Wolverine, Vol. 3

Wolverine (2020)

by Benjamin Percy

The unusual suspects! Stolen goods, a torched ship and a missing sword. Wolverine is on the case — but what mind game is Solem playing? Plus, Logan is about to come face to face with Arakkii pirate crimelord Sevyr Blackmore! But will their fight lead Wolverine to the clues he needs to catch Solem, or will it be the distraction that puts Logan right where the manipulative mutant wants him? The game approaches its end — but as far as Solem is concerned, that’s just an excuse to change the rules. Can you figure out the answer to the mystery before Wolverine does?

COLLECTING: Wolverine (2020) 14-19

Genres: Comics, Marvel, X Men, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

168 pages, Paperback

Published February 22, 2022

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

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

A seemingly anti-mutant terrorist attack during the Hellfire Gala sets Wolverine on the hint for the perpetrators and the person in the shadows orchestrating it all. The second story in this volume sees not only the return of Jeff Bannister, but also one of the few mutants who doesn't give a fig about Krakoa - Maverick. There's a third tale in the last comic book of this volume that has Wolverine on the hunt of a deadly antagonist that appears to attack mutants on Krakoa via the surrounding ocean!

An improvement on the previous two volumes of Percy's run, but there's a startling lack of Wolverine characterisation, or indeed, any characterisations in this series, which is all story, and average story at best! Even the solid art of Marvel legend Adam Kubert doesn't help that much. A 6 ou to f12, Three Stars from me.

2023 read

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wolverine goes after whoever scuttled the Marauder during the Hellfire Gala which brings back some Araki characters from X of Swords. It's just OK. The return of Jeff Bannister and Maverick was better. Then we get Wolverine going all Captain Ahab all over this mutated whale last seen in X-Force. The Wolverine and X-Force stories keep crossing back and forth and I can't say I'm all that happy about it. Makes it hard to read these in trade.

[Subham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Umm yeah so if you're expecting to find the Dracula story its collected in X-Force and dor ead this after X of Sword and Hellfire Gala (2021).

I think one of the problem the book suffers is that you have to read other series first before reading this wolverine series and in a way its both a drawback and a good thing (continuity of krakoa) but its still a fun read with some good, some mid and some meh stories.

The initial one is Wolverine seeing the muramasa blade is missing and also something with the marauder ship and diamonds (hellfire gala aftermath) and he finds that some Arakii pirate named Blackmore is responsible for it and he goes after him and then he explains why he did and blames Solem for it (Solem, his origin explained in XOS and kinda like new-archnemesis of Logan) and we have them fight each other and its a lot of double crossing and confusing stuff and Idk how it even ended and kind of anti-climactic and I was expecting a big sword clash between the two but the writer ends it in a weird manner and I didn't like it.

Then the other one is with Jeff's life on the line and we have Maverick (working for the merchant from legacy house) and as he is affter them and Wolverine has to fight his not friend and whatever happened to Delores/X-Desk and Idk its kinda poorly written and the beginning is good, you feel stakes and the setting up of yet another new villain and all things clashing with Logan's new friends life on the line but ends again in an abrupt manner as they sort of use a decoy.. Ben really loves using this plot like he did in the Omega Red storyline the previous volume and yeah Idk if it will come in the future or what but the ending was bad.

And then showing the wild nature of Logan as he hangs out in the sea and its meh, a filler story with literally nothing and ugh I hate it.

The book has amazing starts and could have made for epic stories but in the way they end is so bad and kinda takes away from the serious nature of Wolverine comics but its good to see Logan get a friend. Next is XL/D of Wolverine and yeah its not good either so Idk if you wanna keep continuing to read the series, it doesn't get better.

[Oscar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume was ok.

[Khurram · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ok book. I don't know if it is just that I don't like the direction the X-men have taken, in their hippy commune style island or I just miss Wolverine simply going off in a berserker rage to take out the opponent.

