Dark Wolverine #77

When did Daken become this fascinating? Somehow the stupid, "totally x-treme" version of Wolverine has turned into his own character. He's a manipulative, skeevy, unsettling villain, but heck, that's a lot better than a kid angry at his dad. Since being re-titled to Dark Wolverine, this book has been quite good. Writers Daniel Way with Marjorie Liu have turned Daken on his ear, and instead of being a threat as an ultra-tough brawler, his pheromone-based powers make him much more interesting.

Daken continues using his powers to coax his Avengers allies into self-destructing. With Norman Osborn's plans working against the FF (and theirs against him), Daken just takes advantage of the chaos while ingratiating himself to both groups. Daken works well with all of the Dark Avengers players this issue. He creeps out Venom, he infuriates Ares, and he confuses Bullseye. Fun stuff. Way and Liu use the Fantastic Four well here too, with the Thing and Mr. Fantastic getting the best lines. Though it was nice seeing the Invisible Woman bop Osborn in the face when he leered at her.

Giuseppe Camuncoli's blocky, heroic characters look great in this setting. His art was the reason I gave this relaunch a chance, and I'm glad I did. Overall, this is a surprisingly entertaining book, one I'd recommend grabbing in trade when available.

Good