u/the10Geek

Jason Aaron’s first Wolverine omnibus really fires on all cylinders, and I consider it one of his better works. It’s essentially a collection of standalone Logan stories, so don’t expect one long, fully connected run. On the other hand, certain themes and events carry over from one arc to the next, so there’s still a slight sense of cohesion throughout the book.

Aaron clearly knows how to write Wolverine. After all, he made his name in comics with brutal, bloody stories featuring morally twisted characters, so Logan fits his style perfectly.

Story-wise, we get things like a hunt for Mystique that also dives deeper into Wolverine’s past. We visit Chinatown in San Francisco for a gang war over control of the local underworld, and we even get to see Logan as a partner in a romantic relationship. But for me, the strongest story is the one set in a sort of “psychiatric institution.” It’s absolutely brutal and genuinely uncomfortable to read in the best possible way. That arc left the biggest impression on me.

One thing that did bother me a little is that Aaron’s Weapon X series actually has very little to do with the Weapon X program itself (outside of the first arc). I expected it to lean much more heavily into that concept. That said, it doesn’t mean the stories themselves are bad at all, quite the opposite.

Thematically, the omnibus revolves around revenge, redemption, and surprisingly even Logan’s relationship with God, which was a really interesting angle to explore, especially for a character like Wolverine.

Another great addition is the inclusion of the short story that actually helped Aaron break into the comic book industry in the first place. It’s the short comic that won Marvel’s talent competition and ultimately changed his life, leading him to become one of the strongest comic writers working today.

I’d recommend this omnibus to every Wolverine fan, especially those who enjoy his darker and more brutal stories. You definitely won’t be disappointed.

I freaking love time travel stories! I really do. And I’m very well aware that every single one of them has its flaws, plot holes, and a ton of inconsistencies. But very few are as dumb as Millar’s Chrononauts.

In a way, I genuinely like Mark Millar, his work, and especially his Millarworld. But I also know exactly where his weaknesses are. Millar has been phoning in his writing for years now, and he approaches all his comics as if they’re eventually going to become movies, and you can really feel that in the final product. On top of that, he’s known for coming up with really cool ideas, but when it comes to execution, ideas alone just aren’t enough. His stories often run out of steam, and he tries to cover that up with shock value and by pushing things a bit too hard at times. That said, his comics are still very readable and often genuinely fun.

And that’s exactly the case with Chrononauts. Like I said, it’s an incredibly dumb time travel story where we follow a central duo of scientists who basically act like rockstars, and behave like them too. They’re anything but likable characters. They’re selfish jerks, and that’s exactly how they treat the timestream as well. The whole first story is basically a chase across different time periods, where the protagonists are constantly being caught up by their own stupidity. It’s dumb and underdeveloped, but on the other hand, if you just turn your brain off, it moves at a nice pace and is an entertaining read. I also have to give Millar credit for not going overboard with shock value or being unnecessarily edgy here, which is definitely a plus. And the joke during the birth of Christ genuinely made me laugh out loud. That counts too.

In the second story, we finally get some character development. The protagonists, still unlikable jerks, have at least learned something from their mistakes and behave a bit more like normal human beings. While the first story focused on traveling into the past, this one takes us into the future and a pretty utopian one at that. It’s just a shame that the “surprise” villain is obvious the moment he first appears on the page, and the cliché that no utopia is as perfect as it seems is clear even before you really get into the story. So yeah, it’s still dumb and full of clichés, but just like the first arc, it has a solid pace and is fun to read.

I also have to praise the art in the first story, done by Sean Murphy, his style really works for me.

So if you love time travel stories but want them to be smart, this probably isn’t for you. On the other hand, if you’re a fan of Mark Millar and his Millarworld, you already know what to expect, and as I mentioned, thankfully he’s not completely off the rails as an edgelord here. Chrononauts are just… fine. Nothing more, nothing less.