Cable aka The Askani Son aka Nathan Summers aka Nate Grey aka Nathan Dayspring

We all have our favorites, right? Like you have your favorite flavor of ice cream and I have mine. You have your favorite sports team and I have mine. You have your favorite super heroes and I have mine.

We all have our favorites, and most of the time those favorites stay the same forever. Every once in awhile though, I find a new favorite.

One of my new favorite comic characters is Cable. He's not taking Wolverine's spot, or Spider-Man's spot, or Batman or Superman's spot, but he's earned a place on my favorites list.

I spoke about his a bit on the latest episode of The Good Shit Podcast with special guest Kevin Davis now available: https://soundcloud.com/mike-milnes-802160554/good-shit-with-kevin-davis

So why is he one of my favorites now? Well I'm glad you asked...

Cable is one of the most powerful and absolutely one of the most bad ass comic book characters ever. Here's a brief history:

Born Nathan Summers, son of Scott Summers aka Cyclops and Madelynn Pryor aka The Goblin Queen (also the clone of Jean Grey). This wasn't a typical pregnancy, no, it was orchestrated by one of the most evil X-Men villains, Mr. Sinister. Cable was born for the sole purpose of fighting and destroying Apocalypse. En Sabah Nur (Apocalypse), infected baby Cable with a techno-organic virus. A virus that attacks organic matter and replaces it with technology. While the subject continues to live, they are completely overwhelmed with the desire to spread the disease.

When Cable was born, his mother attempted to sacrifice him in order to open a portal between the demon dimension and Earth, but was opposed by Cyclops and X-Factor. In order to keep baby Cable safe from Apocalypse and to give him a chance against the techno-organic virus, a desperate Cyclops agreed to have him taken to the future to be raised by Clan Askani, who was led by Cable's half sister, Rachel Summers aka Mother Askani. There, Rachel clones Cable just in case the techno-organic virus can't be stopped. Oh yeah, and his clone turns into his most hated adversary, Stryfe!

The techno virus can't be stopped though. But this just makes Cable even cooler. Ok, so Cable is a mutant right? And all mutants have special abilities. Well, aside from being the perfect soldier, Cable is also one of the most (if not, THE most) powerful mutant on Earth! He has telepathic, telekinetic, and psionic abilities that he uses to fight off the techno virus! Seriously, all of his powers are used to keep him from succumbing to the virus every second of every day.  It's only when he allows the virus to take him that we see just how powerful he is.

Cable is also the PERFECT soldier. Rachel Summers transfers the minds of Cyclops and Jean Grey to the future, in order for them to raise Cable for the first 12 years of his life. There, Cyclops trains Cable to be the man he becomes. He is 100% devoted to whatever mission he's on. Often manipulating those around him into thinking he's working with them while Cable is actually just using them to further his own agenda. He's done this a handful of times, which has made some of his former teammates resent him greatly.

For instance, during the events of MESSIAH COMPLEX (a story about the first mutant born since HOUSE OF M, and it being the possible mutant messiah), Cyclops orders Cable to take the child into the future, raise her, and protect her from everything. In the follow up MESSIAH WAR, X-Force is sent into the future to find Cable and help him protect the child against Bishop and Stryfe who are working together.

Not only is Cable successful (spoiler alert) in protecting the girl (Hope is her name), but X-Force is also able to return to the present time line with Cable and Hope, but only because of Cable's own sacrifice. You see, the portal to return to the present fries any organic matter that attempts to cross over. So Cable allows the techno virus to take over his body so that he can cross through the portal and allow Hope and X-Force to return home. Cable's willingness to put his life on the line to protect Hope is pure dedication to his mission. He is the ultimate soldier.

Cable's story doesn't end in MESSIAH WAR however. Of course not! He's a bad ass comic book super hero, they can't stay dead! in X-SANCTION, Cable fights The Avengers and systematically takes them out! It's a really awesome story that I highly recommend and it's only 4 issues!

On top of all of this, Cable is a time traveler. My favorite moments featuring Cable, aren't his solo issues, but when he pops up randomly from the future while on some sort of mission. One of my favorite examples is during the X-MEN: FATAL ATTRACTIONS event. Cable had not been seen by his former X-Force teammates in a very long time, they return home from a mission and feel as if something is off around their headquarters. As they split up to recon the area, Cable immobilizes the team one at a time. This was my intro to how cool Cable is. He gathers the team together and is able to apologize and make things right again. I think he sticks around for a little bit, until X-Force helps him secure the piece of his mission he needed and then he disappears again. I love it.

