X-Men: Codename Wolverine

Highly recommend, this is a reading book not a comic

I loved everypage of the book as it keeps you going.

I will admitt–I’m a huge comic book fan. Even now, as I enter into adulthood, I’ve yet to shake my addiction to them. Since I’m such a fan, I’ve read a few of these novels that Marvel churns out. Some range from absolute trash (The Fantastic Four: Countdown to Chaos comes to mind) to average (Duane’s Spider-Man books), but Codename: Wolverine is perhaps one of the best of the whole bunch.
Kudos to Christopher Golden for writing an entertaining novel that manages to come across well without being silly (let’s be honest: It’s a little hard to write a “serious” novel when your characters are called “Wolverine” and “Sabretooth”). The book is broken into two sections, “Now” and “Then”, and Golden switches back and forth between the two perspectives.
The “Then” section serves to explain the events occurring in the “Now” section. Personally, I found the early story about Wolverine and Team X to be the better of the two. Golden manages to create a pretty interesting narrative about Team X as they fight behind the Iron Curtain to retrieve a computer disk filled with spy info from the KGB’s best operative, the beautiful but deadly Black Widow. Throw in on-the-edge Interpol agent Sean Cassidy (aka Banshee), who bears a supreme grudge against the Widow, and the mysterious shapeshifter Mystique, and the action intensifies. Golden does some pretty good work with this story, weaving in lots of espionage, backstabbing, inter-team conflict, and some pretty entertaining fight scenes. He seems to have a good grasp of each character’s personality, and I liked the development he did with certain characters such as the Widow (for example, by the end of the “then” portion, she begins to question her role as a KGB spy, which foreshadows her eventual defection). There is a surplus of characters in this book as well, but overall I think Golden did each of them justice. One thing that I was surprised with was the level of violence in the book. It’s not overly graphic–no one will be confusing this book with a Tarantino film–but it is a realistic look at the harsh work of a black ops unit. After dealing for so long with the soft-shoe approach of the comics (where every character is seemingly immortal), I found it refreshing that Golden would actually show the lethal consequences of the character’s actions.
Unfortunately, I was not so impressed with the “now” section of this book. It started off promising, with Sabretooth being kidnapped by a government agency for some nefarious purpose. It seems as if the government is systematically using their new, elite black ops unit, “Team Alpha”, to kidnap and imprison all the old members of Team X as well as those individuals who took part in the op in the “then” section (basically: Banshee, Widow, and Mystique). Mystique escapes capture herself, and is able to warn Wolverine, but the two are too late to save the others. The author promises a payoff, explaining exactly why these superheroes and villains are being captured, but when the true motive for the crime is revealed, it’s terribly anti-climactic. The whole thing was some sort of silly revenge scheme to placate a senator who’s vote is more important than the lives of Team X? A disappointing ending, indeed. More thought could have been put into this part of the book.
Overall, though, I think this book is worth owning. If you a fan of the comic, and Wolverine especially, you’ll enjoy the novel. In my opinion, the “then” section is worth the price of the book alone.

I recently purchased this novel and read it in about a day and half. I have always been a fan of Logan/Wolverine and I found this book rather enjoyable. Before this novel I had little knowledge of Team X. I knew Sabretooth and Wolverine were in it but that was about it. This novel is cut up into “Now” sections and “Then” sections. I enjoyed mainly the “Now” portion, a tale about Logan and Mystique trying to find kidnapped members of Team X along with the Black Widow and Sean “Banshee” Cassidy with a little help from Nick Fury (Mystique in disguise). I know a lot of people that prefer the “Then” portions that revolves around a Team X mission in Germany involving the KGB. Althogh the “Then” portions reveals a little history about Team X and the grudge between Sabretooth and Wolverine, I definetly liked the Logan/Mystique tale. This novel, which every chapter begins with a good illustration, is a definite must for any fan of Wolverine. Which there are many now that the X-Men movie has been out for a good while.

After reading Codename Wolverine, Ithought this made great movie material.The idea of Wolverine and Mystique teaming up to save Sabretooth makes forsome high stakes action. But there’s more to this story than saving Sabre’s skin. Once they find out the strange circumstances behind Victor’s kid-napping, things start to get really wild. The “now” segments have Loganand Mystique trying to uncover the truth behind Victor’s kidnapping, along with finding out that Black Widow, Maverick, and Banshee have also been taken .They find a lot of trouble in the process. The “then” segments take you back to Logan’s days with Team X.The action is definitely fast paced,and the alternation from now to then and back will keep you guessing and wandering what’s going on. The ending revelation and action bring things to a cooling end, letting you relax to know that Wolverine has won again,and yes, he’s pulled Sabretooth’s fat outta the fire. This really does sound like a good movie. A great read, too.

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