Wolverine Origins: Born in Blood (2007)

I've got one secretary of state, fried to a crisp. I've got one cruise missile, origins unknown, sticking out of the White House lawn. I've got one robot samurai - origins also unknown - lying in two pieces in the hall outside the Oval Office. And in the center of this whole mess, I've got Wolverine running around, completely off the chain ...

This book collects the first five issues of the Wolverine spin-off series, Wolverine Origins and follows on from the last book I read, Wolverine: Origins & Endings. It was again written by Daniel Way. The art this time was by the fabulous Steve Dillon - another artist who put in a shift on the British weekly 2000AD before moving to the American market most notably with his collaborations with Garth Ennis on Hellblazer, Preacher and Punisher.

Wolverine continues to try and hunt down the people responsible for making him the way he is but when he starts to get close to anyone who can help move further up the chain of responsibility, they are quickly taken out in a hasty scorched earth policy. After an attack on the White House, the President authorises the deployment of Nuke - a failed super-soldier experiment or an all too successful attempt to create the berserker temperament of Wolverine - to draw Wolverine out into the open. Flashbacks recall Wolverine's involvement in the recruitment of Nuke as a child and later in his conditioning as a killing machine in the Vietnam War. In a battle with Captain America, broken up by Cyclops, Hellion and Emma Frost, Wolverine is told, by Emma, that his son still lives and comes to realise that the sins of the father are to be passed to the son.

A pretty good read that reveals some tragic and unsavoury events in Wolverine's past as well as his role in the creation of Nuke. The art is terrific, as usual from Dillon - I particular like his version of a hard-nosed Captain America. The first five issues also featured some fabulous covers from Joe Quesada and Richard Isanove. This is the first volume in a continuing series so while the story can be read on its own quite satisfactorily, it does set up Wolverine's continued quest for answers, revenge and now the redemption of his son that he did not know had lived.

First published on RevolutionSF on Thursday May 26, 2011