The book gets off to a good start from me, with Wolverine running an investigation his way. The big letdown in this story for me was that I have been waiting for a confrontation between Wolverine and Solem since X of Swords. It still has not happened.

The Maverick arc was again ok but still nowhere near what I expect from these two as the main characters.

The final issue is Wolverine, more or less, outlining my problem with the Mutant population becoming increasingly too comfortable on their island. So Wolverine decides to take on an enemy he has no hope of beating.

I just miss the more action-packed Wolverine stories. I am hoping those are in the works. There have been a number of loose ends left.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oscillates pretty wildly between some good Wolverine stories (namely the stuff with Jeff Bannister and Maverick) and some pretty forgettable material spun out of my favourite X-Piñata, X of Swords. The final issue was a complete one-off of Logan doing a one man Jaws tribute show but enjoyable enough.


He's gonna need a bigger boat, bub.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wolverine's solo book has been 'okay' since it started, but this third volume seems to have finally kicked it into high gear. The first three issues here involve the return of Solem, one of the Arakko characters from X Of Swords that I really liked, as well as the Muramasa blades of Wolverine lore. This makes Wolverine's story feel much more connected to the overarching Krakoa plotline of the X-books, rather than just an extension of his X-Force plotlines.

Then Maverick returns, as does Wolvie's latest pal Jeff Bannister - Maverick's last appearance was the best story of the volume up to that point, so it's nice to see him bringing the quality with him again. The final issue of the volume is a poignant little story that also folds in Namor and a giant fish monster lurking around the waters of Krakoa, appropriately titled The Old Mutant And The Sea.

On art for the first three issues is series artist Adam Kubert, while Paco Medina, Paco Diaz, and Javier Fernandez take the next three issues respectively. It seems Victor Bogdanovic has deserted us, at least for now.

It's take a while, but it's nice to see Wolverine's solo series standing on its own two feet for a change. The Omega Red plot has disappeared into X-Force, the vampire stuff is all sorted, and what we're getting instead is a much needed step up.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a tough volume to rate since I'm not caught up on the X-Force series, nor have I read X of Swords, and this volume is allll about the fallout from those two series. One of the many perils of tying multiple series together, I suppose. And a subtle reminder that with X-Force up and running, maybe Wolverine doesn't really need his own series?

We start the third volume with Wolverine teaming up with an acidic Arrakan pirate king to defeat an adamantium-skinned Arrakan thief. (Arakkan? Arrakkoan?) There's also a whole deal with special samurai swords? It's hard to care about either of these foes or the swords without the X of Swords knowledge, but Adam Kubert's stellar art somewhat makes up for any plot deficiencies.

Then, just what everyone has been asking for, a plotline focused on that CIA dude, Jeff Bannister. He finds an X-Desk bug, which puts him in the crosshairs of Maverick (from the previous volume). At least the Arrakan stuff was exciting and well illustrated. This half of the volume is dull and clunky.

In a final one-shot, Wolverine defeats a giant mutant whale. Looks pretty, is meaningless.

[Rylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

REAL literature idk

[Blindzider · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed feelings on this one. For the first multi-issue arc, Percy creates two new characters and while they are distinctive, one of them has a ridiculous characteristic (much like the surfboard he created over in X-Force). This particular guy, Solem, is very annoying and that's both for the reader as well as Logan, but he's basically way overpowered and very difficult to defeat. He's basically a replacement for Sabretooth, an arch-rival that Wolverine hates and has difficulty defeating, a perennial thorn in his side. Additionally, just like over in X-Force, Percy creates another "hole" in the security system on Krakoa, allowing the plot to unfold. Not only do I find this sloppy, but for him to do it in two of the X-books he's writing is lazy. The art on this story is very good, drawn by Adam Kubert. He continues to create dynamic and exciting pages, with imaginative layouts.