One last thing. I talked briefly about Cable's clone brother, Stryfe, who is Cable without the techo-organic virus. Stryfe is a really bad dude, so what would Cable be like if he was still a good guy but was never infected with the virus. Well, that person exists, but in a different parallel universe! His name is Nate Grey also known as X-Man! We meet Nate in the AGE OF APOCALYPSE mini-series that took place in the mid 90's. I personally love this series, and have collected almost everything connected to it, incidentally I'm behind on the X-Man issues and so I now have a new mission in life. Anyway, Nate is so powerful that he goes toe to toe against Apocalypse during the final battle and it is nothing short of awesome!

Originally created by Rob Liefeld, Cable has evolved over the years, along with another Liefeld (co)-creation, Deadpool. In his first appearance, Cable was just a mutant cyborg mercenary. His evolution is a testament to how great the ideas at Marvel Comics were in the 90's.

I look forward to finding and reading more about Cable. His motivations and dedication to his mission is greater than almost all other Marvel super heroes.

4 Episodes into Iron Fist...

Ok, so obviously this isn't a full review of the show. 4 out of 13 episodes is, once again, obviously just initial reactions. The show itself is just starting to build up steam so I'm looking forward to what's coming.

For right now though... this is not a great show. Definitely the weakest of the Marvel Netflix series. Finn Jones is... ok as Danny Rand. I don't like how he says his name, and it happens a lot, so there's that.

The action is kind of cool. By that I mean the moves look good, but it doesn't look like they're moving at full speed and for a character that is supposed to be a kung-fu master, this Iron Fist is slow. He's making the moves, and again, they look cool but damn... the hits look weak as balls. Except for the light up fist punches. Those are really cool, and since this is only the 4th episode, I can only hope for more.

The Hand just showed up, so that's cool too.

Anyway, the show itself doesn't have a stylish feel like the other Marvel shows have. I do like that each episode is named after a different kung-fu position. Like episode 4 is titled "Eight Diagram Dragon Palm" and episode 3 was "Rolling Thunder Cannon Punch." I think they're also used in each episode in one way or another. I don't know enough about kung-fu to know. I'm a Jedi, while similar to kung-fu in mysticism and study, it's a totally different thing.

Another difference from the other Marvel shows is the performances of the secondary characters. There's no Cottonmouth in this one, or more accurately, there's no Mahershala Ali or Vincent D'onofrio. And there's no Foggy Nelson character to lighten things up a bit, just the occasional "Danny is a fish out of water" joke. Not bad by any means, but I don't know... not great either.

I guess you could say that so far I am unimpressed but I'm still into it enough to keep going. Like I said before too, it's picking up steam so I hope to see some cool stuff soon.

I'll be back with more thoughts as I continue the show.

Who is Iron Fist?

2017 is chugging along, LOGAN got us started quite nicely with a huge opening weekend for a totally kick ass, best Comic Book Movie ever kind of way. While the next CBM isn't due for release until May 5th (GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2) or POWER RANGERS on March 24th (that doesn't really count as a CBM though), NETFLIX is set to release all 13 episodes of their latest Marvel series... IRON FIST!

Iron Fist will be the 4th member of the Defenders team that will unite later these year for their own show. If you've been following the shows on Netflix, then you're probably already familiar with those characters. They started with DareDevil, then Jessica Jones, then DareDevil season 2, and the last series was, of course, Luke Cage.

These heroes are all "street level" characters. Meaning, for you new readers, that they handle the problems that are associated with their immediate neighborhood. DareDevil operates in Hell's Kitchen, Luke Cage in Harlem, Jessica Jones moves around a bit more, but mostly in Manhattan and soon enough we'll see where Iron Fist fits in.

So, who exactly is Iron Fist? Well, everyone is familiar with the billionaire-turned-superhero theme that tends to occur more often than not. Iron Fist is one of those, but his powers aren't anything like Batman or Iron Man or even the current version of Spider-Man right now in the comics (Peter Parker is a billionaire with his own company).

Danny's story begins during a trip to Asia with his parents Wendall and Heather Rand, along with their business partner; Harold Meachum who are searching for the mystical city of K'un L'un. The family and Meachum are hiking through the snowy mountains, when Danny loses his footing and falls over the side, pulling his mother down with him. Meachum, who is in love with Heather, actually pushes Wendall to his death and attempts to help Heather and Danny, but Heather refuses his help, and manages to get herself and Danny to safety.

