Review by Win Wiacek
James Howlett, AKA Logan, AKA Wolverine has faced a multitude of impossible situations in his long and danger-filled life but possibly the most groundbreaking shake-up concluded Killable. The mayhem-making mutant Methuselah came to terms with the fact that his healing factor – and therefore his virtual immortality – were gone, courtesy of a sentient virus from an incredible alien microverse.
Aging and feeling constant and protracted niggling pain, Wolverine has to unlearn all the instincts and reactions of at least one lifetime. He simply cannot fathom how to continue as a hero being unable to properly defend himself and, most importantly, his loved ones and innocent civilians from the likes of monsters such as Mystique or Sabretooth. Titled Mortal for the UK release, the seven chapters of Three Months to Die Book One offer a brand new look and fresh modus operandi for the down but never out outlaw hero under writer Paul Cornell.
Ryan Stegman and David Baldeon share the art on the four parts of ‘Rogue Logan’, which finds Logan in high-tech armour running with a new – bad – crowd. Supported by a band of young super-powered criminals – Lost Boy, Fuel, Reflex and Pinch – Logan appears to have lost his way in joining an up-and-coming underworld boss. He also appears to have gone completely off the rails.
Cornell then flashes back to weeks earlier when Logan’s comrades were failing to help him come to terms with his losses and failures, and how a tense confrontation with the Superior Spider-Man changed his perspective. An explanation emerges for Logan’s seeming behavioural change as these chapters end.
Logan is fully immersed in his role and unwisely starting an affair with new comrade Pinch for the final three chapters drawn by Gerardo Sandoval. As they’re in the pirate island of Madripoor he also revives his old identity of debonair rogue Patch – much to the astonished hilarity of his youthful posse. The story opens into a multinational deal involving Sabretooth, the Hand’s home base on Madripoor, and Faiza Hussain and Peter Wisdom of Britain’s paranormal spy agency MI-13. They’re outrageously aided and abetted by the Carry-On team’s Charles Hawtrey as technical adviser!
Tense suspense, non-stop visceral action, compelling mystery and superbly surreal comedy moments carry this gripping yarn from high-octane start to fraught finish and this splendidly devious espionage extravaganza. Cornell ends on a cliffhanger to lead into Three Months to Die Book 2. Both parts were later combined as Death of Wolverine Prelude: Three Months to Die.
