Daredevil vs. Bullseye

Reprints Daredevil #131-132, 146, 169, 181 and 191
Written by Marv Wolfman, Jim Shooter and Frank Miller.
Penciled by Bob Brown, Gil Kane and Frank Miller.
Inked by Klaus Janson, Jim Mooney and Terry Austin.

In a New York skyscraper on 86th Street, a businessman named Hunnicutt is disturbed when a projectile is thrown through his window.  He's shocked when he discovers it's a paper airplane. When it's unfolded it contains a note that reads "Pay me $100,000 or I will kill you!! -Bullseye."

 As soon as he has read the note, Hunnicutt receives visit from Bullseye. When he tells Bullseye he doesn't have $100,000, Bullseye murders him with a ballpoint pen.   

Daredevil stumbles on the crime scene and takes an interest in the case. Daily Bugle reporter Jake Conover is reporting on the murder and asks to speak with Daredevil. Conover fills in DD about Bullseye's backstory. He was once a baseball pitching prospect, until he enlisted in the military.  Bullseye applied his pitching skills to throwing knives, guns and anything else during the Vietnam War.  Daredevil learns that anything in the hands of Bullseye is a deadly weapon.

That same night, Daredevil is attacked by Bullseye. After a brief skirmish, Bullseye leads the hero into an arena where a circus is being held.    

Sometime after that, Bullseye returns to New York. Matt Murdock is walking around and his radar sense recognizes Bullseye, who is out of costume. Bullseye attempts to rob a jewelry store, but Murdock intervenes. The police arrive and think Murdock is just an insane blind man, so Bullseye escapes. Murdock is released by the police, but Bullseye nails him in the head with a golf ball. This assault damages DDs radar sense, making him truly sightless.  

Later that day, Bullseye takes over a TV studio and calls out Daredevil on live television. Bullseye has taken hostages and will kill them if Daredevil doesn't accept his challenge to a televised duel to the death! Without his radar sense, the Man Without Fear must rely on intestinal fortitude, instinct and luck to defeat Bullseye.

Matt Murdock & Bullseye tangle in a jewelry store;
Bullseye later assaults Murdock with a golf ball!

Months later, Bullseye is taken to a hospital so that a tumor on his brain can be removed. But he escapes before the operation and is running loose in the streets of New York. The tumor causes him to hallucinate. He perceives everyone in sight as Daredevil. Bullseye lashes out at all the "devils" that surround him, which makes him more dangerous than ever!

Daredevil learns of this and goes after Bullseye. Their battle takes them from a Times Square movie theater to the tunnels of New York's subway system.

Following that, Bullseye is back in prison and hears that the Kingpin of Crime no longer wants Bullseye to be his #1 assassin. Kingpin has hired Elektra, a ninja who shares a romantic past with Matt Murdock, to be his new hired killer. Bullseye is determined to escape prison and regain his place in the Kingpin's organization.

He breaks free, but if he wants his old job back, he'll have to go through Elektra first. The two assassins engage in a duel to the death! And Daredevil is waiting in the wings to take on the survivor.

Lastly, Bullseye is recovering in the hospital from his latest battle with Daredevil. He's surprised when DD shows up with a gun and plays a version of Russian Roulette with his arch foe.

Review:
Bullseye is one of the greatest villains to come out of the Bronze Age and this is a good introduction to the character. But I have some problems with Daredevil vs. Bullseye.

Story:
Marv Wolfman wrote the two-parter that introduced Bullseye and it's a great debut for the villain. We learn right away that Bullseye is a cold-blooded psychopathic murderer, willing to kill for publicity and the thrill of it. Wolfman shows him using a pen and a paper airplane as weapons in his first scene, driving home the point that Bullseye has perfect aim and can use anything as a deadly weapon.

Daredevil knocks out Bullseye to conclude their first encounter.

The battle between Daredevil and Bullseye is a good one, but there are some plot points that are either ignored or forgotten.

