Author: Dave Stern
Cover Artist: Bill Sienkiewicz
Publisher: Pocket Star
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: May 2008
A favorite X-men character gets a great story (but generally lousy treatment) in this novel.
Wolverine is perhaps Marvel’s most compelling X-men character. While his backstory and volatile makes him interesting, it can also make him easily cliched and largely unlikeable. Given to competent writers, Wolverine is rich fodder that can make for some incredible story-telling. Dave Stern has certainly used the character well in “The Nature of the Beast.”
This particular novel takes place between Wolverine #76 and #77. Magento has taken all the adamantium from Wolverine’s body, forcing him to learn who he has become, as well as relearn everything he used to know about his body. He retreats to a desert preserve where he encounters a scientifically modified tiger that sets off a whole chain of events. Suddenly, he’s Logan again, and he’s investigating an internatinal web of secret labs performing experiments with one goal, to rid the world of any further mutations. On his quest, he begins to understand that he has physical limitations again and that he is, in fact, vulnerable. Pieces of his past after the adamantium was bonded to his skeleton resurface, and the reader gets a few more parts of that elusive and mysterious backstory.
“Wolverine: Nature of the Beast” is fast-paced and certainly more given to simplified explanations of any technology and the plots to use it. This is mostly a result of the story being told in first person from Logan’s perspective. He’s not the kind of guy who worries too much about the details, which is often what gets him into trouble. He’s not stupid by any means, but he is impulsive and prefers to act, rather than make detailed plans. The author provides a good balance between positive and negative outcomes for Logan’s general mode of operation. Sometimes, his focus on the immediate really pays off, other times, he ends up making things much worse.
This book was largely a fun and entertaining novel, certainly it had the feel of reading a comic book because it moved quickly and the focus really was in telling a good action story. Fans of Wolverine should be very pleased with Dave Stern’s take on the character. Newer readers who are curious (especially if they’re unsure or unwilling to get to involved collecting the comic books, or who only know who Wolverine is because they’ve seen the X-men movies) should find this book to be a fairly serviceable introduction to the character. At the very least, my interest about the rest of the Wolverine novels that Dave Stern writes has been piqued.