Now, hurt and trying to run away from Meachum. Heather and Danny discover a makeshift bridge that appears out of no where. Before they can make it across, they're attacked by a pack of wolves. Heather throws herself on the pack to safe Danny, just as archers from K'un L'un appear and attempt to save her. They take Danny with them to meet their ruler, Yu-Ti, whom Danny expresses his desire for vengeance.

Yu-Ti hands Danny over to apprentice for Lei Kung The Thunderer, who teaches him martial arts. Flash forward a number of years and Danny has become a master of kung-fu and a prized pupil. He conditions his fists by plunging them into water, rock, sand, and gravel. At age 19, he's given the chance to attain the power of the Iron Fist!

In order to do this he must fight and defeat a dragon! Yeah, a DRAGON! Named, Shou-Lao The Undying! Shou-Lao guards molten heart that was taken from his own body. Figuring that the heart is the source of the dragon's power, Danny notices a scar on the dragon's chest and throws his body on it, severing the connection between the dragon and it's heart. He holds on until the dragon dies, and a dragon tattoo is seared onto his chest!

Now that the dragon is dead, Danny plunges his fists into the molten heart left behind and the power of Shou-Lao fuses with his body; the Immortal Iron Fist is born!

Just in case the first season of the show is based on his comic book origins, I won't reveal what happens after, but I'm sure you can imagine where the story goes. His actual powers, aside from the mastery of martial arts and the fists of iron are mostly related to his chi; the spirit energy that supposedly flows through all of us. Iron Fist has complete mastery over his chi and add that to the mystical power given to him by Shou-Lao, Iron Fist can focus all of his energy into his fists and/or an overall enhanced physical attack. He can also heal himself by focusing his chi, PLUS he can telepathically fuse with another person or creature's mind!

Iron Fist would go on to team up with Luke Cage as Heroes for Hire, and even sub in as DareDevil after Matt Murdock's secret identity was released to the public. He's been a member of The Defenders, The Thunderbolts, and The New Avengers at different points in his career.

From what I've read so far, the Netflix series doesn't go too into his backstory and may not even feature Shou-Lao or K'un L'un. Which is fine, if they can tell a good story without certain elements of his origins, it'll be ok. I'm with-holding judgement until I've seen the whole series. Early reviews haven't been good, but also seem to be coming from critics who have no idea of Iron Fist's actual comic origins and also have only seen 1 episode.

MARVEL'S IRON FIST premieres on Netflix just in time for St. Patrick's Day on Friday March, 17 2017! Have a great day, interweb-slingers, until next time!

Fan Question! Could He-Man BEAT The Hulk?

I have a buddy. His name is Conor. He's 5.

We got to hang out a couple of weeks ago and we played a lot.

We climbed on the playground and got lunch from a food truck.

At the end of the day Conor's Dad made a fire and we talked and laughed and played some more.

It was a good day.

That's how I probably would have described the day if I were 5, like Conor, who's the son of my cousin Tina. A couple of weeks back we visited Tina and her family (Conor, her husband Ken, and their son Kenny) for a fun day at the local winery. Conor really is my buddy, and I play with him every time I see him. That day he was really excited for me to get there, and to show me all the things he likes to do while at the playground. We played all day long while enjoying the beautiful weather at the Laurita Winery's Winterfest. It was almost 80 degrees in February!

Conor is a great kid, who's also incredibly smart and funny. Around the fire that night, Tina asked him how old he thought we are. He thought I was 12 (same age as his big brother Kenny), his Dad was 30, his Mom and my wife were both 20. Hilarious, adorable, and very insightful. Conor saw me, a grown man the same age as his Dad, as a child. I wasn't surprised. I talk about super heroes, Star Wars, and comic books ALL THE TIME! I have a Darth Vader hoodie where the hood zips up into the mask that I wear EVERY DAY. I have Superman, Batman, Captain Phasma, BB-8, and Star Wars logo socks that I wear proudly. I can talk about cartoon characters and movies that Conor and Kenny are just now seeing for the first time. Earlier in the day, Conor and I had a long and detailed conversation about the Transformers, their movies and the cartoons. For like 20 minutes. With a 5 year old.

I love it.

