Wolverine: Call of the Adamantine

Most of the comic volumes I review here collect five or six issues in a particular run following a single story arc, which is what I was expecting here with issues #6 through #12 of author Saladin Ahmed’s Wolverine. I thought this was going to continue the story of the mission of the Adamantine, “a buried power older than men, older even than the gods . . . the primordial spirit of metal itself,” to rid the world of the bastard adamantium (an alloy which the Adamantine “considers to be something between blasphemy and identity theft”). But that story actually ends (somewhat abruptly, I felt) halfway through issue #8, after Wolverine plugs Romulus’s pie-hole with his claws. Which leaves the Adamantine to skulk off with a muttered threat to Wolverine (“Our contest will come soon enough. But not this day.”). From there we’re whisked away to one of Arcade’s deadly game shows, which at least cures the Wendigo of his curse. Then there’s a standalone episode with a different writer of what I guess is one of Wolverine’s ancestors in samurai-era Japan. And from there someone (spoiler alert: it’s Jason Wyngarde/Mastermind) gets inside Wolverine’s head and lures him back to his old family estate where he is tormented by the spirit of his dead mother and gets into a fight with Sabretooth. Yeah, they’re both dead (Wolverine’s mom and Sabretooth) but they’re not really here so whatever. I actually thought there was some potential with this Wolverine-in-a-haunted-house business, but again it falls back on the idea of Wolverine just having to dig deep until he can get the upper hand. And to be honest, I’m tired of explorations of the tortured psyches of superheroes. Wolverine can dish out the punishment, but this is always followed by a downer: “the doubt and the loss and pain come callin’ again like old drinkin’ buddies you just can’t shake.”

I’m not going to be too negative on this one. I thought Ahmed had some good ideas even if they did sort of peter out or got cut short. And the art, especially in the later issues, didn’t let things down. But there’s not much of a payoff. The Adamantine will be back, someday. Arcade escapes. And even Mastermind can throw a final taunt at Wolverine, asking him if he knows if any of this is real. All of this is par for the course for most comics, which are always running to stand still, but I thought it seemed a little more obvious here, the conflict a little too familiar. And I really don’t find the inside of Wolverine’s head all that interesting a place. I get it: dark places, man. Find a therapist and don’t bore me with the rest of it.

Graphicalex