More Wolverine - Issues 34-43

We're entering into my absolute favorite Wolverine comics. #'s 34-50. That's the good shit, man. I've read these so many freaking times. I love the time of Logan's life during these issues, plus the artwork, just had me hooked.

Logan faces some big time baddies during this run and it's nothing short of awesome! I met Donald Pierce and the Reavers (Macon, Cole, and Reese) and of course Lady Deathstrike!

In #34 we meet The Hunter in Darkness!

Here, Wolverine gets back to what roots he can remember. And that's running naked through the Canadian wilderness. I'm serious, on the first page he's fishing naked in a river and a couple of panels later he's still naked eating a raw fish when a couple of Mounties find him. This is all about Wolverine's connection to nature and his empathy towards animals. This theme will pop up more and more.

#34 is more of a one-shot than part of a short series run. Logan helps the Mounties track down a fugitive who kidnapped a 16 year old girl, the bad guy kills the Mounties while Logan tangles with The Hunter in Darkness. In the end, both Mounties are dead, Logan rescues the girl and the Hunter slaughters the bad guy.

#35-37 is a fun little series. Wolverine tracks down former Alpha Flight teammate Puck, who's filling in as a bouncer at a bar in Vancouver. At the same time, Lady Deathstrike gets Gateway (an Aborigenee from Australia who can open "gateways" through time and space) to send her to where Logan is seeing right now. The wording of her request is interesting, because Gateway uses the literal terms and sends her to Spain in 1937, because at the moment Deathstrike says the words, Logan is looking at a picture of Puck and his friends in Spain in 1937 and starts to visualize the place. So for 3 issues we get Wolverine and Puck (returned to average human height) fight Nazis and Lady Deathstrike. It's a fun 3 issues, and features some awesome claw fights between Wolverine and Deathstrike.

In #38, Logan finally returns to the US, specifically Venice Beach, California. For the next 5 issues or so we get to know 2 of my favorite Wolverine compatriots/nemesis, Elsie Dee and Albert the Android. There's too much character development and story to talk about, so I'll only talk about why I love these issues so much.

First of all, an android doppelganger of Wolverine teamed up with another android that looks like and talks like an 8 year old girl, sounds interesting enough, but then kick it up a notch by allowing the little girl to actually have a super genius level intellect that she uses to upgrade her buddy Albert so that he has a fighting chance in stopping Wolverine; add to that a jealous Jubilee, help from Forge, a trip through the Morlock tunnels in NYC where Albert and Elsie Dee meet and team up with the Hunter in Darkness, encounter and fight both Sabertooth and Cable, and we have ourselves some really great reading!

The initial fight with Albert is great, because even after we start feeling sympathetic towards Albert and Elsie Dee and see Albert get an upgrade, we still know he can't be Wolverine. And sure enough, the fight is short but also cool.

Immediately after that we get a glimpse of how strong Logan's healing factor is, as he rushes into a burning building to rescue Elsie Dee, whom he thinks is a real girl. Even when he finds out she's an android, built specifically to kill him, he promises her he won't let anything hurt her. This is another theme that runs through Wolverine comics, his mentoring relationship with younger female characters (Elsie Dee, Jubilee, Kitty Pryde, etc...).

The fight with Sabretooth is actually kind of important to the Wolverine lore. At this point we know that Sabretooth aka Victor Creed, is somehow tied to Wolverine's past, but we don't know how. In this issue Sabretooth claims to be Logan's father. We find out quick enough that this isn't true and that Sabretooth thinks this for his own reasons, but it's enough to make Logan really start to wonder about his past. Things will be cleared up a bit more during issues 48-50 (we'll get there in a couple of days!).

Anyway, during this time, Albert has upgraded himself yet again, but this time looks much more bad ass. He also breaks into a military base and steals a stealth fighter and flies off to find Elsie Dee.

Between the guest villain spots, the cameos by Cable and Nick Fury, the Sabretooth fight, the side plot with Albert, Elsie Dee, and the Hunter in Darkness, and especially the Elsie Dee/Jubilee rivalry make these issues a ton of fun to read and re-read over and over again!

Tomorrow I'll get into the BATTLE ROYALE between Wolverine, Sabretooth, Lady Deathstrike AND The Hunter In Darkness!!

Followed by my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE Wolverine issues and 3 issue story arch! And to top it all off will be one last look at the Wolverine solo series timeline with issue #75 AND a FULL review of LOGAN premiering Friday March 3rd! We've got tickets to the advanced screening on Thursday, so stay tuned for the Good Shit Podcast's fresh thoughts Review immediately following the screening!