3.5 stars
A bit complicated, but interesting story featuring Logan/Wolverine, Mystique, Black Widow, Saber Tooth, and a number of other characters from across the MCU who either together or separately participated in an operation in the 80s to retrieve a disk from a pair of KGB operatives who were trying to defect at the time.

While he uses chapters to bounce back and forth between "then" and "now", the author does very well in keeping who is who and their various loyalties straight or this could have become a very confusing story. When, in the "now" various members of the old teams or individuals start disappearing from the scene, Logan and Mystique find themselves on the run from whoever is kidnapping former teammates/rivals, they have to work together to find out who's behind the kidnappings.

The "then" chapters follow the various adventures behind the Iron Curtain as the teams and individuals race not only each other but the authorities in their pursuit of the seemingly all important disk. It's the past that informs the present, though it takes most of the book to find out how.

I want more stories like this please. ( )

I love the psychological depth this book gives to the characters.
It keeps pretty close to canon, despite not being canon.
A very good read. ( )

James Howlett, aka Logan, also know as Wolverine is the focus in this spin-off novel of the X-Men series of books that began life in the mid 90s. Up until then the previous books in this series had all been focused on the X-Men as a team but being one of Marvel's best loved characters Wolverine was given his own novel.
I found myself caught in two minds as to whether I liked the cover or not. Wolverine himself is drawn very well and I like the added background. I don't like the length of the womens legs though as it makes them look disproportionate. Their definition and big boobs are par for the course I suppose and they're represented that way in the comics but the legs did look too long for me. And how on earth do they run in those boots? If you're not familiar with the characters on the cover I would forgive you for thinking the woman in black is Jean Grey of the X-Men but she is actually the Black Widow who was portrayed by Scarlett Johansson in last year's movie Iron Man 2. Also on the cover are Mystique, Banshee and Sabretooth.
The plot. Well, it's a plot full of twists and turns with it's background rooted in previous liaisons and conflicts between the characters the story revolves around. From goodreads...

"Wolverine. Sabretooth. Silver Fox. Wraith. Maverick. Together they were Team X, the best covert ops team NATO had to offer. But that was before a mission gone awry tore them all apart.
Now, former team members are being kidnapped, one by one. And Wolverine must find out the terrible secret from that old mission--a secret that has remained hidden for years, and could spell death for all of them..."

As with any Christopher Golden novel you care to read from Buffy the Vampire Slayer through to the X-Men the characterization and narrative is excellent. Golden weaves the story and integrates the different characters very well without ever giving too much of the mystery behind the abductions away. As such I was captivated by the story right through to the end. Unfortunately, it's the ending that lets this book down as I found it to be weak compared to the anticipation that the rest of the book had built up and the pay off to the mystery and storyline was disappointing. However, ending aside, the rest of the novel was an excellent read with a perfect mix of action, mystery and some good ol' fashioned Wolverine trash talking! ( )