Title: Honor
Cover: Frank Miller, Josef Rubinstein
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciler: Frank Miller
Inker: Josef Rubinstein
Colors: Lynn Varley
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Editor: Louise Jones
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter
Cover Price: $0.60
Cover Date: December 1982
Release Date: August 1982
Synopsis: Wolverine #3 ends with ends with Logan searching
his soul and coming to a critical conclusion: “I’m a man, Shingen! Not a beast.
A man! And that mistake is going to cost you!”
And it does. In spades! Wolverine shows that he is the best there is at
what he does as he tears through Shingen Yashida’s criminal organization,
leaving a trail of bodies in his wake.
What starts as a minor annoyance to the crime lord soon becomes and
embarrassment of such magnitude that he dispatches the finest assassins of the
hand to kill Wolverine. To Shingen’s
surprise, Wolverine sends back a box with the Ninja hoods and a note bearing
only one word: Tonight. The game is on!
Logan prepares for his assault on the ancestral stronghold
of Clan Yashida, arming himself with the weapons that he took from the Ninjas
that he defeated. “I don’t normally use
hardware – with my physical assets, who needs any – but for this caper, I
figure every little bit’ll help!” As
Logan gets underway, Yukio sneaks into the Clan Yashida castle and is ambushed
by the Hand who present her to Shingen for questioning. She reveals that she sought to balance the
scales with Logan by killing Shingen, who cuts her free of her bonds and engages
her in combat. Shingen makes
quick work of Yukio and would likely have killed her if not for the timely
intervention of Mariko.
At that moment, the radio sounds and Shingen realizes that
Wolverine has launched his attack. As
the enraged crime lord demands a report and receives only silence in return,
the scene cuts to outside the castle which is littered with the bodies of dead Ninjas riddled with arrows. As Shingen prepares to fight Wolverine,
Mariko’s husband grabs his wife and tries to escape to his helicopter. When Wolverine blocks their path, he raises a
gun to Mariko’s head and threatens to kill her.
Logan steps forward and Mariko’s husband shoots him, but Yukio appears
and plants three blades in the coward’s back.
Gotcha! With Mariko safe and
Logan to face Shingen in single combat, Yukio takes her leave.
The duel between Logan and Shingen is easily one of the best choreographed and most memorable fight scenes in the history of comics. Perfectly scripted. Perfectly drawn. “We move as one…blades
hissing through the air...as we pass. I
cut deep. Shingen cuts deeper. I’m hurt
bad. He knows it. But no quarter is
asked…and none given." Shingen is the superior
swordsman and takes a terrible toll on his opponent, but Logan mutant healing abilities
and stamina allow him to keep pace and the outcome of the fight is truly never
in doubt. Frank Miller is at his best in
this scene. The drama, emotion, energy and pure physicality that he conveys with an economy of
penstrokes is extraordinary.
Happy endings for the X-Men in general and Wolverine in
particular were few and far between during Chris Claremont’s definitive run,
but it’s a heartwarming moment to wrap up this incredible limited series with
the X-Men’s reaction to an invitation to Mariko and Logan’s wedding. From a personal perspective, this issue was my
first encounter with the Wolverine limited series. To put things in context, I had never heard
of ninjas and certainly never seen a hero kill a villain in a bloody sword vs.
adamantium claw battle. This was pretty
intense stuff in the mind and imagination of the 11 year-old me. It’s great to see the story has stood the
test of time and is as acclaimed and influential today as ever.
Source: Kraalo Archives, Marvel Comics
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