Bullseye tells Daredevil that he must fight him at the circus because he has gunmen aiming at the spectators. When Bullseye gases the crowd they run away...and gunmen are nowhere to be seen. Was Bullseye lying? Did Wolfman forget? Or hoped we forgot? Otherwise it's a good story that establishes Bullseye as a serious threat.

Jim Shooter wrote the second portion and it's a great one-and-done tale.  Bullseye is getting crazier and more dangerous with every appearance. Daredevil becomes truly blinded for most of the fight and Shooter does a nice job getting inside the hero's head and illustrating his determination to bring down Bullseye without his radar sense.

The portions written by Frank Miller are very good. The story from Daredevil #181 is one of the best of the Bronze Age.  But the inclusion of the Miller stories in this tpb is problematic. They're part of a much bigger storyline and reading them out of order could ruin the bigger saga for new readers. Plus, there are other Bullseye stories that are skipped over that would've been better choices (the character also appeared in Daredevil #141-142, 159-160). Plus, the Elektra saga has been reprinted in multiple books.  I guess Marvel used the Miller stories because they're more famous and would help sell the book better than the earlier tales.

Art:
The art featured in Daredevil vs. Bullseye ranges from good to fantastic. Bob Brown penciled and Klaus Janson inked the first story. They do a nice job here. I love this image of Daredevil cartwheeling to avoid a charging elephant:

The art gets even better as the book progresses. Gil Kane penciled the story from DD#145 and it contains lots of his cool angle, "looking upwards" poses. Daredevil and Bullsye's brawl at the TV studio is a classic fight scene thanks to Kane's pencils. The scan below provides a nice example of Kane's work in this book:

Frank Miller's Daredevil art has been deservedly praised for more than 30 years and it still looks great.  But inker Klaus Janson helped define what most people think of when they talk about Miller's work.  Their noirish approach still looks amazing today. There are many pages in this book that feature no dialogue or narration caption, the gorgeous art is all that's needed to tell the story. Miller and Janson are one of the greatest penciler/inker teams of all time.

Bullseye escapes from prison during a televised interview.

The final story, from DD #191 features Miller inked by Terry Austin. This art looks much different than the pages embellished by Janson. But that's okay, as Austin was one of the finest inkers of the Bronze Age and his inks look great over Miller's pencils.

How does it look?:
Here's another problem. Some of the stories here are recolored. This might not bother new readers, but it looks garish and wrong to me.  

Here's a scan (borrowed from torriol.com) of an original page from Daredevil #181:

The same page looks like this in the tpb.

It's not enough to ruin the whole book, it's distracting and isn't necessary. 

Daredevil Vs. Bullseye is a good book and a nice introduction to a great villain, but the skipping of stories and (especially) the recoloring prevent me from giving it a higher recommendation.

J.A. Morris' rating:

      




3 Sals.

The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man

 Reprints Spectacular Spider-Man #27-28, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14-15, Marvel Team-Up #100, Marvel Team-Up Annual #4.
Written by Frank Miller, Bill Mantlo, Chris Claremont, Denny O'Neil, Mark Gruenwald, Roger Stern.
Penciled by Frank Miller and Herb Trimpe.
Inked by Frank Springer, Tom Palmer, Bob Wiacek, Klaus Janson and Mike Esposito.

Spider-Man has been blinded by the Masked Marauder's opti-blast! His fellow superhero Daredevil tries to help him cope with this condition. But the wallcrawler is (understandably) distraught.  Unbeknownst to Spider-Man, Daredevil is also blind and uniquely qualified to help him. The heroes team up to stop the Marauder and his Tri-man droid from blowing up New York City.

Sometime later, Lucius Dilby, a servant of Doctor Doom, has created a device that will allow him to visit the Dark Dimension. Upon arrival, Dilby is given mystical powers by its ruler, Dormammu.  Doom wants Dilby to bring about the Bend Sinister with his new abilities.

