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!