One of the strengths of Marvel's comics has traditionally been its strong continuity. The characters all inhabit the same reality, their stories are (more or less) logical, the characters stay true to their original model - that sort of thing.
But every now and then a writer comes along who tries to do something different, to throw all that out and go in a different direction. Sometimes it works - but usually it doesn't.
This series written by Jason Aaron - Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine - falls into that second category.
It reads like fan fiction. Wolverine and Spider-Man are tossed through time, where they spend years trapped in the stone age, then in the old west, then on another world fighting for their lives against living planets, caught in a plot involving Mojo, fighting against a gangster who holds a time-traveling diamond-encrusted baseball bat, then Wolverine is possessed by the Phoenix force - a problem Spider-Man solves in the most laughable method imaginable, oh and Spider-Man falls in love with a mysterious woman... and that's just the stuff I remember off the top of my head.
It's all just too crazy and disjointed to make any sense, and the ending makes a feeble effort to tie it all together and fails, thanks to its reliance on the hoariest trick in the book (is that God in the machine?).
The real strength of the series is the artwork by Adam Kubert and Mark Roslan, with colors by Justin Ponsor. While a bit dark and murky in places, the art is fantastic, with some impressive sequences.
I was hoping the whole mess of a story would somehow be worked out in this final issue, but no such luck. High marks for the art, but the rest of the book flunks out.
Grade: C+
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