Martial Arts week: When Wolverine was a mere man

[sherkahn.insanejournal.com]

My contribution to the melee...

going back to the classic Wolverine in Japan story (and I hope the Wolverine writers read this and STICK to it like a religion).
For those of you who to young to remember the moment before Wolverine broke out as a star and before he became a parody of himself, a little set up.

Wolverine is in Japan, wooing the hand of the one woman who he loved truly and deeply: the Lady Mariko Yashida. Being the daughter of THE crime boss of all Japan and a faction of the elite ninja tribe/house, the Hand, didn't help Logan. Logan was humiliated and defeated before her by said boss with a mere wooden training sword (although he was poisoned at the time, she didn't know).

But our hero picked himself up, licked his wounds, and goes to redeem his honor. Shingen disapproves, and sends the hand to terminate Logan. And this isn't God-verine, the unkillable. This was back when he was a highly trained but very mortal man. As we reach the big finale of this epic story, we come to this.

Big ol ti, I mean, splash page!

Wolverine earns the right to be called the best there is as he decimates the entire ninja army. The carnage not seen but whole of the Japanese castle is covered with dead ninjas. As a last line of defense, Mariko's husband uses her as a hostage. Basically making himself a dead man, but putting in a few bullets into Logan. (This is still the mortal man with accelerated we are talking about). And then we get to the face off with the big boss, the rematch.

Wolverine vs. Shingen

I will finally shut up and let the art speak for itself.

Comments

[currer.insanejournal.com]

Oooh, awesome use of "snikt". :D

[kingrockwell]

That preview is way bigger than 400x300. You're gonna need to shrink it or stick it behind the cut (sticking it behind the cut and putting a smaller version outside of it works too!)

And man, this looks way too good to be Frank Miller. I'm inclined to believe he mostly did the breakdowns while Paul Smith did the actual pencils. I've had the hardcover to this series for, like, two years, but I've still never read it.

[sherkahn.insanejournal.com]

fixed

[kingrockwell]

My mistake, Josef Rubintein, not Paul Smith. Paul Smith really did pencil the issues after this one.

[citygod.insanejournal.com]

Wasn't this from the stand-alone Wolverine mini that Miller did when he was working on Daredevil?

[kingrockwell]

I dunno about the timeline, but yeah, this is the mini by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller.

[midnightvoyager.insanejournal.com]

Beautiful fight scene. <3

[jlbarnett.insanejournal.com]

is that a magic sword? Cause if it isn't the Wolvie should be cutting right through it. Seriously, is it "honorable" to fight less than the best of your ability just to make it closer to fair? Look at all the shots where he blocks with his body instead of his claws.

[stolisomancer.insanejournal.com]

Shingen is established as being on par with Logan, if not better. Further, in order to block the sword in such a way as to destroy it, Logan would have to rotate his wrist 180 degrees; in any serious blocking stance I can think of that uses the claws, he'd be using the blunt side.

[sherkahn.insanejournal.com]

Shingen is that good a swordsman, to keep the blade from being ensnared and cut by Logan's claws. And my guess is that is also the Honor Sword of Clan Yashida, something Logan won't cut.

Not the honorable thing to do.

[schmevil.insanejournal.com]

Great fight scene!

[proteus_lives.insanejournal.com]

Great action/fight secqence!

Wolvie was a far better character before he was overdelevoped.

This.

[jazzypom.insanejournal.com]

Wolvie was a far better character before he was overdelevoped.

Motto.

I remember this series and loved it mightily. They've literally leached all the mystery out of Wolverine, true fax.

Re: This.

[steverodgers5.insanejournal.com]

Motto again..

(Sigh) I miss that Wolverine..

[greenmask.insanejournal.com]

Ohh woww, that's great.

Hurray for Wolverine! It's nice to say that sometimes!

[btravage.livejournal.com (from insanejournal.com)]

The episode of Wolverine and the X-Men based on this recast that Japanese guy as the Silver Samurai. It was weird.

[sherkahn.insanejournal.com]

Silver Samurai is related to Mariko, so I can see that.

[citygod.insanejournal.com]

Sometimes, it's easy to forget how good Miller was. His layouts were top drawer - isn't it great to see a fight that you can actually follow? (He even inspired Clairmont to shut up for three pages!)
And about that splash page - I seem to remember that it was pages 2 & 3 of the issue, and a reference to Kirby's habit of opening a book with a single page, then double-page splash. I think it was a style that had fallen out of favour at Marvel, and Miller was consciously bringing it back. Does that sound right?

[kingrockwell]

Yeah, I didn't realize that about the pages being silent at first. It really does lend itself to the scene, and incredibly impressive given how little Claremont's seemed to trust his artists beyond this.
And while Miller did leave so much of the rendering to his inkers back then, his layouts have always been a hell of a thing.

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

I have read in several sources that this mini series will be the base of the next Wolverine film. I think it will translate nicely...hopfully better that that last film.

Yeah..

[steverodgers5.insanejournal.com]

I really do hope they stick to it as closely as possible, as Wolverine was IMHO never better than he was in this mini..

It's a shame though that given the timeline of when they're setting it,(i.e straight after the events of the first Wolverine movie..) we'll likely be deprived of the great little epilogue it finished on:- With the X-Men (Kurt, Scott, Peter & Kitty I think..) receiving that photo invitation to Wolverine's wedding with the "Hey Elf, Don't forget the Beer.."
scribbled on the photo. A truly classic moment if there ever was one..