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Down But Not Out

by Drew Clements westofmiskatonic@gmail.com

Welcome back to Down But Not Out. The site took a week off last week in order to set up the Archives, so if you've missed any of my previous columns, check them out there! This week I'll be covering one of my favorite characters BEFORE he guest-starred in EVERY Marvel comic. You've got one guess as to who it is and I'll go ahead and tell you that it's not the Hypno Hustler! That's right, it's everyone's favorite canuck that's the best there is at what he does. What does he do? Well it sure ain't knitting... Wolverine #9 (volume 2) - "Promises to Keep" Original Release Date: July 1989 Writer: Peter David Penciler: Gene Colan Letterer: Bill Oakley Colorist: Mark Chiarello Editor: Bob Harras This issue opens with five seedy-looking characters checking into an equally seedy-looking hotel. Not only do they look like scum, but also they're paranoid... uh... like scum. The man running the hotel rips a page out of a magazine (Playboy), and the four guys all whip out weapons (insert easy joke here about whipping out weapons in the presence of a Playboy), ready to fire. After calming down and getting the key to their cabin, the five good ol' boys make their way to it in the darkness. The leader of the group, Malone, tells the rest of the group to "Stay frosty boys. Eyes open. Ears open." Another man, by the name of Van Slyke, tells Malone just how annoying his mouth is getting. Malone replies by telling him that he's just trying to calm everyone's nerves. As soon as he gets this out of his mouth, he jerks around, being spooked by something in the distance. Once reaching the cabin, they send one of the five in to check the place out. After finding it all clear, they come in, gathering around the door to talk. "I'm telling you, he's not followin' us anymore." Van Slyke says. Lighting up a cigarette, he begins feeling a little too confident that their pursuer is no longer following. Apparently this group of five used to be a group of seven. Those two that are now gone were taken out "hundreds of miles" from where they are now. If their stalker was going to take 'em out, surely he'd have done it long ago. Right? Van Slyke finds out just how wrong he is when a familiar clawed fist breaks through the door he's leaning on. Before their eyes, the other characters watch as the man is maimed (off-panel) by our clawed hero. As soon as Van Slyke is taken out, Wolverine is gone. But he makes sure that Malone, the supposed leader, knows that although it wasn't his turn this time, it would be soon. Upon hearing Logan's voice, the four remaining characters run out of the cabin, searching for its source and firing in all directions. Rollins swears they got him, but Malone quickly smacks him around. "Idiot! We didn't get him last time! Or the time before that!" Malone puts Rollins on first watch while he and three others get some sleep. We now enter a dream sequence in which we see how our loveable little Canadian psycho took out those two characters, Schmidt and Shelly, which the dead Van Slyke spoke about. The group of seven men are in a forest, when Schmidt sees and shoots a deer. Believing it down, he runs off deeper into the woods after it. The other characters, not much caring for his antics, watch him run off after the downed animal. Soon they hear a bloodcurdling scream. They run, shooting, in the direction of their comrade's scream. Shouting at the tops of their lungs for their friend, that dark voice speaks up, "Here he is." Schmidt's broken body falls from the trees to the ground just in front of them. The voice goes on to mock that the men can't go to the authorities since they'd like to get their hands on them too! Running through the forest, the group comes upon Wolverine. Malone wakes himself and the others by screaming. He explains what his dream was about and soon notices that Rollins is lying on the floor. Wasn't he supposed to be watching out for Wolvie? Is he asleep? Is he dead? Apparently not. The man sits up, with a white piece of cloth covering his face. The others laugh at his imitation of a ghost. "Snikt" is heard as Wolverine reveals that Rollins he ain't. "Remember Iraq?" He asks just before he jumps out of a window. The men, just as before, run out of the cabin in search for our hairy runt. Bruno, astonished, asks if this whole thing is really about Iraq. Whatever happened in Iraq did so five years ago, surely that's not what this is really about! Malone gets to thinking. Five years ago? Not JUST five years ago, but five years ago... tomorrow! Malone finds Rollins' dead body. "Well... I never liked Rollins, anyway." Ah, true friends. As the group begins walking deeper into the woods, searching for Logan, we finally get our questions answered about what exactly is going on, in the form of a flashback. It's Iraq, five years ago, and Iraqi militants, unable to do things on their own, hire our group of upstanding fellows. The task? To take over the American Embassy. The group gets in and takes control. While there, Malone finds himself a pretty girl. The woman, turning down Malone's advances (I don't know why, he seems like a nice guy.), finds herself lined up against a wall with a couple of other people, guns pointed in their direction. The mercenaries, acting like a firing squad, pull the triggers. Nothing happens. They do this to her and others every day, sometimes two