Doom sends Dilby to the Dark Dimension.

Dilby arrives in New York and hits the city with a variety of mystical attacks. He creates a super-strong robot and sends it to battle Doctor Strange, the master of mystic arts. Dilby believes Strange is the only one who can stop the Bend Sinister from occurring. During a brief battle, Strange is beaten by the robot. Dilby needs a human sacrifice to bring on the Bend Sinister and decides to kill Doctor Strange.

Strange mystically contacts Spider-Man and asks for help. It's up to the webhead to stop Dilby and prevent the Bend Sinister. 

Shortly after that adventure,Spider-Man is swinging through New York when he's mentally possessed by someone. We observe a teenage girl on a rooftop, she is amazed how it feels to climb walls. The possessed Spidey is forced to attack a charity party held in a luxury apartment, where he tries to take two young children away from their uncle. The Fantastic Four are attending the party and try to stop Spider-Man.

After Spider-Man is subdued, the FF learn that he was possessed and not responsible for his actions. In short time, they learn he was controlled by a teenager named Xi'an Coy Manh. She was using Spider-Man to rescue her younger siblings from her gangster uncle. The heroes discover that Xi'an has a brother named Tran who is also able to possess people. But Tran uses his powers for evil. Will the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man be able to stop Tran before he can possess all of them?


Some months after that, Zebediah Killgrave, the Purple Man, arrives in New York. He's involved in a car accident with two drug dealers who work for the Kingpin of crime. Killgrave has the power to bend the  wills of other people, so he forces the Kingpin's men to fight each other. Spider-Man notices this and tries to intervene. But Purple Man forces him to hang from a lamppost and sing a song! Killgrave escapes from the scene.

Purple Man forces Spidey to sing an Elvis Costello song!

The Kingpin learns that Killgrave interfered with one of his drug deals and decides to take him out. But the Purple Man has other ideas. Killgrave visits Kingpin and tries to command him to do his bidding.  But it has no effect. Purple Man becomes a pawn of Kingpin. We learn that the Kingpin used earplugs to resist Killgrave's control.

A major charity fundraiser is coming up. All of the New York's "street level" heroes hear rumors of a major crime happening at the event. Daredevil, Moon Knight, Power Man and Iron Fist all show up to investigate the matter.

When Killgrave is introduced, Daredevil (still dressed as Matt Murdock) gets nervous. Purple Man knows that Murdock and Daredevil are one and the same. DD creates a diversion by starting a fire. The other heroes jump into action to help the people escape the theater. But Killgrave has other ideas and orders all the people in sight to kill the superheroes.

A mob of hundreds chases the heroes around New York, threatening to kill them. 

Finally, Doctor Octopus calls New York's Mayor Ed Koch and tells him he will kill five million New Yorkers. Doc Ock wants $5 million worth of gems or he will carry out his plans for mass murder. The villain is very cryptic about how he will commit this crime, but Spider-Man has a theory that may save the city.  

 At the same time, the Punisher is back in town and goes gunning for Doc Ock and Spidey gets caught in the middle.

Can Spider-Man defeat Doctor Octopus and save New York?

Review:
The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man contains some very enjoyable stories from the late-70s and early 80s. These are a step below the quality of his stories and art that appeared in Daredevil, but they're lots of fun.

Story:
The first story, a two-parter from Spectacular Spider-Man starts in the middle of a story. This is because Miller didn't start penciling until that point in the saga. Miller didn't work on the next issue, so it ends in the middle of another story. I'm not a fan of reprint books that do this. I understand Miller didn't draw the rest of the story, I still think it's a weakness (the full story is available in another tpb). Having said that, Bill Mantlo writes a good story featuring Masked Marauder and Tri-Man. The Marauder was certainly a B-list villain, but Mantlo presents him as a serious threat here. He blinds Spider-Man and threatens to blow up New York with a nuclear bomb.

