TITLE: Wolverine Issue #50
YEAR: June 1984
COMPANY: DC Comics
Writer/Editor/Co-Creator: Mike W. Barr
Artist/Co-Creator: Jim Aparo
Colorist: Adrienne Roy
Larry Hama is best known for his work on G.I. Joe but with issue #47 of “Wolverine”, Larry Hama was brought in to become the new writer, while Marc Silvestri was brought in to be the new artist.
Many Hama fans were excited to hear Hama would be the new writer, but for art fans, many were excited to see “the man who’s artwork looks like Jim Lee’s artwork”, Marc Silvestri and interesting enough, in a letter column, Marvel even chimed in that Marc Silvestri was Jim Lee’s #1 fan.
But with Hama brought in for Wolverine, this would be a new transition to bring back the old Wolverine, feral, dangerous and non-caring. And seeing this new Wolverine featured in both “Wolverine” and “X-Men”.
And with issue #50, this special cover issue features a wolverine slashed cover (with a three slash-like strike on the cover) featuring Wolverine fighting Shiva.
The comic book features Wolverine searching for answers of new leads to the Weapon X Project and taking it to Nick Fury to get information from the Department of Agriculture under Pest Control.
We then see Hydra’s involvement of a mysterious hooded woman being told about someone accessing the files, especially relating to Logan.
Logan goes to the US Department of Agriculture to confront Professor Andre and claiming the Pest Control Section was a front 20-years ago for a dirty project.
With the help of the X-Men, Wolverine lands at a warehouse, which Professor Andre and his assistant Hines happen to be at.
And through exploring the warehouse, Wolverine sees rooms that he remembers and starts to realizes that these rooms were part of fake memories implanted in him and other Weapon X soldiers.
As Cyclops and Professor X start to examine the data, while waiting for Wolverine, they start to learn that the files they discovered are showing an elimination list and Logan is on top of the list and realize he is in big danger.
As for Wolverine, he finds some killer android known as Shiva going after him but we see the feral Wolverine in action and even Jean Grey and Cyclops worried about how Logan is reverting to his old self, which scares them.
Overall, “Wolverine” issue #50 was a positive step fr those who wanted to see the kick-butt, bad ass Wolverine to return. But his transition to his original self and seeing the X-Men react was a bit of forced upon the reader. But nevertheless, it establishes Wolverine returning to his feral self but also seeing the Weapon X program becoming a major part of the comic book series in the early ’90s.
Can’t say it was successful because Wolverine would be stripped of his adamantium from Magneto not long after and Sabretooth would become a team player. I still have mixed feelings about how that all played out but nevertheless, at the time, I was just as excited to see Larry Hama as the new writer for “Wolverine” and also Marc Silvestri taking on the artwork for the series.