Fallen Son, Chapter One: Underwhelming

Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America 1 (of 5) (Loeb & Yu) Chapter One: Denial, starring Wolverine.

Fallen Son is a limited series designed to give us a sense of how the Marvel Universe is reacting to the death of Captain America. The LS is organized around the Five Stages of Grief, the Kubler-Ross model of how people deal with tragedy. Wolverine is tapped to handle "Denial," and the result is a mediocre story that ultimately, yep, confirms Captain America is dead.

We know this because Wolverine smelled the corpse.

Gotta love comics. (And, yes, there's an out if someone wanted to take it, but that will likely be covered next issue.)

The issue, frankly, is kinda blah, which is different from being bad, but isn't the same as being good, either. FS 1 opens with Wolverine and Winter Soldier talking and it's the strongest scene in the book, which is a shame because Soldier doesn't join Logan's mission. Next up, Wolvie enlists Daredevil's help and thanks to Doctor Strange the two heroes are on the Helicarrier where they're keeping both Crossbones and Steve's corpse. The interrogation of Crossbones has some bite to it, but the tension between DD and Wolverine takes us out of the scene. Wolverine wants DD there to discern where Crossbones is lying or not, but the Devil's continued whining about Wolverine's possible actions (that is to say, killing Crossbones) just gets in the way.

Wolverine finally makes it to the corpse, takes a sniff, and then Stark tells him it's for real, Cap's dead. There's a bit of back and forth between them about Cap really being dead, but Wolverine knows Stark will let him off the ship so he can tell everyone that Steve Rogers's body is decomposing inside a casket. Logan lets Stark know, "If I find out you had anything to do with Cap's death, I'll kill you" on his way out the door and the resignation in the proclamation plays better than if it had been delivered in anger. Logan came looking for answers and got the one he didn't want. It would be nice to see that followed up, and maybe it will next issue when the Avengers get their turn in the Fallen Son spotlight.

Fallen Son 1 isn't a bad comic, but it's not a very moving comic, either. I don't really see the need for either Winter Soldier or Daredevil to be here and the Doc Strange plot-device was kinda lame. It would have been better if Stark had ordered a pro-reg hero like Ms. Marvel or Black Widow or Bishop sneak Wolverine in to get a sniff of the corpse because the first-half of this issue just feels like people going through the paces.

I think a lot of the problem with this issue, really, is that as talented as Jeph Loeb is, he writes a really mediocre Wolverine. The current arc in Wolverine is written by Loeb and it's terrible.

Sometimes this high concept gimmicks work out - Loeb and Sale's The Long Halloween was excellent - but the first issue here doesn't. Wolverine seems to be the only one in denial; perhaps investing pages early in the issue on characters coming to Wolverine and asking him to investigate would've given the book more force and pathos.

Leinil Yu's art almost makes this book worth the purchase price alone, but Loeb's writing doesn't add up to much more than a shrug. Underwhelming start to such an important series.