Now, something else happened that day that led to what I actually want to write about today. I introduced Conor to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. The original He-Man and She-Ra cartoons are now currently available to stream on Netflix. Knowing that Tina and Ken were already fans of both shows, I only had to mention this and knew Conor would be watching it later. I was still there after he had seen his first episode. He came to find me to tell me about it.

"Mike, I watched the He-Man. I don't weally wike it."

"Oh ok, bud, that's cool."

"I'm gonna go watch anudder one."

A few days ago, before I went on a berserker Wolverine binge, Tina left me a facebook comment with a question from my buddy Conor. "Conor wants to know if He-Man or Hulk would win... it's 5:30 in the morning." I responded several hours later, of course, and told her that the answer was more complicated than a simple facebook comment. So here ya go, Con-man:

He-Man would absolutely beat The Hulk, but how he would do it is the hard part. For those that don't know, He-Man is the most powerful man in the universe and The Hulk, as in The Incredible Hulk, is the strongest one there is. The thing is... He-Man is the better fighter, with more combat skills, and battle experience PLUS a magic sword that could cut The Hulk! The Hulk, even if he had his alter-ego Bruce Banner's intellect, wouldn't be able to handle He-Man.

The fight itself would be epic though, with both men giving all they've got, with the climatic scene looking something like the two squaring off in the middle of a crater; the result of a major part of their battle, trading punches back and forth like prize fighters. The blows would have such force, that any trees around them would shake, sending birds into the air. Finally with a last burst of enormous power, He-Man would knock the Hulk into space, through a moon and out the other side! Having used so much energy, He-Man would revert back to his alter-ego Prince Adam, while the Hulk drifted in orbit.

That's just one way it could go, but regardless of how it ended, the victor would remain the same. He-Man for the win. He-Man's strength is on the same level as Superman, and his magical abilities plus battle experience would give him the edge.

I don't think Conor is going to pay attention through all of that, but maybe he'll appreciate it when he's older.

LOGAN - Second Viewing

So I saw LOGAN again yesterday. The first viewing stayed with me all weekend and I couldn't get it out of my head. Upon reflection, I'm sticking with my initial response. This movie is fantastic and is the BEST COMIC BOOK MOVIE EVER MADE!

Since my mind hasn't changed at all, I'm not going to continue on about why I loved it so much, but rather what is driving me a little crazy. And that's these so called "comic fans". I don't know how connected you all are to comic fandom, but I'm sure you all understand that I'm in it deep. I follow several comic book related news sites, have alerts set up on my phone for when a big scoop is dropped, and read through comment threads on both reddit and facebook.

I am sick and tired of people making excuses for shitty movies. I'm talking about these DCEU apologists, who's first comment or response to a comment is how DC is the greatest and if you disagree then you don't know what you're talking about. It's stupid. Come on, give me a break.

Let's just put it out there. BATMAN V. SUPERMAN was awful. SUICIDE SQUAD, while an improvement over BvS, was still a mess and not worth a second viewing. MAN OF STEEL was the best of the three, but still had a LOT of problems. But ultimately my point is, these movies cannot even compare to LOGAN.

Director James Mangold and Hugh Jackman actually listened to the fans and made a movie that transcends genres. It's actually difficult to NOT compare it to movies like SHANE, or UNFORGIVEN. It was masterfully done with top notch (and what I'm hoping will be) Academy Award worthy performances. The DC movies don't even come close, and please... PLEASE...please don't try telling me that SUICIDE SQUAD is an Oscar Winner. It won for hair and make-up, not something creative like Best Screenplay, or Best Picture; also not one performance from that film was even close to being recognized by the Academy.

But what's really driving me crazy, is the negative responses to LOGAN. More specifically, the argument that the movie wasn't good because it didn't contain a flashback scene showing what happened to the X-Men. If you've seen the movie, then you know that something tragic (related to Xavier's illness) happened in Westchester, NY that killed all the X-Men. Their argument mainly being that it would have been much cooler than what we got.

Now, I've studied filmmaking as well as screenwriting and I have a lot of experience in producing entertainment projects. I also know how a story should be crafted. A flashback of that particular scene is completely unnecessary to include because it has nothing to do with the story they are trying to tell. I actually commented on a thread on facebook about this very thing. What I don't understand is that a lot of people seem to think they need everything laid out for them, almost so they don't have to think about anything. Well, again, I don't know about you but I prefer a movie or TV show that makes me think. I love to use my imagination! The best example of this in a movie is in JAWS. Spielberg actually wanted to use the mechanical shark a lot more than he did but was unable to because it kept breaking down. This forced him to think differently and actually helped the film in a way that no one could have imagined. We, as an audience, we left to our own thoughts about the shark up until we finally got a look at it. Once we did... HOLY HELL! That's why the line, "we're gonna need a bigger boat" is so apt for that scene.

