Well I just finished reading issue number 2 of Origin II, which continues the legendary unknown history of Marvel’s most valuable asset, Wolverine. Continuing the story of James Logan Howlett from the popular Origin series from 2001, Origin II just doesn’t feel like anything particularly special to me. Hell we could have skipped all the hype and just put this story into one of the regular Wolverine books out there today and it would have felt thus far like pretty typical Wolverine fare.

It’s common knowledge that Wolverine is in far too many comics these days. Honestly I’ve been pretty burnt out on the overuse of the character for quite some time now. I really kinda miss the old days where there was The Uncanny X-men and one solo Wolverine comic. Plain and simple. However as we all know everything these days is about making a buck, and not really putting out quality stories. So we get so much Wolverine crammed down our throats that it begins to make us nauseous.

Well the “long awaited” Origin II tells us more of our favorite berserker’s secretive past in the 19th century. It started out with issue #1 where Wolverine is living with the wolves, because we all know he doesn’t fit in the world of man. So naturally he decides that hanging out in a wolf pack is clearly the answer to all of his problems. As we all know tragedy always follows Logan, and a huge polar bear wandering far from his normal habitat slaughters all of Wolvies “wolf” friends.

So of course he gets his revenge on the polar bear and fights it to the death. He wins, kills said polar bear which takes us to issue #2. Here the story unfolds even more, as we find out that the polar bear was actually owned by a young Dr. Essex (a young Mister Sinister), who at first I thought was Doctor Strange, is determined to capture the killer of his beast. So naturally we get the man for the job, a younger Sabretooth (duh, of course this is a Wolverine comic) to help track down the beast responsible. Hence Wolverine is captured and ends up in a circus freak show. Yeah the misunderstood man beast of course is back in full effect. I guess it’s cool that we get a a pre Mister Sinister meeting Wolverine for the first time?

Now maybe this story is on it’s way to big, big things? I may have to eat my words. It seems everyone has to put their two cents worth into Logans “mysterious” past these days, I mean let’s not forget about the whole “Romulus” mess that was created. It really feels like people just make all this stuff up as they go. It all feels a little too hokey, predictable and issue #2 features some rather sloppy, rushed looking artwork from Adam Kubert. maybe he put all of his effort into the first issue?

I’m really paying close attention to books lately that deliver on all levels these days with strong inspired ideas and artwork. They’re out there, but at 4 bucks a pop finding them can be tricky and costly. It seems that the panels are getting bigger every month too, so you’re getting far far less real content for your money these days. A comic book these days takes less than ten minutes to read. So what to do with the heroes you love? Where do you turn? Has Wolverine’s charm and appeal run it’s course? Is his secret history really all that alluring anymore? Hell does anyone really care? I’m  really not sure I’ll be shelling out 4 bones for Origin II #3 next month, I think I might try something new instead…