or three times. Bruno alludes to some "other stuff" that Malone did to the woman. Eventually things fall apart for our friendly mercenaries when the embassy is invaded by U.S. Special Forces, hell-bent on taking back their building. Malone escapes by swiping the uniform of a downed commando. Before leaving, he finds an Iraqi militant whose throat has been slit, ear-to-ear. This ends the flashback and brings Malone to the realisation that their clawed stalker was there that day five years ago! Hurrying, the former mercenaries come across a river. At the shore there are a couple of people and a canoe. Instead of renting the canoe, like polite mercenaries would, they just take it. Feeling a bit too confident (they should have learned from Van Slyke), they happily make their way down the river, believing their pursuer to be unable to follow. As if on cue (it's a story, so it really is on cue), "snikt" is heard and their canoe is split in half, sending the three remaining men to the cold waters. Needle, a member of the group that we haven't heard much from, is pulled under. Bruno and Malone "escape" to the shore. The two get into a fight and Bruno comes up with an idea, "Maybe if I kill you, he'll let me live!" Malone shoots Bruno before he can put his plan into action. Malone, all alone, runs through the forest until he comes to a dead end and a waterfall. Wolverine reveals himself and explains that there were a few Canadians in the U.S. embassy in Iraq. When it was taken over, the U.S. contacted the Canadian government and Weapon X was sent in alongside the U.S. Special Forces. Apparently there was also a Canadian nun inside. Malone and his friends would torture this woman every day (remember? if not, you have the worst reading comprehension skills ever) and do much worse. When Weapon X found her that day, five years ago, she was dying from a bullet she caught in the crossfire. This is where the story really comes together and all my jokes will end. Here we get some very powerful writing courtesy of the master, Peter David: "And this woman, whose life was built on love and forgiveness..." Logan pauses. "She said "Promise me. Promise me you'll make them suffer, like I suffered." And so our hero does promise. He goes on to talk about how right after that, he got busy, but that he never forgot. Malone, an obvious genius, thinks he has an out. "You can't kill me today. The anniversary's tomorrow." Wolverine: "You forgot the time difference, Malone. In Iraq... it's tomorrow." And we see the claws pop, "snikt". Malone, smiling, tells Logan how the last thing he wants to do is let him kill him. That would make him happy. So instead of allowing that, Malone takes his pistol and ends his life. Next we get three panels and multiple monologue boxes where the powerful writing continues: "Because taking a life doesn't bring me any joy. Hardly anything does... except innocence. Because I see it so little, I've learned to cherish it. And all you knew how to do... was destroy it." The final page shows that these events were a flashback in Wolverine's (Patch's) mind, while he's sitting at the Princess Bar in Madripoor. This issue is a perfect example of the kick-ass Wolverine that I grew up with. But the thing is, this issue is not just about the lead character whipping ass. It's much more emotional and deep than that. Peter David takes the character out of the super-hero world and puts him in something much more realistic. Here he is not fighting some super-powered villain. No, he's taking on a set of villains that are much more horrifying than any baddie with powers. These guys are as human as it comes; they're greedy, violent, and lack a conscience. That's what makes this issue so special and frightening; these villains exist in our world. When you find out why Wolverine is after these guys, suddenly you want to see them taken down. Violence begets violence. But in the end, we see that Wolverine isn't happy with taking these guys out. The violence really isn't what this is all about. Killing these guys doesn't make Wolverine happy, he does it because he has to. That suddenly brings the reader away from the violence and makes it much more real. This issue is, in one word, brilliant. Accompanying the writing is some of the most appropriate art to ever grace a comic book. It's not pretty, as a matter of fact; it's rough, ugly, and dark. The five mercenary characters are drawn in a way that immediately disgusts the reader. The emotions of anger, fear, and hatred are so well defined that you can almost feel them. This issue is really not representative of Gene Colan's artwork as a whole; it's representative of his skill as an artist. Mr. Colan has done some of the most amazing art in comic books, as well as drawn some of the most iconic characters, but here he takes the overall dark tone of Peter David's script and transfers it to the page in the form of art. It's almost as if the two guys shared the same brain on this one. This one is not hard to find. I actually grabbed it for $1 at my local comic shop, but if you can't find it that way, then I HIGHLY suggest picking up The Essential Wolverine volume 1. Hell, even if you do find this issue by itself, you should still pick up the first Essential book (and the two other volumes). It contains the first 23 issues of the Wolverine (volume 2) series, which I consider to be some of the best work ever done in comics. That's it for this week! See you next time!