Of course, someone argued back about this. Claiming that they prefer when movies show them everything, because that's what a movie should do; not tell you, but show you. And that gentleman is correct. That's exactly what movies are supposed to do, but as correct as the statement was, it's not the point. The point was whether or not the movie would have been better if it contained a flashback scene. Would it have been cool to see? Yes, absolutely. Would the movie have been any better with that scene? I highly doubt it.

What's so confounding to me is how nitpicky people have become when it comes to movies. No one seems to want to just enjoy anything anymore, but rather find something about it that they can rag on. I believe it has everything to do with social media. Everybody wants that one line that will go viral and have their words shared or retweeted thousands of times. It makes me shake my head, because I know I do that too. But my situation would benefit exponentially if something I posted went viral.

There are too many attention-seekers out there willing to say or do something outrageous just to get a response. It's why we have internet trolls, and stupid facebook comment wars and it's why our nation is so divided. We seem to all be too worried about what other people are thinking that we're not taking the time to enjoy the things that we actually enjoy. Well, I'm making a pledge to actively stop this behavior.

I promise to continue with this blog in a fun-loving and professional manner. I will not do or say anything outrageous in hopes of getting more likes, shares, retweets, or page views. I will write with the love and passion and knowledge that I've always had, and I will HOPE that people will follow me for those reasons.

So, take a few hours and go see a movie that you've been wanting to see. Or turn off the news and pick up that book that you've been neglecting. Or, better yet, turn off all of the electronic stimuli and go outside. Then come back in and read up on all the stuff you love.

Bottom line. Enjoy your lives and the things that are in it. "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around every once in awhile... you could miss it." - Ferris Bueller.

LOGAN! BEST COMIC BOOK MOVIE EVER!

I know that title seems like a bold statement, but holy hell interweb-slingers, this movie blew me away!

I hope after this week you understand how much I care about Wolverine as a character and also know that I wasn't the happiest with what we've seen so far. I'd given up hope for a great Wolverine movie, and then I saw LOGAN.

Immediately the mood and feel of this movie is felt. From the opening shot, through the opening scene and then throughout the rest of the film, there's this feeling of sorrow, loss, and hardship. LOGAN perfectly captures a main character who has felt and is feeling a tremendous amount of pain. Every move he makes, he hurts; every person he meets, gets hurt and he takes on the guilt of that loss.

Hugh Jackman is absolutely amazing. I have another bold statement to make: Hugh Jackman gets an Oscar Nomination. Seriously, he's THAT. F'ING. GOOD. Not only the best Wolverine I've ever seen, but the BEST Hugh Jackman performance that I've ever seen.

You know how I know this was a great movie? Because I welled up with tears at the end. There's a moment at the end where I nearly broke down and bawled like a baby. See it, and you'll know what I'm talking about.

Patrick Stewart, also a terrific performance as a version of Professor Xavier that I never considered. He has a degenerative brain disease that causes seizures, which in turn, affect EVERYONE around him because he's the greatest telepath who ever lived. The chemistry between Stewart and Jackman is perfectly fluid, just an excellent give and take throughout the entire film. On top of playing a new version of Xavier, Stewart is also able to capture the true character of Professor X. There's several moments where the Professor X that we all know and love comes out, reminding us all of what a truly great man he was. Oh man, just go see this movie already! Hahaha, I'm writing this and shaking my head over how good it was.

X23 is so awesome! Dafne Keen is a very talented young lady! She has almost 0 dialogue and is still able to be the most interesting thing on screen! I was consistently impressed with her performance as well as her character development.

There are so many good things to talk about here, and I'm trying real hard not to spoil anything. The story was perfect. It was NOT Old Man Logan, like some people were or are expecting, but they took elements from that story and incorporated it into an original and true-to-character Wolverine story. I think part of my problem with X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE and THE WOLVERINE was that they tried to hard to adapt comic book storylines to a movie. It fell flat both times. But LOGAN took whatever mistakes were made in the previous 2 movies and corrected them beyond 100%. I knew going into this that they needed to do something more original than based on the comics, and they did. Hats off to Director/Writer James Mangold and Writer Scott Frank, who could possibly see a Best Screenplay Nomination next award season. I know it's way to early for that, but seriously, this movie was just that damn good.

