Before I get into this, I have a question. Can anyone tell me why Wolverine comics from this period look like they were co-drawn by Rob Liefeld and David Lafuente?
The issue begins with Wolverine doing what he does, which is, um...
Okay, I have no idea what he's doing here. A little help, Wolverine's Internal Monologue?
"The Crusader and his flunkies — a bunch of Sunday school rejects — decided to hijack a Federal Treasury C-130, use the cash to finance the simultaneous bombings of hero HQ's. Pretty good plan. 'Cept it hit a bit of a snag. And the snag hits back."
Phew. Thank you. That explains... well actually I still don't get why they're all wearing chainmail. Well anyway Wolverine busts up the guys in the back, then storms into the cockpit to confront the Crusader, who, decked out in top-of-the-line medieval combat gear, immediately attacks. This, predictably, fails, and Wolverine tears off a chunk of his face. Look, all I'm saying is, if you're going to do the whole domestic terrorism bit, maybe you could try using equipment from the last half of a millenium?
Then... oh holy hell are you kidding me. Okay, let's do this. "Then this happens."
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The Crusader tells the pilot to crash the plane into the "heathens below" and Wolverine grabs the controls and steers the plane into a fiery crash in a cornfield instead and now I'm really worried about the implications of this plot. I mean it's not like this came out in 1999. Is it a coincidence, an accident? Are they trying to work in some sort of message? If they are, it would be a welcome sidetrack from the main plot of Civil War if the way they were doing it weren't so heavy-handed and potentially offensive. I just hope they're not using the imagery for shock value.
The crash doesn't kill Wolverine... well, okay, it kills him a little bit, but he gets better in a few hours and goes for a drink.
He's interrupted in the middle of his attempt to buy $100 worth of beer when he receives a call from the Avengers. And then a call from the X-Men immediately afterward. Yikes. He looks at the... er, microwave... to see that Stamford has gone the way of Hiroshima.
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And by the way, if you think that comparison is insensitive or otherwise offensive, just wait two more entries and I suspect you won't anymore.
Cut to Latveria, where we see two figures framed in shadow. Wait a second...
Okay, see, since I've read Civil War before, I already know who these people are (or rather, I know from memory who one of them is and that greatly narrows down who the other could possibly be). As with other cases of foreshadowing in this event I'm not going to tell you before the reveal because I know some people reading this haven't read Civil War and not everyone's cool with spoilers, but if you pay attention, you might be able to figure it out on the next page.
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So, since I'm probably not going to have the opportunity to ask this when it's revealed, I'm going to ask anyone who knows right now: What the hell are they doing in Latveria? What does Latveria have to do with them OR what they're talking about?
Cut back to the Stamford cleanup where absolutely nothing is new except the inexplicably downgraded artwork. Let's... let's just keep moving, shall we?
Cut to Port Washington, New York, where a little boy appears to be levitating a ball as his sister looks on in horror. Wait, the scene is actually about their mother, who's on the phone when she gets a call on the other line. She calls to her husband and tells him they've got a plane to catch.
Cut to New York City, where Logan is eating in his favorite sushi restaurant when the owner points out that people are looking at him like, well, like people usually look at mutants in the Marvel Universe but even moreso than usual. He slips out the back, where he's confronted by four aggressively Japanese dudes. The big one tells him, in Japanese, "Your kind's not welcome here anymore, gaijin"... wait, doesn't that essentially translate to "foreigner"? You're in New York, "Japanese" is more foreign than "Canadian". I mean, hell, Canada is really just kind of down the street. Logan lists his credentials, punctuated with a "snikt", and they all reconsider their position.
Okay we've been on one scene for three pages now so time to cut to something unrelated to the previous scene, specifically the Baxter Building, where Ben Grimm is yelling at Wolverine about giving supers a bad name... and again this page is directly from a scene in Civil War #1 but with crappier artwork, though at least the perspectives are a little better I guess.
After everyone's gone, Iron Man is talking to Wolverine about the Nitro situation. Wolverine rages about how SHIELD has basically just let Nitro go even though they had a solid lead to go on. Iron Man tells him to drop it... because it's... uh... bad publicity... to track down a mass murderer...?
Iron Man leaves and Luke Cage comes in. Also he appears to have swapped his black t-shirt and shades for a red t-shirt with the Avengers logo, tuque, and portable music device and also grown a goofy-looking mustache since the last time we saw the previous scene happen. Well, at least we've now established "accelerated mustache factor" as one of his powers. Wolverine explicitly compares SHRA to Nazi Germany, and I'm not going to comment on that, not because I don't think it deserves a comment but because 1. Luke Cage does it for me, 2. Wolverine isn't done yet, and 3. I'm saving it for later.
Cage says these Nazi comparisons are bullcrap, and Wolverine brings up the Sentinels. Cage says they're there for the X-Men's protection, which I'm pretty sure nobody in the Marvel Universe ever believed at all. Wolverine asks, "And what if that Sentinel on the front lawn was a burning cross?" Wow, Wolverine. That's two in a row. It's like you're actively trying to outdo my Hiroshima comment.
...actually thinking about it I'm not all that surprised, considering it's Wolverine.
Anyway that was three pages again, four if you count the one with recycled dialogue, so cut to the Forbidden Land, I mean Westchester, New York, where Logan is arguing with Scott Summer and Emma Frost. Emma says that hunting down Nitro isn't their job, and they both point out that things could go very wrong very fast if Logan gets involved, even moreso than they already have, are, and will. Logan makes a comment about Scott's opinion in relation to his sexual relationship with Emma. That's not surprising either and Logan knows it.
The issue ends when Wolverine goes to Stamford, against the orders of both bosses, and starts tracking Nitro from there, by scent. I apparently made a note for this entry claiming that this seemed improbable somehow, but reviewing I can't remember why I would have said that. The only problem that might arise is that the trail could be pretty old, but really we don't know how old it is because we don't have any indication of how much time has passed between the last few scenes...
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