Denny O'Neil wrote the Bend Sinister/Dilby story. It's a good story, with one problem. We never learn what the Bend Sinister is. But it's still a fun ride. O'Neil sends Peter Parker to see a punk band called Shrapnel at CBGB, which is a nice nod to the New York music scene of the early 80s.

Peter Parker checks out a punk band at CBGB.

O'Neil also scripted the Doc Ock/Punisher story and it's been one of my favorite Spider-Man stories since I first read it in 1981. Doctor Octopus is portrayed perfectly here, willing to kill millions of people just to demonstrate that he is capable of doing so. And I love the interaction between Spidey and the Punisher in this tale. O'Neil gives us a nice sub-plot that shows the reader how the Daily Bugle selects its front page story. 

The Marvel Team-Up story featuring the Fantastic Four was written by Chris Claremont and it's pretty good too. It's also available in another reprint book I recently reviewed, here.

Miller wrote the Purple Man/King and it's a fairly lightweight story, but it's still a fun read. It was a nice way to have Daredevil's former "greatest foe" meet up with Kingpin, who became DD's arch villain under Miller's pen. Miller does a good job writing all the other guest heroes, none of them act out of character.

Luke Cage punches through the walls of the theater.  Nice art from Herb Trimpe!

Art:
Some folks who purchase this book may be surprised that some of the art doesn't look at all like classic Frank Miller art. The first two stories feature the first time Miller penciled Daredevil, the character that would make Miller famous. But Miller is heavily inked by Frank Springer and Miller's art only shows through in occasional panels.

The next story, from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14 is an improvement. Miller is inked by Tom Palmer and the art looks great. Lots of Ditko-esque mystical images on display here. Miller and Palmer give us several pages from the fictional Book Of The Vishanti sort of serve as "chapter headings" within the tale.

Splash page from ASM Annual #14 features The Book Of Vishanti

The artistic high point for me is the Doc Ock/Punisher story from ASM Annual #15. Miller is inked by Klaus Janson, who served as Miller's inker on Daredevil. Many of the pages feature front pages of The Daily Bugle in progress and the fight scenes are gorgeously rendered. Miller and Janson are one of the best penciler/inker teams of all time and this story is further proof.

The Kingpin/Purple Man tale, from Marvel Team-Up Annual #4 features pencils by Herb Trimpe and is inked by Mike Esposito. It's a bit of a step down from Miller's work in the book, but it's still pretty good.  I always enjoyed Trimpe's work, and he and Esposito make a good art team in this story.

Extras:
The back of this book features a nice gallery of covers penciled by Miller that feature Spider-Man. We get 22 covers from various Spidey series.

The stories from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14-15 make this book worth purchasing. The other stories are fun as well. But I can't look past the fact that the first story is joined in progress, so The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man falls just short of my highest rating.

J.A. Morris' rating:

 .5

3 and a half Sals.

Fantastic Four/Spider-Man Classic

Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #1, Spectacular Spider-Man #42, Fantastic Four #218, Marvel Team-Up #100, 132-133 and Untold Tales Of Spider-Man Annual 1996.

Peter Parker goes on a cruise to Liberty Island with his fellow Empire State University graduate students. While on the ferry, he sees a message from the Human Torch, asking Spider-Man meet him at the Statue Of Liberty.

Peter & the ESU gang go on a cruise;
Bottom left: Mike Zeck (who penciled this image) makes a "cameo".

But when the wall-crawler arrives, he is attacked by "the Torch", who turns out turns out to be Spidey's old villain Electro in disguise.

We learn that Electro is not alone. He's the newest member of the Frightful Four! His teammates Wizard, Trapster and Sandman join in and easily take Spider-Man captive. Spidey is imprisoned in the Trapster's super-paste.

But the Frightful Four aren't finished yet. They attack the Baxter Building, home of the Fantastic Four. The villains manage to take down the Thing, Invisible Girl and Human Torch. They've got Reed Richards in trouble, when suddenly Spidey is able to break free and help Mr. Fantastic. Will Spider-Man and Reed be able to defeat the Frightful Four?