The next multi-issue story focuses more on Logan's friend, Jeff a CIA operative, who stumbles upon more machinations by the X-Office. It's a decent team-up between Jeff and Logan, filling in the character of Jeff, as well as touching back on an earlier story in this title. One problem though, is that somehow there's a hole in Forge's security system at the lab. Sigh. The art is decent, but no Kubert. I'm fairly happy with the level of violence in this title. Wolverine should still be slashing at people and he does, with a lot of blood (although nowhere near the level he was at in the 80's.)

The last issue is a one-shot, riffing off Moby Dick wherein Wolverine hunts down a creature that's been causing trouble around the island. It's an introspective story that examines Logan's purpose at the island and whether he's happy there or not. It does seem that in all of the X-Titles that there's an impending change coming for the X-Titles. The only question is how long until that happens.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice trio of stories.

The first one is a nice look at what the Akaddan mutants are doing to (and in) the world. It feels of a piece with the culture we saw in X of Swords, and gives Wolverine a couple of new antagonists with lots of fun unreliable narrators.

The second one unfortunately sees the return of Maverick who isn't as interesting as any Wolverine writer ever thought. But it also has nice connections to Logan's friends that we've met in the American intelligence community (and has some shocking events for them).

The third is kind of a how-bad-is-Wolverine one-off, but more than that it's also a picture of who he is.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy this series, but I always felt like perhaps I was missing something. I eventually figured out it was because the X-Men continuity is so tight lately that things are constantly happening in other series that tie into this one, and sometimes it feels like you aren't getting the entire story.

That being said, it's still a good read as we have Wolverine Vs. Maverick, and Dracula and his vampire legions are lurking as well.

[Matthew Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, I could read solo Wolverine adventures forever. I think what he does as a character by himself best portrays who he is and his internal dialogue and explanations of why he does what he does is some of the most telling characteristics that he could have shown off. Showing off what he’s doing as the unstoppable agent for Krakoa is wildly fun and I look forward to more, as always!

[Tuni · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing really pulling me in here. Just checking the box of reading this X-title every month. So many more interesting X series killed, but we continue to get this because the name Wolverine sells.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

4
I haven't loved this Wolverine title. Some good issuess here or there. I expected better. Especially wit Kubert's return.

[Nate Deprey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Old Mutant and the Sea is the kind of stand alone story Wolverine is perfect for and from story to artwork it is totally dope! The first five issues in this collection are also good particularly the Jeff Bannister story line. He is one of the sort of few non powered characters in the Marvel Universe I wish we got to spend more time with.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since the whole HoX/PoX event, Wolverine has been slightly different. He attributes it to his belonging to the community of Krakoa, but I think there has just been an overall maturation of many of the X-Men characters. Either way, this title is still very entertaining and has all the grit and heart you'd expect.
Highlights:
- Logan is sent by Emma to investigate the destruction of the Marauder ship, which is currently in Madripoor. Sevyr Blackmore was part of the conspiracy, but ultimately blames the whole thing on Solem (who we last saw in X of Swords)
- The reuniting of the Muramasa blades plays a role here, and Wolverine will see them reunited in his custody.
- First played by Sevyr, then Solem, Logan uses his penchant for violence to solve the issue, gaining both swords back.
- A second story involves an agent who works for the FBI, listening and analyzing records, and how his connection to Krakoa gets him in the middle of a fight between Logan and Maverick.
- Finally (as fantastical as it comes), we see a deep sea fishing story where Logan takes out a huge leviathan!

Overall, this Volume was good, but upon after inspection, seemed slightly like filler Volume between Hellfire Gala and Inferno. Still a definite recommend.

