Review by Ian Keogh

 Spoilers in review

Marvel’s long-running restoration of the familiar Wolverine to their universe finally concludes here, after the unsatisfying tease provided by Hunt for Wolverine and Return of Wolverine, frustrating as they raised more questions than answers provided. It’s left to new creative team Gerry Duggan and Andy MacDonald to supply the finale, and there’s an instant curiosity about the striking cover image of Wolverine apparently wearing the Infinity Gauntlet.

Unfortunately that opens a whole can of worms. The Wolverine graphic novels that led here have only minor relevance, and an opening scene featuring multiple pages of explanation has more to do with Infinity Wars, and the infinity stones having been merged with humans. Frankly, it’s a slog, but work through it and Duggan rewards with a creative plot that’s funny, keeps throwing in unexpected people (and dogs) and which provides MacDonald with one hell of a lot of prime visual cues. He picks up on them all over page after page of spellbinding art. The destruction of the X-Men’s mansion, Loki and Wolverine flying over Texas in a Viking boat, and a cattle stampede all occur over the first two chapters, and all are pages you’ll want to look at again. The sample art is a very old Wolverine chatting with a very old Thor as they await the outcome of what others are doing.

To all intents and purposes Wolverine is now back, and it’s the universe that needs sorting out, and that being the case, is Loki really the person best placed to help out? Well, according to him he’s saved the universe several times for no thanks, but then among other titles he’s the God of Lies. Lie he does, frequently, but all in the service of good. Maybe. Using Loki in any story is worthwhile on the basis of his presence constantly wrong footing readers, who can never be sure whether he means what he says. Wolverine has a large and pivotal purpose in Infinity Watch, but it’s Loki who steals the show.

By the end, that’s it for Infinity Wars, Wolverine is back, and he picks up with the X-Men in Cyclops and Wolverine. A little less explanation front-ended might have been preferable, but otherwise Infinity Watch is fun pretty well the whole way through.