The best part about these issues is the final story in issue #175, so let’s start there. Jason Aaron—a Southerner—won a writing contest and got to have “Udon Studios” draw a short tale of Wolverine in Alabama changing a tire.
He also gets into a fight.
The art is terrible and it’s only 8 pages, but Aaron will go on to be one of the most beloved Wolverine writers, so it’s got historical significance.
As for “The Logan Files,” which is the unimaginatively named overarching story here, it’s very meh.
Sabretooth, Omega Red and Lady Deathstrike all attack Amiko (after attacking Nightcrawler, the Hudsons of Alpha Flight, etc.) to lure Wolverine. When Logan arrives, they use Weapon X “science” to turn off his powers.
The only real important thing here is that Sabretooth, when he stole everything Weapon X Program had on Wolverine, learns that Weapon X basically has nothing. No information about Logan’s past.
Plus, Wolverine’s healing powers also affect memory except that they also don’t, according to Sabretooth in the panel above.
I don’t understand any of this. I thought Lady Deathstrike was basically a “good guy” now, and I understand Sabretooth has a constant and undying vendetta against Logan but if that’s the case why not just kill Amiko outright? That would really hurt him.
Perhaps most maddening about this story is that it doesn’t even wrap in #175. Issue #176 is an “epilogue” where Logan seems to meet angels as he lays dying from injuries sustained in the prior issue. Or something like that. Then, he gets better and the story is over.
Frank Tieri is like Fabian Nicieza: Sometimes, he writes really cool stuff. Mostly, he writes really boring stuff.
Okay, now let’s get to all the other back-up stories. Issue #173 has an Alpha Flight story by Matt Nixon and David Finch. I’m one of those guys who loves Finch’s art (I know reasonable minds differ on this), but I also find the majority of Alpha Flight stories to be tedious. It’s like, I get that they’re from Canada and for some reason Marvelites fetishize that aspect of the team but…I guess I don’t get it. Anyway, let’s just enjoy this picture of Sasquatch:
On to #175, a giant sized “event issue,” which has the above-described Jason Aaron story but also another Tieri tale with art by Ray Snyder. It’s called “The Vow” and it’s dumb.