Anyone who’s ever read short stories by Edgar Allen Poe or Franz Kafka might look at this latest issue of Wolverine and muse quietly to themselves: “Hey, this smells familiar?” And, yes, it does feel very, very familiar but, unfortunately, it's no where near as good as Poe or Kafka. Wolverine #56 is titled: The Man in the Pit. And, I’m sure you can all guess exactly who the man in the pit is. So how did Wolvie wind up in this pit? Who knows? Who’s keeping him there? Again, who knows? Sadly, this “filler” story (coming on the heals of Jeph Loeb’s maddeningly unfulfilling stint on Wolverine where he, rather clumsily, killed off Sabretooth (yet again) and decided to rewrite some very essential and well-established aspects of Wolverine’s continuity) is more than a little predictable and has an amazingly rushed feeling that, in the end, leaves more than a little to be desired.

Jason Aaron comes onto Wolverine #56 with what seems like the best of intentions. While the heart of this story isn’t bad, the execution comes up short. This issue is plagued by abrupt and totally unbelievable revelations that simply happen too fast for sanity’s sake. If, somehow, this story has been a three or four part miniseries, then perhaps Aaron would have been able to really stretch his writing legs and give us a story that pulls us in, holds us in the metaphorical pit, and changes how we feel about someone, anyone, in the story. But all of the characters in this story (including Wolverine) never get developed and rarely behave as they should. Wolverine takes on the role of Mr. Sinister or some other “screw with your head” villain and bares very little resemblance to the good ol’ canucklehead we all know and love.

The artwork of this issue needs some serious work as well. Much of the panel layout attempts to break up the normal pattern of visual storytelling and, at times, works pretty well. However, like visits to the emergency room, the good times are outnumbered by the bad. The layout of this issue gets confusing, unnecessarily complicated and downright clumsy from time to time. In many ways, it’s an issue of timing. The visuals never quite manage to sync up with the text as a good comic should. And, while speaking of the visual, Chaykin’s styling on pencils has a unique “muddy” quality that feels like it may have been perfect for another story by another writer (perhaps even with another character) but, as it stands, Chaykin’s Wolverine simply isn’t Wolverine. And that’s never good.

Overall:  2 out of 5.  Feel free to skip this issue.