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Does Wolverine take his mask off in the missing panel? That was jarring. There’s some weird stuff going on with the last two panels of the last page as well.

But pretty cool, if sad moment. Any potential love interest of Wolverine should just be named Juliet.

Why is Gambit there?

Gambit’s just chillin’ with the villain.

It was the 90′s, so Gambit could be found on any X-Book at the time.

Silvestri seems to be channeling Carmine Infantino in that panel with Mariko tearing up. Also notice how it didn’t take very long for Wolvie to go from “NO! I CAN’T!!!” to his infamous “SNIKT.” This was around the time I first gave up on comics cold turkey.

As Booth said when they caught up to him: “Useless, useless.” Mariko was the only thread of humanity tying Logan back to his Claremont/Cockrum/Byrne days. How many women had he been involved with by this point? How many people has he “euthanized” with his claws over the years? I believe Rachel Van Helsing was one of the first, but at least there was a reason for it then. Maybe Jean before her in a similar situation? By the time he got to poor Mariko, this stunt had been literally done to death.

I really enjoyed Larry Hama’s run at the time it came out. I had given up on the rest of the X-books, but still enjoyed his Wolverine. Haven’t read it since, so not sure how it holds up. Silvestri’s art was much better than this when he first started on the title.

Yeah, that’s why I made a point of noting that, jazzbo. Silvestri on Uncanny and early Wolverine was quite good.

Can’t…draw…any…character…without…a….grimace….on….faces….

He did the same thing to Charlemagne in Spider-man vs. Wolverine. That and what happens next should be a cool moment.

That art is truly of Liefeldian proportions…

By the way, the idea of Wolverine mercy-killing an agonizing Mariko comes from the Claremont/Byrne run. That was Byrne’s idea, but he left before doing that story and Claremont decided to go on a different direction. The circunstances were very different (Mariko was put on a vegetative coma by Sabertooth, for example), but the basic idea was the same. Byrne wrote about his version on his message forum.

I don’t know if Larry Hama was aware of that when he did his own story many years later.

That could be a comic book legend to write about.

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

I think this IS a quite good issue, as is most of the stuff in the first half of Hama’s run on the title. Larry was one of the few who could write an early 90′s type story (lots of guests stars, lots of running around, lots of gratitious explosions) and still have it turn out pretty cool.

Any potential love interest of Wolverine should just be named Juliet

Nah, Romeo died too, remember?

What about Ophelia? Hamlet’s love…?

that moment was sad for wolverines love dieing and asking wolverine to put her out of her misery making Mariko’s death all the most sad and another love lost to wolverine.

That was Silvestri? Wow. I wouldn’t say it’s Liefeld level, but yeah, that’s kinda rough. Especially the first panel! But points for the last part with Logan holding what appears to be a Mariko that’s taller than him. Would’ve loved if Wolverine said something along the lines of “I done it again.”

I always felt bad for Larry Hama, having to work in all the Wolverine history that other comics routinely introduced — Omega Red and Magneta ripping his metal out in X-Men, Weapon X and Cyber in Marvel Comics Presents. Imagine trying to read Flash if Bart dying and Wally returning and Captain Cold becoming a decent villain and all that happened in JLA.

You know, I can suspend disbelief that a man can have healing powers and a metal skeleton, or that another man can teleport, or that another man can read minds. But where I can’t suspend my disbelief is when the story itself ignores all of these things.

Why does Logan not mind call any of the dozens of telepaths he knows to have his good friend Kurt, who can travel anywhere instantly, popover to Japan with the Morlock healer (or any other X-friend who can heal) and take care of this? it’s insane to think there was no way this could not have been taken care of in about 2-3 minutes.

“What about Ophelia? Hamlet’s love…?”

Yes, but you do know what happened to Hamlet, right? Here’s a hint: It’s the same thing that happens to all the title characters in Shakespeare’s tragedies.

Point! But didn’t Ophelia die quite early on?

Ah well…

Wolverine as a Shakespeare character… reminds me of “Arnie does Hamlet” in The Last Action Hero…

What about Ophelia? Hamlet’s love…?

I was on a LOST kick, and my Shakespeare knowledge is pretty paltry to begin with. The analogy also failed on the grounds that they are hardly from two houses both alike in dignity. But on some level, it felt right at the time.

Hey Josh, I was just as bad, if you look at Matt’s comment…

Serves us both right!

Why does Logan not mind call any of the dozens of telepaths he knows…

Telepathy in the X-Men world has never really worked that way…unless a telepath is “listening” or two characters are in some kind of mental “rapport” (one of Claremont’s favorite words), a non-telepath can’t just mind shout at another telepath and always be heard.

…to have his good friend Kurt, who can travel anywhere instantly, popover to Japan…

Nightcrawler has a long-established limitation to his teleportation. He can, more or less, only teleport within a three mile radius.

…with the Morlock healer (or any other X-friend who can heal) and take care of this?

I’m not positive, but I think the Morlock Healer might have been dead at this point, and he was really the only character established as having an external healing power.

Well, te

Plus, the Morlock Healer could only heal other mutants, right?

Poor Mariko, another victim of the Gewn Stacy syndrome…