The Brothers

• Writer - Greg Rucka
• Artist - Darick Robertson
• 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

  Logan spends most of the day observing the Brotherhood's compound, watching the people there go about their task, looking for a weakness around the compound which he could expose and use to get inside. As night falls, he notices a truck which had gained entrance through a heavily-guarded perimeter gate. Logan grins, and begins to take off his shoes, planning out his next move.

  Inside the cell where Cassie was being held, she continues having a conversation with one of the women there, Kim, who was resistive to Cry's advancement. Kim tells Cassie that there were about two dozen armed men within the compound, all trigger-happy. As for the other women inside the cell, Kim says they were all eager to serve Cry, who had promised to keep them safe when the world was going to blow up. She thinks the other women has Stockholm Syndrome (hostages identifying with their captors), which is the other reason why they were unresistive. Cassie was surprised that Kim knew the term. Kim tells Cassie that she was a student before she was captured by Cry's men while hitchhiking for a ride to Idaho. Cassie plots a plan to get out. Finding out from Kim when the Brotherhood usually eats lunch, she takes a hand mirror away from one of the other women, smashes the mirror, and picks up one of the shards for a weapon, while returning the broken mirror to the woman.

  As the onset of dusk approached, Logan makes his move into the compound. Without his boots on, he had the element of stealth at his disposal. He sneaks by two guards, and overhears them talking about the new girl who had been captured and how it was rumored that she was a federal agent. He sneaks past three more armed guards and makes his way into one of the buildings in the compound. He finds the kitchen, where two Brotherhood members were preparing the night's dinner for the female captives. He follows one of them to the residency wing. As that lone member was about to open a door, Logan grabs him from behind, and unsheathes a set of his claws, threatening to kill him if he screamed. He forces the guard to lead him to the power generators for the compound. As the guard unlocks the door to the generator, he catches Lucy's scent eminating from behind a locked door nearby. The guard tells him that it was just a storage area. Logan kicks open the door, and discovers boxes of personal items inside. The guard runs off for help as Logan sifts through the boxes, wondering how many girls had ended up just like Lucy at the hands of the Brotherhood. Three armed Brotherhood members soon appear behind Logan, telling him to turn around. Logan, with glowing red eyes, unleashes his set of claws in both hands, and loses himself in a berserker rage at the three armed members.

  Back at the cell, as dinnertime was approaching, Cassie and Kim plan their strategy of escaping. Cassie tells Kim to keep an eye on the five other women, as they could be trouble for their plan of escape. A lone brotherhood member enters, wheeling a cart with food. Cassie and Kim were hiding behind the door. As the man entered, the five other women screamed to the man to watch his back. Cassie, who had armed herself with a shard of the mirror, stabs the man in the kidney. She takes his gun, and leaves with Kim as the five other women tended to the injured man, yelling at Cassie for being a murderer. As they made their way to escape, the lights suddenly go out around them. The two, believing that the other members must have been notified of their escape, make their way through the darkness.

  Outside, Cry appears with one of his mistresses, asking his men outside what had happened to their power. Just then, Logan, with one of his struggling victims, bursts out of a window from a nearby building. He glares at Cry and the other Brotherhood members, who had assembled outside. They didn't know what was going on (one thought Logan was some kind of cat since they were sitll in the dark), but proceeded to capture Logan as Cry and his mistress retreated back into the building. Logan disappears into the darkness. Logan recognizes the scent of one of the men as being the one who had opened fire on him and Lucy back at their apartment. He leaps off the roof, and slices him in his neck. Other members rush to their aid with Logan still slaughtering away. Inside, Cry could hear the killing going on outside as his mistress cowers behind him. He sees Logan's shadow at the window, and unleashes a hail of gunfire at the window. Soon, he runs out of ammunition. Logan enters as Cry attempts to reload his gun. His eyes widen with fear as Logan, with claws still unsheathed, approaches him.

  Cassie and Kim finds their way upstairs and makes their way to the front door. Behind them, they hear gaggling sound, and Cassie and Kim investigates. What they see inside, however, was Logan, both set of claws unsheathed and dripping with blood, hovering over Cry's horrendously mutilated body. Logan warns Cassie not to use her gun on him, telling her that he wasn't her enemy and never was. He resheathes his claws, and makes for his escape, leaving Cassie and the rest of the women behind.

  Dawn soon approaches as the law enforcement and an ATF helicopter arrives. An ATF agents jumps out of the helicopter and surveys the carnage that had been left behind. He asks Cassie what had happened. Cassie tells him she did not know, but she was definitely going to find out.

Summary

  Wolverine #5 concludes the "Brotherhood" storyline. Or "The Brothers" - once again, the recap page and the cover can't make up their mind what the story's actually called. It's the little things, guys.

  Anyhow, this would be the end of Greg Rucka and Darick Robertson's first arc.

  Uh... right. That was it, then?

  I've got to admit that this is disappointing. What we have here is a comic that is less than the sum of its parts. You could take any individual page, and it would be great. The details are fantastic. The art's wonderful. Rucka and Robertson have nailed the character perfectly.

  The problem lies with the plot. Cry and his brotherhood have just never come across as a convincing threat to Wolverine, as opposed to the bit part characters. Consequently, there's a distinct lack of tension. Nor, for that matter, was Cry a particularly rounded character. Judging from the closing panel, it seems we've just spent five issues on a storyline which had two main aims: re-establish Wolverine's character for the first trade paperback of the new series, and introduce Cassie Lathrop as a supporting character.

  Cassie will apparently be going after Wolverine, after he demolished the Brotherhood in this issue. I have a little doubt as to exactly how that plot can work. After all, Wolverine is pretty much a public figure, and the X-Men aren't hard to find. You'd think it wouldn't take Cassie all that long to look him up in the phone book after recognising the claws. But we'll see how it goes.

  Anyway, the story's been so busy setting up Wolverine and Cassie that the villains ended up as little more than a source of warm bodies to beat up. I can see what the story was trying to set up for future issues, but five issues to reach this point is a bit much. For that matter, spending an entire trade paperback on it isn't going to work either.

  Still, there are plenty of positives here. They've got the character perfectly, and the fight scene is beautifully done, playing up Wolverine's bestial side very effectively. Cassie's a perfectly sound character and I'm happy enough to see her stick around for another arc. There's a lot to like about this issue. The direction which Rucka and Robertson are taking is fine; it's just the specific story that hasn't quite worked.

  But that's still a fairly major problem, unfortunately.

  Rating: B-