"The End" Week: Daken: Dark Wolverine #23!

We've seen a couple issues of this series; but today the finale: from 2012, Daken: Dark Wolverine #23, "Lost Weekend, conclusion" Written by Rob Williams, art by Matteo Buffagni, Paco Diaz, Riley Rossmo, and Andrea Mutti.

His healing factor failing due to his drug use, Daken was looking to go out in the proverbial blaze of glory: blowing up a building, drugging Reed Richards, getting Wolverine friendly fired by the Human Torch. Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, and Iron Man are there; but the Thing catches up to him first. Taking a massive dose of Heat to keep himself in the fight, he's tripping hard as the heroes save the bystanders, but feels lower than dirt as he watches. Or maybe just sorry for himself.

Daken goes down in Time Square, surrounded by maybe a dozen heroes and a SWAT team; and apologizes to his dad, Wolverine. That is, apologizes for leaving a time bomb at his Westchester school, before blowing himself up! Frantic, Wolvie has Thor fly him out to Westchester, but all he finds there is a Wolverine doll, as Daken's caption reads "I so desperately wanted to leave him with nothing."

This was the end of Daken's run as the protagonist, but he'd be back to lash out at his dad again and die again in Uncanny X-Force #34. And I don't think that even kept him down. Still, every story I've seen with him Daken is portrayed like a moody teen lashing out and making bad choices, but he was born in 1946!
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When Moon Knight's the voice of reason in your comic, you know there's problems.

Admittedly, Daken is having more problems than the last time we saw him, like having been shot in the head. From 2011, Daken: Dark Wolverine #15, "Moonwalk, part III" Written by Rob Williams, pencils by Michele Bertilorenzi and Riley Rossmo, inks by John Lucas and Riley Rossmo.

While Daken was fighting Moon Knight, an impostor attacked and convinced FBI agent Donna Kiel that Daken was the wanted "Claws Killer," and Kiel shot Daken in the head. Crammed full of drugs and short his healing factor, things look bad for Daken; and he spends most of the rest of the issue in a bizarre afterlife with the recently deceased Johnny Storm. (Was Johnny ever really dead? Well, that may all be in what's left of Daken's head.)

Kiel and Moon Knight continue to work the Claws Killer case, with MK discovering his true identity, actor and drug dealer (and former lover of Daken) Marcus Rosten. Who already has Kiel hopelessly addicted to the drug Heat...

I grabbed a few cheap issues of Daken, often thinking I'd get the last issue for "The End" week, still haven't. Still, I have kind of enjoyed how for having his own title, Daken is rarely portrayed especially sympathetically in it. The villain may be worse, but it's hard to say Daken doesn't have this coming to him.
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Once again, I would've liked to see the story the cover promised.

A character I don't like (I had his action figure for weeks without opening it!) and a guest star I really like...during a direction I didn't care for at all. This did turn out better than expected, though. From 2011, Daken: Dark Wolverine #13, "Moonwalk, part 1" Written by Rob Williams, art by Mick Bertilorenzi with Riley Rossmo.

Wolverine's awful kid Daken had been plotting to take over the criminal underworld of Los Angeles, although there had been a few snags. Like a fight with Taskmaster, an FBI agent hounding him, and a serious drug problem. Worse, Daken doesn't know it yet, but four Avengers are on the case now--no, wait, it's just Moon Knight and his imaginary friends. I really did not care for this direction for him, but Williams at least as some fun with it, with Marc Spector having a prolonged conversation with himself in the movie theater.

FBI agent Kiel is after the "claws killer," who she thinks is probably Daken. For his part, Daken isn't quite positive he's not the killer, since he had been taking a drug called Heat and blacking out; and he wanted to be sure it wasn't him. Daken murders some criminals to try and take his mind off his withdrawals, then tries to use Kiel as bait at a party. Still, when some Heat changes hands, Daken can smell it (possibly metaphorically, since earlier this issue Daken claims to not have his dad's enhanced sense of smell) and takes a hit. Half a hit, anyway, he feels like that's progress. Still, when he tries to catch up to Kiel, Daken is waylaid by Moon Knight, who intends to administer a little fatherly discipline with strap-on Wolvie claws!

Not to damn with faint praise, but this was better than I would've thought a Daken comic would be. Still, the cover--featuring Moon Knight psychoanalyzing Daken!--promised a more interesting, or at least very different book.
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