Dark Wolverine 84, New Mutants 11

Dark Wolverine 84
Garbage.


New Mutants 11
An interesting addition to the Siege line, Hela calls on Dani Moonstar to repay a favor she granted back in the “Utopia” story line in Uncanny X-Men and Dark Avengers. She tasks Dani with collecting the souls of dead gods and bringing them to Hel. See, normally the dead go to Valhalla, in Asgard, but since these folks were already in Valhalla and died again, they have to go to Hel. Which is, I assume, different than Hell (that extra “l” makes all the difference). I don't know how any of this holds with Norse mythology, but I can only assume it's previously established comic book lore, so let's just go with it. At any rate, Hela transforms Dani into a Valkyrie (which, oddly enough, still includes her X-Men “X”) and sends her off to the field of battle at Asgard. However, once she arrives, Dani decides to join the battle instead of performing her duties; this has tragic consequences in the form of the Dísir, creatures which prey upon the souls of dead gods. Realizing her mistake, Dani returns to her duties, defending the dead gods against the Dísir and escorting those still... “alive?” to Hel, though she is still roundly criticized afterward by an angry Hela. Overall, an enjoyable addition to both Siege and New Mutants, which sees Dani grappling with her impetuous and often violent nature. My only to nits to pick with this issue are these: first, I'm not a fan of the manga-esque art style (though this is more a reflection of personal taste than the artist's competence); and second, the other New Mutants are portrayed as being too busy gambling to care about the news coming from Asgard, which seems a bit out of character.

Dark Wolverine 84
I guess I should write an actual review, but Jesus, what the hell did I just read? And why? This book was so bad I can't even crack jokes about it. It was so bad I don't even want to review it. It's so bad, when it sits around the house, it sits around the house. Wait, I think I got mixed up. At any rate, what should be apparent at this point is that I hated this issue. Daken has turned into one big anti-hero cliché, and the writers seem determined to ride that train right into the ground. In terms of the plot, there is absolutely no reason for the Fates to be involved with Daken other than to give this book an excuse to tie in to Siege and piggyback off its sales. Bullseye is pretty much completely out of character for the whole issue, and the art's atrocious. My recommendation: save your money for a decent Wolverine comic, I hear Wolverine: Weapon X is quite enjoyable.