Shortly after that adventure, Spider-Man is swinging through New York when he's mentally possessed by someone. We observe a teenage girl on a rooftop who is amazed by how it feels to climb walls. The possessed Spidey is forced to attack a charity party held in a luxury apartment, where he tries to take two young children away from their uncle. The Fantastic Four are attending the party and try to stop Spider-Man.

When they fail, a young man named Tran intervenes. He tries to possess Spider-Man as well, enabling the FF to restrain the webhead. Spidey wakes up with no memory of the fight.

The Fantastic Four team up with Spider-Man and try to find out who possessed him. With the help of Professor X's Cerebro machine, they find the girl. We learn she is a Vietnamese immigrant named Xi'an Coy Manh. She tells the heroes that the kids at the party are her younger brother and sister, Leong and Nga. Their uncle Nguyen is a gangster and is holding the younger siblings against their will. Xi'an's brother Tran also has the ability to possess people but uses it for evil.

Will the combined might of Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four be enough to stop Tran?

Months later, Reed is visited by a young man named Larry Ekler. Through flashbacks, we Larry's father Milton was a close friend of Reed. Larry grew up calling him "Uncle Reed." Milton believed in achieving the American Dream through hard work, but he was never able to pull himself out of poverty.

Reed looks back on Larry Ekler's life.

Milton's early death drove Larry insane and he became a costumed criminal called Everyman, declaring himself a hero for the working poor. Everyman killed two policeman before he was defeated by Captain America. Reed wonders how Larry got out of the metal institution where he was being treated.

Larry puts on a featureless mask and calls himself Everyman once again. Reed is shocked when Everyman attacks him and shows off his new super-strength. Everyman stuns Reed with a weapon called the Absorbascann that drains Reed's power.

Everyman then battles the police at the New York Public Library.  When Spidey and Mr. Fantastic arrive, Everyman overpowers them with brute force. But Reed is able to briefly reason with Larry, showing him the errors of his ways. Everyman runs away feeling terrible about what he's done.

Reed is determined to bring Everyman to justice. But we learn that Larry is not the real menace here.  He's being mentally manipulated and controlled by Dr. Faustus, an evil psychiatrist.  Reed sets out to capture Larry and Faustus, but his primary opponent in the battle will be his own mind and memories.

Review:
The stories reprinted in this fairly slim volume aren't classics (despite the title), but I enjoyed them. I can think of a few more Bronze Age team-ups of Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four that could've been featured here, but I'll focus on what's in the book.

Story:
Bill Mantlo wrote the Frightful Four story and it's a good one. I've always been a big fan of the evil FF.  It makes sense to have the Frightful Four go after Spider-Man, since Sandman and Wizard had battled both the Fantastic Four and the wallcrawler. Mantlo scripts a very funny scene near the end where the Thing taunts Trapster over his former alias, 'Paste Pot Pete'.

The Frightful Four easily take out the Liberty Island police.

The next story, written by Chris Claremont is also good. The Vietnam War had been over for less than ten years. It was interesting to see the Vietnamese immigrant experience depicted in a Bronze Age comic. Claremont would bring back Xi'an Coy Manh as a member of the New Mutants a couple years later, giving this story some "historical" significance. 

J.M. DeMatteis, one of my favorite writers of the 80s, penned the portion that features Everyman taking on Reed & Spider-Man. Everyman was created by DeMatteis in a Captain America story and he's an interesting villain. His arguments about the American Dream (and those who can't achieve it) have some validity, but his methods, as Spider-Man says, stink. 

Art:
The art is excellent here, featuring some of the best pencilers of the Bronze Age.

Mike Zeck pencils the first part of the Frightful Four story. Jim Mooney inks Zeck and they're a great art team.

