Time is running out for the clawed Canadian...

(Panini Books)

It’s hardly a secret that Marvel have been gearing up to killing off popular X-Man Wolverine, although the length of time he will in fact remain deceased has yet to be established.

This volume, the last collection of the regular Wolverine series and the end of Paul Cornell’s acclaimed run on the character, sets events in motion for his forthcoming death and winds up various ongoing plot strands at the same time.

There appears to have been a lot of behind-the-scenes activity with regards to Cornell and his role in killing Logan, with the result being that Charles Soule was brought in to pen the Death of Wolverine mini-series, Cornell stepping aside and bringing a premature conclusion to his planned storyline.

The crux of the stories collected here, which also includes the Wolverine Annual, is how Logan comes to terms with his newfound mortality, and reconciles with his friends and other supporting cast members after blowing them off to go undercover for SHIELD.

And as such, you can’t help feeling it’s something of an anti-climax. The big battle with arch enemy Sabretooth is nowhere near as spectacular as one might have hoped, some of the other characters Cornell introduced are sidelined, and the heralded death of the lead doesn’t even take place in this volume.

It feels truncated, somehow, as if Cornell had a lot more planned which he was ultimately forced to cut short. Sure, this book acts as a resolution of sorts for certain long-running plots, but the way they’re wrapped up doesn’t leave the reader feeling comfortably satisfied, instead left with a hunger for more.

The annual, included here as it forms part of the overall countdown towards Wolvie’s death, is basically about Logan reconnecting with former sidekick Jubilee, and leaving her with some sort of life-lesson about family and survival. It’s OK, but that’s about as far as it goes.