No more preamble. No more prelude. No more putting it off. It's time for Wolverine to meet his maker. But is this the end of his story, or just the beginning of another? Is it the Death of Wolverine that means the most, or the effect his passing has on those left behind?
We open, as you'd expect, with the four issue Death Of Wolverine story by Charles Soule. These four issues cut to the heart of Wolverine and who he is, right down to his final moments; he's always been a killer, but he's always tried to kill for the right reasons, and to save people along the way. This is a quick trip down memory lane with some good guest appearances, and the ultimate ending is a heroic way to go out even if it's not entirely a victory. Plus Steve McNiven draws all four issues, so it looks absolutely gorgeous.
I will say that it basically ignores all the Prelude stuff. Whether it was written beforehand or not I can't tell, but there's no mention of why Wolverine's healing factor is gone, nor of the battle armour he donned, or the scar over his eye that Sabretooth gave him. Plus Sabretooth has spent the last 24 issues of Wolverine as the head of the Hand, and he turns up here as Viper's whipping boy, so there's that too. It's not like Soule to disregard continuity so freely, which makes me wonder if he was told to write the story in a vacuum, and then the rest of the Marvel Universe revolved around it.
We then follow up with the five issue Weapon X Program, also by Charles Soule with art by Salvador Larroca (with Angel Unzueta and Iban Coello near the end). This story draws on some of the bit-characters from the Death Of Wolverine mini-series and sends them running across the US. It feels a little different from a usual Marvel comic, more claustrophobic and desperate despite some of the big action sequences. It's not a bad series, but the lack of identifiable characters bar Sabretooth may lessen the impact a little - the final twist regarding Sharp is fun though, and leads nicely into the next mini-series.
The Logan Legacy feels more like a collection of one-shots, with issues 1 and 7 bookending the whole thing. Following directly on from the end of Weapon X Program, some of Wolverine's closest enemies and allies are assembled, and they each have a story to tell about how they're coping with Wolverine's death.
Tim Seeley and Ariela Kristantina bring X-23 into contact with a very random Canadian hero in a bit of a muddy one-shot that has a nice message that gets lost in the hustle of explaining who the characters involved are, while Kyle Higgins and Jonathan Marks dig deep into Sabretooth's troubled psyche to explore his relationship with Wolverine.
Marguerite Bennett and Juan Doe tackle Lady Deathstrike's twisted version of honour in perhaps the best of the one-shots, while Ray Fawkes and Elia Bonetti's look at Daken's grieving process is the best looking of the bunch by far, and then James Tynion IV and Andy Clarke both wander over from the DC corner of the world to give us a Mystique and Destiny tale that ties nicely into current Wolverine continuity.
Charles Soule's bookends are the main draw though - while the Logan Legacy one-shots are decent, #1 and #7 act as prelude for the Wolverines maxi-series, and unite the two disparate teams in a tentative alliance that I'm curious to see explored.
And then rounding out the volume is a Deadpool & Old Man Captain America one-shot by Deadpool master Gerry Duggan with art by Scott Kolins, which is equal parts hilarious and heartfelt like the rest of Duggan's highly successful run, and the Life After Logan one-shot which are three stories focusing on characters that don't get to grieve in the pages of the rest of the book - Cyclops, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Armor. These are nice additions, and actually seem to help the characters move on, rather than the Logan Legacy stories which seem more about wallowing.
For such a large collection, this is surprisingly consistent. Obviously the main Death Of Wolverine mini-series is the best of the bunch, but the Weapon X and Logan Legacy stuff set up some interesting plot threads I want to see through to their conclusion, while the one-off stories explore characters in positions we don't often get to see them explored. None of them are essential stories, of course, and we all know that Wolverine will be back eventually, but it's still nice to have all of this in one place.