Marvel's Wolverine: The Lost Trail

by Benjamin Percy

Genres: Comics, Audiobook, Marvel, Fiction

Audiobook

Published May 29, 2019

About the author

Benjamin Percy is the author of seven novels -- most recently The Sky Vault (William Morrow) -- three short fiction collections, and a book of essays, Thrill Me, that is widely taught in creative writing classrooms. He writes Wolverine, X-Force, and Ghost Rider for Marvel Comics. His fiction and nonfiction have been published in Esquire (where he is a contributing editor), GQ, Time, Men's Journal, Outside, the Wall Street Journal, Tin House, and the Paris Review. His honors include an NEA fellowship, the Whiting Writer's Award, the Plimpton Prize, two Pushcart Prizes, the iHeart Radio Award for Best Scripted Podcast, and inclusion in Best American Short Stories and Best American Comics.

Reviews

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another really great season of this podcast! But trust me when I say it doesn’t feel like a podcast as much as an audiobook, because the voice acting and production is out of this world. The story itself isn’t quite as compelling as what was featured in The Long Night, but it’s still super good, and I loved the inclusion of Gambit (one of my all-time favorites!).

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

While "The Lost Trail" doesn't rise to the heights of Wolverine: The Long Night, the previous volume of this excellent Marvel podcast, it's still a good yarn, this time set in the swamps of Louisiana.

I don't remember much of my initial review*, other than Wolvie gets an annoying kid tagging along and can't seem to shake the lil' bugger, as Weapons X (and a familiar agent!) track him down. Oh, and there's a side quest involving finding Marcus' mutant mother, and a mutant cult. And swamp bandits with alligator pits! (It's slowly coming back to me now....) Plus a couple guest stars from the Marvel catalog, like Gambit, natch. But the ending was a bit hokey.

This being a podcast, there are some painful southern accents going on: Marcus' voice is just all-around annoying, and Gambit's accent is inconsistent. But Armitage's Logan is as usual, the standout.

*My original review appears to have vanished in a puff of logic, lost when this GR entry was reclassified. Real classy, guys.

[Bekka · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a read of two halves for me - the first half was fantastic, with the agents trying to find Wolverine/investigating what's going on in the town, but the second half just fell off IMO. I didn't care about the new characters that much, and the whole mutant town bit lost me entirely. I feel like this needed a narrator, just to help explain what was going on.
Richard Armatige was a fantastic Logan though, I cannot fault him at all in this, which is high praise coming from me because I'm a hardcore if-it's-not-Hugh-Jackman-that's-not-Logan fangirl.
TW for kidnapping blood, murder, human experimentation, xenophobic speech.

[Francesca]

Got more Wolverine in the second series which (obviously) was great. Engaging story, definitely worth a listen.

[Justin Soderberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I finished listening to Wolverine: The Long Night , I was hoping Marvel would release another scripted podcast. Even better was that Marvel teamed back up with Benjamin Percy   in Wolverine: The Lost Trail for another Logan story starring Richard Armitage.

Wolverine is in New Orleans, looking for an ex-lover when humans and mutants start disappearing. Assisted by a young boy, Logan investigates the disappearances, which brings them to encounter "biker gangs", "Cajun thieves", one of whom is Gambit and "a world of wonders that defies explanation". The duo find a refuge called Greenhaven led by a powerful mutant, Jason Wyngarde.

With this go around, Percy opted for a more action-packed and mutant centered story that we would typically see in Marvel Comics. While it was a fantastic ride, the more grounded and mystery noir-style of The Long Night suited better for audio drama. Less explosive action with more creeping dread and conversational moments allowed for The Long Night to really sink in. The Lost Trail I wanted to see visually more than I had hoped. That is not to say this podcast wasn't a wonderful experience.

We get more Wolverine in The Lost Trail , which will make fans of the character happy. As well as a nice team-up between a young lad in the bayou of Louisiana. Appearances by other well-known characters also placed this story much more in the lore of Marvel, which was a nice change of pace. In The Long Night, Logan was worried about his love interest in Louisiana throughout the story. Now, we get history with the character as well as the reason behind his return to the swamp.

Setting this story in the south allowed for a different vibe than The Long Night, giving us the chance for a bit of a different background noise, some signing, and a muggy feeling. This is all done well by the production team, the narrator's, and the wonderful script by Percy.

Wolverine: The Lost Trail is a fitting sequel to The Long Night by Benjamin Percy. The writer plops us deeply in the Louisiana bayou and gives us an action-packed story surrounded by some truly awful people. Richard Armitage, as well as the rest of the cast, gave a tremendous performance, honestly making me want a Wolverine live-action play. While this is the last of the Wolverine scripted podcasts for now, we do get to jump into other characters in the future.