[Rahul Nadella · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a solid Wolverine book. Wolverine continues to entertain as he does his thing in service of Krakoa. On it's own the story can seem kind of disjointed as it really should be read along with x-force as the stories intertwine quite a bit. That's comics the more of them you read the more you understand and enjoy them.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection contains three different Wolverine story arcs, none of which I really cared about at all. The first and longest arc has Wolverine going after whoever scuttled the Marauder during the Hellfire Gala event. It turns out that a couple of Arakki who fail to be at all interesting are behind it, one of which is a very large pirate of truly bizarre design (it looks more like something a nine-year-old child might have come up with rather than artist Adam Kubert). The other is a character named Solem who I vaguely remember striking me as a character with potential during the X of Swords event, but here he is reduced to the blandest disappointment. Nothing about this story was bad, exactly, it just failed to be interesting. The best thing about it was the beautiful art by Adam Kubert, strange character design notwithstanding.

The next arc has Wolverine teaming up with, and then going up against Maverick, and I found these issues to be even less engaging than the previous arc. There's not even much to say about this--it was just a really generic story about mutant terrorists going after Krakoa and Wolverine and friends trying to stop them. Nothing we haven't seen a hundred times before. The art by Lan Medina and Paco Díaz was pleasant to look at, at least.

And the final issue of this collection was a standalone issue about Wolverine going after the giant leviathan that has been terrorizing the coast of Krakoa (first seen in the pages of X-Force). This issue really just felt like author Benjamin Percy had to crank out a quick story and had no better ideas. Nothing about this was compelling whatsoever. Normally Javi Fernandez's art would not be to my taste on a Wolverine book, but I felt that his style really suited the nautical nature of the story (I still find it weird that I've read so many stories lately involving a man with a heavy metal skeleton spending time in the ocean).

Do I regret reading this? No, I've read far worse. But I cannot recommend this book as a good use of anyone's time. I sincerely hope things improve in the next volume or I'm going to drop this title from my pull list. It's simply not good enough.

[Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

Remember those plots from the last collection? They continued them in a DIFFERENT BOOK. This group of issues follows the X-Desk thread and more on Maverick's Mercs. Not a big loss, but it's still a thread they could have written about in one of their 'Sage Logs' or whatever.
----------------
Shortest review I've probably ever written. The stories are...ok. The art varies wildly. This seems like they spent this arc untangling themselves from X-Force. When you juggle the same characters back and forth between books, you're going to lose track of what was written where and what plot stays.

By the end of this collection, we are left with a lone Wolverine story that keeps it pretty basic and doesn't stray far from the classic Wolverine issue.

Bonus: Krakoan karaoke is something I didn't know I wanted and also never want to see again...
Bonus Bonus: Wolverine as Ahab? Well, that's one way to tie up a loose plot point

[Rick Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

A rather dull set of issues in this volume of Percy's Wolverine run. This volume focuses on Solem returning for the Muramasa blade from the X of Swords fight he had with Wolverine as well as the return of Maverick who Wolverine helped rescue from a Madripoor auction in the previous arc. None of the stories are bad on surface level, but they don't also seem to lead into anything. Nothing about Percy's Wolverine series at this point seems to have built much lore for the character beyond him reacting to stuff happening in other X-Men books. I do think it's also a challenge to read this volume without reading Percy's X-Force series, which could have been a good thing had that series been better. Instead, the various Wolverine stories have kind of been mushed together in a rather forgettable heap of stories.

[Alex Sarll]

The main story here features some of my least favourite elements of the X-books: Arakko, the Shi'ar, storylines following on from other books I've not read yet, all together? Ambassador, you are spoiling us!* But it does at least centre on the one vaguely interesting Arakkii character, Solem (essentially Errol Flynn with adamantium skin), and Kubert's art does a solid job of bringing out the contrast between his shininess and Logan's scuzz. Then it's two issues with Jeff, Agent of Langley (yay!) and Maverick (boo), before a closing Moby-Dick riff whose impressive visuals make up for a story that's pretty much a one-note restatement of themes which were already clear well before this point.

*This works even better if you know I really don't like Ferrero Rocher.

