3 out of 5

If you subtract issue #32 – which is a one-shot of Wolverine in a concentration camp – Millar’s Wolvie issues drop by a star.  Rating just that issue alone – 5 stars.  Banana stars.  So let’s take a look at his run chunk by chunk, that Scottish fuck.

Issues 20-31 form a maxi-series where Wolverine is brain-washed to join The Hand and then becomes an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.  I was excited when this stuff started because I was down with Millar at this point, riding high off of rereading Red Son, and he was just starting in on this and Marvel Knights Spider-Man – both seemed like a good opportunity for Mark to add a bit of bitter spice to each hero.  Sure.  I can clearly recall picking each issue of Wolverine up and feeling like it was becoming more and more of a mess, Romita’s momentum-filled art wasted on the widescreen tactic for issue-long battle that resulted in stupid “climaxes” that didn’t feel earned, but very, very purposefully split into trade-collectable 6-issue arcs.  I realize that almost all comics are like this, but some veil between that intention and what hits the page is a service I expect from our creators.  Not so with Millar – the boys wanted zombies (The Hand), the boys want blood and death (Millar loves killing everyone and having shots of tons of bodies spread out like we believe they’re dead if it happens after one quick stabbing and one panel), and the boys love last-minute “twists,” so map that out and lay your story on top of it and bingo – instant Millar book.  Remember to not use more than 5 words or 3 panels per page.

This is horribly glib, but it’s how the book felt then and how it feels on a re-read.  It has some really compelling and trippy Greg Land covers for the second arc, and it’s exciting to see, initially, Romita pencilling up these really lengthy battles, but years on and Kick-Ass’s later, we see these two working together and putting out nothing but really lengthy battles.  It got tired after a couple issues in Wolvie, and gets more tired now.  Millar showed his hand even then as a big picture guy, forgetting, seemingly, how to actually write and develop a character and not just stick some catch-phrases and swear words into a cool idea.

Let’s skip issue 32 for a moment.

Several years and mad hype later, and Millar’s name starts popping up with picture of some really slick looking Steve McNiven pencils for a future Wolverine tale called Old Man Logan.  When the series finally hit – delays inevitable between issues – it was, well, everything that was bad about Millar still, but benefited from his having to take at least one issue to set up his future world (Some actual dialogue?  Minor character development?  Whaaa) and, as this is a fate where Wolvie feels that his anger has resulted in the death of all of his friends (ooh we sense a Millar twist coming), we are told – several times, every fucking issue – that Wolverine refuses to pop his claws, so Millar forces himself to delay the action a little bit, or to find less obvious avenues than just adamantium shredding, which lends itself to the ace in the hole – McNiven, who draws the shit out of this thing.  The widescreen nonsense still gets tired, but his layouts are much more expansive than Romita’s, so within an individual issue you don’t get bored.  Though reading this in one sitting the repetitiveness and weakness of, again, like 1/2 panel per page, still shows.

OML wraps in a shittily over-the-top Millar fashion, claws popped and blood shed and eff-yous spat.  It kicks around it’s character development for about an issue and a half before Mark just shrugs and gives us what he’s pretty sure we want.  And it sold, so I guess some people did.  But it’s so fucking empty, gang, and I think hindsight will allow a lot of people who got wowed by the “scope” of Old Man Logan (which again, is just one BIG MILLAR IDEA that he picks at for several issues, delaying the “reveal”) and moreso wowed by Steve’s art to eventually turn around and wonder why they couldn’t wait for these issues.

Now.  3 stars.  So Mark’s initial run on Wolvie would net 1-2 stars, depending on how generous I’m feeling and if I try to read it in one sitting or not.  Old Man Logan would probably get 3, because despite my spitting on it, it does feel like an “event” in and of itself, even though it doesn’t pay off, which is more than I can say for most of the DC and Marvel issue-spanning crossover mega-events they have every five minutes, so that’s that.  Combine those two series and we’ll say it’s 2 stars.

Issue 32.  Issue 32 is why I still believe in Millar, and why I’ll flip through his books or buy a first issue, in the hopes that he’ll return to actual writing some day, just as Ennis occasionally gets off his grumbling old man married chair to deliver something open ended and chilling like Crossed.  Issue 32 has a little post-script from the author about how it was written for Will Eisner (or that he showed it to Eisner and got his approval, for which he was eternally humbled… either way…).  Giving Millar credit, he’s normally very appreciative of his fans and seems aware that his successes are only due to them, but there exists a bit of a braggart in his thank-yews all the same.  This post-script is surprisingly straight-forward and honest, and feels like the comic-reading kid in Millar just bubbling over with awe that he has this job.  The story itself is haunting – expertly and subtly laid out and captured by Kaare Andrews – of Wolverine’s indirect destruction of several SS officers in a concentration camp.  It doesn’t use action, it doesn’t use Wolvie’s grinning mug.  I don’t think he speaks in the entire issue.  It’s told from the point of view of the man running the camp, who swears he killed this same prisoner yesterday, and the day before, and the day before… until he’s losing sight of the running the camp to just focus on this specter…  This prisoner – shown to us in shadow or outline – is of course Wolverine.  It fits the character so well, that he would take this abuse to affect someone committing daily atrocities as such.  It has more than 4 panels for page, and the internal monologue of the officer is certainly more than a few words, so perfectly capturing his haughty, well-read voice at story’s start and the crumbling, drunken voice of a man going insane by the story’s end.  Where is this Mark Millar?  How do we encourage him to come back?

Maybe stop buying Kick-Ass.  Meh.