Wolverine: The Lost Trail is available now as a complete podcast series.

[Trevor Tarantino · Rating 5 out of 5]

I decided to read Wolverine: The Lost Trail by Benjamin Percy. I was interested in this because of the original installment, Wolverine: The Long Night also by Benjamin Percy. This was such a great story, I listened to the audio/ podcast performance version and let me just say it was such a fun experience. Wolverine: The Lost Trail is sort of like a second season to the first installment of the story driven podcast, Wolverine: The Long Night. In that story, it handles Logan(Wolverine) as more of a secondary or peripheral character, but also being the focal point of the story. The Long Night was extremely fun because of that fact, getting to be in the eyes of two agents investigating a conspiracy in which Logan is involved was really fun and interesting but also left more to be desired with Wolverine fans. That’s where The Lost Trail comes in, this story puts Wolverine at the forefront of the story, he’s basically the protagonist of this story. I loved getting to see Logan team up with Marcus, the young mutant teen looking for his mother like Logan is looking for his ex girlfriend. I really loved the dynamic between them and there were times where the dialogue was brilliantly executed by the actors. The story feels very different from The Long Night and I’m happy for that, I love getting to see Logan at the center of things instead of him being a character hidden until the very end, although I did really love The Long Night. I don’t want to give away any spoilers so I’ll just that anyone who loves Marvel and Wolverine will love this story, it’s a new and exciting experience that I highly recommend you listen on the Spotify podcast version of it. If they make a third installment of the series I will definitely have to read that as my next book/podcast.

[Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listen #1 (Narrative Podcast) — No Review

Listen #2 of The Long Night

Literally a movie without visuals. The ambiance is crafted with precision. The creaking doors, the footsteps, the difference of voices outside in the snow versus inside a log cabin or a police station... it is very well done. The voice actors themselves were top-notch; they all sounded very unique, and I felt their characters coming through in a more life-like way than some movies and TV shows. Plus, the music was incredible. It all came together to support an exciting, edge-of-your-seat murder mystery plot that worked on its own, but was enhanced even more with Wolverine being involved. I really enjoyed the time spent with the detectives and figuring out what was going on in their investigation and with the detectives themselves. I could go on about all of the narrative techniques that stuck out, especially the strategic flashbacks, but you should just go listen to it yourself because there's nothing like it. Use surround sound headphones if you can.

Listen #2 of The Lost Trail

Season 2 of this podcast just wasn't the same. New Orleans was a setting totally out of left field, and reversed everything about the first. The voices were harder to follow with the accents, the music was rare and subpar, the mystery wasn't as engaging, and there weren't as many opportunities for ambience as Alaska. I only made it halfway through on my first listen, and this time I made it less than two episodes. The ending of Season 1 could've been tweaked to finish the story off, and I think they should've done so.

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Logan went down in Louisiana searching for Maureen, coming back from fleeing to Japan after what happened in Alaska. Being hunted by the Weapon X program, were they want to bring him back after his escape not too long ago, and reprogram him again, he's also being hunted by a bunch of mutant haters armed and determined to kill him. Finally, in the story he's got this kid with him that's annoying as hell but you'll get over it quickly.

A solid audiobook that continues to be mysterious and interesting as another story of Logan trying to escape, trying to help and at times going berserk because he can't control himself. I think the The Long Night was better but both stories were a good listen.

[Marty Solotki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent podcast-inspired series, but unlike the first book: it’s actually about Wolverine the entire time. He’s still on the run, having failed to escape the sentinels in Japan; now he’s back in NOLA to find his missing love, Maureen. But instead he gets wrapped up in solving the mystery of missing mutants, and the mystery man who spoke to them before said mutants disappeared. This is a very well-done adventure, with a wild cast of characters. Lots of fun!

[Sharath Hiremath · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is all about wolverine and I liked it. It has same template as prequel. But, it’s not engaging the prequel. Good production, casting and boring storyline and premise. Overall a good time pass audiobook.

[Elina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice,
Professional,

[Inder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boeiend en spannend verhaal, Richard Armitage vertolkt Wolverine/Logan erg goed!

[Sebastian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great Marvel audiobooks that I listened to it on Spotify.

[Millicent]

nowhere near as good as 'the long night', but still a fun listen

[Matthew Whiteman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part 1: The Long Night 9/10
Part 2: The Lost Trail 6/10

[Punky · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great wolverine story, loved hearing him in this kind of adventure sole story