Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Daniel Acuna
Cover art: Jae Lee, June Chung
Letterer: Cory Petit
Designer: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Jody Leheup, Jeanine Schaefer, Nick Lowe
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Date: July 2011
Cover Price: $3.99
After having been purged of the demons controlling his body in the previous story arc, Wolverine has only one passion consuming him – revenge! The Red Right Hand, an organization that had sent Wolverine to Hell, learns that he is coming for them just as they had planned. For some unknown reason, they want to be killed by Wolverine.
Mystique is trying to convince Logan from going after the Red Right Hand, telling him it’s a set up. Unfortunately he still harbors a deep seeded resentment for what’s she’s done to him to even bother to listen. He’ll go through her in order to get to them, if that’s what it takes.
While all this is going on, we’re introduced to a deadly new character – Lord Deathstrike, a highly skilled assassin with powerful technology and even more powerful weapons. He carries out an assassination in China by flying to Argentina, assembling his weapon, getting his bearings, then shooting through the Earth and killing his target. Now that is skill.
Mystique just happens to be his next target. While she’s contacting Wolverine, Lord Deathstrike attempts to kill Mystique. Barely managing to escape, she then tries to convince Wolverine not to go after the Red Right Hand only to have him attack her. At this point the day gets even worse for Mystique, who winds up fighting both Wolverine and Lord Deathstrike. Then things get even more interesting. Without giving away what happens, I’ll just say quite a bit happens in the last few pages of this issue, and that will have repercussions later on.
With Get Mystique Final Repose, Jason Aaron continues to be one of my favorite Wolverine writers. He’s done a wonderful job at keeping the character interesting in every issue so far and the story arcs are just the right length without being extremely involved. He manages to pack a good amount of action into this book as well.
There is one problem with this particular issue that is hard to overlook. A good amount of the ‘in between panels’ time is very disproportionate throughout the book. Whether this has to do with the amount of story that has to be told within the page count or if it’s the artist’s style is hard to tell. Sometimes it makes for some disjointed storytelling.
One example has Lord Deathstrike shoot out the back tire of Mystique’s motorcycle and she’s being propelled through the air. The very next panel, we see a bandaged police officer (who is clearly Mystique in shifted form) enter a gun shop to confiscate guns to attack Lord Deathstrike. There is quite a bit of time in between those panels and we have no idea how long it was. Also if Deathstrike was able to hit a speeding motorcycle’s back tire, why wasn’t he able to kill her in all that time? Daniel Acuna does another good job with the series, although his lack of consistent backgrounds sometimes is distracting.
Although the book does have some flaws, it still happens to be an interesting read month after month. After what happens at the end of this issue, I can’t wait until Wolverine #10 comes out.
– The Comic Book Critic
Comic Book Critic Rating: 8.0