The Brothers

• Writer - Greg Rucka
• Penciler - Darick Robertson
• Inker - Tom Palmer
• Colorist - Studio F
• Lettering - Chris Eliopoulos
• Ass't Editor - Warren Simons
• Ass't Editor - John Miesegaes
• Editor - Axel Alonso
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada

Summary

  Arriving late at night into town, Cassie Lathrop begins to ask around for the man named Dennis Terril. A bar patron points her over to the local sheriff's office where Sheriff Terril works from. The look on Cassie's face tells what she is thinking about: why would a mystery guy (Logan) ask for information about the local sheriff in the town?

  Back at Joe Braddock's home, where Sheriff Terril and his associates has just opened a barrage of gunfire at Joe's home. They entered the home, only to find Joe and his "mysterious associate" (Logan) missing.

  Out in the backwoods, Logan and Joe had escaped. Joe insists on the two going to his friend home for shelter. Logan tells Joe to go ahead on his own, meet up with Joe's friend, then head to Portland to seek out Logan's friend, Blaine, for help. In the meantime, Logan was going to head back to have a talk with Sheriff Terril.

  Back in town, where Cassie notices a truck stopping in front of the sheriff's office. A blond haired man leaps off the back of the truck, unlocks the door to the office and enters. Cassie follows inside. Confronting the blond haired man, she asks if he was Sheriff Terril. The blond haired man introduces himself as Cry, and that he had the sheriff's permission to enter his office, even though the sheriff wasn't around. Cassie tells him to step away from the sheriff's desk. From behind, two of Cry's associates steps in. Cry pulls out a flashlight, and blinds her with the light. Cassie tries to arrest Cry, but he pulls out a can of mace, and sprays her in the face. Cassie puts up a struggle, but the three men overpowers her and Cry beats her until she is unconscious.

  Meanwhile, Sheriff Terril and his men decides to split up to look for Joe Braddock. Sheriff Terril instructs his associates to check out Joe's friends' homes. He gets in his car and drives back to his office, unaware that Logan had slipped into the back seat of his vehicle. He arrives at his office. As he reaches over his seat to grab his cap, Logan unleashes a claw through the car seat and intl Sheriff Terril's right arm. He tries to reach for his gun with his left arm, and Logan unleashes another claw through that arm. While Terril is in pain, Logan asks where Cry could be found. Terril tells him that he is located at a complex twenty miles away near an abandoned mine. He tells Logan though that he and his Brothers have guns and would kill Logan before Logan could get into the complex. Logan retracts his claws. Terril asks why Logan cared, sepcially when Lucy Braddock had what was coming to her. Enraged, Logan unleashes his fury on the sheriff, leaving him as a bloodied corps in the squad car.

  Logan enters the sheriff's office. He notices some mysterious liquid on the ground. He puts his finger in it and takes a deep sniff, only to realize that it was mace. (With his enhanced senses, mace has a more potent effect). Outside, he notices a jeep parked nearby. He recognizes the vehicle as being that of the "Klamath girl" (Cassie), and wonders why she's here, and where she was now.

  Inside the Brotherhood's compound, Cassie was dragged into a locked enclosure. Inside were several other women, who comes to Cassie's aid. She waves them off, proclaiming that she was a federal agent and had been kidnapped. One of the women, Kim, tells Cassie that she was now locked in a "cult ... or a harem ... or a prison. Take your pick." She tells Cassie that Cry calls them his "wives", and that Cry would occasionally summon for the company of one of them, and then after a few days, when he was done with that person, he would send her back and send for another replacement. Kim tells Cassie that there was no way they could get out, and if they resisted, he would punish them. Kim shows Cassie her hand, missing a thumb, as a sign of what Cry would do. As for why the other women were so loyal and unresistive to Cry whereas Kim was so resistive, Kim thinks that maybe Cry was a mutant, or maybe it was just the hostage psychology factor.

  Meanwhile, Logan had made the 20 miles trek, and located the Brotherhood's compound. Wth a hand in his fist, Logan grins, knowing with anticipation at to the task ahead of him in getting into the compound to find Cry.

Summary

  Wolverine passes the halfway point in its first storyline, which is called either "Brotherhood" or "The Brothers" depending on whether you believe the cover or the recap page.

  The storyline is still on a slow burn. Rucka and Robertson seem to be going for the idea of Wolverine as an inexorable hunter, slowly zeroing in on Cry and his Brothers. It's a nice angle on the character, but I'm wondering whether they're slightly overplaying the inexorability of it all. Cry and his gang are coming across as nicely creepy, but while they're clearly a threat to all the other characters, there's no real sense that they're much of a threat to Wolverine himself. We've got a story here of Wolverine hunting down a bunch of gifted amateurs, whose only real advantage over him is weight of numbers - and that never seems to go far.

  With that said, even if this storyline is turning into a masterclass in Wolverine's hunting, it's certainly enjoyable on that level. Rucka writes a great scene of Wolverine intimidating the sheriff from the back seat of his car, making great use of the claws.

  Darick Robertson has acquired an inker, Tom Palmer. The change of style isn't all that drastic, though. Palmer's inking seems a little smoother than Robertson's self-inked work, and there does appear to be a distinct effort to prettify Wolverine - no doubt part of the understandable but creatively wrongheaded decision to go for something closer to Hugh Jackman.

  Anyhow: this is another solid, indeed way above average, issue - but it's not quite catching fire. Maybe it just feels a little too inevitable that the ending is going to be as expected.

  Rating: B+