Lots of action . . . but what's this about ORIGINS?

Rating: 7/10 (4 May 2009)

I would prefer to see 10,000 movies and read 10 comic books, as opposed to reading 10,000 comics and watching a dozen flicks. Apparently some people have enough time on their hands to handle 10,000 titles in both formats (perhaps they were born in 1837, like Wolverine). So, after seeing X-Men #1-3, I was hoping #4--given its title and all--would do a more complete job of explaining exactly HOW all these mutants came to exist (you know, like the Marlon Brando cameo as SUPERMAN's father). However, after a quick and confusing scene in which an elementary school-aged boy kills a man who may or may not be his father, we're exposed to a hectic war montage in which this boy grows up to turn back Pickett's Charge during the American Civil War, back up Sgt. York in the trenches of WWI, land on Normandy Beach in WWII, and waste some VC in Vietnam. He does all this with his slightly older brother, who inexplicably sports a different surname (Creed, not Logan). I do not care if all these questions are answered in BING issue 687, BANG issue 1361, and BOOM, issue 26943D. Other movies based on comics have nearly always done a better job of exposition for non-fanboys than this flick (without billing themselves as primers on the brand, to boot!). About the only thing really clear in WOLVERINE is that the brothers had to leave their native Canada in order to slake their thirst for blood.