Wolverine Epic Collection, Vol. 2: Back to Basics

Wolverine Epic Collection

by Archie Goodwin, Jo Duffy, Walter Simonson

Wolverine and Nick Fury face Scorpio! An old friend's death leads Logan to Fury...and the Swift Sword terrorist organization! But what is the surprising secret under the new Scorpio's mask? Then, Wolverine travels to the untamed jungle of the Savage Land -so why is he fi ghting cyborgs? And which longtime X-Men foe is responsible? When his old foe Roughouse is kidnapped, Wolverine follows a trail of tainted cocaine from Madripoor to Central America -but can the young revolutionary La Bandera help a sick and infected Wolverine survive against Tiger Shark and bring down a corrupt regime? Plus: Logan must avenge an old friend...but can he uncover the secret of the Master Form -without his memories? Featuring atmospheric artwork by several of Marvel's finest!

COLLECTING: VOL. 2: WOLVERINE (1988) 17-30, WOLVERINE/NICK FURY: THE SCORPIO CONNECTION GN, WOLVERINE: THE JUNGLE ADVENTURE

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, X Men, Comic Book, Adventure, Thriller

464 pages, Paperback

First published March 6, 2019

About the author

Archie Goodwin was an American comic book writer, editor, and artist. He worked on a number of comic strips in addition to comic books, and is best known for his Warren and Marvel Comics work. For Warren he was chief writer and editor of landmark horror anthology titles Creepy and Eerie, and for Marvel he set up the creator-owned Epic Comics as well as adapting Star Wars into both comics and newspaper strips. He is regularly cited as the "best-loved comic book editor, ever."

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good classic Wolverine stories.

Wolverine/Nick Fury: The Scorpio Connection
Wolverine and Nick Fury eventually cross paths after a SHIELD team in Peru is taken out. Nick Fury recognizes it as the same M.O. as Scorpio, his dead brother's alias while Wolverine just wants vengeance for a friend who was murdered at the scene. It's a nice extension of what Jim Steranko built during his famous SHIELD run. Lots of spycraft and hard boiled type action. Howard Chaykin was a perfect choice of artist for this type of book.

Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure
Wolverine drops in on the Savage Land where he takes over leadership of a tribe and encounters Apocalypse for the first time. The story is just OK but Mike Mignola's art is great. The battle with Apocalypse is fantastic.

Acts of Violence (Wolverine #17-23)
Wolverine goes after Roughhouse when he's kidnapped. Roughhouse ends up a guinea pig for a Nazi cyborg called Geist who uses him to test some tainted cocaine. Eventually, Logan ends up fighting Tiger Shark and a banana republic. (Tierra Verde for those of you reading Benjamin Percy's X-Force.) Eventually Wolverine has to fight sentient Celestial cocaine. Yeah, it gets goofy in places. I'm not a fan of how Goodwin had Logan abandon the Patch identity in Madripoor. This is also a loose Acts of Violence tie-in. John Byrne's art is rougher in the first few issues as Klaus Janson does the finishes on the first half of the story.

Wolverine #24-30
A couple of solid one-shot stories and then The Lazarus Project. General Coy and some others are after this macguffin called the Master Form. It's this odd egg shaped device, but it's never explained what it is and what it does. Just stories of all these people search for it while others protect it. Logan teams up with Karma to stop the people looking for it. It's all a bit dissatisfying with how it ends and nothing is resolved and they all just stop caring about the Master Form. It's an odd story.

[Ripley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one had one of the best Wolverine story arcs I have read. The Lazarus Project was so amazing. The more Wolverine I read the more I fall in love with him. He has these mutant powers and by all standards he is a super hero. Yet he's so human in the fact that he struggles with a darkness within him that he's afraid may one day escape and he doesn't send bad guys to jail where they can one day get out to be a bad guy once again. He kills them, thus ending their reign of villainy forever.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started out strong with the two one shot specials (with some amazing Howard Chaykin and Mike Mignola art) but the book never quite reaches those heights again. Still enjoyable to read Wolverine’s Madripoor adventures but these stories need a bit more meat to them. The constant rotating artists didn’t help much either. The four part Lazarus Project story had four different artists for each part and I still don’t know what the Lazarus project actually was.
Overall this book was a letdown from the previous volume. Would highly recommend checking out the one-shot specials from the beginning of the book at least if you’re a Wolverine fan and a great art fan.

[Doug Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The final story arc at the end was my favorite in a book full of enjoyable stories, although not a lot of them are stand outs. I also really enjoyed the savage land story.

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scorpio Connection = Pretty Good

Jungle Adventure = Expected a bit more from Walter Simonson. Just okay. Nice Mignola art though.

The Archie Goodwin/John Byrne issues = Excellent

The rest = Meh.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

A weird book with mostly bad art and mediocre writing. This was Marvel banking on Wolverine’s marketability. Nothing of real substance here.

[Eric Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Claremont is gone, and you can tell. One of the best parts of the epic collection is when they take 1-shot issues and special runs and include them in line with the regular series. This one has Wolverine/Nick Fury: The Scorpio Connection & Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure. Both are solid stories and better than the majority of the issues from Wolverine's solo series. The Acts of Vengeance part isn't terrible, but I know there are better ones to that crossover event.

I'd give the 2 one shots 4.5 and the other issues 3.5 so it balances out to 4.

[Joe Santoro · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection covers a bit of a transistion period for Wolverine.. it's after the first big 'Patch' arc, but before Larry Hama takes over for his long run. As such, there are several writers and artists here.. definitely doesn't make for a consistent read.. there are definitely some good points, but a good portion feels like marking time and making sure there is lots of Wolverine on the shelves until they decide what to do next.

[Del · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent follow up from the madripoor nights epic the Archie Goodwin and Joe Duffy runs have to be the stand outs here, but all stories are above average, really impressed with the klaus janson pencils real high quality art throughout by all artists.

[Reyel2107 · Rating 5 out of 5]

the epic collection begins with 2 great bombs , the wolverine by Buscema and the John Byrne and Klaus Janson , they are so amazing !!!!!

[Edward Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hadn't read the graphic novels in this collection, but the issues were familiar ground. Great fun to readt hem after all these years, especially the Peter David issue.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a bit better than the first collection, but its still looking for its footing.

[Night · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the stories were really good, especially towards the end. Wolverine will always be one of my favorites.