To tie it all together, the soundtrack is absolutely perfect. It's haunting, somber, and captures the feelings of pain and sadness so well. Remember the Johnny Cash version of "Hurt" that played over the first trailer? Well, as great as that song is, and as well as it captured the feel of that trailer, the Cash song they play over the end credits is not only one of my favorite Cash songs, but also immaculately captures the feel of the entire movie.

I'm 100% serious about this being the Best Comic Book Movie ever made. I felt it while watching, first comparing it to SPIDER-MAN 2, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, and IRON MAN. But this movie also transcends just the CBM genre. It's a GREAT movie all around. I am finally content with a Wolverine movie. No, that's not right. I'm not content. I'm overwhelmingly happy with this Wolverine movie. They don't have to make another one, they don't have to recast and start from scratch. They could never make another Wolverine movie again, and I'd be happy. So great. Go see it.

My 3 All Time Favorite Wolverine Issues & one big THANK YOU!

A few days ago, I wrote a bit about how I connected with Wolverine as a kid. I have a disease that I was diagnosed with as an 8 year old and have been a part of an experimental government research program ever since. Part of that program was monthly MRI and/or CAT scans along with experimental scans. I was injected with all kinds of different substances for these scans and had my blood drawn so many times that the vein in the crook of my right elbow is constantly ready for an IV injection.

Going through this as a kid was rough, but I had two awesome parents that were there for me every step of the way, who showed me how to be tough and how to see the positive in my situation. My Mom, especially, has always been the picture of toughness when it comes to physical pain and taking on medical procedures with a brave face.

But as a developing child, there were certain fears that I didn't want to talk about with my Mom and Dad. The uncertainty of everything was and still is very scary. I didn't know when my illness would take a turn for the worse, or if one of my scans would come back with really bad news and it's only gotten scarier as I get older. Every day I live with the fear that one of the many little growths that I get on or inside my body will be cancerous and in a place that makes it inoperable. I've been told to EXPECT kidney stones at some point in my life, and that my doctors are keeping an eye on a large stone that will hopefully stay where it is; or that the lesions that appeared on my pancreas several years ago have grown and are now cancerous. Scary stuff, but I still maintain a brave face, and fight everyday against all the negative possibilities. While that mentality was instilled by my parents, it was also reinforced by my favorite comic book character, Wolverine.

In issues 48-50, Logan finally starts to get some answers to his mysterious past. Before this arch was released, a mini-series under the Marvel Comics Presents...banner was released; Marvel Comics Presents... Weapon X!

This told the story of how Logan got his adamantium laced skeleton. It's incredibly bloody and violent, and Logan kills A LOT of people; but it ends with more questions. Weapon X escapes into the Canadian Wilderness, and is eventually found by the Hudsons and made an agent of the Canadian government. We still don't know how Logan became a part of the Weapon X project however. That's where these 3 issues come in. They're all about Logan breaking through mental blockers in his head and discovering the real him, that may or may not be a animal-like state of mind.

These issues really give you a look at how much pain Logan went through. In #48 we learn a bit about his past before the Weapon X experiments. We learn that he was a secret agent working alongside his future arch enemy Sabretooth! Both were agents, working undercover in Cuba in 1964, under the aliases El Tigre (Sabretooth) and Emilio Garra (Wolverine).

The idea of these two working together before they became sworn enemies was a really cool concept. This also came several years before the X-Men villains started flipping sides every once and awhile, so this was a big deal. Two hated rivals actually WORKED TOGETHER. Awesome. Anyway...

End of #48 led Logan back to the X-Mansion to get some help from Professor X and Jean Grey. They take a trip into Wolverine's mind, and help him to differentiate between the false memories and the real ones. It's at this point that we learn about the real details of Wolverine's past and that most of his memories were implanted there as part of the Weapon X project. We meet Silverfox, who Logan believes is a lost love of his, but actually turns out to be a plant. He remembers the first time he fought Sabretooth was in a bar in Canada, on his birthday after Sabretooth had "killed" Silverfox. We also learn that the deeper Logan goes into his memories and the more memory implants he takes out, the stronger the possibility of reverting to an animal-like state is likely.

