Wolverine (Vol. 1) #3

"Loss"
Published: November 1982
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciler: Frank Miller
Inker: Josef Rubinstein

What's Going On?
This issue plays out an awful lot like John Lennon's "Lost Weekend" away from Yoko; Logan's relationship with Mariko is a defining point for his character, so seeing him with another woman in the 1980s feels a little strange and very temporary.  It seems that, in the aftermath of horrifying Mariko with his berserker side last issue, Wolverine has been hitting the bottle/strangers and carrying on a passionate affair with Yukio.  It may not be love, but they are kindred spirits enjoying each other.  Two things pop up to spoil their good time.  The first is Wolverine's old police chum, who asks for Logan's help taking down a shadowy figure in the criminal underground who has suddenly consolidated power.  The second is the fact that Yukio has been assigned to kill Logan, but hasn't.  Not surprisingly, both issues come to a head soon enough.  Yukio kills Logan's friend and Logan then pieces together the plot; Yukio has been working for Shingen since day one, helping him kill important criminal leaders so Shingen can reign supreme in the Japanese criminal underworld.  Just when Wolverine thought he couldn't get any lower, he finds out that he's been played for a chump.  That doesn't necessarily mean he has given up, though...

Art!
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I am getting less impressed with Frank Miller's pencils as the series goes on.  The backgrounds seem to be less and less detailed, and there are some shots that make the anatomy of the characters questionable.  Here's an example of the limited background (keep in mind that this is an entire page of art and writing)

That's just...awful.  A waste of space and probably the only time a Wolverine fight scene could be misinterpreted as a sequence where he clicks his heels in the air.  And I am really starting to dislike Miller's take on Logan's face.

It looks like it has been cut and pasted from another piece of art, especially when you compare it to some of the more detailed close-ups Miller does.  One face looks like it was done in the style of Hanna-Barbara for a classic team-up episode of Scooby-Doo, and the other looks like Miller is trying to be photorealistic.  I don't even like his detailed work with Logan's face; I think he's making Wolverine too clean-cut, too chipper, and too chiseled.  Plus, his take on Logan's bizarre haircut is the most exaggerated to date; Byrne and Cockrum at least made it plausible for that hair to exist without two bottles of Aqua Net.

Miller's work with Yukio is even less consistent. In some scenes, she looks almost elven, while in others, she looks disfigured. 

Well, I think she looks lumpy, anyway.

Even with a weaker outing, there are still some stunning pages from Miller. The silhouettes on this page, combined with the ink-line-free coloring in the background, were very cool.

Writing!
I'm still not very happy with Yukio and Wolverine being lovers --- keep in mind that this was back before we knew how old Logan was, and before he had a string of romances in his own title --- although Chris Claremont does a pretty good job justifying it as something two primal people would naturally fall into.  Given the later development of Yukio's character, it was odd to see her murder a police officer.  The turning point of the series comes at the very end of this issue, and it is pretty effective, especially as a manifesto for how the character would be written for the next 10+ years.  Claremont inexplicably forgot how to write a monologue that sounds anything even remotely like Wolverine, but at least the opportunity for character growth wasn't missed.

Who are you, and what have you done with Wolverine?

Retrospectively Amusing:
- Wolverine's impossible, shaped-to-resemble-his-cowl haircut never looked ultra-realistic, but this is the first issue where it just gets silly.  It looks like he's smuggling handlebars on his head.

- While it is not unusual to see superheroes looking sad on the covers of their comics, it is pretty odd to show them being just...depressed.  Especially when this is not an ongoing series, but the penultimate chapter of this limited series.  Every other cover in this series shows Wolverine being a badass.  This one looks like he's hung over.

Wolverine (Vol. 1) #2

 

"Debts and Obligations"
Published: October 1982
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciler: Frank Miller
Inker: Josef Rubinstein

What's Going On?
Wolverine in recuperating at Yukio's, after his loss to Shingen in last issue.  He awakes to find ninja assassins, a group known as The Hand, about to attack.  Wolverine protects his new friend, and a bunch of faceless ninja cannon fodder serve their purpose and die. 

To repay his debt to Yukio, Wolverine offers to scare (and mmmaybe kill) the crimelord that sent The Hand after her.  Little does Logan know that Yukio is secretly working for Lord Shingen; she is tasked with the job of eliminating Shingen's only remaining rival in the Japanese criminal underworld --- and then she is to kill Wolverine!  Gasp!  Ignorant to all of that, Wolverine helps Yukio get where she needs to go.  In the process, Wolverine protects Mariko from an assassination attempt.  You would think that would earn the man some points with the little lady, right?  Well, to protect her, Wolverine went berserk and slaughtered a bunch of assassins before her eyes.  It seems that "savagely killing" is not one of Mariko's turn-ons, so she is horrified and Wolverine is extra depressed as the issue closes.

Worth Noting:
- This is the first time Wolverine faced The Hand, and the first time The Hand were seen outside the pages of Daredevil.

- Yukio as a lusty assassin?  Yeah, that happened.  Most, if not all, of Yukio's later appearances cast her as a carefree adventurer, rather than a hardened killer.  As for her attraction to Logan, I believe that is also something kept to this miniseries.

Art!
I was pretty happy with Frank Miller's pencils in the first issue, but a few things started to bother me in this one.  Why is the art so sparse?  There are a lot of panels here without any background whatsoever and Miller's attention to detail comes and goes, sometimes noticeably on the same page.  The action sequences are all still choreographed well, but I don't know if Miller ever really captures the savagery of Wolverine.  Wolverine berserk looks a lot like Wolverine in control to me.

Even with those issues, there are still some stellar pages that play toward Miller's love of the over-the-top.

Ninjas are terrible marksmen, apparently

Writing!
This issue is interesting, in that it has Wolverine do what he does and he still ultimately loses.  That quickly becomes a theme for Wolverine, but this is the first major instance of it I can recall.  Really, this is one of the few times to this point where he has been shaken up (the Proteus and Dark Phoenix stories being the others).  Claremont keeps the series going with lots of action and some subplot advancement.  He was a little less successful with the fleshing out of Yukio, though.  This is her first proper appearance, and she comes across as dangerous and mysterious, which is good.  It's a little weird seeing her hit on Logan so shamelessly, but it kind of fits her wild character.  There are a few points with Yukio, though, that are just painful to read...

Retrospectively Amusing:
- The first page of this issue has Yukio being frightened and pleading for Wolverine to wake up and fight.  In no other scene does she act desperate or ask for help, even when surrounded by ninjas about to kill her.  The page works on its own, but when you consider the character Claremont was trying to mold here, the same character who plays "chicken" with the bullet train in the next issue, it sticks out like a sore thumb.  Issue-to-issue contradictions are pretty common, especially early in a character's development, but page-to-page contradictions are always amusing.

- Yukio introduces her catch phrase in this issue: "Gotcha!"  She only uses it in her first few appearances, but it is awkward every time it is used.