[Clint · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars
A disappointing low for a series that was previously a highlight. The vampire plot that was previously left on a neat cliffhanger is nowhere to be seen and the earlier Merc plot shows up here as a lame two issue ripoff of Three Days of the Condor. New plots include a three issue follow-up from X of Swords with Solem, but it’s mostly just Wolverine getting boringly played by a few new faces from Arakko before he eventually hands the case off to a telepath to deal with. The final issue is an explicit Old Man and The Sea pastiche that takes itself way too seriously. The three Solem issues at least look nice with Kubert drawing them, but the two Merc issues are done by fill-ins and look like the blandest sort of late 90s superhero art.

[Alfredo Luna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite their similar timbre. I'm a sucker for a Wolverine stories. It's a bit like Batman, where even when it's great it borders on self-parody sometimes, because the character is so ubiquitous and familiar, but it just does it for me.

The surfing issue was top shelf! A great encapsulation of something that is so comic book silly from one angle and so rad and affecting from another angle.

I'm realizing while writing these reviews that I completely blur X-Force and this other Percy book, and that's probably a...good sign? They're very similar and sort of require one another for the full story. Like...I thought all the vampire and Omega Red stuff was in this volume, but it appears that that was in X-Force? Anyway, Logan remains cool and there's not much I can do about it.

[Joey Nardinelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s so much of this that, and I swear this isn’t a pun for issue #19, treads water here. The art is pretty great still throughout all the Wolverine narratives, and the bits with Jeff and Maverick are fine. The three issue focus on Solemn felt…a bit pointless unless this was further setup for his character mattering at some point. Blackmore feels like a wrinkle on a variation of The Blob as opponent to Logan, but it’s nice to see an Arakki character highlighted this way. Issue #19, a sendup to Jaws, was honestly the highlight for me visually and narratively. I know it teeters towards Deadpool territory but I still love when comics can do this and do it well.

[JCRD]

Conclusión (por ahora) de la trama de Solem y luego aventurillas episódicas que no tienen tanto peso pero se disfrutan por el equipo creativo.

El Lobezno de Benjamin Percy sabe a puros, cerveza y MACHO MCMACHO. Es un retrato bastante fiel a lo que esperaría del personaje y no reinventa la rueda, pero Percy firma historias entretenidas y me lo paso bien con él. Cuando Adam Kubert no está se le echa de menos, pero sus sustitutos funcionan de maravilla con el tono de la serie.

A ver con qué nos sorprende Percy en el siguiente volumen y en el evento que tiene en el horno.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but you pretty much have to be reading this and X-Force at the same time to get everything out of it. Even though this is ostensibly a solo book for Wolverine, there's a lot of team stuff going on, and vice versa with X-Force. The espionage story with Jeff Bannister and Maverick is the best part of this and I liked Wolverine facing off against a mutated whale in the last issue collected here. The artwork is more of a mixed bag, with the Kubert stuff top notch and his collaborators' less so.

[Adan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three stories in this collection: the first picks up the Solem and Muramasa blades threads from X of Swords (and the stolen Marauder thread from the Hellfire Gala), the second picks up the Maverick and X-Desk threads, and the third picks up the Krakoan tumors thread and features an old-school Logan hunting a huge whale. That third story is probably the best, and we learn that whole Logan can drown, he can’t die from drowning. So that sucks.

[Fahad Ahmed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another set of stories that totally rock. The only thing to point out here is that one of them works better if you're familiar with X of Swords, and the other relies on you being caught up on X-Force, which could be a problem, since I figure people might be reading the Wolverine ongoing while ignoring the rest.

[Scott Schmidt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked up a random Wolverine volume at my library. I haven't read X-Men since Age of Apocalypse, so all of the Hickman continuity is foreign to me, but I enjoyed it enough. Percy writes a good Logan. Dug the first storyline in this collection, last two were "meh." I'll pick up more of Percy's Wolverine if my library has it.