X-Men Legends #7 - Marvel Comics

X-MEN LEGENDS No. 7, November 2021

Proudly proclaiming that “the ultimate team-up is back, bub!” this twenty-page periodical’s script is arguably packed full of the violent, no-nonsense close combat which helped make Wolverine “Wizard” magazine’s top Comic Book Character in 2008. In fact, Larry Hama’s writing for Issue Seven of “X-Men Legends” is arguably so good at promptly transporting its 27,254 strong audience back to the American author’s celebrated run on “Wolverine” in the Nineties that it is hard to believe the book was only the one hundred and seventh best-selling title of September 2021; “I hear there might be somebody here interested in some fresh merchandise.”

For starters, “Kidnapped!” drops the reader straight into its “all-new adventure” by having both Logan and Jubilee immediately face deadly danger on the rain-soaked streets of Osaka, Japan. Obviously, the super-powered pair’s apparent enfeeblement is all a ploy to lower the guard of their overconfident ‘captors’. But with so many blades being bandied about, and their owners' evident willingness to lethally stick them into the “Gaijin” without any remorse, it is debatably difficult to peruse the resulting fracas without at least worrying a little about Jubilation Lee’s wellbeing.

Indeed, one of this narrative’s most enthralling threads is Hama’s incarnation of Wolverine almost flat out refusing to dodge any incoming sword slice or stabbing motion, as he seemingly prefers to just rely upon his healing factor to survive the torrent of chops, hacks and cuts he receives whilst fighting his way through an almost overwhelming number of the Hand’s deadly assassins in an aquarium. This utter abandonment provides some mesmerising moments, not least of which is one of this publication’s earliest incidents when a child trafficker nonchalantly ‘befriends’ the seemingly unsuspecting Logan and sticks him with a long knife straight through the chest.

Capturing all the frantic, fast-paced flavour of this tale in the Kansai region of Honshu with his prodigious pencils is Billy Tan, whose ability to project the sheer loathing Lady Deathstrike holds for her colourfully costumed rival is genuinely palpable. Likewise, the Malaysian artist does a corking job in illustrating the sheer number of voiceless assassins who suddenly descend upon the X-Men with their furious, brutal ninjatō swords and Wolverine's evident frustration at "these ladies" blocking his path to Yuriko Oyama.

Writer: Larry Hama, Artist: Billy Tan, and Colorist: Chris Sotomayor