In the latest edition of Comics to Read Before You Die, Jessie Robertson looks at Origin…
Origin #1-4 (Nov 2011 – Mar 2002)
Writers: Bill Jemas, Joe Quesada & Paul Jenkins
Illustrators: Andy Kubert (pencils) & Richards Isanove (colors)
I remember I was on vacation when the trade hardback edition of this series finally came out and I picked it up at a comic book store. I stared at the cover for a long time and I could feel the impact of what was staring back at me. The greatest mystery in comics….finally revealed. I didn’t read it right away, just let it rest in my hands because once I read the story, I could never go back to not knowing it.
So I read it. All in one sitting, like most of us veracious comic fans do and I let the story pull me in, taking me back to the late 1800’s. I loved stories with scope like this; it was one of the things I loved about Wolverine himself. He had lived through history; like another great novel, It by Stephen King. You could trace that character through years and decades, and it was the same with Wolverine. We finally found out his name. James Howlett. Okay, I always thought Wolverine’s name was Logan. Logan fit him much better than James. Logan sounded rougher, with more bite. James was the name of an allergic kid in my class. And I keep reading, and reading until finally I arrive at the conclusion of the story. I kept expecting to read about how he was found in the Canadian wilderness by the Hudsons or how was he pulled into the Weapon X project, yes, all stories that have been told, but I thought this was be the definitive version with new angles to explore. But the story didn’t make it that far.
After I finished the story, I definitely liked it. Andy Kubert’s art was cinematic and all his characters always seem so important. The story was a good tale, turning the stereotype of Wovlerine on its ear, revealing he was a sickly child, a weakling, who was kept in his room, pale and frail as a baby chick. It was a great story, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it just wasn’t the story I wanted it to be. Everything we know about Wolverine didn’t seem to match at all; he was this short (only 5’3), gruff brawler who didn’t take crap from anyone. He charged head first into a fight and never backed down. You do get some of that near the end, which is cool as you start to see that progression.
There are also tons of nods to tropes and themes that define Wolverine as a character. First, it makes perfect sense that he has a heart of gold for oft-times weaker people, such as Jubilee, Kitty Pryde even robotic little girl Elsie Dee, because he himself was a weak child. The Howlett family groundskeeper uses the word “Bub”, Wolverine’s favorite nickname for everyone. His first love is a girl named Rose, a pretty young red-head, just like another certain red-head he would fall in love with later in life. There’s the young boy named Dog, who is James’ torturer, and grows into a man who looks an awful lot like Wolverine’s arch-nemesis Sabretooth; it’s also hinted that they are brothers, just as it’s been rumored about Wolvie and Sabretooth. He gets introduced to the Japanese culture by given a book about samurai by Rose’s fiancée. And you see his progression into finding peace and a kinship to animals, as he grows older and stronger. So there are tons of great foreshadowing for Wolverine fans all over this book.
The thing that still haunts me about this story is the same conundrum all comic book fans come to a crossroads about: when you try to break down these stories logically. Because a comic story is fiction in the highest regard, 9 times out of 10, there is no logic to what’s happening or why; but if you believe comics are a true form of art, do you not owe it to the creators and readers of this medium to take it seriously? When you pose that question, the main one that comes to mind about this story is all about memory. Wolverine has been plagued with amnesia, fake memory implants and psychological torture that no one person could ever endure, yet he does. So, one of the major conflicts of the character is how does he know what’s real, and what’s not? During the story, after the incident which is the catalyst of young James finding out he’s a mutant, he escapes with Rose for a life on the run. She writes in her diary that as his body heals itself, his mind is also repairing over the horrific event, basically he’s erasing his own memory of what happened; which could be one sort of explanation for how he forgets things. But if that’s true, there are too many instances in this story of things that become the details that make the character of Wolverine that he could not possibly remember. You could argue these examples I wrote of earlier are imprints that never leave his mind but I think that would be a hard stretch.
The comic did very well in sales, and has been generally well received. I still like the story, and Kubert’s art is legendary, making all his characters look like larger than life comic book characters while coming off completely realistic. So where does that leave us? I’m reminded of the great Ian Malcolm quote about being so preoccupied with the fact that they could, did anyone stop to ask whether they should? It’s addressed in the opening letter of the hardback of this story. Wolverine’s origin is the greatest unsolved case in comic book lore and it was thought revealing that would ruin the mystique of the character and take it out of the fans own hands, which is where it rested for so long. The story itself has no context; no one’s remembering it, there is no one alive that could tell the story, there is no evidence how any of it could be true or facts that back any of the story up. There are lots of arguments and complaints and controversy surrounding this story and its own origins, just as much as there is praise for the bold storytelling and epic scenery in this book. I think it’s an important story in comics, either way you fall on the divide and whoever would have written it, it would have remained important and talked about as it does today. It’s a book that does truly define the phrase of being a must-read.
Next time: After the beginning of one comic icon, I’ll look at the death of another.
Jessie Robertson
