Time in possession: Less then a month
Description: 3 softcover collections of the comic book Wolverine, issues #1-69. In the neighborhood of 1500 pages. Some minor tearing on all volumes, and sticky remnants of price tags. Eh, they were cheap
Cost: All three volumes came to 12$ American (Woot!) which works out in the current exchange as $13.90 Canadian. Still a steal!
Story: Wolverine is pretty much every Canadians favorite comic character at one point or another. I mean, tons of Americans love him: He's a great anti-hero with a (formerly) mysterious past and a bas-ass take no prisoners attitude. He's the little guy with a lot of fight that most people want to be. Cool customer when need be, and other times raging animal that can't be defeated. Plus, he fought Cyclops. And nobody likes Cyclops.
The problem with Wolverine these days is that he's a little too popular: He's a member of the X-Men, the New Avengers, and 2 of his own comics. He's over-exposed and, some feel, more then a little played out. Sure, still a cool character, but it's time to let other people take some spotlight, right?
Personally, I always liked Wolverine. He's a Canadian super hero and far and away the best of all those available. Plus he was always tons of fun to draw with his neat costume and ever present claws. While I never had a lot of comics as a kid, some of my favorite ones were those featuring the hairy, short little Canuck, and whenever I would got to a bookstore I would find the time to thumb through his latest adventures.
So, when I stumble across the first three volumes of his solo book for such a low price on my trip to New York last month, how am I to say no? Well... I almost did. Sure, a bunch of cheap comics, great! But old comics, from the start of what many people now call the "Dark Ages", where Anti-Heroes, splattering blood, huge splash pages and weak storylines are the order of the day. The comics I read now are intellectual, clever and complex. Could I bring myself to read these old comics?
Well, it turns out that I could. After thinking it over some more I decided that I might as well give them a try: Worst comes to wost I'm only out $14 which is nothing for three trade paperbacks. So I buy them all and begin reading them on the subway to pass the time. And while at first the going is a little rough, soon I'm surprised by the quality of many of the stories I'm reading. Maybe Wolverine's book isn't so bad at all!
This isn't to say that the books on the whole don't come across as dated: They do, and many of the conventions they employ that have now fallen by the wayside - thought bubbles, incredibly exposition filled dialog, etc. - are certainly not missed, but there is certainly plenty of fun to be had reading them. In particular, a run on the book by current X-Factor scribe Peter David is well worth reading, and my favorite non-David written story (which I actually owned in it's original 24 page comic form!) was from one of his concepts. Go figure. While it does get a little tiring, having Wolverine remind himself and the readers again that "I've got a skeleton laced with Ademantium, which means a tap from me should send this guy flying!" and the like, over all the whole set is worth a check out.
Also, during my trip to New York, Volume 2 was used as a weapon onstage in the hilarious show "G-Men Defectives". Matt Domville attacked his opponent with it by reading it aloud. It was awesome. "Snikt!" indeed!
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