Pretty Good not great
Overview:
This issue continues 5 seconds after #300 left off with a huge gang war between Logan, Yakuza gangsters, Hand Ninjas, Sabertooth, and the new Silver Samurai. Sounds like nothing new for Wolverine. Does my last sentence sound cliche? Thats because it is and its the main problem with this issue. The action is great but a tad too predictable.
The Good:
Im a fan of the art. The artists like Sanders and the others really do a good job of having Sabertooth and Logan tussle. Lets face it a battle between these two guy has to be bloody and brutal in order to feel real and exciting and they illustrate it very well. The battle of the crime syndicates was also cool and fun. The Yakuza's have typical nameless thugs with guns but also skydiving samurais and full tattooed guys on crotch rockets with chainsaws! Aaron definitely gets credit for creativity with the battles in this issue. The last cool battle of the issue is Wolverine and Shin, who's the son of the Silver Samurai (calling himself the New Silver Samurai). This battle was done pretty well i thought with the dialogue being the exception. It showcased Shins power suit and his laser swords as well. A really cool part happens when Logan gets blasted with a huge energy blast and it reduces him to a skinless berserker that is healing rapidly from panel to panel. The rest of the issue continues with how to make safe the captured Shin because Amiko wants Loagn to help rescue him.
The Bad:
The dialogue is the main complaint i have with this issue. Logan and Shin while fighting are simply bantering about Amiko and Shin being a rookie. It felt kind of tired for Logan to being giving the whole "your just a kid" speel to Shin while he should have been just getting his daughter out of there. Im interested to see what the bigger picture with the Hand is here and what the current leader Goda wants, but this issue didn't do too much to progress that except to tell us he wants Shin.
Overall:
I still liked this issue, just not as much as the last which was the opening to this story arc. The art has grown on me a lot and now hopefully the story really picks up in the next couple issues. If you like seeing Wolverine without the X-men or X-force or the Avengers just killing people and fighting Sabertooth and Ninjas like i do then pick this issue up.
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