Paul Cornell compares Wolverine to the Beatles in “Wolverine” #2. Nick Fury Jr. sees him as the Paul McCartney of super-humans. Logan would rather fancy himself as George, but this volume of Wolverine’s solo title is totally his Wings phase. That is to say, ultimately harmless but pretty unmemorable.
Written by Paul Cornell
Illustrated by Alan Davis• HUNTING SEASON, PART 2!
• Wolverine has to track down a boy on a rampage before he does the unthinkable!
At first blush, Cornell is an odd choice for a Wolverine solo title. Cornell is a solid writer who is tough to put in a box, but “Wolverine” is a character unlike any he’s handled so far. Vandal Savage comes closest, one supposes, but his Savage reveled in his animalistic tendencies and was ultimately a villain. Cornell’s version of Wolverine doesn’t really highlight his inner animal at all. The opening arc, ‘Hunting Season’, began in a shopping mall of all places. This is miles away from the mood and feel of secluded Japanese villages or dank tunnels filled with abominations of Weapon X’s pseudoscientific operations. Wolverine was just trying to grab some Panda Express. Hardly a great setting for Wolverine’s inner turmoil-filled past, but not every Wolverine story has to be like that.
It’s still surprising to see little of what makes Wolverine a complex hero present in the first arc of a relaunch. This feels like a non-event for a character who appears in more books monthly than any other character in comics. Cornell is traditionally very good at getting to the core of what makes a character tick and exploring that. With Lex Luthor in “Action Comics”, he even let the overarching narrative hang for a while while Cornell just spent some time digging into the character. This was a fine choice, because the strength of a cast of characters is what long-form storytelling relies upon so heavily.
Putting Wolverine on the case for a mysterious force that is compelling innocent human beings to turn against their peers in a deadly fashion at a shopping mall just doesn’t scream “Wolverine”, but this would be different if the character of Wolverine felt more like the one we’ve come to know. If you want a story where Wolverine puts his nose to the ground and follows a scent, while nameless baddies try very unsuccessfully to literally vaporize his ultimately invulnerable body, then you can find a little something to enjoy here. It ultimately feels inconsequential and disconnected from anything that’s been going on with his character for the last 10 years. It’s got a decent sense of humor, but again, it’s not the Wolverine brand of humor. What it comes down to is that Cornell hasn’t really gotten a grasp of this character yet. And when Nick Fury Jr. shows up halfway through the issue, the idea that Wolverine is a product right now rather than a complex character comes right to the forefront.
Alan Davis is one of the master comic book artists that is still going strong. In some ways, he pioneered an art style exhibiting strong dramatic character acting and action bits that have nice fluid timing to them. He nails the look and feel of Wolverine even if the script and the plot ultimately do not. Davis’ Wolverine is a barrel-chested beast with a shortness exacerbated even more by the intentionally low center of gravity he keeps. It’s one of the better interpretations of the character in recent years. Considering that Alan Davis has a style that is very much a product of its time, that says a lot about how enduring and universal Davis’ work really is. No other character in the book is so memorable and, in fact, many of the characters seem to blend together when they should be distinct. There are moments where the action isn’t crystal clear and it’s because some of the ancillary characters do not stand out from one another. This happens a couple of times earlier in the issue and it distracts from the momentum that the book is trying to keep. Moreover, his set-pieces are just as unassuming, as everything takes place in a spare, gray-colored industrial setting with no outstanding details.
Paul Cornell and Alan Davis are two names to get excited about when it comes to building a comic book creative team. There is something holding this book back though, and it’s happening on both ends. Their comic sensibilities match one another’s, but it doesn’t feel like they have a handle on what they want to do with this character yet. For Cornell, it’s a matter of figuring out what makes Wolverine go out and take on a case like this. For Davis, it’s building a distinct-looking world around a character that he has such a nice grasp on. This is a team capable of creating a book worth reading, but “Wolverine” volume 5 isn’t quite there yet. Check back when the ‘Hunting Season’ arc is over.
Final Verdict: 5.3 – Browse.
