WOLVERINE (Limited Series) #1-4

Wolverine Alone in the Land of the Rising Sun (at a time when people still called it that.)

Note: Issue #4 colored by Lynn Varley, all other credits the same.

Originally Published September-December 1982

When we last saw Wolverine, he was on his way to get a little "me" time in the Canadian Rockies after coming back from space. We catch up with him there, where he manages to find himself a little trouble, tussling with a bear and tracking down a hunter that shot it with an illegal poison-tipped arrow that made it delirious and violent (moreso than the av-er-age bear, I suppose.)

However, as he prepares to return to New York, he receives a large cache of returned-to-sender mail from his would-be sweetie pie, Mariko, the Japanese noblewoman he has been romancing off and on for a few years. He calls and gets hung up on. Curious as to what is Up with That, he hops on a plane to Japan where he intends to find some answers.

From an associate in the Japanese government named Asano Kimura, he learns that Mariko has been married - her father, Lord Shingen, has returned and arranged a match with this dweeb:

Who has already been abusing her, just because he's clearly such a swell guy.

Mariko, however, stands by the marriage as it was arranged by her father, and she honors him by obeying. She sends Wolverine away before he can slice the guy open, but as he makes his exit, he is attacked... by Ninja Stars!

Classic writer trick if you don't know how to end a scene.

Poisoned, he passes out and awakens in the den of Lord Shingen, who intends to teach Wolverine some manners by sparring with him using wooden practice swords (as Wolverine is allegedly not worthy of a real blade.)

The old man goads Wolverine into revealing his aggressive, animalistic side, showing the inhumanity he is capable of to Mariko for the first time, causing her love for him to evaporate.

Once defeated, Wolverine awakens outside where he is nearly beaten further by a gang of street tuffs, only to be rescued by a mysterious woman named Yukio.

They retire to her place, where they are attacked by a ninja clan called The Hand.

 Classic writer trick if you don't know how to begin a scene.

They fight the deadly warriors off, with Wolverine proving the equal of the entire cadre of ninjas, because of course.

No kiddin'

They retire to Logan's hotel room, where Yukio expresses envy for his adamantium claws and explains that the ninjas are in the service of a mysterious, ambitious crimelord who may intend on wresting control of the whole of Japan.

She also makes some advances toward him, which he is patently not in the mood for, preferring instead to sleep for, like, a whole day.

While Wolverine sleeps, we learn that Yukio is actually in the service of Shingen himself, as an assassin charged with gaining Wolverine's trust to get him to take the ultimate fall. (She's a little miffed that Shingen sent so damn many ninjas after them, but he had to, for you know, realism.) The next step of the assignment is to assassinate Shingen's rival, Katsuyori, at a "peace conference" between Katsuyori and Shingen's representatives - Mariko and her husband, Noburu.

Yukio brings Wolverine along on this assassination vacation, and he is aghast to find that Mariko is also there.

This conference happens to take place during a private performance of the iconic Japanese Kabuki play The 47 Ronin, which is a testament to classical Japanese values of honor and loyalty, with which Wolverine, something of a Japanophile himself as we know, is familiar.

Wolverine fends off the actor-assassins while Yukio plants a car bomb in Katsuyori's vehicle, delivering her catchphrase as it detonates.

Not exactly "Hasta la Vista, Baby" but it'll do.

Wolverine guts the numerous assassins, but sadly Mariko has watched this entire thing unfold and is shocked again at the brutality on display, turning and leaving Wolverine without a word.

Wolverine goes to drown his sorrows, drinking and brawling with a disgraced sumo for kicks. Asano approaches him, concerned about this mysterious crime boss who may be angling to seize control of the entire country.

Instead, Wolverine tells him to get stuffed, and he and Yukio meander off into the night. They share an embrace on some train tracks, where they are almost splattered by the famous Shinkansen 200 MPH bullet train. At this point, Yukio reveals to Wolverine that she has some kind of freaky-deaky death fetish and wishes to die "spectacularly," which accounts for her laissez-faire attitude towards her work as an assassin. She sees in him a kindred spirit.

Wolverine passes out (again), dreaming of being put out of his misery by Mariko in a Feudal Japanese setting. As he sleeps, some Hand ninjas appear and tell Yukio that now is the time to kill Wolverine, having served his purpose. Instead, she fights them off, out of respect, loyalty, and still kind of thinking she has a shot.

