Review: Wolverine #56

Creators: Jason Aaron, writer; Howard Chaykin, artist

Marvel, color, 48 pages, $3.99

So? Few characters as popular as Wolverine have ever struggled quite so much for quality material in their own books. That makes those rare glimpses of good stuff all the more fascinating. This single-issue tale is told through the eyes of a man named Wendell, whose mind-numbing blue-collar job it is to torture a captured Logan by shooting him full of machine-gun bullets all day long at the bottom of a pit. Plotwise, Logan manages to get inside Wendell’s head and capitalize on the man’s guilt over his divorce to find a way to escape. But what’s most striking about how well this story works is that it adds fuel to the argument that Logan is a far better supporting character than a lead – perhaps explaining why good solo Wolverine stories have been so hard to come by. Aaron’s story is well-done, and brought to vivid life by Howard Chaykin, who’s as good a match for the story and character as his track record would indicate. Worth a look, especially for those who want a done-in-one does of the character. Grade: B+