Loaned from a friend, I recently sat down and read Wolverine: Origin.  In the forward, a commenter mentions that there is no way someone could pull this off.  Despite his misgivings he grew to love the story and wish he had thought of it.  For me, there was no way it could ever live up to that hype.

Wolverine’s past has been one of those comic book mysteries for, what, 30 years?  And they expected to tell the story of his origin in what amounts to about 6 books?  With what they had to work with they did a marvel-ous (hah!) job, but by the end it certainly didn’t feel like enough.

Still, it’s a canon origin story.  Don’t *you* want to know his past?

Well, I’m not going to tell you here.  If you/we want to discuss it let me know and I’ll make a passworded post.  Otherwise, just assume that if you have kept up with the hints they’ve dropped it’ll be a fun ride.  Initially, the story is presented from a third party observing 2 boys and their fathers.  How they are raised, and who they are.  Either could be Wolverine, or perhaps neither.  The book likes to play with how a boy could become the efficient, yet good, killing machine of today.

Origin is less about answer questions as it is about presenting a scene.  From this, you can defer some of the character’s personality, psyche, traits.  However, in terms of plainly stating answers to some of the more obvious questions or characters it introduces, it leaves quite a few holes open for further mystery and explanation.

The art is well done, though feels a bit cartoony, or modern cartoony, rather than some of the more painted takes done recently for the epic stories.

Wolverine’s past Origin may be revealed, but that doesn’t necessarily answer all of his questions.