over her body.  It’s this knowledge that will hopefully keep the clan’s honor alive as Sabretooth does his best to grind it down for his own ends.

Aaron’s “Wolverine” stories were great because even as he was never afraid to go completely over the top, the writer knew exactly how to pitch the tone to get the reader to take the drama seriously or laugh along with the more ridiculous parts.  Latour doesn’t have Aaron’s fearlessness in this regard and what we get is more middle-of-the-road for the character.  We see Wolverine fighting a metric assload of ninjas, several encounters with the new Silver Samurai — who winds up being the main antagonist here — and lots of talk about honor and duty.  This is a story set in Japan after all, it HAS to be about these things.  It all looks pretty slick thanks to Paco Diaz’s artwork, even if the fill-in from Ale Garza halfway through is pretty jarring.  I’d say this is one for the completists, but even they might balk at the fact that Marvel is asking you to pay $35 for a 160-page hardcover.  I got this for half that at Comic-Con and still feel like I didn’t get my money’s worth.  Better to just pick up one of the “Wolverine by Jason Aaron Complete Collections” to see what the writer is really capable of with the character when he’s the only one in charge.