Wolverine, Vol. 3

Wolverine (2020) #5-7

by Benjamin Percy

Wolverine is Krakoa's best weapon - but that doesn't mean he always attacks exactly where the Beast aims him. And what Hank McCoy chooses to do about that is going to set Logan on a startling path that will redefine his future! What is Beast's secret agenda? And how has it turned Logan…savage? Prepare for a betrayal that will change everything and send Wolverine deep into the Pit of Exile! Meanwhile, Beast will stop at nothing to protect Krakoa as he sees fit. But having lost the faith of Logan and X-Force, there's only one mutant left he can turn to: himself! Hank's last-ditch effort to save mutantkind leads to Wolverine facing some very familiar adversaries. When the Weapons of X lock blades, who will be the last Logan standing?! Collecting WOLVERINE (2020) #26-32, #33 (A STORY) and #34-35 and #37-40.

Genres: X Men, Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels

392 pages, Hardcover

First published June 25, 2024

About the author

Benjamin Percy is the author of seven novels -- most recently The Sky Vault (William Morrow) -- three short fiction collections, and a book of essays, Thrill Me, that is widely taught in creative writing classrooms. He writes Wolverine, X-Force, and Ghost Rider for Marvel Comics. His fiction and nonfiction have been published in Esquire (where he is a contributing editor), GQ, Time, Men's Journal, Outside, the Wall Street Journal, Tin House, and the Paris Review. His honors include an NEA fellowship, the Whiting Writer's Award, the Plimpton Prize, two Pushcart Prizes, the iHeart Radio Award for Best Scripted Podcast, and inclusion in Best American Short Stories and Best American Comics.

Reviews

[Shannon Appelcline]

The Beast Agenda (26-30). Beast has geen going bad for a *very* long time. For me it dates back to at least the Second Coming era, but he was clearly a morals-challenged mad scientist by the time he brought the O5 forward for All-New X-Men. Percy has only been playing that up in his run of X-Force and Wolverine. So what finally happens in this volume is no surprise.

But I'd sure like to know why. Author after author has shown the darkening of the Beast, but they haven't bothered to tell us what's going on in his head. So this heel turn is a surprise in another way, because we don't understand what's going on because we don't understand what's going on.

With this said, other than some unnecessary playing with timeframes that just muddles the story and a dull issue spent fighting The Pit, this is a good conclusion (or at least major milestone) in a very long-running arc. [4/5]

Weapons of X (31-35). At last, we get a view into Beast's head. It doesn't tell us HOW he got to be the way he is, but it tells us WHY he does the things he does. And that this is definitely the original Beast, not the Evil Beast (though some future author will likely still retcon that).

Though it's great to see a final confrontation with Beast (another final confrontation?), it also feels a bit pointless, because the ending status quo isn't that different from the start. This should have been the conclusion, but not only does it drag to keep the story going, with a few pointless issues, but it also fails to conclude. Sigh.

Still, a lot of amazing imagery and totally over-the-top plotting with legions of Beasts and Wolveirnes motoring about in a kaiju skull island. Wow. [3+/5]

Last Mutant Standing (37-40). As usual, we've now got the wheel-spinning that has been endemic of the early Fall of X run, as mutants were on the run, and no one could make positive plot movement against Orchis. Wolverine resolves that with a bunch of one-off teamups. Percy has the advantage of needing to close out old plotlines, so we get one issue of killing Wolverine clones and another issue of shutting down the auctioneer, but from there we're on to pointless fights with Orchis. Overall, a pretty forgettable arc other than the need to close up old plotholes (and some nice references to classic Wolverine stories such as Hulk #181 and whatever X-Men issue had the flashback with Captain America and Black Widow) [3/5].

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Volume 5 was super dark, very winter soldier-esq with betrayal, torture, and being used as a weapon against his will, before going through a sort of healing-by-reliving-past-pain montage, and I was ready to give it 5 stars for the depth, but then volume 6 got a little goofy. The silly jokes were sillier than normal, but hey, it was good to have Deadpool back for a few pages and actually be good silly
Obviously I’ve come this far, so I may as well see it through to the end (or to the current volume anyway)

3 stars.

[Jirka Navrátil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lepší průměr. Pořád si to drží nadprůměrnou kvalitu. Jsem zvědav na ten konec. Rosomák vole.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Beast of a good time.