Wolverine Wednesday #91

Logan Black, White & Blood #1

Writers: Tom Waltz, Saladin Ahmed & Larry Hama | Artists: Alex Lins, Adam Kubert & Dave Wachter | Colourist: Arther Hesli | Letters: Cory Petit

First of all, I want to say I am a fan of this series format. Although I do think it would be better if the three stories covered different characters, like Marvel Comics Presents. Obviously, as a hardcore Wolverine fan, I am not going to complain about three new stories for the next few months. The cover is a beautiful image and perfectly captures the theme of the series. Here’s hoping Alex Maleev turns up on interiors for one of the stories in a future issue. Tom Waltz drops Logan into a bloody Korean War battlefield. Melding action, a war field, Cold War espionage and cape and conspiracy into one fluid story. All backed up by Alex Lins bloody and brutal artwork. He certainly dials into the blood aspect of the title. Lins doesn’t hold back on action and violence. It is a rip-roaring introduction to the character (though I imagine a title like this doesn’t pick up new readers) and the format of the series. As already mentioned, it ticks a lot of the good Wolverine story tropes. Placing it slap bang in the middle of a bloody battlefield, a scattered memory of what has gone down. Enter some Russian super soldiers and more violence ensues. Lins delivers with jagged panel layouts and borders. I really love the full-page splash of Logan’s sniper sight, fully in red! And while not a direct continuity link, I did really appreciate the Winter Soldier tease. Current Wolverine scribe Saladin Ahmed and all-time Wolverine superstar artist Adam Kubert serve up the second story, a noir dip into 1970’s New York. The City that never sleeps, a serial killer, a dive bar, all the classics are in place. Good storytelling in a limited page count. Saladin and Kubert throw everything into it. Saladin’s strong narration adds to the pulpiness. And Kubert brings all the dynamic use of page layouts and panels he displayed in the last volume of Wolverine. Love the fact that he starts the story on a double-page vertical page layout. He is not afraid of going bloody either. But it comes across more over the top than violently graphic, if that makes sense? The last story is by the Wolverine writing G.O.A.T Mr Larry Hama. And yes, while the opening caption does state this story takes place some time after Logan’s escape from Weapon X, he is Larry Hama, and he can do whatever he wants! It is a simple story, simple but effective would be a better review. It doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel and I’m sure we have had Wolverine stories of this nature before, possibly even from Hama. Because it is a rather simple approach I can’t go in depth without spoiling it completely. The only thing to say is if Larry Hama comes to you with a new Wolverine story, you say yes, no matter the content of it. Wachter on art is perfect. Would love the duo to do a full issue of some sort in the future, maybe even a whole arc! He has a beautiful style perfectly suited to black and white. He uses the red more sparingly than others. I guess we can call it spot reds as opposed to blacks. He uses it really well each time he chooses to. Short, simple, but very effective from both creators involved. In conclusion, these three stories brilliantly represent the character. They are alla  testament to how diverse he is. It helps that his mutant ability allows him to be dropped anywhere in time. But it takes good creative teams to turn each era and each genre into a good story.

Logan Black, White & Blood #2

Writers: Benjamin Percy, Mirka Andolfo & Frank Tieri | Artists: Robert Gill, Mirka Andolfo & Raffaele Ienco | Letters: Cory Petit