The next portion features John Byrne inked by Joe Sinnott, the regular art team on the FF at the time.  Sinnott tended to be a "heavy" inker, but I've always thought his inks worked well over Byrne's art. Byrne and Sinnott together were a wonderful combination of old school and (then) new school art.

Frank Miller and Bob Wiacek provide the art in the first Marvel Team-Up story. I don't recall Wiacek inking Miller elsewhere, but they work great together here. Here's a great scan that features Xi'an's story of how she became aware of her powers:

Sal Buscema pencils the Everyman story, with inks by Mike Esposito. This isn't their best work, Esposito inks are a little overpowering at times. But their work is still pretty good, demonstrated by the image below:

How does it look?:

The comics reprinted here look fine, with no odd recoloring. Here's another scan that shows how great the pages look:
 

I love the expression on Wizard's face in the center, great work by Byrne & Sinnott!

Extras:
This book opens with the classic, first ever meeting of Spidey and the FF, from Amazing Spider-Man #1. It closes with a story published in the 90s.  

Fantastic Four/Spider-Man Classic is a fun read, featuring some stories I enjoyed 30 years ago and enjoy just as much now and it features some of my favorite writers and artists of the Bronze Age. But as I said above, it's a thin book, which keeps it from getting a higher rating.

J.A. Morris' rating:

3 Sals.

Wolverine

Reprints Wolverine Vol.1 #1-4 and Uncanny X-Men #172-173.
Written by Chris Claremont.
Penciled by Frank Miller and Paul Smith.
Inked by Josef Rubenstein and Bob Wiacek.

 Wolverine takes a leave of absence from the X-Men to visit Tokyo, home of his girlfriend Mariko Yashida. He has not heard from Mariko in months. All his letters to her have been returned unopened and she will not take his phone calls.

Upon arrival in Japan, Logan learns that Mariko has been forced to marry a man she does not love. Her father, Lord Shingen Harada, has returned and arranged this marriage to a man named Noboru-Hideki  to settle a family debt.

Wolverine finds out that Mariko is being beaten by her husband.

Wolverine visits Mariko and finds that Noboru is abusing her. He's determined to exact revenge, but is attacked by ninjas who drug him with poisoned shurikens.

Shingen easily defeats Wolverine in a duel, disgracing him in front of Mariko.

When he wakes up, Wolverine is brought before Shingen. He says Wolverine is unworthy of his daughter's love and challenges him to a duel, with wooden bokan swords. Wolverine is still suffering from the effects of the poison, and Shingen is a master swordsman. The battle is brief and Shingen wins easily. He has succeeded in humiliating Wolverine in front of Mariko, who turns her back on Logan.  

Yukio falls for Wolverine, but his heart is set on Mariko.

Wolverine is dumped in an alley.  A street gang finds the drugged, beaten-down Logan and attacks him.  But he's saved by a woman named Yukio, who takes down the gang with knives and martial arts. She claims to be a ronin, a samurai who serves no master.  Wolverine is grateful to Yukio for saving his life and he feels they are very similar. Yukio is falling in love with Logan, but his heart is set on Mariko.  He will need Yukio's help if he wants to take down Shingen and win back Mariko's love. But can Yukio be trusted?

Wolverine battles The Hand.

Shingen subsequently sends a team of ninja assassins from The Hand to kill Wolverine and Yukio. The assassins are defeted, but Yukio is stabbed in the shoulder, badly injured.

Wolverine shows The Hand assassins that he is, indeed "The Best" at what he does.

After this, Shingen continues to send assassins to take out Logan, but they fail at every attempt. Their conflict will be decided by another duel between Shingen and Wolverine. But this time it will be to the death.  

(Major SPOILERS below)

Storm, Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler & Colossus arrive in Tokyo.

Wolverine triumphs over Shingen and Mariko is freed from her loveless marriage. Logan and Mariko are now free to marry. They invite Wolverine's teammates from the X-Men to attend their wedding in Tokyo. The X-Men have brought their newest teammate Rogue. Wolverine objects to this, since Rogue was a villain  and ruined the career of his friend Ms. Marvel. Mariko welcomes Rogue and lightens the mood.

