Logan’s Kid More Than a Sharp Pair of Claws

What could have been a huge flop for Marvel Comics has become something completely special.

Edging out Spider-Man as the company’s most important character over the past few years, thanks to a rabid fan base and several huge Hollywood films that feature him, Wolverine is the reigning king of Marvel.

Giving him a son and his own series just makes too much sense financially for it not to come to fruition.

Luckily, Marvel didn’t make the same mistakes with this series that they made with Spider-Man and the “Brand New Day” storyline and have given writer Daniel Way enough liberty to shine, making the Dark Wolverine series a complete hit.

If you had any doubts after reading Vol. one of the series and getting to know the charismatic enigma that is Daken, Vol. Two, “My Hero,” which collects issues 78-81 of the series, takes things a step further, fleshing out the character even more and making him someone the company can build around for years to come.

Proving just how lovingly brooding, manipulative, selfish and evil he is, Daken is an anti-hero’s dream come true. A confused womanizer, murderer and wiseass, Daken is one of the only people in the Marvel Universe that can continually get under Norman Osborn’s skin and live to not only tell about it, but laugh with him about it as well.

Simply put, Frank Castle and Deadpool themselves aren’t this badass.

Between the writing of Way [who has grown tremendously after a less than mediocre run on the short-lived Venom mini-series a few years back] and lawyer turned novelist turned comic scribe Marjorie Liu, which manages to both humanize Daken and make him that much more mysterious and the splash page filled work of Stephen Segovia and Giuseppe Camuncoli, this graphic novel collection is a treasure to behold.

Eclipsing the already uber solid debut trade, “My Hero” is the kind of work that will have you yearning for more. The relationship between Dark Ms. Marvel [Moonstone] and Daken heats up a bit more and it’s here where we get an even better glimpse into Daken’s “cloudy” childhood. Still learning to get the most of his powers, Logan’s kid shows that he has a lot of growing up to do despite his age [65, but he has a slowed-aging ability, thanks to his papa] but nevertheless shows the type of brains his father has never had.

Resourceful, cunning, candid and charming all at once, Daken has an incredible potential to be a big time player in the Marvel Universe.

You can hear the comic books chicks screaming right now.

And where the comic book chicks scream, the fanboys and geeks soon follow.

And why wouldn’t they? Daken is that damn cool.

Simply put, if writers the likes of Way and Liu and artists like Segovia and Camuncoli stay on board, “Dark Wolverine” may end up being much more than a surprisingly enjoyable title- it could be a series that could launch the character into other fields of media and make him a phenomenon.

Like father like son?

It may be too soon to tell, but at the very least, “My Hero” is a graphic novel too tasty to not take a big bite out of.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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