This is a one-shot brought to us by former New X-Men and current X-Force scribe Christopher Yost. The art was handled by Coy Turnbull (or Koi Turnbull as he’s sometimes credited). Turnbull is a newcomer and you can find most of his resume comes from DC and Aspen. He’s only done a handful of projects for Marvel.
My bottom line opinion is that this is a great stand alone issue for any Wolverine fan. Pick it up.The story revolves around Wolverine being sent to rescue a former New X-Men character, Trance, from Nanny and Oprhan-Maker. The whole purpose of this story actually comes down to Wolverine narrating all the possible ways he could potentially be killed. Yost worked it well within the story and I liked his imaginative ways of killing the seemingly indestructible mutant. We sometimes forget that Wolverine is still a mortal human being. Yes folks, he CAN die. It’s just that no one has succeeded in doing so yet.
Keep an eye on Coy Turnbull, I see great potential in his art. The facial expressions on his characters are great and I’m digging the wacky angles he uses in some of the panels. Lookin’ good Coy, lookin’ good.
There’s a bonus short story inserted in this issue as well. Written by Todd Dezago and penciled by Steve Kurth. It was a quick read, but entertaining. An organization sends Wolverine on a secret mission in the arctic circle. Not even Logan knows exactly what he’s being sent for. It doesn’t take him (or the reader) long to figure out why he’s there though. Not much else to say about this story, it served it’s purpose and demonstrated a creative (albeit, not un-explored) use of Wolverine’s mutant powers and skills. Without giving away too much, think “28 Days Later” meets “John Carpenter’s The Thing”.
All in all I give this issue a solid 3.5 out of 4 stars. The only reason it didn’t get a 4 is because the creative team is virtually made up of newcomers, so I know that this isn’t the best work we have yet to see from these guys. It’s a good stepping stone for greater things. A solid and well put together effort.
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Please not that I did enter 4 stars in the review section, but that's because we cannot use 1/2 stars....yet). Since I felt it scored closer to 4 than 3, I went with 4.)