She tries to wake Wolverine up to get him to run with her, but, still dazed, he says the wrong name, and well, it doesn't go well.

Women, amiright?

Back at her apartment Yukio muses about how her disobedience toward Shingen has earned her "the death she's always wanted," but before she can do anything, she receives another visitor.

Soon, Wolverine arrives to find the visitor's dead body sprawled on Yukio's floor - Asano. He immediately discerns this was Yukio's work, and no accident, and furthermore that her blade is dipped in the poison that was on the ninja stars that attacked him at Mariko's. The pieces start to fall into place as he realizes Yukio works for Shingen, and this whole thing was a set-up.

Given the chance to deliver a deathblow, Yukio instead bails out a window and runs. Logan gives chase...

He corners her at a Zen garden, prepared to put her out of her misery, but the two are interrupted by The Hand, whom Wolverine soon learns are not here to back Yukio up.

Once Wolverine has given his opponents the Ginsu™ treatment, he finds that Yukio has given him the slip again. Left alone in the wrecked garden, Wolverine takes this time to contemplate his true nature - is he truly a mindless berserker, or can he change?

Moreover, he realizes - perhaps that is the point. To try to change, if need be, and not simply give in to what you think your nature is. What a breakthrough!

In the final installment, we pick up with Wolverine systematically dismantling Shingen's criminal empire, spoiling his means and undermining the loyalty he is supposed to command.

As the two gear up for their final confrontation, Mariko prays to her ancestors, torn between the man she loves who is a beast, and her duty to obey her father, who is a different kind of beast.

Yukio gets captured skulking around Shingen's place, and he discerns that she had planned to kill him as a way of restoring her honor after killing Asano. He boasts that he will soon kill the man both women present love, and stomps Yukio a little for funsies.

They get word - via the fact that all the Hand stationed outside are dead - that Wolverine has arrived. Noburu, showing his cunning and team spirit, bails out with Mariko in tow as a hostage.

Only for someone else to enter the fray...

Grateful as Wolverine is, he shoos Yukio away, being that he's still miffed about how she killed Asano. Wolverine goes to find Shingen...

They duel, and...

Mariko happens upon the scene. For a moment, Wolverine contemplates whether, because of Japanese tradition, Mariko will have to swear him her enemy and devote her life to destroying him. He decides not to do anything should that be the case. Instead, she lifts the ceremonial sword, and gives a beautiful speech about the true nature of honor...

The two steal away to have a little private time, and then send a letter to the X-Men inviting them over for a little shindig...

Gasp! Wolverine... to marry?!?!

Further Thoughts:

It was only a matter of time before we tested the waters by sending Wolverine out on his own to have solo adventures, being that the longer he has been with the X-Men, the more focus he has pulled. At the dawn of the Dirty Harry/Rambo action hero era Wolverine was tailor made for the spotlight.

We've seen Wolverine's connection to Japanese culture before of course, as he has courted Mariko, so it makes a fine setting to both examine Wolverine's character and dual nature as the ultimate warrior poet type, and to engage in action, crime, intrigue and romance. I'm no Japanese Studies expert, mind you, so do not count on me to determine whether this is a fair or good representation of Japanese Culture as it was, or liked to represent itself, at that time in history. It might be reductive, or exploitative in some way, but that might not keep it from being a good story.

While they were at it, they had this whole thing being drawn by superstar artist Frank Miller, whose work in Daredevil deals with a lot of the same underworld and ninja material. Legend has it that Miller left large blank spaces in anticipation of the prodigious narration Chris Claremont is known for, but upon seeing the art, how crisp it was and how well it spoke for itself, Claremont dialed back his narration to a closer approximation of the terse, no-frills speaking style of Wolverine.

There's also a matter of pacing - letting the story play out over four issues in the Limited Series format (a novel concept at the time, I believe) gives it a lot of breathing room to lend it a really heightened feel over what might be happening in the Uncanny X-Men comics at the time.

What ensues is an extremely stylish, innovative piece of work. All the moods are heightened by the gaps between the moments, and all the fight scenes are framed with such defined sparseness that makes it extra-compelling even beyond any other contemporary superhero action. It's just so perfectly suited to the subject matter it makes this notable comic all the more iconic.