What I Remember:
I had a soft spot for Wolverine since I went to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade when I was very little and as the Marvel float went by, the guy in the Wolverine suit shook my hand. I don’t remember much about this book at all except that I was obsessed with Wolverine’s new black costume.
My only prior experience with Wolverine in the comics was the my uncle’s copies of the 1982 miniseries by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller, which is one of my favorite comic book stories of all time.
Vital Stats:
Wolverine #5 “Hunter’s Moon”
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciller: John Buscema
Inker: Al Williamson
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colorist: Glynis Oliver
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor-In-Chief: Tom DeFalco
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Publication Date: March 1989
Cover Price: $1.50
Re-Collection Price: $8.00 at the comic shop at the Quakertown Farmer’s Market
What Happens:
Wolverine is operating out of Madripoor, under the alias Patch. Wolverine is presumed dead.
This issue opens with Bloodscream, here known as Bloodsport, threatening the niece of his boss for helping Patch and his friend Tyger.
Creepy bastard, isn't he?
Speaking of Patch, he and his pilot, Archie Corrigan are flying into the Golden Triangle to disrupt a drug lord named Coy’s opium business. As Archie gets up to stretch for a bit, Logan senses something is amiss.
If a guy leaves a handprint on my chest, you better believe I'm doing what he says.
Archie plans to kill Wolverine to protect himself from Bloodsport but reconsiders just before the plane is attacked by Coy’s men.
I give it a 9.8 for grace, cleanliness of the cut on the wing but a little off for too much splash upon entry.
Patch leaves Archie in charge and sets out to down the plane and crashes into the water.
The smallest crash through a wall in comics!
Meanwhile, Jessica Drew and Lindsay McCabe arrive at the offices of Landau, Luckman and Lake, hoping that they can help Tyger. As they settle in and Tyger is resting they're attacked by Bloodsport and Coy’s men.
If he gets close enough for you to hear the "snikt," you've already lost.
In the Golden Triangle two members of the Harriers, Battleaxe and Hardcase, soldiers for hire, begin looking for the downed plane but find themselves stalked by Wolverine and tied up.
The Harriers send out a team to back up their boys only to find themselves outmatched by an army of one. Neither the Harriers or Coy’s men are any match for Patch as he decimates a $1 billion shipment of opium, as Archie supplies aerial support.
Unfortunately, it may all be for naught as Landau, Luckman and Lake’s offices are lying in ruins and Tyger’s fate is unknown.
Continued After Ad:
I'm not ashamed to admit that I had the VCR Wrestlemania Game.
Worth Re-Collecting?
This book had a lot of elements that I love in comics, like organized crime, whether it be the Kingpin, Lex Luthor the Rose or the various gangs in Gotham. If you give me a powerful criminal with a super-powered henchman like Bloodsport and I’m interested. The threat is not something that the hero can merely punch away. The organization still stands. It's also apparent that Claremont and Buscema used the film Predator as a model, there's commando Wolverine, the Harriers are the archetypes of the team in Predator.
I think I would need to pick up the entire run in trade form to really enjoy this book. I found myself looking up various characters and it really felt like I joined the show already in progress.
The enjoyed the art and thought that it told the story well despite not having huge two-page splashes or many large panels, however I found that the asian drug lords were a little caricature-like and reminded me of slightly modernized Japanese that superheroes would fight during World War II.
Next Issue:
It's classic 80s X-Men!
We stay with the X-Men and look at a random issue of the “Inferno” crossover that I picked up from the back issue bin when I was in junior high! It’s The Uncanny X-Men #242 by Chris Claremont and Marc Silvestri. See you next week!