Storm meets Yukio, while Wolverine reminds Kitty that they come from different worlds.

But all is not well. The villains Silver Samarai and his partner in crime, Viper, have also arrived in Tokyo and intend to prevent the wedding. Silver Samurai (his real name is Kenuichio Harada) is a son of Shingen and half-brother of Mariko. He claims to be rightful heir of the Yashida Clan and believes Wolverine is unworthy of joining the family.

Wolverine pits his claws against Silver Samurai's energy blade.

Viper sneaks into the X-Men's quarters and poisons their tea, sending most of the team to the hospital.  The only X-Men available are Wolverine, Storm...and Rogue. Wolverine isn't crazy about working with a former villain, but has no choice. Can the three remaining X-Men (plus Yukio) defeat Viper and Silver Samurai? Or will they succeed in taking over the Yashida Clan?  

Viper goes gunning for Wolverine & Mariko, but Rogue gets in the way

Review:

It's hard to believe, but when the Wolverine miniseries was published, it was the first X-Men spinoff series. I was shocked when I saw this on the racks at my local comic store back in 1982. The comic hype machine as we know it didn't exist. The idea of one of the X-Men getting a solo series seemed unlikely. But it was a refreshing change of pace back then and it's still a great read today.

And it's also nice to see Wolverine in his brown and tan costume that he wore most of the 1980s. I always preferred this one to his blue & yellow duds. The year this story was published also happens to be the year I dressed up as Wolverine for Halloween.

Your trusted Bronze Age Reprints blogger on Halloween, 1982.

Story:

Chris Claremont is at the top of his game. Wolverine narrates this story in the first person, a device that would eventually become a cliche, but is used brilliantly here. Claremont allows us to get closer than ever to Wolverine and he's given more depth than before. This is also the first time (that I can think of ) where Wolverine actually kills someone. It's done here in self-defense and (unlike later stories) doesn't feel like it's done for cheap shock value.

We also get to know more about Mariko. She was little more than "Wolverine's girlfriend" prior to this story. We learn a lot about her family and their power in Japanese society. Yukio is an interesting character as well, she reminds Wolverine perhaps too much of himself.

One thing I will concede: I'm NOT an expert on Japanese culture, so I can't testify to the accuracy of its portrayal here. I'm guessing there are some things about Japan that Claremont got wrong.  

The second part (originally published in Uncanny X-Men 172-173) wraps up the Tokyo story but also gives us our first look at Rogue as a hero. I read that story when it was first published and was skeptical about Rogue's transformation from villain to X-Man. But Rogue is very heroic here, taking a shot meant for Wolverine. Rogue went on to build up a solid fanbase after this. I also enjoyed Storm's interaction with Yukio. Ororo admires Yukio's free spirit and wishes she could approach life with the same carefree attitude. This story led to some major changes in Storm's personality (and costume).    

Wolverine & Shingen engage in a duel to the death!

Art:
Frank Miller and Josef Rubenstein are excellent art team. When most of us think of Miller's art, we think of the "film-noirish" way it looked when Klaus Janson inked it. Rubenstein's work here looks nothing like that, but it looks great in its own right.

The follow-up story featured Paul Smith's pencils inked by Bob Wiacek. Their work is completely different from Miller & Rubenstein, but it also looks great. Paul Smith is one of my favorite X-Men artists and this is a great example of his work on the series.   

How does it look?:
Fantastic, no weird recoloring or odd printing choices here, as this gorgeous 2-page chase scene shows:

Wolverine chases Yukio over the rooftops of Tokyo.

 Extras:
We get a nice introductory essay written by Chris Claremont in 1987 that deals with the creation of this story and how he came to collaborate with Miller.   

Wolverine contains a great story with art that's even better, highly recommended to all fans of Bronze Age Marvel stories.
My rating:

 
4 Sals!