Ah, Wolverine. Of all of Marvel's powerhouse characters, he's really the only Marvel icon at the same level as Spider-Man, the Hulk and others to arise after the Silver Age. There's a problem with that iconic status, though. With movies, cartoons and canned pasta all bearing his likeness, he's become a property that's been mainstreamed. One of the reasons he garnered so much attention among the X-Men was his edge, the fact that he was a hero that did things we'd been told heroes didn't do. That he was the Best There Was at What He Does, and What He Does isn't pretty, or some such thing. But Logan is found on bedsheets and candy. His edge seemed to be a thing of the past.
Apparently, Greg Rucka doesn't think so.
Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms agent Cassie Lathrop follows Logan's trail to Westfall, and it doesn't take her long to get right into the middle of the community's rather strange power structure. Meanwhile, Logan and Joe Braddock find themselves the targets of a hail of bullets, ordered by Sheriff Dennis Terrill. That earns the lawman a rather severe conversation with his mutant target. As Terrill yields his answers, Cassie discovers some disturbing answers of her own about the charismatic figure behind the Brotherhood running Westfall.
Robertson begins the transformation of Wolverine in this issue. He starts off as the ugly little man we met in the first issue, and here, he's slowly shifting into the more palatable likeness of his big-screen counterpart, as per Marvel's directives. It's a logical move from a marketing point of view, but I rather enjoyed the more harsh take on the feral mutant. Nevertheless, Robertson and Palmer's gritty collaboration still maintains the character's edge, and Studio F's colors really bring a dark, mature atmosphere to the book.
There's a scene in this book during which Wolverine kills a man for what he says, not what he does. The "hero" of the book commits cold-blooded murder here. Sure, the "victim" is so vile that one might not see it as murder, but if one steps back from the emotional nature of the moment and looks at it objectively, Logan certainly doesn't do the heroic thing at all. It's a chilling moment that paints the protagonist in an ugly light and reinforces that he's not like other comics super-heroes.
The real horror in this story is the fact that Rucka's fictional antagonists are realistic ones, that such cults and militias exist in the United States. Rucka delves into that world through another one of his trademark strong female characters, whom I hope becomes a regular element during the writer's stint on this title.