Really enjoyed this issue. You have three tight stories that perfectly sell the timeless quality of Logan. You have creators who have worked on the character before and newcomers working in perfect synergy to deliver these tales. An issue like this flies in the face of the naysayers who say these Black, White and Blood series are rubbish! Again, I want to start with the cover. This time it is by the current Wolverine artist on the ongoing series, Martin Coccolo. Across the sixteen issues he has done so far, this is easily my favourite piece of work. Makes me want him to do the rest of the main series in black and white. It is a piece of art that also adds weight to my claim that somebody needs to do a pre-Weapon X Logan story in the style of Tintin, cartoony but with mature themes. An Indiana Jones meets X-Men, if you will. On with this issue, and first up we have a story from Benjamin Percy, who hasn’t been away from Logan for very long. Hunting, Wolves, Deer. Logan stumbling into a situation. It has all the ingredients of a classic Wolverine story and elements I feel appeal to Percy personally. What I really like about the story though, is that we see a happy Wolverine, as he discovers and sinks a whole barrel of Whisky. It’s in doing this that we then see a vulnerability to Logan as someone gets the drop on him. Being happy and vulnerable are two characteristics we didn’t see a lot of in Percy’s main Wolverine run, so it was very refreshing to read. Percy is joined by Robert Gill on art. His sketchy style is both perfect for the nature of the series and the timeline of the story, her certainly brings the pulp vibes. When the action steps up, his sketchiness takes on a blurred edge aestheti,c which adds motion and speed. When we see happy Logan, Gill delivers the perfect expressions and the black and white line work really helps show them off. While this story is bloody, it isn’t graphic. A good blend without taking the title of the series to the limit. Next up, Andolfo pulls double duty on writing and art to deliver a very satisfactory story. I think it works and why a lot of stories in these two issues have worked better than the Wolverine Black, White and Blood is because it has absolutely no ties to continuity. All you have to do is stick a date in the opening panel, in this case 1930’s then you pique the interest right away and we are off to the races. The best way I can describe this story is as an Agatha Christie whodunit mixed in with an X-Men comic. It gets bonus points for mentioning Madripoor way before we knew Wolverine even set foot there. A mysterious little girl, perfectly picked out on each page with red hair – playing up to the Wolverine always helping redheads theme! Andolfo’s art has a strong manga feel, perhaps not the best fit for the genre of story. But he makes it his own, even if it’s not to my taste. Again its bloody, without being too graphic. This story does have Logan’s skull exposed in a bloody fashion. Andolfo doesn’t bring the same positive nature like Percy; his story is more traditional to Wolverine readers. Starting grim, promise of change and then the bleak outcome, leaving Logan in all too familiar surroundings. Last up, we have my favourite Wolverine writer of all time, Frank Tieri. Not in a million years did I expect a sci-fi heavy story, but I loved it. Without being biased, I think it’s because it made a nice change to the five stories we have had in the two issues so far. At first, it feels like it is playing along with the crime pulp vibe of the other stories. We catch up with Logan, working for the Canadian Government to bring down a cult. Tieri crams so much world-building into his ten pages, it’s as good as any of his issues back when he wrote the ongoing. For Tieri, it feels like writing Logan is like riding a bike. He hasn’t forgotten how to do it and slips into making it a good story effortlessly. Ienco is a big part of switching this story from crime pulp to sci-fi pulp in a matter of panels. His designs for the cult leader and the ‘ray gun’ he is wielding are examples of that. His images do have a static feel, but convey movement. To me, that leans into the pulp vibe, being reminiscent of the artwork you would see on pulp covers. Now I have mentioned how I like these stories don’t tie to continuity, and it may seem biased that I’m not calling out Tieri for doing it. But he does it in a very subtle manner. Firstly, Carol Danvers is along for the ride. Then I am 99.9% sure the costume Ienco draws Logan in is the one from the Logan and Ben Grimm mini series from way back. You would have to be a hardcore Wolverine fan to make this deep cut connection. Continuing my theme of saying this story is like X-Men meets another franchise, it is X-Men meets X-Files!

Wolverine: Weapons of Armageddon #1

Writer: Chip Zdarsky | Artist: Luca Maresca | Colourist: Jesus Aburtov | Letters: Joe Sabino

Really, really enjoyed this, although there are a few minor complaints I will get into. After his run on Daredevil, I was looking forward to seeing how Zdarsky would tackle Wolverine. Bearing in mind he is juggling this mini series and tying it into his Captain America run and an event of some scale this summer. None of those factors affects the accessibility of this issue. It is a solid start to a mini series, getting a lot of pieces on the board early doors. Given the nature of the story and the promise on the cover, I think it is fair to say the issue lacked a little action, but again it didn’t detract too much from the overall quality of the final product. The story opens with Wolverine in a bar. How many times have I written that in my reviews? It’s like Zdarsky was born to write Wolverine! It is a three-page sequence that at first glance seems pretty standard. Then you realise when and where it is set in continuity, and you have to applaud the subtle brilliance of it. So subtle I nearly missed it! From there Zdarsky wastes no time in his world-building. Introducing a new female companion to bounce off of Wolverine. Ties to Weapon X are established early on, and we get the fair share of shadowy scientists and army officials. Adversaries old and new are added to the mix. Like I said, all the pieces are on the board early. It could be accused of being an exposition-heavy issue, but if the rest of the series delivers more action and a compelling story, that argument will fall short. So fingers crossed. So the biggest negative is that Wolverine makes a comment which comes with an editor’s note. The problem is that the editor’s note is for a story that isn’t out till July! Secondly, Lenil Yu depicts Wolverine in the blue and yellow costume on the cover. Whilst towards the final act, Maresca has him in the tan and brown. Also, the speed he changes into his costume mid-attack is laughable! Maresca is not an artist I was familiar with before. On the whole, I liked what he brought to proceedings. But would like to see a bit more. At first reading he is very similar to Coccolo. But they are both currently being coloured by Aburtov, so maybe that’s why I leapt to that comparison. Just to shout out some positives early doors. He has strong character designs for all the newcomers; they are all very distinct in appearance. His Logan is strong, and his action is will choreographed, again with a manga feel. Capes and conspiracy are a favourite of mine when done right and this is a promising start. I will be keeping an eye on reviews of the Cap series to see how things are panning out. If all is positive, I may dip into the event itself. Though more likely months after it finishes via trades.