Giant-Size Wolverine – Volume 01 Issue 01

A local town gossip bursted into the Waverly sheriff’s office a little after 9pm that night. Before the old codger could unload his dire story upon an unexpected Sheriff, Sweeney’s thunder was stolen by a preceding phone call. It wasn’t a plane crash, it was a godforsaken Spaceman and his saucer! The Sheriff rolled his eyes as he knew Sweeney was known as a boozer by trade. Since there was a legitimate 911 call about a plane crash, the Sheriff loaded up the old man in his truck and drove out to the Buchman farm.

Buchman’s barn – 11:30 pm, the Spaceman lay in a loose pile of hay as a young farm girl stood over his half conscious body. The girl inspected his heavily burned skin while trying to put two and two together. The man looked human’ish, but what was that strange machine Leelee had found at the crash site? She didn’t stay long to inspect the craft as the victim needed tending too, but she had never seen an airplane or helicopter like that before. 

As Leelee began washing the dirt from the Spaceman’s face she realized his charred skin had healed significantly since she had brought him by horseback to the family farmstead. In a feverish dreamstate the man began speaking words into the blank space surrounding him. Leelee was somewhat shocked when she realized he was speaking English! This was no alien, it was a man in pain. But his words were really strange. Why was he talking about those old children’s books her mom used to read to her? The hero Hercules fought one of those Hydra things, if she remembered correctly.  

Before she could dwell on the man’s funny talk, her father started yelling for her from the Farmhouse porch. Horace was in a nasty mood tonight, more than usual. Her pa had been drinking all day, but it wasn’t his fault. Momma was not there anymore to help keep things straight.

Berlin – Germany, Jubilee spots multiple Hand Ninja guarding the tunnel complex underneath the city streets. She signals her teammates that the enemy has been spotted and they quickly take up ambush positions. Now it’s time to spring the trap.

 The X-men have been searching for their missing teammate going on three weeks now with no luck. Then Beast used scientific triangulation patterns based on a recent tip they received to narrow their search to this section of the city. Wolverine must be here in the Hand’s layer according to the information supplied by their source.

Using the young teen as a distraction, Jubilee powers up her fireworks show as Scott, Hank, and Betsy spring the trap. Cyclops blasts several of the assassins as the Ninja begin to swarm from every leading tunnel. Beast’s mutant reflexes give him the edge over the Ninja as he dodges several ninjato attacks. They are not used to fighting adversaries with enhanced somersault training.

Psylocke wades into the fray hacking and slashing those who lack the swordsmanship to counter her strikes. Just when things begin to turn in X-men’s favor, a hulk of a man enters the scene from the lock door guarded by the Hand. Hank’s stomach drops as he realizes they are about to face Omega Red.

Will the X-men free Wolverine before he is dissected by the Hand Ninja and their employer? Can Maverick help restore Logan’s memories from his days as a CIA operative? Is Sabertooth in Berlin looking for revenge? 

Inside the laboratory of Doctor Cornelius, Wolverine is being subjected to an extreme mind scan procedure. The Russian killer known as Omega Red needs the information trapped inside Logan’s memories to locate the Carbonadium synthesizer. The machine is the only thing that can reproduce Omega’s Carbonadium Coils.

Elsewhere inside the German fortress, Sabertooth and a team of Hand Ninja have just captured the rogue mutant named Maverick. As they escort the unconscious intruder to the holding cells occupied by the other X-men, a strange mental hold takes control of Sabertooth’s mind. It must be the traitor Psylocke invading his mind, yet there is nothing he can do to stop her. She orders the brute to free the others from their bonds.

Back in the lab Omega Red begins to rant about the doctor’s slow process. Even though Cornelius has yet to probe deep enough into Logan’s mind to find the location of the Carbonadium synthesizer, he informs the Strucker Twins of his success in mapping out Wolverine’s regenerative gene. Now it’s only a matter of time before the Russian gains that ability as well.

Will Doctor Cornelius destroy Logan’s mind if the probe is set to maximum output? How is Psylocke able to control Sabertooth if she too is under mind control? Can Longshot and Dazzler escape the brutality of the Mojoverse? Collect the series to find out!

I originally bought Giant-Size Wolverine #1 because of the cover art as it reminded me of the old 1981 werewolf movie called the Howling. It’s my favorite, by the way. I can confirm now that no werewolves were hurt during the making of this book. However, we get a really cool horror story nonetheless. 

Logan has to put himself back together, more or less, and save a bizarre family from a small town lynch mob. As the mystery builds, monsters are revealed on so many levels. I don’t want to reveal too much, but the X gene doesn’t always produce human appearances. I admit I loved this story even though it was short and sweet.

Also included in this giant-sized edition are two classic X-Men reprints. Marvel Comics gives us X-Men #6 and #7 from 1992. I’m not a collector of the X-Men comics but I do appreciate a good action story and fantastic art. In this storyline we get the great 1990’s line up featured in the television cartoon: Cyclops, Beast, Jubilee, Rogue, and Gambit. Their mission is to rescue Wolverine from Omega Red, the Strucker Twins, and the Hand Ninja. 

There is also a side story featuring Longshot and Dazzler going up against Mojo on Mojo World. 

This story seems to start before issue #6 and concludes after of issue #7. It was really fun to see the vintage Mojo planet as I’ve only seen bits and pieces of Mojo storylines in issues released decades later.

The funniest part to me was seeing the 1990’s version of the Hand Ninja clan. Apparently in 1992 they dressed like cyberpunk Akira looking wannabes in trench coats. And the guns. Don’t get me started on the guns! What self respecting Ninjas walk around with guns? I blame Rob Liefield for this bad trope. 

I enjoyed the Giant-Size Wolverine #1 immensely and will recommend this to any X-Men fan out there. For the horror comic collectors looking for some blood and gore, the first story may be for you. This book is mostly the two classic X-Men books. If you’re not into that, you can skip it but you will miss out. I’m giving this book a Giant-Sized five out of five stars. All I want to know is what happened to Leelee?

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