This is a story follows up a limited series from 1989 starring Wolverine and Havoc entitled Meltdown.
The story is set back before Schism (the breakup of the X-Men with Wolverine leading one back to the school and Scott leading the others on Utopia) and just after M-Day (when many mutants lost their mutations) so I’m totally confused as why it appears now in Wolverine volume 4, issue 309. Yet here it is folks!
I always like to give credit where credit is due. Here’s the credits for this issue: Ivan Brandon, Writer; Rafael Albuquerque, Art pg 1-13, 18-20; John Rauch, Color pgs 1-13; Jason Latour, Art pgs 14-17, 20-36 and Color pgs 14-16; Jeanine Schaefer, Editor.
All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique. No more than three pages total from any one issue is reproduced.
Let’s start with the art since art was big part of the Meltdown series. It was avant guard, more impressionistic. That’s how I’d describe it not being an art student but more of an art fan. I didn’t like it because I found it distracted from the story instead of adding to it. The style is reflected here on the pages done by Jason Latour but toned down a whole bunch. I’d refer you to where you could get the TPB but everywhere I looked they were sold out so just sent you to the cover art, the interior was much more abstract.
As for the art of this one, I don’t really care for it. The start is the heavy outline boxy style that reminds me of kids coloring books not a gritty story like this. The other is more focused on being stylistic than telling a story. Comic book or graphic novel art should focus on telling the story, expanding it beyond words through images. Neither hit this mark for me.
As for the story it centers around Elixir as a boy. Elixir was/is a mutant with the powers to heal people, manipulate your body into healing itself. He later learned it could be used in another manner, to make your body destroy itself. That was his downfall. For a time he was on the X-Force team that Wolverine commanded. That was before the downfall and when he was a man. So why this story of him as a boy trying to figure out Wolverine is beyond me. Why it’s here in this volume only the Secret Star Chamber of Marvel knows.
Elixir tags along on a personal mission of James’s. You see James seduced a redhead (he’s got a thing for redheads) who was caught in between her mutant state and human state when M-Day happened. She told him of a place where a mutant man was feeding off other mutants like her. James, being James when to stop it. Elixir wanting to understand James more tagged along.
We see how much James has matured. Now he’d take the adult role and keep Elixir from going into what is going to be a battle to the death of the energy vampire mutant. Then he simply said, “Kid you want to get yourself killed, you get right to it. I ain’t yer Daddy. Just so long as you stay out of my wake.” Not at all the stand he’s chosen to take as Headmaster James “Logan” Howlett.
In the end the energy vampire is the villain of the Meltdown story returned. There is a battle and Elixir gets involved. In the end it’s James himself that gives Elixir the answer to understanding the appeal of Wolverine – He gets back up and tries again to do the right thing despite shortcomings and failures.
The story was a good one. It depends on the reader knowing a lot of background stuff from long ago. It’s very out of place in the flow of what’s going on now in this book and in the Marvel Universe. I felt that somewhere there was a lack of planning on Marvel’s part so they tossed in an old story that was sitting on the shelf unpublished to fill the gap between arcs.
We are going to leave the Wolverine title for now. I’ve reached the current story of Sabertooth Reborn. I know you can feel my <strike>trepidation</strike> excitement over that. My next Comic Comments will move on to the Wolverine and the X-Men volume 1 issues 1-3 the Welcome to the X-Men Now Die arc.
Mary Louise Eklund 