As you can see, he tears off his brown and yellow costume and beats feet on his motorcycle. The end of the issue reveals that Professor Andre and his assistant Hines (the Professor was in charge of the Weapon X project and was behind it all) are still alive and are following Wolverine; pushing him to find SHIVA, a killer robot designed to kill all participants of the Weapon X Project.

This all leads into #50, which is probably my favorite Wolverine issue of all time! First of all, the cover is freaking cool as hell! It's made of a heavier paper stock, so it feels like a file folder. It's also drawn to look like a Top Secret Dossier, with 3 claw marks cutting through revealing the insides. It opens up to show what's in the dossier. Good shit, man.

The issue starts off awesome too! Wolverine has some questions for Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and decides he needs the answers fresh from the horse's mouth and so heads to where the helicarrier is docked. At the top of a building in New York City!

It's not Logan's style to make an appointment, and he has a point to make to Fury anyway, and so he decides to take his motorcycle to the roof and launch himself onto the bridge of the helicarrier! This is probably my all time favorite Wolverine moment. My pics aren't the best, but you can at least get a visual:

From there, Wolverine gets some info on where the Professor is hiding out and goes to confront him, but can't get passed the secretary (haha I know), but then states that he will nail this guy, but legally and with all the hard evidence he can find; starting in a warehouse in Windsor.

He dons his old costume, the yellow and blue (here's the differences):

This all represented a change in Wolverine as a character. Jean Grey even notices it. He's rougher around the edges, and more prone to violence than he was; also he's more of a loner now than he was before. The X-Men drop him off and Wolverine starts to investigate the warehouse, where he finds and fights the Shiva robot. It's actually a pretty vicious fight, despite the fact that it's a robot that Wolverine can just slice up. The robot just resets itself over and over again, becoming harder and harder to beat each time. We see that it's the Professor that's controlling the robot with a 3 button remote control. The buttons are labeled "CANCEL, RESET, DEFAULT". The warehouse itself turns out to be made up like a movie set, where a bunch of the "sets" look like the false memories that we saw in the last two issues. The fight takes them through all of them, meanwhile a stranger in a green hooded cloak sneaks in behind the Professor and Hines. It's Silverfox aka Madam Hydra! Holy Cow! She recognizes some of the sets that Wolverine and the Shiva robot are fighting in, telling us that she was, in fact, a participant of the Weapon X Project. She shoots the Professor, who falls onto a control panel, accidentally hitting the RESET and DEFAULT buttons on the remote control thus sending the Shiva Robot onto it's next target.

Wolverine stands, uniform tattered, in victory with a notable change to his demeanor:

The X-Men rejoin Wolverine and discover what happened to the Professor, Hines and find out the robot has moved onto it's next target: Sabretooth. Wolverine says while lighting a cigar, "Couldn't happen to a nicer guy... ...it's HIS problem now." Jean and Jubilee ask him about the other targets that they discovered on Shiva's list, but it's not Wolverine that replies but Professor X who ends the issue saying, "I fear, my X-Men, that the Wolverine that was reborn tonight may be a far, FAR different man than the one we have known. Heaven help us all."

Heaven help us indeed...

The Shiva Scenario storyline is resolved in the next issue, but it's not that great. We meet other members of the Weapon X Project, but they're not that interesting. It's much different now. Now, in 2017 we know that the Weapon X Project was actually an offshoot of the experiment that gave Captain America his Super Soldier Serum and that Deadpool was also a participant of the Weapon X Project, AND that Weapon X actually stood for the number 10, AND that X-23 (a clone of Wolverine) was what the Weapon X Project was actually trying to accomplish.

These 3 issues were published in 1991. I was 10. It was a ton of fun for me to go back to these issues this week and relive the memories I had of reading them for the first time. I'm now 35, married, and still dealing with mysterious medical conditions that require experimental tests and medicines. Along with my parents, Wolverine taught me how to be tough and stay strong in the face of such difficult circumstances and for that I am a better person.

So thank you, Mom & Dad, thank you Wolverine, thank you Larry Hama and Marc Silvestri. Thank you for the lessons learned, and the memories gained. And a very big thank you to everyone who has read this far! If you've been following along all week, maybe now you have a better understanding as to why LOGAN is a big deal for me. I am very excited for this movie, despite my hesitation. So be sure to check back here tomorrow for a full review! Also, Jimmy Nonas and I will be recording 2 new episodes of The Good Shit Podcast, a pre-show all about Wolverine and a post show Review of LOGAN! All will be available on soundcloud.com. Thanks again!

