3 Ways Death Of Wolverine Delivered (And 3 Ways It Didn't)

THE BAD

3. The Story Ultimately Lacked Much Depth

In our first entry, we discussed how Charles Soule's decision to tell a small(ish) final story for Wolverine was admirable, and it worked in a number of ways, giving the series a fittingly elegiac quality. However, even saying all this, it was hard not to finish the last issue and think 'Oh. Was that it?' As comic book fans, and fans of pop culture in general, we are conditioned to expect that a story featuring the death of a mega-popular character has to be an absolute epic, with all the bells and whistles and fireworks that the writer is capable of throwing at it. It's very hard to change that mindset, even when one realises that the writer is attempting almost the exact opposite. We couldn't help ourselves from reading each issue and thinking that surely there was a bit more to come, that Soule was about to give us an awesome moment that would set the internet ablaze. But it never really came. Overall, we understand what Marvel's intentions were and they succeeded in a few ways, but let their fans down in others. Nowhere was this more obvious than in the final moments of #4, when Wolverine sacrificed himself to prevent Dr Cornelius from creating any more 'monsters' like him. The situation, as it is written, actually seems fairly routine for a hero like Wolverine and we've seen him conquer similar things many, many times in the past. There just didn't seem to be any reason for Logan to do what he did and not live to fight another day. It felt like Marvel had committed to the idea of killing him but hadn't really figured out a method of doing it that would be beyond reproach and that was bitterly disappointing.