ORIGIN PART IV

By: Tony Whitt
Date: Friday, January 25, 2002

Logan-the boy formerly known as James-and his former governess Rose have settled in a harsh frontier town in the wilds of Canada. Rose fears for James's survival as the boy encounters unexpected enemies, chiefly the camp cook who has threatened to kill him. But even Rose cannot anticipate the subtle change which is coming over James, who has abandoned that name for good and who now hunts the woods with an almost animal instinct.

Up until the release of the X-MEN movie, I had not been a great fan of Wolverine. Hugh Jackman's portrayal, however, forced me to go back and reexamine a character I'd long since written off as a one-dimensional, one-note caricature who enjoyed thrashing bad guys and said "Bub" a lot. My new appreciation for Wolverine wasn't quite enough to make me as delirious with glee as so many fans were at the announcement that ORIGIN would finally tell the story of the man behind the claws. "Big deal," I thought. And here I am, delirious with glee over the most recent issue, and eagerly awaiting the next one.

Even non-X-Men fans will appreciate this series-and I'd be surprised if non-superhero fans weren't drawn in by it, as well. It's simply not your typical origin story, nor is it necessarily the story of one boy's growth into a hero, albeit a dark one. This story falls much more into the category of bildungsroman, the genre devoted to "coming of age" narratives. But don't let even that classification mislead you-Judy Blume this ain't. Paul Jenkins's script follows Logan's self-discovery in a most interesting way: he makes us sympathize with the boy even as the boy is slowly changing into the same doggedly difficult man we've come to know over the years. This particular issue is a crossroads for Logan, possibly the very last glimpse we'll see of the sickly, scrawny, cowardly child that we never, ever expected to become Wolverine, as he begins to learn the mannerisms we now take for granted. And if the startling final sequence in this issue doesn't result in that change, nothing will.

Andy Kubert and Richard Isanove have created an amazing artistic landscape for this coming of age tale, bringing out all the subtleties of Jenkins's script with startling clarity. It's an amazing thing, for instance, to watch a face we've all grown familiar with maturing, expressing itself in ways we've never seen before, and then slowly taking on that more familiar look. It's difficult to describe in words-it's one of those things you simply have to see. Particular moments to note include Logan's first kill, a deer which will feed himself and Rose for months (and which angers the others in the camp), and of course that amazing final sequence. This one could easily have been one of this month's interminable "'Nuff Said" issues and have been just as good-the artwork is that strong.

This series has also done something that very few other recent series have managed to do: it surprises us anew each and every issue. If the last two issues do so as much as the first four have done, this may end up being called this year's best miniseries-if it isn't already.

ORIGIN

Grade: A

Issue: No. 4 (of 6)

Author(s): Paul Jenkins, Andy Kubert, Richard Isanove

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $3.50