Wolverine (Vol. 1) #1

"Here, kitty, kitty..."

"I'm Wolverine"
Published: September 1982
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciler: Frank Miller
Inker: Josef Rubinstein

What's Going On?
After a week or two of distributing rough justice in the Canadian wilderness, Wolverine returns home to find a stack of returned mail.  It appears that Logan's lady love, Mariko Yashida, has returned to Japan without a word.  When he tries to call her in Japan, whoever is on the other end simply hangs up the phone.  That's enough for Logan to drop everything and fly to Japan.  Once there, he finds Mariko --- and things get worse.  Mariko's father, Lord Shingen, has returned after a lengthy absence, and has resumed his position as the head of the Yashida clan.  To pay off a debt he incurred during his absence, Shingen has given away Mariko's hand in marriage.  Worse, Mariko's husband is crude and physically abusive.  Wolverine would have killed this loser, but Mariko intervened.  Her argument is that her love for Logan is secondary to her familial obligation to honor her father's wishes.  That would have been that, and Logan would have returned home and listened to Morrissey in his bedroom for a few weeks, but he was attacked with poison-tipped shurikens.  When he awoke, still groggy from the drugs, Shingen challenged Wolverine to a sparring match with wooden swords in front of Mariko.  Despite the non-lethal weapons, Shingen's expertise showed itself when he began landing blows that would have killed a normal man.  It doesn't take long for Wolverine to get sick of that crap and to pop his claws.  While justified in defending himself against lethal force, it certainly appeared to the onlookers that Wolverine had given in to his bestial nature and took a friendly match to a deadly extreme.  It didn't matter, though.  Shingen still solidly trounced Wolverine.  The last thing Wolverine remembered before losing consciousness was Mariko declaring him unworthy of her love.

Worth Noting:
- This is the first appearance of both Yukio and Lord Shingen.

- This limited series was published during the X-Men's Brood Saga, between September and December of 1982, but the end of the series was designed to coincide with Uncanny X-Men #172, which was published in August 1983.  I felt certain that there was some sort of behind-the-scenes drama that caused that delay, but I haven't been able to find anything online.  So, maybe that is not "worth noting."

- Is this the first X-Men spin-off?  I think it is!  Alpha Flight didn't start until 1983.  Even the Magik limited series, which picks up on plot threads from Uncanny X-Men #160, did not start until the end of 1983. 

Art!
We have Frank Miller on pencils here, and this is star-on-the-rise Miller.  What does that mean?  It means that this is less stylized than his later work, but he still adds enough nice touches to push the envelope of mainstream comic art circa 1982.  Take this page, for instance:

I didn't catch Miller's clever arrangement at first glance; it's clever and understated, words that stopped being used with his work about fifteen years ago.  Even though Wolverine has been featured in literally thousands of comics, having the path of his claws cross multiple panels and guide your eyes across the page is still pretty unique.

As much as I appreciate some of his choices, I have to admit that I don't particularly like the way Miller draws Wolvie's head in this issue.  It's a combination of his take on Logan's haircut --- it looks like it was styled from a Jello mold --- and some inconsistencies in the way he draws Logan's face.  But that's really just nitpicking.  The art is expressive and Miller captures the action well, which is exactly what you want in a Wolverine series.

Writing!
This series marks a huge departure for Wolverine as a character.  Of course, having Chris Claremont write 95% of his appearances to this point certainly helped assure that these changes actually stuck.  Up to this point, Wolverine was a loose cannon that was as dangerous to his friends as his enemies.  This is the point where the character starts to grow up and move beyond his origin as a clawed lunatic.  How different is this comic?  There is a three panel sequence that zooms in on Wolverine's eyes. 

Top panel: a face or a Rorschach test?

No claws.  No "bub."  No cowl.  Just eyes.  Right there, you have something more obviously character-based than any of his appearances to date.

It is also worth noting that Wolverine gets his ass handed to him by Shingen here.  Sure, it's the first issue of a limited series, but that is still a pretty rare feat.  This might be the first occurrence of Claremont's favorite method of legitimizing a threat to Wolverine and/or the X-Men: beating up Wolverine when he has been weakened.

Retroactively Amusing:
Wolverine mentions in this issue that the only family he knows is his father.  It's a throwaway line, but the notion that Wolverine knew anything about his past (pre-House of M) seems odd now.  Looking back, this is well before Wolverine met Sabretooth, who was sometimes suspected (and even plotted) to be his father, and long before it was revealed that Wolverine's memories were mostly forgotten or false.