Wolverine Issues 43, & 45-46! Great FUN!

So far we've seen Logan face Lady Deathstrike, Sabretooth, Albert, and the Hunter in Darkness. The next 3 issues not only conclude the previous story arch in a literal rip-n-tear fest. The story starts right where #42 left off, Logan gets dropped off a S.H.I.E.L.D. chopper in midtown Manhatten, where we see a giant billboard advertising The Hunter in Darkness live in Atlantic City!

Logan wants some time to think to himself and decides to run through the bit of wilderness that New York City has to offer, Central Park. He quickly comes to the Central Park Zoo and notices, coincidentally, an injured wolverine. This symbolizes Logan's own urges of resorting to animal like behavior, and the pain he feels from not knowing who he really is or where he actually comes from. To give a face to this pain, is a freaky guy named Linus, who killed a zookeeper and took his uniform just so he could hurt the animals at his leisure. Linus pulls a big knife on Logan, who allows himself to be stabbed through the hand, then Linus pulls gun. No hesitation from Logan, as he pops his claws, jamming the barrel and making the gun explode in Linus' hand. Logan then pulls out the knife, cuts open the wolverine's cage and lets it loose on a now defenseless Linus.

Bad ass quote: "Better not slow down, Linus...wolverines ain't nothin' if they ain't persistent." As a tattered and battered walks away, watching a wolverine chase down the weirdo.

The issue ends with a setup for the Battle Royale. Deathstrike arrives in the city reading a newspaper with a story about Ronald Parvenue and his new exhibit, The Hunter in Darkness! She orders her driver to take her to Parvenue's office and tosses the paper out the window and off the bridge. The papers scatter and hit the water just in time for bubbles to glub, glub to the surface. Suddenly, Sabretooth's face emerges and he gasps for air!

I always skip issue 44. It's a one shot, with a different artist and a weird bad guy. Wolverine's on a cruise or something, it has nothing to do with the main story arch, so I'm skipping it here too.

#45 is where's it at! What's at? THIS is at! ihavenoideawhatijustsaid...

WOW! CLAWS OVER TIMES SQUARE!!! This issue is so much fun! Logan is back in his Wolverine costume and teamed up with Jubilee. They're scouting out Time's Square because Ronald Parvenue has announced a live sneak peek at The Hunter in Darkness, and Wolverine will NOT stand for a wild creature being caged! Again, this is a metaphor for what Logan is dealing with psychologically. We'll see more of this soon, but I'll get into that tomorrow!

Anyway, Wolverine takes the bait and tries to free the Hunter, but Deathstrike has been waiting in the helicopter carrying the Hunter's cage over Time's Square; AND Sabretooth is hiding in the crowd, having tracked Deathstrike's scent knowing she would lead him to Wolverine (who he still believes is his son).

The fight breaks out on top of the Hunter's cage!

The scuffle is too much for the cage to handle in mid-air and so it swings and crashes into a water tower on top of a building. The 3 combatants slowly get to their feet and turn as they hear a low growl. THE HUNTER IN DARKNESS IS LOOSE!

#46 starts with this now 4-way fight just before the Hunter enters. Wolverine is taking a hell of a beating, and so any help would be great, however he doesn't know who The Hunter is gonna go after. It turns out that The Hunter recognizes Wolverine's scent from their first encounter that you would read about back in issue 34! He remembers and sees Wolverine as a friend, attacking Deathstrike and Sabretooth, giving Wolverine a few moments to let his healing factor kick in.

Anyway, the fight gets broken up as a sniper takes hits Deathstrike, Sabretooth, and Wolverine with poisoned bullets; causing Wolverine to have some weird flashbacks involving a security guard from the Weapon X Project, Sabretooth, strange looking vines, and weird spikes sticking out of both him and Sabretooth.

That pretty much ends the issue, with the resolution being Deathstrike getting knocked off the building by a sniper shot, landing in a dumpster and getting picked up by Ronald Parvenue; Sabretooth getting knocked out by Wolverine and then disappearing while him and Jubilee are distracted with the sniper; and The Hunter is shown back in the sewers, feasting on albino alligators.

Tomorrow we get into my very favorite comics, the very issues that made Wolverine my favorite comic book character! I can't wait to re-read the issues and write about them! See you tomorrow!